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| ibex:radmin [2019-03-03 20:21] – katerich | ibex:radmin [2019-03-05 10:06] – katerich |
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| //Objectives// | //Objectives// |
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| The ember of thinking behind [[https://cubecinema.com/pages/radmin|RADMIN]] was not so much a curatorial project as throwing up a tracer or perhaps lighting a bonfire - to illuminate what is out there, &/or who/what would be drawn to the prospect of a festival of Administration. The topic of administration represents only a sub-category of the larger enquiry into how we might do business differently. But by nature being urgent, common, everyday (yet curiously segregated when it comes to creative practice), enveloping of both individual and collective situations (while going often unspoken / unacknowledged in each), socially awkward and determinedly anti-spectacular, it seemed like a good place to start. | The ember of thinking behind [[https://cubecinema.com/pages/radmin|RADMIN]] was less a curatorial venture than throwing up a tracer or perhaps lighting a bonfire, to illuminate what is out there, &/or who/what would be drawn to the prospect of a festival of Administration. The topic of administration represents only a sub-category of the larger enquiry into how we might do business differently. But by nature being urgent, common, everyday (yet curiously segregated when it comes to creative practice), enveloping of both individual and collective situations (while going often unspoken / unacknowledged in each), socially awkward and determinedly anti-spectacular, it seemed like a good place to start. |
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| RADMIN was devised and delivered over a run-up of 4 months by a core team of two, alongside many others from our larger collectives the long-standing [[http://cubecinema.com/about|Cube Microplex]] and the recently assembled Feral Business Network. The process represented a rapid materialisation of some decades of thinking. For me it was a space to lay out a tangle of burning questions, such as, | RADMIN was devised and delivered over a run-up of 4 months by a core team of two, alongside many others from our larger collectives the long-standing [[http://cubecinema.com/about|Cube Microplex]] and the recently assembled Feral Business Network. The process represented a rapid materialisation of some decades of thinking. For me it was a space to lay out a tangle of burning questions, such as, |
| * How and where to collide the wealth of indigenous thinking from art with the intractable problems of business as usual? | * How and where to collide the wealth of indigenous thinking from art with the intractable problems of business as usual? |
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| and in the longer term, | and in the longer run, |
| * How to speak back into the spaces of business and enterprise with radically new business shapes for a genuinely sustainable economy? | * How to speak back into the spaces of business and enterprise with radically new business shapes for a genuinely sustainable economy? |
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| To put these ambitions in perspective, RADMIN should be viewed as the initialising event for a 20-year+ project whose objectives include | To put these ambitions in perspective, RADMIN should be understood as an initialising event in a 20-year+ endeavour whose objectives include |
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| * To break down some of the consolidating associations of business and open up this territory to exploration; | * To break down some of the consolidating associations of business and open up this territory to exploration; |
| * To reconsider the 'dull' spaces of administration as not just something we are subject to but a site for politics, solidarity and change; | * To reconsider the 'dull' spaces of administration as not just something we are subject to but a site for politics, solidarity and change; |
| * (In relation to art) to extend a critical and experimental attention from content to containers (the infrastructures in which the art work takes place); | * (In relation to art) to extend a critical and experimental attention from content to containers (the infrastructures in which the art work takes place); |
| * To assemble diverse experiments with business in this realm alongside a vocabulary for naming them together. (Could these practices already constitute an economy?) | * To assemble diverse experiments with business in this realm, alongside a vocabulary for naming them together. (Could these practices already constitute an economy?) |
| * At the same time, to provoke, dislodge or at least carefully consider the litany of scarcity in sustaining artist livelihoods - and consider how the above work might better resource us. | * At the same time, to provoke, dislodge or at least carefully consider the litany of scarcity in sustaining artist livelihoods - and consider how the above work might better resource us. |
| * And most likely as contentious, to bring thinking about business and economy at a psychological level into contexts where this approach is not always welcomed or trusted, bringing political autonomy, psychology, spectacle and modes of organisation into probable collision. | * And most likely as contentious, to invite thinking about business and economy at a psychological level into contexts where this approach is not always welcomed or trusted, bringing political autonomy, psychology, spectacle and modes of organisation into probable collision. |
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| RADMIN was also and specifically a festival in, of and about the Cube Cinema, crucible of much of this thinking. The Cube is programmed, staffed and governed by approximately 150 volunteers and is many and varied things to each. A founding intention for RADMIN was to open out the infrastructure, processes and organisation of the Cube, as programme content. In a sense, an internal operating memo in the form of a festival. | RADMIN was also and specifically a festival in, of and about the Cube Cinema, crucible of much of this thinking. The Cube is programmed, staffed and governed by approximately 150 volunteers. A founding intention for RADMIN was to open out the infrastructure, processes and organisation of the Cube, how it is managed and administered, as programme content. An internal operating memo in the form of a festival. |
