Loved this! I've been couchsurfing since Sept 2011 (along with crowdsourcing
my life <http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com/2012/01/crowdsourcing-life/>). Partly
this was to assist with costs as I get reallybigroadtrip.com off the
ground, but as Jon says it's a fantastic way to get over your own shyness.
It's also a fascinating way to get a picture of how other people live. We
are a diverse creature, it's been entirely humbling.
In the three months over my crowdfunding campaign I lived in six homes (one
a house-sit, but they're rare). Since Sept 2011 I've stayed in 24 homes
(sharing with 35 people), three more than once. These were across 11 cities
in 5 countries. None of those were organised through any platform, simply
social media shoutouts and the kindness of friends, strangers and their
extended networks. I've always felt sad that the couchsurfing sites make it
a commercial proposition, that's surely the domain of airbnb - a valid, but
different model.
I haven't yet translated the experience into artwork but there's huge
amounts of material there. I'll be (finally!) moving into my own home again
(my bus <http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com/2012/11/houston-we-have-a-bus/>!)
in the next few months. I'll be hosting Nomads in
Residence<http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com/2012/05/nomads-in-residence/>there,
so will return the much appreciated accommodation favours (and
dinners and lifts) in unique locations around the country. Those adhoc
conversations Jon mentions are a key part to this for me too. We will be
recording our random chats as we drive around dramatics Australian
landscapes.
This reciprocal culture is fundamentally important to me. reallybigroadtrip
is an experiment in sustainable living as much as a (literal and
metaphorical) vehicle for creative digital culture. It still sometimes
concerns me that I'm taking from others, especially considering the
crowdfunding campaign (and how long all this has lasted to date). But the
amount of love and support that has been freely given to enable this
project to come to life has been astonishing. I feel more like a caretaker
for my own art instead of its owner.
Anyone wanting to come hang out on the bus with me, just ping (we'll be at
ISEA2013 if that helps...).
xf
>
> Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:17:24 +0000
> From: ruth catlow <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Hospitality – Hosting Relations in Exhibitions at Academy of
> Visual
>
> Hi All,
>
> I enjoyed this recent post from Jon Ippolito.
>
> It connected in my mind with other lived art critiques that are
> parasitical on artworld surpluses.
> Kate Rich's Feral Trade <
> http://www.http.uk.net/exhibitions/FeralTradeCafe/index.shtml> and Marc's
> and my We Wont Fly For Art <
> http://www.furtherfield.org/features/we-wont-fly-art-media-art-ecologies>
>
> We recently wrote about these in the context of the Furtherfield Media Art
> Ecologies programme for Remediating the Social.
> http://www.elmcip.net/story/remediating-social-e-book-released DIWO: DO
> IT WITH OTHERS – No Ecology Without Social Ecology pg 68-74
>
> : )
> Ruth
>
> --------
>
> Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:48:33 -0500
> From: Jon Ippolito<[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Hospitality – Hosting Relations in Exhibitions at Academy of
> Visual
>
> Not to sideline this month's important discussion of curating online, but
> this post touched a nerve for me:
>
> > Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig
> > Hospitality – Hosting Relations in Exhibitions
> > Conference, December 13–14, 2012
> >
> > Every curated encounter creates a situation of hospitality. Whoever
> claims curatorial responsibility can appear in the role of host, while the
> invited—artists, audiences but also exhibits—can take on that of guest.
>
> I have recently been asking anyone who invites me to a conference to put
> me up on a couch instead of in a hotel. For the past couple of years, I
> have been rewarded for overcoming my shyness by hosts across three
> continents who have opened their homes to me.
>
> I don't know if staying with local families can "scale" to a conference
> with hundreds of participants. (CouchSurfing.org seems to do pretty well.)
> But if I'm going to blow a planeful of greenhouse-emitting jet fuel on
> travel, I want to learn how people live in that part of the world, rather
> than what distinctive shampoo containers they have in their hotel rooms.
>
> I don't want to interrupt my hosts' routines or get special treatment, and
> am practiced at washing dishes and other household chores. Yet I always
> return home with a debt in my heart to the individual or family who took me
> in. These are often the conference organizers themselves, who have way too
> much on their plate to accommodate me--and yet somehow manage. Thankfully,
> anthropologist James Leach says that debt that generates new social bonds
> can be a good thing.
>
> I've described the connection between hospitality and curation previously
> on this list in the form of an anecdote reported by Eva and Franco Mattes
> of 0100101110101101.ORG when they stayed at my place in Maine. In the
> early days of Soros-funded new media art, the Mattes--like many net
> artists--would periodically cobble together enough resources to travel to
> an exhibition or festival in Eastern Europe. The organizers rarely had a
> big hotel budget, and the installation space often lacked Internet,
> equipment, and at times even electricity.
>
> So the exhibition would take a back seat to late-night conversations over
> drinks, and the hotel would frequently turn out to be the curator's living
> room. These informal gatherings turned out to be more important to the
> culture of net art than whatever took place in the official venues.
>
> The Mattes are now celebrated enough to be sought after by the mainstream
> art world. Eva and Franco described their experience of being flown to New
> York or LA to find their work beautifully installed in an immaculate museum
> gallery. Unfortunately, all the Mattes get from the curators today is a
> handshake at the opening, leaving them free to return to their fancy hotel
> room and its prosthetic hospitality.
>
> jon
>
> _______________________________________________
> NetBehaviour mailing list
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of NEW-MEDIA-CURATING Digest - 17 Nov 2012 to 19 Nov 2012 (#2012-172)
> *************************************************************************
>
--
Fee Plumley
*>> Houston, we have a bus! Read the exquisite
story<http://www.reallybigroadtrip.com/2012/11/houston-we-have-a-bus/>behind
this find
** :) **<<*
Digital Nomad at http://reallybigroadtrip.com - making & sharing geek arts
across Australia.
Head Geek at http://technoevangelist.net - spreading the word of geek since
1996.
Chat via twitter <http://twitter.com/feesable>,
facebook<http://www.facebook.com/reallybigroadtrip> or
sign up to my newsletter <http://rbrt.cc/RBRTnews>.
|