1. BEYOND THE ART SCENE ART AS A CATALYST IN SOCIETY
THE STOCKHOLM SESSIONS 2005
Per Traasdahl

2. THE ARTIST AS A SEISMOGRAPHIC CRITIC
THE PARADIGM OF ART SINCE THE RENAISSENCE:
THE ARTIST AS A SEISMOGRAPHIC CRITIC
WHAT ARE THE FUNCTIONS OF ART TODAY ?
- production of signals (art works)
- those signals are marketed within the art scene
- and thus withheld as direct partaker in the creation of sustainable action frames in society
- who cares how and why about the role of art in society ?

3. INTRODUCTION 35 Min. lecture + discussion
THE ORIGIN, OBJECTIVES
AND ACTION FRAME OF
ART IN THE
PSYCHOSOCIAL PLACE
Including the model
The Dynamic of the Mind
Inside and Outside the Now

4. HOW DO YOU FORM A STRATEGY ?
MAINTAINING YOUR ROLE AS AN ARTIST
- without just expanding the typical dynamics of the art-scene into society
- without just creating a double of a conventional profession

5. WHICH CONDITIONS EXIST BEYOND THE ART SCENE ?
- name a field where you can act as an artist direct in society (private company, public organisation or within the public sphere)
- how do you describe your field? (sectors)
- who is acting within your field? (stakeholders = not only those who take part but also those who are affected)
- what is the power structure in your field? (resources = including human, natural, economical and legal resources )
- what is the potential output in your field? (sustainable growth = sustainability is the key-word of contemporary development in all sectors)
INTERVENE WITH TERMINOLOGY !
4. Midday-session
powerpoint presentation from ArtSourcelab projects
30. min presentation from ArtSourcelab compilation CD #3 (powerpoint/projector)
- feedback/questions from the class
Afternoon-sessions (going deeper into sofar topics)
5. how do we form a strategy for our interventions in society (within public or private organisations or within the pulic sphere)?
15 min. introduction followed by questions/discussion monitored in one or more drawings (I'm now the catalyst in your leaning system)
Generel topics:
1. how do you form a position as an artist within society without just expanding the typical dynamics of the art-scene into society, hence eventually exploiting reality, like: "I interact with society, but all I really care about is how to become famous as an artist".
2. how do you form a position as an artist within society without just creating a double of a conventional profession (like designer, consultant, social worker, teacher, therapist, social scientist, art critic, politician, journalist etc)
3. "How do you become a credible and attractive partner for the dicision-makers in society"
statement:
The future paradigm of art: "The artist as a catalyst in society". - the artist realizes the anatomy of a social system (sectors, stakeholders, resources and sustainability), conceives models of social systems ("social meta-structures"), intervenes in society, offers his modell as a temporary action frame, extends the temporary condition ( the art-source-lab) as long as needed, maybe with new stakeholders or new models. Such "learning systems" are his art works. When/if the modell facilitates sustainable conditions in the targetted system, the artist pulls out. His job is not to run social systems.
6. "How do you proceed?
tips/tricks/discussion monitored in one or more drawings
statements (or: how it happened to me):
How to learn:
- don't read books (1. takes too much time, 2. scientific books are written for scientific peers, you cannot see through the arguments and for you they are too narrow 3. Un-scientific books are too generel, they are written for the level of public media, which means: mostly they are not enough serious and innovative)
- use the internet (search the sources for distribution of knowledge and action, subscribe to newsletters, organize your bookmarks according to your strategy)
- inform yourself about conferences in your target sectors: conferences are (in spite of all information technologies) still the primary forum for knowledge-exchange and networking. In snobish countries like Germany, conferences are the only place where you can approach decision-makers without having the normal ranking in their system. Go as a visitor, but - as soon as possible - target conferences where you can submit an abstract (short summary of a lecture). Prior to writing the text, inform yourself about the character of conference topics and especially about the lead-arguments of other contributors. You will probably be the only artist at the conference: Play out that fact, it is you who have to bridge the gab to their fields. Create a presentation which plays out your talent of art: for example with a visually rich presentation (most powerpoint presentations are terribly boring, most discussions defensive). Surprise the crowd with emotions and rich quotations from the "real world". Make sure, you address key-terminologies of the specific field. Regard your act as an intervention. Notice: Conferences are planned one year in advance!
How to develop the Network:
- The more people full-time, the more "normal" commissions must be generated (and soon, you might be a conventional consultant agency etc). Hence: If you are lucky, you can motivate a few people to form a strategy with you. Or just proceed anyhow, attract university students (in final semesters) to explore their youthful ideas and apply their craft of writing texts (text is going to be your greatest pain in the neck), take them with you to conferences. The fact that you network in more sectors than any "normal" professional will soon make your knowledge quite exotic. Here, you will soon be a catalyst of the knowledge-society.
- Create a web-site for your project if you have an idea what to say. However: it is much more important to promote output-activities. (Your art-project is the brain orbiting your targets as a satelite, your projects are your interventions. Better people and organisations get to know you "from their world", from the way the projects move things in society).
- realize the importance of information technologies. Once you go online, how will you affort to pay somebody to administer your web-projects? Lean HTML or just some webside editor yourself, this will enable you to continually represent new developments. And, get interested in "open source" software development. The way they are organized internationally and usually with non-profit mentality (pure give and take) is the modell for how to organize ourselves as catalysts in society. Try to attract some circles of developers to power one or more of your projects.
How to intervene into society:
- get a simple part-time job in your most important target sector. This way you will get to know the system from "the bottom"
- parallel: ceate a name for your "network". Invite friends to join. If you are lucky, they put up with the non-profit condition. Don't form a company. Society will not be able to grasp your profile anyway. So why pretend to be as stream-lined as a company must be!! Just maintain saying: "This is an art project". According to circumstance: downplay or overplay that this is an art-project. According to my experience: Policy- and theory-makers will love you for your wordy art-sofistication, the practitioners - people who work in a non-theoretical context - (and most artists) will hate you for it.
- As soon as possible: Do everything you do in the name of your art-project. But don't expect this to happen as a homogeneous development! If you (proudly) keep maintaining: this is an art-project, then you will not penetrate into power structures and gain real credibility other than being a representative of the art scene (and this will be the end of the catalyst! because decision-makers use the art scene as a stage to promote their own profile and not as a learning system which could seriously change their own system)
- create a handfull of "Leading-Projects" (models of social systems) write (and draw) down the anatomy of the systems and start promote them (while you continually improve them), invite/convince Organisations to join the development. Make sure, that you cover a number of "complementary" sectors with your ideas, hence eventually representing full cicles of growth and exchange in society with different Leading-Projects. If you stick only to one sector, you will soon be treated as a conventional consultant, designer or teacher.
---- :-)
ArtSourceLab references:
projects (both in german language)
english language downloads for the project "Community FairWays":
(3,9 Mb, large Poster for a conference)
(784 Kb, project introduction)
Lecture for an international conference for trauma research:
(1,6 Mb)
in the fall of 2004 ArtSourceLab was (as the first representative from the arts) elected full member of the German nationwide network of civil society engagement. The organisation is regarded as the public voice of civil society interests. ArtSourceLab is active in the working group "Corporate Citizenship"
artsourcelab.net is currently down for construction

