Demystifying Collaboration: Remapping Terms and Conditions for collective practices
During the London Design Biennale, the Nieuwe Instituut, in collaboration with Creative Industries Fund NL, is bringing together an (inter)national working group to research issues arising from this edition’s theme, The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations, and to develop tools and propose new ways of working for future international events. On June 21, the Working Group's final public gathering is taking place at the Dutch pavilion at Somerset House.
21 June 2023 13:00 - 14:30
‘Collaboration’ might be one of the most platformed and performed terms within the cultural fields’ vocabulary nowadays, alongside other words related to collective practice. Although undoubtedly valuable, collaboration primarily seems to be assumed as a sure-fire (design) solution to many of our planetary crises. Even more so in the context of a cultural manifestation, this frame of reference runs the risk of romanticising the complex, conflictual, and ugly dynamics of working together. Why does this happen and how can we steer away from it? How can collaboration truly be given time, space, and visibility as part of a working methodology, be it physically or digitally, decentralised, or at an assembly? Which new terms and conditions can cultural funds and institutions employ to collaborate internationally in more honest, equitable, and caring manner through various formats (such as a biennale)?
What does international collaboration, cooperation, and exchange entail within a biennial manifestation, taking for instance London Design Biennale as a case study, and what are interpersonal, institutional, political and bureaucratic dynamics that facilitate or hinder international collaboration? Join the Nieuwe Instituut and Creative Industries Fund NL Re-mapping Collaborations Working Group in their final public gathering, to propose working tools and methodologies for international and collaborative manifestations to come.
Speakers
- Aiwen Yin (practising designer, design theorist and project developer)
- Ali T. As’ad (curator, architect and PhD researcher/ member of the Curatorial Research Collective)
- Nishat Awan (architect and researcher based at the [UCL Urban Laboratory](UCL Urban Laboratory))
- Anja Groten (designer, researcher, educator and member of the Hackers & Designers collective)
- RESOLVE COLLECTIVE: Akil Scafe-Smith, Seth Scafe-Smith and Melissa Haniff (interdisciplinary design collective)
- Mireille de Koning, Internationalisation, Creative Industries Fund NL
The event is moderated by the Nieuwe Instituut researchers Setareh Noorani and Delany Boutkan
Language: English | Location: Dutch Pavilion, Somerset House, London | RSVP (Free)
RSVPAbout Nieuwe Instituut's Remapping Collaborations Working Group
During the London Design Biennale: Remapping Collaborations / The Global Game, an (inter)national Working Group gathers to conduct research on questions related to the Biennale’s themes: re-mapping collaborations and global games and propose ‘working tools and methodologies’ for international manifestations to come. This research re-routes and reflects on curatorial activities and formations in the context of the biennale, bridging these to larger conversations and investigations on different models for internationally oriented manifestations.
Forthcoming strands of thought from the public and internal working sessions, have the aim to feed into Creative Industries Fund NL and the Nieuwe Instituut’s future commissioning of such biennales and forms of curatorship.