Camp

The 17^th InternationalDeleuze & Guattari Studies Camp Pedagogies of Philosophy: Nonsense, and…and…and joy will be held at Konsthall C in the Stockholm suburb of Hökarängen.

Camp leaders
Anna Hickey-Moody
Chantelle Gray
Héléne Frichot
Jacob Kimvall
Sven-Olov Wallenstein
Jakob Nilsson
Frida Beckman
Andrea Creutz & Elizabeth Ward

Camp programme

Please note that the camp takes place at Konsthall C and not at Konstfack proper, more information below.

Preliminary Schedule
12 June	13-15 Jakob Nilsson och Sven-Olov Wallenstein
13 June	9-12 Chantelle Gray, workshop
14 June	coming soon
15 June	coming soon

Please note that detail programme will be posted through April. Approximate camp hours will be 9-17.

Abstracts

Concepts in the pedagogy of philosophy: Cybernetics, linguistics and synthesizers

Chantelle Gray

Before information theory, communications relied largely on Ferdinand de Saussure’s understanding of semiology as a structure of signification. Accordingly, communication was theorized as the exchange of signs which constituted a “signifier” and “signified.” Importantly, for Saussure, even though meanings become conventional, the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary. As the threat of the Cold War became a reality, communications emerged as a major social, technical and scientific concern. Especially two figures rose to prominence: Claude Shannon, widely known as the “father” of information theory; and Norbert Wiener, a.k.a. the “father” of cybernetics, a term he coined.

Cybernetics came to propose its own ontology of information, which relied on a number of key concepts: (1) information, which replaces meaning; (2) feedback, a way of receiving information, responding to this, and testing actions; (3) control, a functional method for the regulation of feedback mechanisms; and (4) homeostasis, a state of balance or equilibrium. In time, this became a general modelfor understanding the functioning and dynamisms of machines and organisms. Interestingly, the equivalence between language, communication and code was not only articulated in Shannon’s standard transmission model of communication. Noam Chomsky, as David Golumbia argues in The Cultural Logic of Computation (2009), also did so through two theses, the first of which assumes that language develops from an innate system, which he called ‘universal grammar’; and the second of which argues that humans acquire language by storing information in the brain – much like a computer might.

As is well known, Deleuze and Guattari, in A Thousand Plateaus (1987), take umbrage with the binary logic and biunivocal relationships dominant in information science and Chomskyan linguistics alike. In place of these arboreal systems, they propose that we think of machinic assemblages in terms of synthesizers. As such, they replace (1) information with the rhizome; (2) feedback with force (3); control with continuous variation or becoming; and (4) homeostasis with metastability or the ritornello. In this workshop, we will test Deleuze and Guattari’s understanding of the value of the synthesizer as a conceptby demonstrating what modular synthesizers do.

Recommeded readings from Compendium (any or all of the following):

1. Chapter 4 in ATP: November 20, 1923 – Postulates of Linguistics
2. Chapter 11 in ATP: 1837: Of the Refrain
3. Chapter 4 from The Cybernetics Moment by Ronald Kline
4. Chapter 1 from The Cybernetic Brain by Andrew Pickering
5. Chapter 2 from The Cultural Logic of Computation by David Golumbia

About Konsthall C

Konsthall C is an art institution, an urban renewal project and a public work of art located in a former communal laundry in the Hökarängen neighborhood of Stockholm. Since the start in 2004, we have organized exhibitions and events based on the neighbourhood’s history and present, its people and its environment. This is a text that describes the multifaceted organisation and its significance, now and in the future.

Today, Konsthall C is an established platform for contemporary art. The organisation still has its starting point in the former laundry space, where exhibitions, events and educational projects take place. In 2019, we began conducting an AiR (artist in residency) in collaboration with a private landowner in the neighbourhood. The Research Station, as the house is called, is a guest house for artists, researchers and others who in various ways create art with and for Hökarängen. Centrifug is a small gallery located at the entrance of Konsthall C. Here, artists exhibit for short periods, in parallel with the program of the large exhibition hall. In contrast to our large exhibitions, which are carefully planned by our artistic director, Centrifug is a free room where anyone can exhibit. We also have a Local Artist Network, where we host meetings for and exhibit 50 artists who live and work in the area. Our pedagogical project, “Art in the Preschool” is an annual exhibition featuring artwork made by 500 preschoolers from the neighbourhood.

In recent years, Konsthall C has been characterized by a high international profile and relevance. The artists who exhibit come from all over the world, which has made the gallery an important player in national and international art life. At Konsthall C, new artistic strategies are tried out, as well as new ways of organizing and displaying art and culture. The artistic director, who is replaced at regular intervals, is chosen based on an idea of how new art expressions can interact with Hökarängen as a place. The time at Konsthall C gives unestablished talents the opportunity to experiment with the organization, in mutual learning that often leads to an international career in art.

Konsthall C will offer a collaborative “Riso-zine program” throughout the duration of the Camp. More information TBA.

Konsthall C is located at Cigarrvägen 14 in Hökarängen, approximately 700 m from the Hökarängen subway station. You take the green line to “Farsta strand” to get to Hökarängen. If you are traveling by car, there is both time-limited guest parking and free parking spaces on the street.