TALK TO ME! (The Future of Language)
September 22–23, 2018, 3pm
Participants: Julieta Aranda, Daniel Grúň, Karl Holmqvist, Chaosdroid & Boris Vitázek, Boris Ondreička, Ayumi Paul, Peter Sit, Tony Yanick
The congress will be streamed starting at 3pm in Bratislava (CEST) / 2pm GMT / 1pm UTC / 9am EST / 6am PDT
Link to video stream / Program PDF / Tickets
Chapter 3 (Bratislava)
The third iteration of The 9th Futurological Congress will be held in Bratislava on 22-23 September, 2018, at the auditorium of the Slovak Radio Building.
Thinking about the future is embedded in human nature –it is a by-product of being aware of our own mortality. But when we look towards the future at this particular point in the narrative of our planet, we are facing the consequences of our development as a singled-out species, and of placing ourselves at the center of the stage, as if we, humans, were the only actors that matter, and as if everything else that surrounds was only resources, that can be deployed and exhausted in the name of History.
It is at this juncture that the options that we currently have in stock to think about the future become insufficient. So this operation—the 9th Futurological Congress—wants to start a different dialogue, to elaborate on the possibility of many futures instead of the single narrative of catastrophe that is on offer at the moment.
For the Bratislava iteration of the Futurological Congress, we are concerning ourselves with The Future of Language. Looking at it from the broadest perspective, language is many things: There is voice, there is text, there are musical notation systems… Language is communication. A way of communication is through words, but there is also the silence that helps give shape to those words. There is singing, there are stories passed around from voice to voice, there are misunderstandings, shibboleths, strange accents and mistranslations. There is the language of the body, and the means of communication used by those who are not able to speak. There are musical instruments, animal interactions in frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear, there is the cadence and lilt of poetry when it is being performed, and the difference from when it is only read on paper. There are bird mating calls, there is the low rumble of the earth, there are lexicons and idioms that belong to particular generations, and there are also lexicons and idioms that belong to specific political positions. There is the language of universalism and inclusion, and there is language (in its negative form) in the refusal to understand each other. There are the coded exchanges of underground organizations, the language of the commons and of solidarity networks; and there is also the crumbling of systems and the terrible language that is spoken by the sound of war.
Excess Output
There is not way to predict how any of this will be read over time. There are several speeds of inscription; the immediate regurgitation of images into popular culture; the longer process of absorption of images and their cultural reflection into historical narratives; and then the revision and adjustment of historical narratives whenever it is necessary (as it has happened with colonial / post-colonial / decolonizing processes). We plan, and there are contingencies. But our contingencies must have contingencies; we must be able to be shape-shifters in order to adjust to the world. There is a game, and supposedly there are rules to the game. But we can throw away the rules, and we can throw away the game, and aim for a different outcome using the same pieces that we have always had.
The 9th Futurological Congress has been invited to Bratislava by Apart and Tranzit, and it was supported using public funding from Slovak Arts Council, Erste Foundation, and Július Koller Society.
Julieta Aranda is one of the chairpeople of the 9th Futurological Congress. She is also an artist and editor of e-flux journal.
Peter Sit is a artist, curator, organizer and co-founder of APART
Day 1:
Saturday, September 22, 3–8pm, doors 2pm
3–3:15pm: Peter Sit. Introduction
3:15–3:30pm: Julieta Aranda. Introductory remarks
The 9th Futurological Congress: As a manner of speaking, Language beyond the spoken word.
3:30–4pm radioee.net (remote conversation and live broadcast)
4–5pm: Radioee.net
The Language of Gezi Park
Live broadcast
5–5:40pm: Daniel Grúň
Body-Transmitters. Slovak Conceptual Art as Paranormal and Parainstitutional Activity
5:40–6pm: 20 minute break
6–6:30 Boris Ondreička
Against Ontological Future
6:30–7:30pm: Ayumi Paul
Why I Blushed
Lecture-performance
7:30–8pm: Q+A with all participants
Day 2:
Sunday, September 23, 3–8pm, doors 2pm
3–3:15: Julieta Aranda
Introductory remarks to day 2
3:30–4pm: Tony Yanick
STO.RE, cultural practices of mnemonic immediacy
performative lecture
4–4:30pm: Nicoline van Harskamp
PDGN
screening and discussion
4:30–5: Karl Holmqvist
Understanding is Overrated
Performance
5–5:40pm: Chaosdroid & Boris Vitázek
Language Exercises for Sonic Spaces (LESS)
Audio-visual performance
6pm: Final remarks
Organized by APART in cooperation with tranzit.sk.
For more info contact us info [at] apart.sk.
APART is a Slovak artist cooperative. Today, its members include Denis Kozerawski (*1990), Peter Sit (*1991), Magda Schery (*1990), and Andrej Žabkay (*1987). APART was formed at the turn of 2011 and 2012. APART performs research, creative-artistic, project- and exhibition- creative / curatorial, publishing, and archiving activities. The artists initiate, create, organize, and exhibit group manifestations (often giving space to other artists and theorists, as well), or work on their own. APART is a meta-participatory platform. It works on a proto-institutional basis, putting its polysubjectivity into directly related or desired contexts according to the principle of sharing economy.
tranzit.sk is a contemporary art initiative active in Bratislava since 2002. It is part of the international network tranzit.org, made up of similar organisations set up in Hungary, The Czech Republic, Romania and Austria which main partner is ERSTE Foundation. In the last five years tranzit.sk has focused on the relationship between art and society as well as on multidisciplinary approach. Its research-based exhibitions, lectures, discussions and workshops address a broad thematic spectrum, among others the heritage and culture of minorities, community and collective practices, the urban space, neighbourhood, the art system and the conditions of artistic production.
Supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council, Erste Foundation, Július Koller Society
Media partner: Kapitál
