Call for answers:

http://documenta-dock.net
questions about art - explore, ask, inspire

All pupils and interested laypeople will find documenta-dock.net to be a visitor-oriented website whose intention is to convey the theoretical underpinnings and "cultural superstructure" of the coming documenta 12, or of contemporary art in general. This website is being developed as part of an interdisciplinary project at the School of Art and Design Kassel, with the help of those involved in studies of art and media education, new media and art history. When the documenta begins on June 16, 2007, the documenta-dock will also go online. In order to give users an opportunity to deal with "questions about art" beforehand, a teaser website will be posted starting at the beginning of May at http://documenta-dock.net.

Art is often perceived as being burdensome or hermetic, and must therefore expect to meet with a great deal of resistance. Our web forum is a research experiment in which we intend to find out whether the internet, with its specific possibilities and modalities, is capable of furthering interest in contemporary art, especially among young people.

To this end, we will primarily work with brief video interviews expanded by links to other issues and subject areas. The video interviews are not chiefly intended to provide a comprehensive presentation but rather statements, considerations, attitudes or even to putting forward new questions. The people we interview come from all walks of life. They are artists, athletes, musicians, pupils, curators, art historians, journalists, art critics, gallery owners, museum people, students, politicians, social workers ...

The goal of the project is to gather together an exciting pool of statements which takes advantage of the possibilities the medium of the internet offers by making use of links and key words. Hence it will be an interactive forum, since users will be able to add their own contributions - in the form of text or video. Many of the questions will be similar to one another, yet we still hardly expect clear-cut answers. Instead, this should create thematic horizons in which people can situate and give contours to possible answers of their own and from which, above all, new questions can arise.

As an addition to the interviews we would like to include artistic contributions to one or more of the following questions:


What is 'bare' life?

What does art mean to you?

What can art achieve and where are its limits?

We would be grateful and delighted if you could participate in our project.

Please send your video (as DVD or miniDV) to:

School of Art and Design Kassel/
Kunsthochschule Kassel
Dirk Poerschmann
Menzelstr. 13-15
D-34121 Kassel
Germany

Deadline: May 24, 2007

Contact: info@documenta-dock.net

documenta-dock.net

School of Art and Design Kassel/
Kunsthochschule Kassel
Menzelstr. 13-15
D-34121 Kassel/ Germany

In cooperation with documenta 12

Prof. Joel Baumann [New Media]
Dirk Poerschmann M.A. [Art History]
Prof. Dr. Tanja Wetzel [Art and Media Education]

Source : Franklin Furnace Archive