A
Artistic Coordinator
The artistic coordinator has an overview of the a.pass practices and their continuity. She is in contact with everyone involved in a.pass and coordinates the needs of the research developed at a.pass with the institutional infrastructure. She follows up the research trajectory of the a.pass participants and is responsible for the sustainability of the research produced at a.pass. The artistic coordinator relates the research developed in a.pass to the the larger network of partners and related artistic and educational institutions. See: suport group, board, curators.
Artistic Research
Rather than consolidating the existing discourse around the notion of artistic research, a.pass is committed to accumulating different understandings of artistic research through practicing its frameworks, archives and vocabularies. By bringing together differently practiced notions of artistic research, a.pass is assembling an intense reflection on modes of study, knowledge production and knowledge sharing within the artistic field. a.pass is interested in the actualisation of performing knowledge because it considers artistic research as a situated, contextual practice which is the consequence of the ongoing negotiation between its stakeholders, contextual fields and discourses. a.pass interacts with academic, activist, practice-based fields and methods of research, and supports the development of rigorous, inventive forms of artistic research on the intersections between those fields and in tension with academic artistic research as a developing discipline.
The fluidity of artistic research stems from a conception of it as a generative set of questions and methodologies. Artistic research as a set is not oriented towards the production of single solution or an artwork, but towards generating of platform for engagement with a particular topic or challenge. Adding complexity instead of simplifying brings sometimes conflicting viewpoints and theories in proximity to one another and sustains a degree of ambiguity. Artistic research is fueled by speculation and a suspension of disbelief and its results are often transitory rather than conclusive. By inviting leaps and gaps of speculation artistic research can allow for the improbable to happen. In its collaborative form, artistic research invites different solutions and different ways of contributing across multiple disciplines.
To expand the project nature of artistic work towards production of generative sets is to incorporate production and transfer of knowledge across multiple disciplines into the process. Seen from this perspective artistic research becomes a bridging element between its adjacent disciplines.
Associate Researcher
Associated researchers are seen as partners of a.pass. They come together in a facilitated peer-to-peer group for a duration of a one-year cycle and contribute their research methodologies to the collective a.pass environment. The Associate Researchers have access to the collective activities of the post-graduate program. a.pass provides technical support, workspace and supports performative publishing of their research. Associated researchers do not pay a fee. a.pass can act as an institutional partner in applications for funding or academic research. The specific terms of the association are formulated in an individual contract between the researcher and a.pass, delineating the research steps that will be developed within the a.pass environment and their possible public outcomes.
Anxiety
B
Being lost
Blocks
The postgraduate curriculum at a.pass is formed in blocks of 4 months from which three months are curated and one month is self-organised. The full program takes one year = three blocks.
Board of Directors
The legal structure of an VZW/ASBL (non profit organisation) this legal form requires a board of directors - legally responsible for what a.pass does. The board of directors has executive power and delegate responsibilities to the a.pass team.
Budget
There are many different budgets in a.pass. They include, block, mentoring, personal, materials, PA, kinship. Is a budget a tool?
C
Code of Conduct
Co-learning
Commonality
Commitment
essential in everything we - community doesn't work without commitment- constructs a culture commitment to : show up/comunication, listening to others, to decision making, to participation ritual blood contracts primary engagement - oneself to this environment second engagement - to the others commitement to honesty/directness:(?) to feedback and inform decision making. confrontation, to care , to negotiation , parallel processes, to acceptance, to agreement
Communication Person
Extra position in the a.pass team to distribute the work on the administrative level. How to transmit information / work / study from a.pass to outside.
Community
Group of alumni, researchers, associate researchers, mentors, curators, guests and friends involved in the a.pass
Collectivity (as environment)
what is a collaboration and what is an interaction? Crossing roads?
Covid 19
is not specific to a.pass.
Criticality
Curator
The a.pass curator is responsible for the proposition and realisation of a 3 month working period (block). Within that timeframe the curator proposes and takes care of a working interface for the a.pass researchers and institution. She or he develops a platform for practical and theoretical knowledge exchange between the a.pass participants and the other contributors to the program (mentors, workshop givers, a.pass ex-participants. The curator organises the available block budget together with the artistic coordinator and the production coordinator. The curator invites inputs and workshops as contributions to the block. The curator also invites the dedicated mentors. The curator proposes and facilitates collaborative modes of research documentation, archive and/or publication. Recently, curating a block is becoming an accumulative process from outside in.
