Archive 2010

Events and Activities in 2010

Macbethmachine - A Performance Experiment

December 21st 2010 Winter Solstice

Four couples performed for two couples and one singleton. Behind closed doors, in living room, dinning room, master bedroom and children's bedroom. We saw Christmas extravaganza in the living room: utopian Eastenders, careful selection of gifts, detailed writing of Xmas cards. Dinning room saw counting of the money and dark private conversations between an ambitious couple made public. Master bedroom allowed audiences to view multimedia performance whilst lying down - sexy masks, love letters, naughty Father Xmas and a lonely woman. Children's room: we played with balloons, we heard the story of the fall of the Berlin Wall - again and again, McDonalds burgers sang.

Liverpool Castle 13th Century

A performance experiment

A commission from The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home to four heterosexual couples: Ben and Lorena, Dan and Penny, Tim and Britt, Lena and Gary

During the World Cup last summer, Gary and Lena wrote Macbethmachine (available in DOCUMENTS) after Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine. In creating this performance text, we read ‘Macbeth’ closely, discussed it in depth, researched ‘Hamletmachine’ and Heiner Muller’s work, thought about recent European history and the fall of communism. When writing we followed the structure of ‘Hamletmachine’ and its 5 scenes. All of our creative and discursive sessions were held in 90 minute sessions, in line with the then ongoing World Cup matches. 45 minutes play, a break, 45 minutes play. Full Time!

Thematically we picked up on the failure of communism (in Muller’s work) which translated into the failure of capitalism and its promise of freedom (in our text). We were intrigued by the notions of violence and heteronormativity (in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Lady Macbeth) as well as family life/childlessness. Capitalism, ambition, failure/success were further broad themes that we addressed through the writing. ‘Macbethmachine’ builds on the work we did through the Institute’s project on Miss Julie in Utopia in 2008 (after August Strindberg’s Miss Julie). In ‘Miss Julie in Utopia’ we worked with Cathy Butterworth and Bryan Biggs and the performance took place during summer solstice 21 June 2008.

In the time period between autumn, 23rd September, and winter solstice, 21st December, 4 couples will be working towards a short performance loosely based on our performance text Macbethmachine. The 4 performances by 4 couples will take place at the Institute on 21 December 2010.

Strict Rules for the Commission:

* The performances must be developed through the medium of heterosexual couples (Ben and Lorena, Dan and Penny, Tim and Britt, Gary and Lena). We are interested to further explore the notion of violence as it exists through ‘coupling’.

* You must work on the premises of 7 Bright Street in one of these four rooms: living room, dinning room, master bedroom, children’s bedroom. You can express your preference for the room but must work in the one which will be allocated to you. When working/rehearsing in the room you must keep the door closed behind you.

* You can use text from Macbethmachine or Shakespeare’s Macbeth in any way/form/order you want. You should address the themes of failure of capitalism, [heteronormative] violence, illusion of freedom and ambition.

* You must work on this commission in 7 sessions, 6 of which would be 90 minutes long and the last, 7th one, would be a performance. The structure for 7 sessions and 90 minutes comes from 7 matches that the winner of the World Cup must play and win. We must agree on your working schedule for the first 6 sessions.

* The final performance will be performed in your couple in your room with the door closed. The performance will be viewed by other performers-couples and members of audience, also in couples. We are anticipating a scene of some 5-10 minutes, which will need to be repeated throughout your first 45 minutes of the session, but can also be durational for the whole 45 minutes period, if you wish.

* On this day you will have to see the other 3 performances by other couples as well.

* The remaining 45 minutes of your session will be spent in the Institute with all 8 performers creating something together – having just seen each other’s performances for the first time.

* You will be paid £62.26 each – this sum is derived from 10.5 hours work (7 x 90 minutes sessions) x £5.93 (minimum wage). Additionally you will get Xmas bonus of £30 each. This makes your total sum £93.26 each. You will receive this sum immediately after the performance on 21 December 2010.

‘As an intellectual you belong at last to the middle class; as soon as you even make the beginnings of a career, as you have some success, you belong to the establishment you fight against. You get into the establishment by fighting it; as a writer of literature, for instance, there is no other way to join it, I believe. But then you’re ‘in’ and live in the dilemma that you belong, yet don’t like it. [don’t like it, don’t like it – in Sid’s voice]. And it’s quite typical here that once very good authors have written a bestseller, their tragedy of success begins; people are ground down by success.’ Heiner Muller

Bed-In CUT PIECE

part of Bed-In at the Bluecoat

On 28 Oct 2010 and on 9 Dec 2010 The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home re-enacted Yoko Ono's 'Cut Piece', with a contemporary twist. It's time for cuts! This was a critique of Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) which was delivered by the Chancellor George Osborne on 20 th October. The public sector is being slashed and burnt before our very eyes. Mother and the children were hid underneath the large white sheet, whilst the father addressed the audience of students and visitors to the Bluecoat from the baby step. The father screamed and shouted about the austerity of cuts. He announced many many public sector cuts and encouraged students, one by one, to come and cut the white sheet underneath which mother and the children hid. The mother intervened into his speeches a few times and talked about the pensions and the French, the multi billion tax dodgers Arcadia Group and Vodafone, the invisible labour of mothers and housewives, and finally the free labour of the artists. The piece was a comment on our own situation as both artists and a family with three children. In Oct Father finally called all the students to arms, to the Demo-lition march Fund Our Future which was taking place on 10 th November in London. In Dec the Institute acknowledged the ongoing vote at the Parliament about tuition fees and vowed to continue the fight.

