deschooling.classroom(o^o)

TkH platform (Belgrade) and Kontrapunkt (Skopje) announce the call for participation in the annual program of collective self-education in arts and culture – Deschooling Classroom.

The project addresses students of arts, humanities and social sciences, professionals and cultural workers from Belgrade and Skopje, interested in contributions to the independent scenes.

Deschooling Classroom aims at assessing and advancing alternatives to the hierarchical models of education in arts and culture. In methodological terms, the project moves away from the concepts of individual authorship and expertise, and advocates collective self-educational structures, where self-organised communities facilitate horizontal production, exchange and distribution of knowledge.

The project was launched by the TkH (Walking Theory) platform for performing arts theory and practice from Belgrade (http://tkh-generator.net), in partnership with the organization Kontrapunkt from Skopje (http://kontrapunkt-mk.org), and financially supported by the Swiss Cultural Programme in the Western Balkans (www.scp-ba.net).

Co-authors of the project are Marta Popivoda, Ana Vujanovic and Iskra Gesoska.

PROJECT STRUCTURE: Working Groups, Activities, Eligibility

Working Groups

The process of collective self-education is structured through working groups, focused on a particular field/topic. The following topics are proposed for the cycle 2010/2011:

• Cultural politics of independent scenes
• Art and activism (performance, film and Internet)
• Art and/as politics (repolitization of discourses of the humanities).

Our intention is to provide space for production and exchange of knowledge, deficient on the local independent scenes, however important for their critical assessment, affirmation and development. We attempt at addressing the key levels of action, in terms of cultural policy/management, artistic practice and art theory.

Candidates enter the selection for one of the proposed topics. When the working groups are formed, participants freely define the subject/problematics of their work and conceive their approaches and working methods, with theoretical support and assistance from the program editors and coordinators.

The working groups have a regional character and include 6 participants from Belgrade and Skopje (total of 18 participants).

Activities

During the cycle 2010/2011, the students will take part in the following activities:

• Open Week is a brief program comprising workshops, presentations and meetings of the students of the first and second generation in Deschooling Classroom. The open week will be hosted in Skopje, on June 08-11, 2010. Along with the program with local and international guests, during the Open Week the first-generation students will publicly present their work and collaborative projects.
• Summer School is an intense one-week educational event. The content of the program and the list of guest collaborators will be conceived by the project editors and participants in the working groups. The methodology of the Summer School is also a matter of consent. The Summer School will be convened in Montenegro in August 2010.
• Incubator – a six-month collaborative work process of the working groups. Its schedule, program and work dynamics will be conceived by the students. In formal terms, the Incubator includes: a continuous self-educational process of the working groups accomplished through meetings, e-mailing, Skype and video links, and programs facilitated by the invited guest collaborators. The Incubator lasts from September 2010 to February 2011.
• Timeshare Campus is a program/organizational structure offering accommodation, production and spatial/technical facilities for collaborative work in the period of March – April 2011 in Belgrade and Skopje. Timeshare Campus follows the research phase in the Incubator, as a framework for realization of joint cultural initiatives or works (installations, videos, performances, web sites, publications, round tables etc.)

Eligibility

Participation in the program Deschooling Classroom is entirely free of charge.

Besides, the participants are provided with material resources for research and work (space, technical equipment, reference literature etc.) and production/technical conditions for execution of their collective works (modest budgets, space, equipment, management). Their travel expenses and accommodation for all programs of their working group organized in the other town (Open Week, Summer School, programs during the Incubator, Timeshare Campus) are fully covered.

What is expected from the participants is willingness to act on the independent scene, full participation in the program activities, respect for the colleagues, openness for problematizations, and responsibility for the collective self-educational process.

Any form of discrimination on ethnic, sexual, gender, age, religious etc. grounds is not acceptable in Deschooling Classroom.

HOW TO APPLY

Discrimination on ethnic, sexual, gender, age, religious etc. grounds is not allowed in the selection process.

Please send your application comprising:

• a narrative biography, including your personal data and contact (up to 500 words);
• sample of your work (in any medium), and
• letter of motivation, with indicated field of interest (up to one page).

To:

Deschooling Classroom: dsc@tkh-generator.net

Deadline: May 27, 2010

Jury: Ana Vujanovic (program editor of the project, Belgrade), Iskra Gesoska (program editor of the project, Skopje), Milena Bogavac (participant in the first generation of Deschooling Classroom, program coordinator of the second cycle, Belgrade), Djordje Jovanovic (participant in the first generation of Deschooling Classroom, Skopje) and Vladimir Jeric (participant in the first generation of Deschooling Classroom, Belgrade).

The results of the selection will be announced by June 1, 2010 on the web site www.deschoolingclassroom.tkh-generator.net.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

on the project, please visit: www.deschoolingclassroom.tkh-generator.net, or contact us by e-mail: dsc@tkh-generator.net.

During the selection process, the offices of TkH and Kontrapunkt will be open for your questions and inquiries on Fridays, 15-19hrs.