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| ibex:radmin [2019-03-04 06:45] – katerich | ibex:radmin [2019-03-04 18:07] – katerich |
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| //Objectives// | //Objectives// |
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| The ember of thinking behind [[https://cubecinema.com/pages/radmin|RADMIN]] was less a curatorial project 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. | 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 also be viewed as an initialising event in a 20-year+ endeavour 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; |
| * 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. | * 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 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. | 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. |
| //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 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 the Cube staff/audiences made for an unwieldy and effective 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 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 the Cube staff/audiences made for an unwieldy and effective collage. |
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| 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 [[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 [[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]] |
| //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 / 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. |
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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 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 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 [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_ashton_court.jpg|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 [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/radmin_convention_lunch.jpg|sun]] set the scene well beyond our ability to stage-manage. |
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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 [[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. 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 [[https://feraltrade.org/radmin/RADMIN_Raffle_winning_ticket_39.jpg|winner]] with no strings attached. |
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| //What was learnt// | //What was learnt// |
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