neil cummings

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

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futures

Walk through time on Sunday 25th September 2011, 12 - 1pm

Join me on Sunday 25th September between 12 - 1pm, with archivist Julian Warren and curator Nav Haq and we will walk through time on a tour of Self-Portrait: Arnolfini. The talk and tour, from 1831 to 2061, will culminating in the launch of Self-Portrait: Arnolfini the book of the project beautifully designed by Stephen Coates, especially for Arnolfini's 50th anniversary.

See the installation of Self Portrait, part 1, or part 2, or the Futures workshop

Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay
Bristol, Avon BS1 4QA
0117 917 2300

Arnolfini’s Futures

Arnolfini’s Futures: a workshop Monday 24th January

Over the course of Arnolfini's 50th anniversary year, artist Neil Cummings will be working with us to develop a series of self-portraits of the Arnolfini using information from the archive. These portraits will also speculate on our futures.

On 24 January, Neil will participate in a workshop at Arnolfini where we will collectively imagine possible futures for the Arnolfini, and the culture in which it is situated. In preparation, it would be great if you could spend few minutes thinking about:

In 2061 the Arnolfini will be.………..".
My role (or equivalent) at the Arnolfini consists of………..”.
The organisation looks like this……….”.

The Future of Art

"There is conflict blossoming at the heart of culture, a conflict convened around the property rights that subsist in materials stored in public archives"

Screen Tests

I participated in The Future of Art, Archives and Special Collections a collaborative event organised by Tate's Library & Archive and Chelsea College of Art & Design.

In the archive, and surrounded by relevant materials we had a really vibrant discussion around future access to art and art archives, futures embedded in the past, and more general issues of access and redistribution of knowledge. My contribution was informed by working with Intermediae on the Procesos de Archivo project, in making Museum Futures and Screen Tests.

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.

Future Museum

Museums and Archives always exist in the present, yet their endless ‘waiting without forgetting’ locates them in our imagined past.

Our own recent past has been marked by an increasing number of new museums, mushrooming around the globe. The museum, or the idea of the museum - like a parable from the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges - has become the space to preserve our culture; the museum is the ideal destination of everything. Re-found objects from the distant, and not so distant past are restored and preserved there, new technologies compete for inclusion in museums of design and industry.

To enter the museum is to enter the past of the present, and participate in the value of things.