(List of words that can encompass the prcatices is a.pass. Facilitator - making the situation happen. Unlike the teacher , the facilator enables the group to experience. Less hierarchical position different relation - suggestion - process oriented - exeperience
Curator directed outcome - setting a frame, a topic (choosing) Curator comes from curare: care. 'Curators of care' Curator at a.pass might be a merging between curator and facilitator. Curators at a.pass are artists. Places without curators create hierarchies for themselves.
Arranger Artist curator - speculative approach
Curatorial Assemblage
Propositions come in from the PA, from external people to a.pass, from the support group, ex-curators, the reserach centercurator, the asrtistic coordinator. The curatorial content is woven together bteween the parties involved and the artistic coordinator. The dialogue between the parties make possible to intertwine the mentors, workshops, practices and initiciatives to create a broad context for artistic research exchange.
D
Decision Making - Institutional
Always in collaboration. as a response to the context where the decision takes place in process , pedagogical, co-learning, transdisiplinary, subverserion, ministry->board->team->steering group->participants assembly See Organigram for further information on other decision making parties. See Participants Assembly for a place where this is debated. (https://kitchen.apass.be/r/THE_PA-1.md)
Declaration (see Brussels, Molenbeek and Vienna)
Discoursive dispositives
A way of organising materials is a dispositive, can this arrangement be discursive? Invite conversation. it has a particular kind of knowledge specfic to the grammer it contains. The dispositive has a specific logic which pertains to it and may not function outside of it. what are the borders of what we put in place? what is the code? the self awareness of the framworks and the way it speaks particularly. The notion of discoursive dispositives helps to specify the grammar of each singular framework. How do you borrow terminologies Containers asking for specificity, (does this fit here or not?)
Destabilization
Duration
a.pass has many different durations.
E
Ecosystem
Environment
Example
We make examples not models. And not examples of!
F
Falling Apart
Field
Field Work
Feedback (and Criticality)
In the a.pass co-learning environment and within most of the program activities some space is systematically dedicated to discussing, sharing and feed-backing formats. These formats are being created and revisited as part of the a.pass self-educating trajectory and they continuously inform the program development. Feedback, critique and discussion within a.pass are living tools of research that organically emerge out of the practices of the researchers, curators and mentors.
a.pass as an institution aims to build a culture of discussion in which we ‘agree to disagree, rather than one of argumentative oppositions or of convenient politeness. Resisting the reproduction of established research culture, the feedback and exchange sessions develop a space for ‘agonistic debate’: an open field for supporting, complementing, challenging and even re-routing each others’ positions.
The collective co-learning environment of a.pass opens a platform for the development of stronger, more grounded and more critical positions for artistic researchers, which in turn contribute to the common practices and knowledge processing. Discussion and feedback formats simultaneously strengthen, sharpen and delineate what can be understood. Experimental formats for communication and sharing create hospitable conditions for the emergence of different logic(s), procedures and discourses.
a.pass often borrows techniques from different environments (critical theory, therapy, activism, political organization, technology, and so on...) to create critical discursive ‘dispositif’ as such as ritual practices, object constellations, tarot cards readings, concept mapping, walking discussions, silent communication, speed dating, cooking sessions, family constellation discussions, mind-mapping, dragon dreaming, score writing, fanzine-ing, radio programming, etc….
Remember: Positive feedback encouragement to support critique
G
General Assembly
Annual meeting with members of the asbl including the board members. They approve the annual working of the asbl - they evaluate the work of a.pass - they can give advice, approve the accounts, can fire or hire someone. Highest organ of an association. (voting system)
Generosity
Grammar
Greed
Greed only exists 37+.
H
I
Identity
Individual research
Why take in consideration other people practices let go of one's own project Presentations to come back to one self the friends, companions, aliens of one's own research
Intakes
The a.pass intakes take place three times a year. The intakes commitee is constuted by the artistic coordinator, one alumni, a mentor and a curator.
Institutional critique
International/Local
a.pass is an international based program involved in the local environment of Brussels
J
K
Kinship
Kinship Fund
Fund that serves project of alumni from a.pass or other projects that can not be expected. Serves unexpected propositions that can support different projects, that can come from alumni, participants, other institutions from outside... July 2021 Update: We might be getting rid of allocated funds. The 'left overs' from the PA budget float back, but budgets do not work like this. Sum can 'not be claimed' after the money is transferred. Who is the kinship fund for? (see above- Serves unexpected propositions that can support different projects, that can come from alumni, participants, other institutions from outside... ) Depends on what the propostion is. "How can I be generous to the thing someone else proposes?" How can the institutional structure be lightened? How can the kinship fund actively generate kinship?
Knowledge Production
L
M
Mood
Meandering
Meta
Mentors
a.pass mentors support the participants' research. They engage in dialogue, feedback, contextualisation, critique and thinking together with the researchers. The mentors are artists, curators and educators in the field of arts. Dedicated mentors are the mentors proposed by the curator of each block. Researchers can choose two mentors out of three and meet with them for a total of four sessions of ca. two hours each. Personal mentors are mentors chosen by the participants in conversation with the artistic coordinator. A.pass researchers have an individual research budget for external engagements with the personal mentors. Coordination mentoring is a follow-up of the participant research and trajectory in a.pass. These sessions take place every block with the artistic coordinator.
Methodology
Model
Myth or Gossip
N
Negotiation
brings things in context,
No Conclusion
No-professionalism
less of a movement to establish something different value system
Not Knowing
O
Ombudsperson
Opacity
Organigram
a.pass is subsidized by the Ministry of Education as an Higher Education Institution constituted by a Postgraduate program in the arts and a Research Center a.pass TEAM : Administration - Production - Technical - Artistic pedagogic coordination are responsible for the the daily running of a.pass Daily decisions are taken by the a.pass team. Big decisions need to be placed in a legal frame work and then cleared by the board.
6 curators a year in temporary contracts: 3 for Postgraduate program and 3 for the RC. This is changing. Other agreements : mentors, website, web design, cleaning person, administration services and suppliers (for payments, prevention, insurance,...) Around 20 / 25 participants a year Participants pay a fee to enter a.pass (1200 euro) and receive the triple of that fee for expenses during the program and End Presentations Each block as a budget - - what is left over reverts to the a.pass general budget RC as a budget - what is left over reverts to the a.pass general budget
Overwhelmed
....
P
Participants / Researchers
The a.pass researchers are practitioners in various fields of arts who pursue a research trajectory using artistic methodologies. Researchers following the a.pass program develop a practice-based research, take an investigative look at their artistic trajectories and engage in a particular discursive approach. Focusing on individual work, researchers are working in a largely self-organized and collaborative environment where they take up an active role in the development of the a.pass research environment and act as responsive agents in (re)thinking artistic research methodologies, collective feedback strategies and practical organization. As ‘research’ is the notion which orients the a.pass program, participants are asked to contribute a clear interest in challenging their preconceptions, work methodologies and strategies and are open to experiment and development of their research proposal diligently and consequently wherever it leads them. a.pass researchers are asked to share their work and research within the common space of the a.pass program and open up their methodologies and working procedures to fellow researchers to thus contributing to the shared knowledge environment. Participants are encouraged to be part of the Participants Assembly.
Participants Assembly
Self organised group that represents the interests of the a.pass postgraduate participants and can act on behalf of them. a.pass encourages the participants to join the Assembly or to take note of its activities. During the three mandatory moments of each block, the Assembly can share their views and ideas. Besides the Assembly can request meetings with the a.pass team when necessary (and vice versa). The PA has a budget of 2000 euro per block to organise collective curatorial proposals (see self-organisation). From a conversation in July 2021 we found that the reasons / motivations for the selections of the PA are not yet defined. Considerations we have; how is the PA curatorial? What's the curatorial input of the PA? The budget has to do with the curatorial input. How is it important for this community and beyond the group? How can the PA propose something beyond it? It should not be individual.
Timeframes, decision making processes need to be established. Two different modes of collaboration are being established Long term: Things that need preparation and a lot :-) of communication. Things that emerge out of the current group:
More information on discussions of the PA are available here (https://kitchen.apass.be/r/THE_PA-1.md)
Performative Publishing
a.pass continuously develops and supports different and specific modes of presentation which are emerging from the research practiced at the institution. A large part of the program is based on modes of making-public of research within the program and towards the larger public. These moments are organized systematically within the program and reach a larger audience with the End-Presentations, Research Center publications, seminars, website publications and the archive. The aim of this work is to allow for performative publishing to present research as a work in the making and to develop modes of presentation that shift from the product paradigm towards a modality of witnessing a process in its unfinished and searching vulnerability. a.pass develops publications which don’t treat knowledge, art making, aesthetics, context and politics as separate channels of communication. a.pass works on research publications under the hybrid term of „performative publishing“: a concept coined to contain the multiplicity of transdisciplinary publishing practices. It sharpens the question of the publications’ purpose: what does the publication do? What are its aims within a specific context? Performative publishing is a witnessed process of simultaneous artistic creation, contextualization and doubt. It is a turn away from book- and article based formats of publishing artistic research towards cross-disciplinary formats. “Performative” shifts the attention to the necessity of a certain publicness of process in a collaborative environment: a contribution to a collective discourse. It also frames publishing as part of a research methodology: what experimental presentation does for the research trajectory, how can the moment of publishing perform a change on the research itself?
Post-Graduate Program
The a.pass Postgraduate Program offers a one-year artistic research program for artists / researchers from all professional backgrounds. As an educational environment, a.pass opens a space for speculative and experimental modes of practice and critical thinking. The content and the practical apparatus of the program are shaped by the a.pass curators, the artistic coordinator and the collaborative and public aspects of the participant's research. a.pass researchers develop an independent artistic research trajectory in a shared and collectively created research environment. They engage in presentation and feedback, collective workshops, individual and group mentoring, and modular interactions with the curators and the other researchers.
Portfolio
Program Structure
Blocks and Mandatory moments The one-year program is organised in three 'blocks' of four months, each of them divided in three months of curated curriculum in group and one month focused on self-organised individual work. Exceptionally - when participants want to interrupt their studies for professional activities or to intensify their personal studies - it is possible to skip one block and to extend the duration of the program to a maximum of 17 months. Opening Week, Half Way Days, End Week A block is structured by three collective moments: Opening Week (first week of the block), Half-Way-Days (middle of the block) and End Week (last week of the block - mostly in PAF - Performing Arts Forum (France)). These three mandatory collective moments are dedicated to the individual research presentations. Each of them has a particular objective and question towards the research: Opening week focuses on information (what?), Half-Way-Days on method (how?) and End-Week on contextualisation (why?) End Presentations Researchers end their research trajectory with an End-Presentation which can take on various formats: the organization of a research exhibition/performance/publication/workshop, … The End Presentations are in all circumstances accompanied by a portfolio describing the researchers’ trajectory in a.pass. The End-Presentation can be organized individually or in collaboration, and aims explicitly towards the communication of the research done in a.pass towards a wider audience of spectators, witnesses and research participants. a.pass invites three Visitors that read closely the portfolios, attend to the presentations, have a final feedback session with the researchers and contribute with a written appreciation of the work developed.
Q
R
Rabbit Hole
Research Center
The Research Center at a.pass is a platform for advanced research practices in the arts. It invites five to six Associate Researchers per one-year cycle to follow their artistic research practice in a environment of mutual criticality and institutional support. The Research Center welcomes radical and inventive research methodologies in order to contribute them to the larger a.pass research environment. The Research Center interacts with the a.pass Post-Graduate Program and functions as a resource for methodologies of collaborative research. In agreement with the individual research trajectories of the Associate Researchers. The Research Center supports and facilitates forms of performative publishing (publications, presentations, exhibitions, etc) experimental research set ups, workshops and collaborations. The Research Center welcomes researchers with both non-academic and academic research affiliations and support structures. Associate Researchers with an existing academic research trajectory (for example PhD in the Arts) have the opportunity to develop the practice-based part of their research within the educational environment of a.pass. From July 2021, the Research Center has one curator for the whole trajectory of one year.
Responsibiliy / Responsiveness
to create space for critique, trust, emotional awareness (not make everyone submit to one's emotional space) Build a tool box to commitent in every practice For encouragment
S
Safe space
to check things out
Self-Organisation
The a.pass programs invite researchers that have already developed their work within a professional context, and are capable of self-organizing their research trajectory, in close communication with their fellow researchers and the a.pass environment. Since ‘research’ is the notion that orients the whole program, participants are asked to contribute a clear interest in challenging their preconceptions, work methodologies and strategies and be open to experiment and develop their research proposal diligently and consequently wherever it leads them. ADD create /curate collective research projects - See Partcipants Assembly.
Score
Sharing
Spatial Literacy
Speculation
Soft
Soft is not hard.
Support group
Group of experts related to a.pass that brainstorm together about a.pass artistic education content (ex: curators, theoreticians, members of other schools, researchers, alumni, professionals in the art field...) Group that wants to be expansive, while reflecting the institution from the inside. They meet twice a year for two days
T
Temporary Knowing
Theory
another kind of relation that doesn't have to get to the core
Transformation
Transparency (and Institutional critique)
Transversality (and Collaboration)
In its collaborative form, artistic research invites different solutions and different ways of contributing across multiple disciplines. Collaborative research at a.pass is centered around a variety of practices of methodology transfer. A practice enters a multitude of critical relationships with other practices, transforming them, as it being transformed through this exposure. The aim is not necessarily collaborative co-authorship, but development of practice through proximity and exposure to different ways of doing research.