6. CURRENT ARTSOURCELAB ACTIVITIES
Leading Projects
Show Your Language
1001 Doors
TeenKom
Community FairWays
Methodologies
PaintSource
cfw ToolSets
„SOCIAL META-STRUCTURES“
AS STRATEGIC
PLANNING TOOLS
FACILITATING
SUSTAINABILITY OF FAIRNESS
20 Min. lecture + discussion

7. HOW DO YOU PROCEED ? …TIPS AND TRICKS
HOW TO LEARN
- read books in order to associate and not just to learn
- use the internet to „map“ your knowledge
- contribute to international conferences
HOW TO DEVELOP THE NETWORK
- part-time dependency facilitates diversity
- focus on your output: output only what you believe to be new
- aquire skills and partners within Information Technologies
- invite excellent students and innovative experts to collaborate
HOW TO INTERVENE INTO SOCIETY
- intervene „corporate style“, always „overlap“ your target partners
- be flexible about your personal status and esteem
- let a handfull of „leading-projects" serve as progress platforms
- cover a „full circle of growth“ with your leading projects

8. - you realize the anatomy of a social system,
HOW DO YOU BECOME A CREDIBLE AND ATTRACTIVE PARTNER FOR THE DICISION-MAKERS IN SOCIETY ?
- you realize the anatomy of a social system,
- conceive models of social systems ("social meta-structures"),
- intervene in society, offer your model as a temporary action frame tailored to pilot sustainability.
- the resulting "learning systems" are your art works.
- when/if the model facilitates sustainable conditions in the targetted system, you pull out of the system.
THE ARTIST‘S JOB IS NOT TO RUN SOCIAL SYSTEMS

9. THE FUTURE PARADIGM OF ART:
THE ARTIST AS A CATALYST IN SOCIETY
ArtSourceLab Core group: Per Traasdahl (artist, founder and leading editor), Günter Eisenhardt (filmmaker), Volker Kaul (political scientist), Patrick Grüneberg (philosopher), Sarah Weight (writer and culture-manager), Philipp Gloyer (communication design), Svetlana Danilova (cultural concepts)
projects (both in german language)
english language downloads for the project "Community FairWays":
(3,9 Mb, large Poster for a conference)
(784 Kb, project introduction)
Lecture for an international conference for trauma research:
(1,6 Mb)
in the fall of 2004 ArtSourceLab was (as the first representative from the arts) elected full member
of the German nationwide network of civil society engagement. The organisation is regarded as the
public voice of civil society interests. ArtSourceLab is active in the working group "Corporate Citizenship"
artsourcelab.net is currently down for construction
ArtSourceLab, Chausseestr D Berlin Germany Tel/Fax: