REPORT BY BRONIA IWANCZAK
(speaker)


18.30: 11:3:05: Director of Debacles Ð Project manager- invites ICOLS on a relational aesthetic trip.

David Broker

ICOLS meeting with Ihor Holubizky (Librettist/Composer-Department of revolutionary Nostalgia and David Broker. Ihor demonstrates airflow patterns within mainstream thought patterns - he advises to exercise shearing, containment, and release actions whilst answering questions from potential audience members.

Bronia Iwanczak with Ihor Holubizky

Ihor Holubizky with David Broker

Associate member Grant Stephens advises the ICOLS wardrobe department regarding the significant value of cheap, dangerously incongruous t-shirts with current retro 80's accoutrements. Duran Duran and koala conservation T-shirts are potential contaminants that could be utilised for cultural terrorism.

Grant Stephens

10.00: 12:03:05. The IMA( Interstitial Matter Aptitude ) The Conference location

10:30: 12:03:05

The good Reverend Mark Pennings sets up the precepts for the days proceedings. Sequencing data is in half hour blocks with variable modulation in critical enquiry and insight. "Basically, we are art historians who are responding to Nicholas Bourriaud's 2002 text of that title. This has been very influential in recent art critical debates and we wanted to discuss, clarify and question some of Bourriaud's assertions. Whether one agrees with Bourriaud or not, the bottom line is that he writes about a generation of artists (Huyghe, Hirschhorn, Parreno, Tiravanija for i.e.) that are responding to a a changed world. A world of "relations". Relational aesthetics though discusses artists that think that the "relations" in art installations etc., are more important that the art object itself."

All the artists rise for the anthem - this is going to be long and lonely. Kant's ghost shifts in his seat.

Mark Pennings

11:00-11.30 Toni

11.30-12.00 Andrew

We break for lunch and join the Irish Catholic conference down the road.

14.00 - 14.30 David

14:30:12:03:05

Co- Director delivers an exploratory trip of the ICOLS website. Director tries to demonstrate relational tendencies of the participating members within the various dimensions, ie. infighting, takeovers, paranoid emails and terminations. Various admissions are made like the adage that life is stranger than fiction and that ICOLS run consciousness raising camps in isolated locations for a profit.

15:15:12:03:05

Chair: David

Panel Members: Rex, David, Bronia, Andrew, Mark, and Toni.

The Wrap: Rex sorts us all out: no utopias- no escaping capitalism-  left is past and relating is overrated. Wes (from the audience) queries notions of utopias, even micro utopias. It was generally agreed that the only way to sort it out was to have a Micro- Utopian World championship in Geneva. Other questions included : Would ICOLS lose it's irony when the rest of the world started becoming more and more like ICOLS. ICOLS director responded that a counter mimetic strategy was already in place. The discourse collapses into some confusion as to whether relational aesthetics is a buzz word for a phenomena that has occurred previously. Andrew queries ICOLS role in supporting a delusional universe where alien life forms exist (Sfodamong

Alien- scientist-Department for Future Projections). ICOLS director gives factual evidence to support that two thirds of Americans believe that Aliens have landed at one time or another on earth- ie America. Rex supports the idea that perhaps two thirds of Americans are Aliens.

The Conference

Wes

ICOLS director rings Internal legal counsel:
What to do with all this money for the speaking engagement?

Counsel consults lobster Oracle:
Sugar - acquire Wedel, Poland's leading chocolate confectionery brand.

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BACKGROUND

"Relational Aesthetics Symposium Saturday, 12th March
In a collaborative event Queensland University of Technology's Visual Arts/Creative Industries and the Institute of Modern Art will present a "Relational Aesthetics Symposium" on Saturday March 12 in the Performance Space of the Judith Wright Centre, Level 2, 420 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. 10 am - 4 pm.
In Relational Aesthetics, Nicholas Bourriaud argues that a new generation of artists have dispensed with old approaches to art. Instead, he claims that contemporary artists like Pierre Huyghe, Thomas Hirschhorn and Rirkrit Tiravanija make art installations that privilege "relations" over "objects". In so doing, they develop a more engaged relationship with the art audience and the broader community. The speakers in this symposium will assess Bourriaud's views and discuss their relevance to contemporary art and contemporary culture in general. The speakers in this symposium will include: Mark Pennings and Andrew McNamara (Visual Arts, QUT), Toni Ross (CoFA, Sydney), David Cross (Massey University, Wellington, NZ) and Bronia Iwanczak (ICOLS, Sydney artist). David Broker will also chair a roundtable discussion with Rex Butler (Univ. of QLD) and the speakers. The Symposium is free of charge."

http://www.uq.edu.au/sofa/

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