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| A more practical trigger was the Feral Business Research Network (FBRN) an unrealised academic networking project for artists thinking with business, that despite being unselected for funding played out across two workshop gatherings in [[http://companydrinks.info/event/feral-business-research-network|London]] and [[http://laforesta.net/feral-business-research-network|Rovereto, Italy]] in 2018. RADMIN was to be the third and final network-building event in this series. | A more practical trigger was the Feral Business Research Network (FBRN) an academic networking project for artists thinking with business, that despite being unselected for funding played out across two workshop gatherings in [[http://companydrinks.info/event/feral-business-research-network|London]] and [[http://laforesta.net/feral-business-research-network|Rovereto, Italy]] in 2018. RADMIN was the third and final network-building event in this series. |
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| //Production// | //Production// |
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| The festival format loosely followed a rapid fire or Russian roulette design wherein a volley of short events would act as diverse triggers for thinking, each event lasting not much over an hour, after which participants could be pinballed in another direction, and with enough surrounding space for striking up conversations IE. networking. A scattershot approach, opening on the first evening with a [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-gala-dinner-the-shares-a-meal-hosted-by-the-viriconium-palace,10229|Gala Dinner]] in a mansion, with a series of 3.5 minute dinner speeches to cast the terrain of what might be considered administration wide (the business school, trade and logistics, monetary experiments, hitchhiking, heritage, plumbing and radical art history). | The festival format loosely followed a rapid fire or Russian roulette design wherein a volley of short events would act as diverse triggers for thinking, each event lasting not much over an hour, after which participants could be pinballed in another direction, and with enough surrounding space for striking up new connections and conversations. A scattershot approach, opening on the first evening with a [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-gala-dinner-the-shares-a-meal-hosted-by-the-viriconium-palace,10229|Gala Dinner]], with a series of 3.5 minute dinner speeches to cast the terrain of what might be considered administration wide (the business school, trade and logistics, monetary experiments, hitchhiking, heritage, plumbing and radical art history). |
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| The Day Two Convention was arranged as a more [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-convention,10584|conventional series of workshops]], followed by an [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-office-party,10585/|Office Party]] at the Cube, with Day Three opening out into delegate-generated content with the [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-professional-development-bonanza,10586|Professional Development Bonanza!]], radio show, raffle and Trade Show at the Cube, and [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-100-ushers-feature-film-tbc,10587|staff training session]] before closing with the reassuringly familiar format of a feature film. | The Day Two Convention was arranged as a more [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-convention,10584|conventional series of workshops]], followed by an [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-office-party,10585/|Office Party]] at the Cube, with Day Three opening out into delegate-generated content with the [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-professional-development-bonanza,10586|Professional Development Bonanza!]], radio show, raffle and Trade Show at the Cube, and [[https://cubecinema.com/programme/event/radmin-100-ushers-feature-film-tbc,10587|staff training session]] before closing with the reassuringly familiar format of a feature film. |
| //Participation// | //Participation// |
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| The programme aimed to work both as both a dragnet and a filter: to invite in a broad constituency of interests, and gauge where the concentrations and intensities might lie, and what topics could be fruitfully discarded. The term RADMIN clearly had some pulling power: in the end, the event swiftly self-marketed along ley lines of association, as rapid word of mouth ticket sales kept attendance almost entirely within existing networks (even if these did reach as far as Hong Kong). This made for a strange constraint, overlapping close and far flung neighbourhoods and the fear of being wedding-like was on our minds. However I would still be cautious to describe these networks as homogeneous or coherent - even bringing an art crowd together with Cube staff/audiences made for an unwieldy and surprising collage. | The programme aimed to work both as both a dragnet and a filter, to invite in a broad constituency of interests and gauge where the concentrations and intensities might lie. In the end, the event swiftly self-marketed along ley lines of association, as rapid word of mouth ticket sales kept attendance almost entirely within existing networks (even if as far flung as Malta, Serbia and Hong Kong). This made for an unplanned constraint and the fear of being wedding-like was on our minds. However I would be cautious to describe these interlocking networks as homogeneous or coherent - even bringing an art crowd together with the Cube staff/audiences made for an unwieldy and effective collage. |
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| In the main,[[https://blog.cubecinema.com/2019/02/18/radmin-2019-documentation/nggallery/thumbnails/page/6|delegations]] took up the invitation to register as organisations and many attended in pairs or small groups, although some registered under their own names as self-employed business entities. All delegates were asked to submit an organisational bio, which appeared on their [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_plumbmaid.jpg|lanyard]] and together made up the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Delegations.pdf|printed programme]] which was the event's primary [[https://blog.cubecinema.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/nggallery/radmin-2019-1/RADMIN_9.jpg|treasure]] | Most [[https://blog.cubecinema.com/2019/02/18/radmin-2019-documentation/nggallery/thumbnails/page/6|delegations]] took up the invitation to register as organisations and many attended in pairs or small groups, although some registered under their own names as self-employed business entities. All delegates were asked to submit an organisational bio, which appeared on their lanyard, and together made up the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Delegations.pdf|printed programme]] which was the event's treasure. |
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| | {{https://blog.cubecinema.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/nggallery/radmin-2019-1/RADMIN_9.jpg?300}} {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_plumbmaid.jpg?200}} |
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| //Organising through a RADMIN lens// | //Organising through a RADMIN lens// |
