2-7th of May 2013, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin

Free entry to public events!

An aesthetic of contemporary life inhales new relationship to objects, and the attached to us object changes the perspective to it. If the object for Marshall McLuhan in 60s was an extension of man, for Vilém Flusser in 80s the man became an extension of “apparatus.” The roles have been switched literally and physically: since then machine is the one who creates and man is the one who serves it. Who in the changing world will be dictating the aims? Who will be responsible if the unmanned vehicle will kill a man?

The Weissensee Art Academy Berlin is hosting Migrating Art Academies new laboratory “Aesthetic – Responsibility – Drones”. It will be held at Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz Berlin. Emerging artists and students from any academies are welcome to discuss contemporary aesthetics and its responsibilities within a world related to technology controlled by others and by unknown technology.

The six days long lab will offer discussions on the basis of texts by notable thinkers (a.o. Judith Butler, Christoph Menke), working about aesthetic responsibilities in social gaming and experimenting with print making as well as with specifics in sound and electronics.

The list of contributors to the laboratory includes:
Mark Bishop (Goldsmiths University of London), Hannes Brunner, Hanna Hennenkemper (Weissensee Art Academy Berlin), Derek Holzer, Mindaugas Gapševičius (Migrating Art Academies), Marcus Steinweg, Hubertus von Amelunxen (Braunschweig University of Art), Žilvinas Lilas (Academy of Media Arts Cologne).

Aesthetic – Responsibility – Drones is organised in collaboration with Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association, Weissensee Art Academy Berlin and Top association in Berlin. The laboratory is partly supported by Lithuanian Culture Support Foundation and Kulturkontakt Nord.

Systems reward the assertive. The worlds of economics, culture, academia and science all follow a strict adherence to Darwinist principles. The strong triumph; the weak are swept away. All attempts to rectify this, through state activity, the social conscience or charity are subject to the same systems that nurture these inequalities.

The rules of law binds these spheres, yet these ties are not absolute. The concept of legality is fluid, and those who have conquered these systems are often the ones who least observe the regulations which have benefited them.

In the realm of art and aesthetics, legality is rarely questioned except in explicitly activist-orientated projects. It’s a fluid concept that often exists as an unobserved parallel to critical dialogue, or an undercurrent.

For the first quarter of 2013, Ptarmigan (EE) will schedule activities around the theme of (Il)legal Aesthetics. Spearheaded by our resident artist Mindaugas Gapsevicius, Illegal Aesthetics will loosely encompass a variety of activities that revolve around similar concerns. Explicitly embracing the educational realm, (Il)legal Aesthetics refers to activities that straddle the gap between legal and illegal. These activities will explore concepts such as law, permission and property. We will investigate responsibilities and possibilities; we will attempt to discover (il)legal forms of action and aesthetics.

(Il)legal Aesthetics is organised within Migrating Art Academies framework in collaboration with Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association, Estonian Academy of Arts and Ptarmigan Tallinn. The laboratory is partly supported by KUNO network and Kulturkontakt Nord. More information @ Migrating Art Academies website