The world is a whole. From a materialist perspective, between dense solids and rarefied plasmas, the discontinuities of tangible matter are always a question of scale and never actual interruptions on the fabric of reality. And yet, not only do we perceive, but we also enforce borders.
A border separates. It stipulates a distinction between elements. It creates opposites out of what is. What are the consequences of this segmenting action for the ways in which we conceptualize the world? Is there something advantageous to approach intellectual impasses by establishing simple antinomies among things? Could it be dangerous to polarize? How and why?
In the second season of When Thinking is Doing, we will indulge in bordering thought. In each episode, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia conceptualizes craft and its neighboring areas by creating clear categories around them - often, only to find out that these limits are porous and trespassers negotiate their confines just as we are not looking. Through the perspectives of different guests engaged with hand and head work, we will try to better understand not only the complexities of making, but of the making of the world.
The Other Radio/Radio Drugega program is financed by Javni zavod GO! 2025 - Evropska prestolnica kulture, Nova Gorica.
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Svet je celota. Z materialističnega vidika so med gostimi trdnimi snovmi in redko plazmo diskontinuitete oprijemljive snovi vedno vprašanje obsega in nikoli dejanske prekinitve v strukturi realnosti. Pa vendar mej ne le zaznavamo, ampak jih tudi ustvarjamo.
Meja ločuje. Določa razlikovanje med elementi. Ustvarja nasprotja iz tega, kar je. Kakšne so posledice tega segmentiranja za načine, na katere konceptualiziramo svet? Ali obstaja kaj koristnega za pristop k intelektualnim slepim ulicam z vzpostavljanjem preprostih antinomij med stvarmi? Je lahko polarizacija nevarna? Kako in zakaj?
V drugi sezoni oddaje When Thinking is Doing se bomo prepustili mejni misli. V vsaki epizodi bo Antônio Frederico Lasalvia konceptualiziral obrt in sosednja področja z ustvarjanjem jasnih kategorij okoli njih – pogosto samo zato, da bo ugotovil, da so te meje porozne in da se prestopniki pogajajo o svojih mejah ravno takrat, ko jih ne opazujemo. Skozi perspektive različnih gostov, ki se ukvarjajo z ročnimi in miselnimi deli, bomo skušali bolje razumeti ne le kompleksnost ustvarjanja, ampak tudi ustvarjanja sveta.
Program Radia Drugega/The Other Radio financira javni zavod GO! 2025 - Evropska prestolnica kulture, Nova Gorica.
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Ep. 8 THE BORDER BETWEEN THINKING AND DOING, w/ antonisotzu & jean ni
The eighth episode of WTID comes in hybrid form. The first part (1:38) of the show is a theoretical introduction where we problematize the very notion of craft following art historian Glenn Adamson’s critique of craft’s origin in the wake of the industrial revolution. How can we deterritorialize craft and its congenital opposition to mechanized labour?
In the second part of the show (13:00), some of the questions raised in the introduction are tackled from the perspective of guests Antonio Sotzu and Jean Ni. In our conversation, matters of pleasure, knowledge and meaning in old-fashioned techniques are discussed in relation to their territorial approach to stone artifacts making/maintenance. We also discuss their life-project Foghiles, based in Semèstene, Sardinia, where borders between life and art are dissolved.
Bibliography:
- Stephen Epstein. Transferring Technical Knowledge and Innovating in Europe, c.1200-1800. (2005)
- Glenn Adamson. The Invention of Craft. (2013)
Ep. 9 DIGITAL & ANALOG, w/ Kirsten Spruit & Benjamin Earl
The term craft is usually reserved to qualify a way of making material things. How would this notion stand when transposed to the immaterial realm?
In the ninth episode of When Thinking is Doing, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia is joined by Kirsten Spruit and Benjamin Earl in order to think through the border between the digital and the analog. As we look for procedures analogous to craft within the virtual sphere, we consider themes like the poetic web, handmade websites, Ben and Kirsten’s “code of conduct of code”, as well as their growing interest in rituals of maintenance.
Bibliography:
- Glenn Adamson. The Invention of Craft. (2013)
- Bruno Latour. Pandora’s Hope. (1999)
Ep. 10 GOOD AND BAD TASTE, w/ Suzanne Bernhardt & Philipp Kolmann
In the tenth episode of When Thinking is Doing, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia is joined by Suzanne Bernhardt and Phillip Kolman in order to think about the making of food. In the introduction, the culinary arts are considered in relation to other forms of aesthetically engaging with matter, such as painting or sculpture. Could it be that the different social standings that these practices historically reached is related to a phenomenology of sensory experience?
In the second part of the show, we go outside to pick wild-cherry flowers. While foraging in the forest, Phillip and Suzanne speak about how they see their cooking practice with regard to autochthonous food cultures, the role of the ephemerality in taste and the ecological consequences of alimentary production.
Bibliography:
- Carolyn Korsmeyer. Making sense of taste: Food and philosophy. (1999)
- Jane Bennet. Vibrant Matter: A political ecology of things. (2009)
Ep. 11 FORM & MATTER, w/ Diogo Amaro
Between matter’s character and maker’s character, what might craft mean when one attends to the way in which raw materials express their forms?
In the eleventh episode of When Thinking is Doing, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia is joined by the architect and cabinetmaker Diogo Amaro in order to think about the border between form and matter. The conversation touches on themes like anticipation and spontaneity in work, the role of prototyping, the contrast between serial and singular production and the consequences of an empirical approach to design.
Bibliography:
- Michael Baxandall. The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany. Yale University Press. (1980)
- Kiyosi Seike. The Art of Japanese Joinery. Shambhala. (1977).
Ep. 12 MATERIAL & IMMATERIAL, w/ Ola Korbańska
Art matters. Or, at least, art is made out of matter. Or is it? In the aftermath of the readymade and the so-called dematerialization of the art object - when an abstracted ideal of artistic conception was praised over the material execution of artworks - how may the practice of making things be reclaimed as a valuable form of labour in art today?
In the twelfth episode of When Thinking is Doing, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia is joined by Ola Korbańska in order to think about the border between material and immaterial. As we follow the sewing of an iteration of “THE FLAG OF 3,” our conversation touches on themes like: the materiality of words and the longest way of writing things, the incorporation of gender struggles into artistic discourse; the adoption of constraints as a creative methodology; the phased development of technique over time; the joy of making things; and the purposeful contamination of artworks by their contextual conditions of production.
Bibliography:
- Alexander Alberro & Blake Stimson. (Eds.). Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology. (1999)
- John Roberts. The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade. (2007)