neil cummings

the enthusiast has the same relationship to capital as the gift to the commodity

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In July 2010 I started filming some test material for a film comissioned by Intermediae. In many ways it expresses the research of Procesos de Archivo, and being set in the future it will be a companion film to Museum Futures.

I'm working on the storyboard, script, and we are in the process of securing the relevant funding.

Screen Tests

Assembled from multiple source films Screen Tests unfolds as series of Warhol-like screen tests.

Slowly revealed is the location and the occupation of those before the camera; students and tutors from the Manchester School of Art in the 1930’s.

Relational Machine

A week long working session, part of the Procesos de archivo/ Archivalprocess took place at Intermediæ in Madrid.

At the planning meeting on the 23rd December we decide to move the project along and develop the first iteration of the timeline. To develop the timeline into something more playful and sophisticated. We decide to start by making two sample views of the activities of Intermediae.

One is to track a collection of themed projects longitudinally through time, and the other to cut horizontally through a range of activities by choosing a random week of activities in 2009. We have the idea of 'zooming-in' on a particular set of documents, and experiment with their representation.

Monday 8th February 2010

The various work areas of Intermediae, Programming, Administration, Production, Communication an Mediation have aggregated the requested documents into appropriate folders. So, we begin to collate the documents that will be the basis of the 'zoomed' timeline. We choose one sample work area - Communication, and within that we find and print sample documents of the longitudinal project strand or 'linea de trabajo' Permaculture.

Workers Leaving

1895, cast in period costume

1. Establishing shot:

Mid shot: Large wooden factory gates.

Fade from black

Gates swing open, and workers stream from the factory; women, men, children, dogs, a few bicycles and eventually a horse drawn carriage.

2. Floating camera pulls back and slightly-up

Extreme close-up: The scene unfolding is seen to be on-screen.

3. Floating camera continues to pull back

Close-up: The screen is of a mobile phone.

4. Floating camera continues to pull back

Medium close-up: Mobile phone recording the workers leaving the factory.

Fade to black

Total Duration: 47sec.

Timeline 2058 - 1851

The research timeline 2058 - 1851 that I produced for Museum Futures has been reprinted in

Concept Store: #2 Possible, Probable and Preferable Futures

Concept Store: is a bi-annual journal, published by Arnolfini, focusing on critical issues of contemporary art and their relationship to wider cultural, social and political contexts.

Concept Store: reflects upon ideas explored within Arnolfini’s artistic programme, while operating as a discursive space for commissioned texts, artists’ contributions, interviews and other experimental forms.

Welcome

Hello, and welcome.

Welcome to the inaugural Moderna Museet v3.0 heritage publication.

As part of our centenary celebrations we have been reviewing many of the public domain resources that Moderna co-produced in the preceding hundred years. And, the huge challenge for all of us involved was to attend to the lines of force, the transactions that generated, and continue to generate the nexus Moderna Museet; and not be dazzled by the subjects, objects or buildings they produced.

To trace the history of Moderna Museet, is to trace the history of a creative institution that in 2’12 decisively forked the 19th Century museum trajectory. We diverted from a model which had to constantly expand; commission signature buildings, consume scarce resources, evolve huge administrative hierarchies – exhibition, education, support, management and so on - to a sustainable trajectory where Moderna instituted, in the ancient sense of the word - of founding and supporting, on instituting creative practice.

Expert 4

The fourth of the Procesos de archivo /Archivalprocess expert working sessions took place at Intermediæ in Madrid. The working sessions are to enable the core curatorial team to gain knowledge and experience. The sessions are closed but the raw resources will be on-line soon.

Archivist Sue Breakell lead the sessions. In the first, Sue recounted her experiences of working in different archives, and narrated the history of archiving. And in the second we refined the mapping of the knowledge ecology of intermediae, to start restructuring the server and implementing an archival practice..........

I wrote into Sue’s presentation as she spoke, following are the tweaked notes....

the object

I participated in Key Ideas one of a series of events organised by the Design Cluster at Camberwell College of Art Design. The series aims to examine issues and theories important to young designers.

Key Ideas: Object tackled the role of the object in contemporary society through multiple readings introduced by different experts via three themes:

Object as Sign

Object as Capital; the Value of Things

The Narrative of Objects

Guest speakers included: Grant Gibson, Neil Cummings, Stephen Hayward, Ralph Ball, Gareth Williams.

I spoke in relation to The Value of Things and tried to shift attention from objects to context; these are the notes for my presentation

New School

Performa09 , the Vera List Center and Parsons present the American premiere of Museum Futures: Distributed at the New School auditorium, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, 66 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY

Museum Futures: Distributed is a machinima record of the centenary interview with Moderna Museet’s executive Ayan Lindquist in June 2058. It explores a possible genealogy for contemporary art practice and its institutions, by re-imagining the role of artists, museums, galleries, markets, manufactories and academies.

The project was commissioned by Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 2008.

Wysing

At the Wysing Arts Centre just outside Cambridge, I took part in an all-day workshop for artists and students from the Curatorial Course at the Royal College of Art.

It was organized by Kit Hammonds and included Sarah Thornton, and Francis Outred from Christies.

"The Economics of the Art System will take an in depth look at the art market, exploring the financial and cultural economies that drive the industry. From commercial galleries, collectors and art fairs, to the influence of auction houses this retreat will question the value of art as commodity and the commercial influences on artists' practices, as well as considering survival tactics for artists, curators and gallerists."