[intro week] Commoning Residencies
Dear,
we are writing you on behalf of Timelab and the Sprint “Commoning Residencies”, a working group that spent 10 days in February, brainstorming and developing a model for a residency program that embodies commoning as a format.
We would now like to implement our ideas into a prototyping residency which would take place over 3 months from October (or earlier) to December of this year. Your name came up in our discussion of possible participants and we would like to invite you to participate in this next phase.
In case you are not familiar with Timelab, it is an institutional knowledge network of people who question, hack, prototype and model local alternatives to dominant codes, modes and systems of governance located in Gent, Belgium. Working across government, business and private organisations, Timelab has given birth to new citizen action groups, non-profits, commercial startups, and research initiatives. You can find more information here: www.timelab.org
Leaving the classical idea of a residency behind, we refer to this groovy program as an 'organic scaffolding', a temporary support structure with its own shape and drive and modelled on the commons. It invites artists and non-artists to develop themselves and their ideas without aiming at a predetermined result. Community embedded and locally contextualized, the program evolves in time and space as an experimental and adaptable form through success and failure. This new terminology may sound a bit vague, so we are happy to discuss further with you in person to contextualize it and expand on the long-term sustainability envisioned for every participant.
We would like to invite you, along with 5 other artists to participate in the prototyping phase of this program. This includes an introduction and preparation week in which artists and sprinters (participants of the working group) come together to make the program intentions clearer and to co-determine program, timeline and budget (based on individual needs). You will also receive information about our previous research, the general model we are working on and an introduction to the ideas of commoning.
The introductory week will take place in Gent from the 19th-24th of June to make the program more clear and to decide if it would be a good fit for you. Food, accommodation and transport will be provided.The fee for the residency and introduction and preparation week will be decided upon within the group (sprinters and scaffoldians) in June.
If you are interested and able to commit to this preparation week (as well as the 3 month period), please let us know by the 15th of March.
If any of this is unclear or confusing please don't hesitate to ask us any questions.
Peace out
On behave of Timelab