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| The container of RADMIN had the fun side of rendering many of the usual stumbling blocks and dull administrative grooves as vivid or poignant sites of special interest, even if just a performance to ourselves. This included getting caught in each others' spam filters, the online ticket-seller software hardcoding Valentine's Day into the event description, and our out of business hours email habits tripping a wealth of out of office autoresponders. | The container of RADMIN had the fun side of rendering the usual stumbling blocks and dull administrative grooves vivid and poignant, even if just a performance to ourselves. This included getting caught in each others' spam filters, the online ticket-seller software hardcoding Valentine's Day into the event description, and our out of business hours email habits triggering a starburst of out of office autoresponders. |
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| Questions of //how to be handbuilt and powerful// were vividly rendered in the sub-project of the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_READER_FINAL.pdf|RADMIN reader]], a zine-like collection of short texts and a DIY endeavour by design. Graphics students from the University contributed the design and layout as part of their professional practice module. However when it came to print, fold and staple, not passing the 70-unit job over to University Print Services (a design decision, not budget-driven) caused an operating logjam played out in the art department printer queue, where I spent almost two entire days negotiating with (supportive) IT support technicians, network log-in protocols, office supply enclaves, line-management protocols, irate institutional hierarchies, beneficial staplers and the whole situated process of production which was really the entire point. | Questions of //how to be handbuilt and powerful// were vividly rendered in the sub-project of the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_READER_FINAL.pdf|RADMIN reader]], a zine-like collection of short texts and a DIY endeavour by design. Graphics students from the University contributed the design and layout as part of their professional practice module. However when it came to print, fold and staple, not passing the 70-unit job over to University Print Services (a design decision, not budget-driven) caused an operating logjam played out in the art department printer queue, where I spent almost two entire days negotiating with (supportive) IT support technicians, network log-in protocols, office supply enclaves, line-management protocols, irate institutional hierarchies, beneficial staplers and the whole situated process of production which was really the entire point. |
| //Logistics// | //Logistics// |
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| Working across two venues served to extend the concept of the Cube, its operations, administration and self-image, well beyond the building. It also stretched our organising capacity and human energies to the limits. As a determinedly all-volunteer workforce with a proud tradition of attention to detail, this work was woven into and around other occupations (painting and decorating, lecturing, telephone sales, archiving, public speaking, parenting and not ironically admin roles). Cube ushers took days off well-paid jobs elsewhere to work back-to-back shifts, involving a lot of cleaning. | Working across two venues served to extend the concept of the Cube, its operations, administration and self-image, well beyond the building. It also stretched our organising capacity and human energies to the limits. As a determinedly all-volunteer workforce with a proud tradition of attention to detail, this was woven into and around other occupations (painting and decorating, lecturing, telephone sales, archiving, public speaking, parenting and not ironically admin roles). |
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| //The Money// | //The Money// |
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| II | II |
| As a whole, the festival performed a demonstration of a wealth of resources which ran counter to a litany of monetary scarcity that surges through many conversations in the arts (as elsewhere). Quite literally this included a feast, several repositories of cash, a [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_ashton_court.jpg|mansion]], the richness of innumerable projects and lives' works. In fact life, rather than money, loomed over the event as the scarce resource. A slew of largely health-related reasons caused a number of last minute cancellations as delegates were felled by illness, family and a sobering shadow of bereavements. Conversely, two days of brilliant winter [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_convention_lunch.jpg|sun]] set the scene well beyond our ability to stage-manage. | The festival performed a demonstration of a wealth of resources which ran counter to a litany of monetary scarcity that surges through many conversations in the arts (as elsewhere). These included a feast, a mansion, several repositories of cash and the richness of innumerable projects and lives' works. In the end, life rather than money loomed over the event as the scarce resource. A slew of largely health-related reasons caused a number of last minute cancellations. Conversely, two days of brilliant winter sun set the scene well beyond our ability to stage-manage. |
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| | {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_ashton_court.jpg?300}} {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_convention_lunch.jpg?300}} |
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| III | III |
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| IV | IV |
| The Business Experiment Raffle, announced at the gala dinner, a [[https://blog.cubecinema.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/nggallery/radmin-2019-1/RADMIN_33.jpg|raffle]] with one ticket available to each RADMIN delegation. Entry was gated by requirement to be present at the Day 3 draw and deliver a plan or dream for a business experiment, after which the £2,500 prize was randomly drawn and issued to the [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Raffle_winning_ticket_39.jpg|winner]] with no strings attached. | The Business Experiment Raffle, announced at the gala dinner, a raffle with one ticket available to each RADMIN delegation. A manouever in dissociative funding: entry was gated by requirement to be present at the Day 3 draw and to deliver a 30-second plan or dream for a business experiment to the assembled rom, after which the £2,500 prize was randomly drawn and issued to the winner with no strings attached. |
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| | {{https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Raffle_winning_ticket_39.jpg?4500}} |
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| //What was learnt// | //What was learnt// |
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