Biographical Chronicle of Industrial Production

I haven't put together a live performance work since Habeas Corpus in 2008, and the theme hasn't really changed, but the approach and scale have. On Sunday in Berlin, with up to 100 performers we will present the "Biographical Chronicle of Industrial Production", a labour model of the creation of the building we will be performing in front of.

 No lights, no speakers, no microphones, only a small mass of humanity, a few instructions 5 or 6 analogue clocks and handfulls of ballpoint pens. Come and join in (arrive around 1pm) or come just to watch (arrive at 3pm).

 Here's an introduction in German (with thanks to Ruth and Christine)
 “Biographische Entstehungschronik” von Baruch Gottlieb
 für das “Oral Syndicate”
produziert von Francesca Ciardi

Eine Performance-Veranstaltung für 100 Darsteller Die Performance beschäftigt sich mit der uns umgebenden und von uns geschaffenen Wirklichkeit. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet ein beliebiges Industrieprodukt - in diesem Falle ein Gebäude - und 100 Menschen, die durch ihren Arbeitseinsatz an dessen Entstehung beteiligt waren. Die Bühnenauftritte der einzelnen Darsteller bemessen sich proportional zu der geleisteten Arbeit ihrer darzustellenden Figur und variieren zwischen drei Sekunden und drei Minuten. Dabei wird der individuelle Arbeitseinsatz durch Gesten, Töne oder rein pantomimisch auf der Bühne dargestellt. Die übrigen Darsteller erzeugen hinter der Bühne eine kontinuierliche Geräuschkulisse indem sie einzelne Töne singen, sprechen, mit den Füssen scharren, aufstampfen oder auf der Stelle treten.

 Die Performance soll eine Erkundung der (Entstehungs)Geschichte eines industriellen Erzeugnisses sein, welches wir normalerweise nur in seiner physischen und gewöhnlichen Form wahrnehmen. Sie soll die gesamte Komplexität eines Enstehungsprozesses vermitteln, d.h. das Unermessliche, das Ungelöste, das Verstrickte: Beziehungsgeflechte verschiedener Individuen, deren Anstrengungen und gemeinsames Streben.

 Here is the English call as seen on FB:

 Baruch Gottlieb and Francesca Romana Ciardi are looking for 100 people interested in becoming a part of a unique site-specific and monumental performance, manifesting the living history of industrial architecture. Set in the unusual and suggestive setting of exRotaprint, a former printer factory in Wedding, the Biographical Chronicle of Industrial Production retraces the stories of the people who produced the world we live in today. Using a model of the construction of the ExRotaprint factory, participants will re-present the workers originally involved in the construction of the building over 60 years ago by appearing 'on stage' for a time proportional to the the historical person they are representing. This time 'on stage' will generally be quite short, on the average 5 seconds at a time...The rest of the participants, when not on stage or getting ready to go on stage, will produce background sounds 'back stage' for the performance. The sounds will consist of physical sounds like shuffling feet and vocal sounds like whispering, murmuring and humming. The performance will take place on the outdoor grounds of ExRotaprint in Wedding, on May 27th 2012 at 3pm and will finish at approximately 330pm.

Participants are requested to arrive on location two hours before the showing, at 1pm, for a run through. No previous performance experience necessary but a genuine desire to be part of a unique project that daringly traces the collective histories and memories of people and their labour. If you want to be part of Biographical Chronicle of Industrial Production please follow this link and fill out the online form on that page: 

Gratitude for Technology

Gratitude in etymology (Derrida cautions about this "abuse of etymology that serves as explanation, play on homonyms (he should know about this one), privileging of nomination, autonomization of language, and so forth"- Specters of Marx, p. 167)

gratitude c.1500, from M.L. gratitudo "thankfulness," from L. gratus "thankful, pleasing" (see grace).

grace from L. gratia "pleasing quality, good will, gratitude," from gratus "pleasing, agreeable," from PIE base *gwer- "to praise, welcome" (cf. Skt. grnati "sings, praises, announces," Lith. giriu "to praise, celebrate," Avestan gar- "to praise").

etymology from the amazing etymonline

In this book I wish to create a manifestation of the legacy of human care and effort that coalesces in the contemporary surface. This manifestation, of the intricate webs of human relations intertwining back through history, all the way to the flint knife and before, is proposed to be a media object, a digital media modeling of documentary/historical traces, that should serve as contemplative resonator for gratitude for technology.

Rather than being an object of our contemplation it is a Flusserian project projected from processes inside the apparatus which is modeling the history of human collaboration recorded in the document of the contemporary surface. This work requires an infinite labour:

1. of research, to compile records towards a comprehensive documentary legacy of the human history of technology,

2. of mimetics, to re-enact and reembody all the events of this legacy

3. of modeling, developing categorization and cross-referencing protocols and the algorithms to traverse these, creating recombinant documentary sequences and inter-associations with intuitive subjective sense of perspective and movement..

My friend Steven Augustine has challenged my use of the notion of gratitude as implicitly religious. Seeing as even the secular humanist modernist tradition is redolent of judeo-christian learning, this charge is hard to defuse. Without god, utterly without god, we really only have each other, and we will have to start dealing with that fact with the earnestness it deserves.

*

Today, while editing, I heard a scratchy squeaky rhythmic something coming from the park beneath my window. There were a few young voices obviously enjoying this racket very much. I finally figured out that it was

“Das Geht ab” (it’s starting) by Frauenartz (Gynecologist) and Manny Mark coming out of a cellphone speaker. I thought about what I was doing, trying to make something sublime, but the cell-phone makers know just what functionality the kids need. Kids today, as back when I was, are desperate for anything that will give them hope that this technological future world will be worth it.

People are grateful for technology which transports them, away from their bodily and existential uncertainty into a fantasy space where everything responds to them, and offers them an intoxicating taste of complete control. We suspend ever longer this technological fantasy through drugs , through media, it seems the future will be one where people will be transported from cradle to grave without ever having a moment unmediated by technology. There will be no slowing down of technology no crisis just an ever surging yearning thrust towards fusion with automated processes.