"Summer University" [=SU] is a project initiated in the first meeting held in PAF in December 25-31 by a number of practitioners (artists, theoreticians, cultural workers etc.) who gathered for the first time in the house in St. Erme in order to create PAF.
The main interest in organizing SU is to experiment and test the practices PAF is developing and/or will develop in future: types of projects, areas of research, modes (methods, procedures, techniques) of production, frames of collaboration, discursive engagement by all interested participants. In a few words: all activities that make up knowledge production in the arts, theory and cultural practice, open and specific.
University and participation
"University" is the term that replaces "academy" here referring to the Renaissance principle of combining research and education in one location. Secondly, it is called "university" rather than "academy" because PAF will be open to all areas of knowledge, even if art is or remains the starting point.
So, SU isn't another international summer academy, offering workshops, lectures, panels etc. under a representative topic for which participants apply. The participants of SU are its organizers, in that they are proposing, organizing, and taking part in different projects and activities during SU. Every participant pays the same fee (the equivalent of food, lodging and technical organization) to take part no matter what competence or specific knowledge he/she can offer. The access to SU is open, but more specifically determined by each project/activity. (See the programme further)
Preparation
The preparation of SU has already begun from the moment the project was discussed. Only by organizing preparation as process, rather than by planning a representative programme, can SU act as a minimodel of PAF: an intensification, a furthering, a confrontation and an intereference-plus-cumulative-effect of all projects, activities, concepts and initiatives, which are either in progress, or about to take off in future, or subsist in potentiality.
Programme
For now the programme is an open list of proposals:
* open source - a research (which has started already and is open to whomever is interested) of possible implementations of open source practices in performance practices
(see more on http://paf.minimeta.de/wiki/OpenSource)
* film festival - based on the work of Jean-Luc Godard and the notion of "art that thinks"
*a series of simultaneous double film screenings
* communication tools - a research on the open source ethics and how a website and other communication tools can enable such a work structure in PAF; the goal is to write collectively the "source-text" which could also be available for use to people raising funds develop
* WVGP - a closed group of people wanting to work together in order to set up in future a working situation which explores and challenges the status of work in production
*publishing project - a session around publishing involving the performance theory and practice platforms with their publishing projects: Maska, Frakcija, Teorija koja Hoda and bbooks
*works asking for more feedback and more discussion - those people who are looking for more feedback discussion on their work are invited to organize such a session
(More project proposals will follow and be published on the website
www.pa-f.net)
A proposed format for sharing knowledge and information is press conference. Somewhat old-fashioned and too official for the informality of these meetings, press conferences are optional, not obligatory reports made by each group to the others either on regular basis or by special appointment.
Everyone is invited to propose the project or activity they would like to organize within SU. The only limit of choice is the capacity of the house.
The aim behind the open access and self-organization is to make possible parallel heterogeneous research platforms. To experiment with configurations, extensions, transformations, interferences, mergings and forkings of projects/activities.
Documentation
A special attention will be given to the issue of documentation. How can we make sure that the different research, projects and events are documented and published in a way that enables others to use them for further investigation? Projects/activities are encouraged to automatically reflect their own documentation. Naturally, information will also circulate wider than SU, in ways that PAF won't be responsible for.
How to become a participant?
It's as easy as sending your proposal to convene-in-reims@minimeta.de , the open mailing list of PAF.
Expenses
The participation fee is 200 euro, consisting of 75 euro for a room, 125 euro for food (three meals a day, incl. wine).
For more information about PAF go to www.pa-f.net where you can also find the information about how to get there (http://pa-f.net/node/10).