They say CUT BACK we say FIGHT BACK.

Full performance text Bed-In CUT PIECE (Oct and Dec version) and video are available in DOCUMENTS.

The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent wishes to disclose that the Bluecoat makes artists work for free. We performed the Bed-In for free. We got some tea/coffee and lunch. We asked the organizers to provide us with two white sheets for cutting and two pairs of scissors. The organizers told us they could not provide the sheets, but can provide scissors. We ended up covering the cost of the sheets ourselves. £12. In December we received a sheet for our performance.

It is time to END FREE ARTIST LABOUR! Join the struggle - demand a wage!

Art Activism, Climate Justice and COP15

In December 2009 we went to Copenhagen to protest at COP15. We used the £2000 artist fee from C Words: Carbon, Climate Capital Culture to fund our activism. We stayed with Ulla and her two children, attended some demonstrations, and thought and thought and thought about what it means for artists to be part of a social movement, in this case for climate justice. The breakdown of our expenditure (as well as accumulation of rubbish along the way) and The Institute - Dealing with Distractions at COP15 video film are available in DOCUMENTS.

Lena did an artist talk entitled Art as Protest: With our £2000 artist fee we are going to COP15. This event was a joint presentation by the Cultures of Climate Change Group and the English Faculty Drama Seminar at the University of Cambridge on 2 Feb. The paper and power point presentation are available in DOCUMENTS.

Gary talked about the Institute at Politicized Practice Research Group at Loughborough University at the Radical Aesthetics Radical Art symposium which took place on 17 Feb. Gary argued that the maxim in English Law - qui tacet consentire - ('silence gives consent') is a useful way of thinking through our positions as artists. Gary argued that, for example, if we are silent about stuff we don't like (from international politics to domestic issues in the home) the law construes that we are in agreement with that thing. Speaking out becomes a necessity especially when staying neutral was never even an option to begin with.

photo by The Gluts at Cafe Carbon

We participated at What Difference Does it Make roundtable discussion at the Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston-Upon-Thames. The discussion was a part of Louder Than Bombs: Art, Action and Activism series of residencies and events. We sent the vacuum cleaner a package by way of a contribution to a debate about climate change and COP15. The package contained a letter to read and a parcel full of the rubbish we had collected from our own trip to Copenhagen in December 2009. It also included the last of the £2000 artist fee for C Words Carbon Climate Capital Culture: £191.08. The vacuum cleaner passed the money on to Transition Heathrow. The transcript of the letter is stored in the DOCUMENTS.

The Institute featured in In Time

In Time: A Collection of Live Art Case Studies
A Live Art UK Project, 2010

"In Time is a collection of ten case studies, designed to represent some of the innovative and pioneering ways in which Live Art has both posed and responded to many of the exciting cultural challenges of our times." (taken from the Live Art Development Agency website)

The Institute participated at the Informal Gathering at LADA discussing performances in domestic spaces. The event was co-organised by Carole Luby of 25SG.

The Politics and Aesthetics Reading Group 2010

The Institute has joined forces with Lorena Rivero de Beer in starting up an Politics and Aesthetics Reading Group.

The Politics and Aesthetics Reading Group responds to a desire to create a space that supports our effort to read philosophical/political theory outside academic environments and develop our critical thinking. The group is directed to people interested in exploring the complex relationship between art/aesthetics and politics.

Our first session took place on Tuesday 19th January - The Distribution of the Sensible, Jacques Ranciere... trying to be as 'cool' as the art world.

For our second session we stayed with the French and tackled The Coming Insurrection by the Invisible Committee. This resulted in a trip to... Lincoln. Being inspired by Tarnac 9 we formed the Liverpool 13. The Institute were commissioned by the Lincoln Art Programme to do something in Lincoln. The Institute passed the commission on to the reading group: the Liverpool 13. As a group, after reading the Coming Insurrection we decided to respond to the Lincoln commission to see what we could muster. Here are some photos from our weekend away.

A Piece of Lincoln to Call Our Very Own

A rectangle of Lincoln - grass and soil - arrived at the Institute's doorstep along with a DVD and a map of its original location. We were delighted to receive such a thoughtful gift from the people of Lincoln and we are currently devising an appropriate response.

The third reading session took place at the Institute on 23rd March. We all read Reclaim the Game: Boom or Bust by John Reid. LFC has not done too well this season. Maybe they deserve it. Oh well. Dan (Man City fan) persuaded us all to become shareholders of Ebbsfleet United. Come on you Ebbs!!!

From footy we moved back to continental philosophy: Rosi Braidotti and Postsecularism. A (video)text that asked what we should do with the moral outrage we feel about the current imperialist war waged by the USA and its mainly European allies on the rest of the world.

For May's general election the reading group staged a day of reading and actions. This included Lena's re-reading of an Emmeline Pankhurst speech to her USA sisters almost 100 years ago as well as Ben's intervention in the local polling station supported by a banner that read 'If voting changed anything it would be illegal'.

For June we read the 'Erasing Iraq' chapter from Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine.

July was Freee Manifesto For a Counter-Hegemonic Art as well as the conversation between Jacques Derrida and Elisabeth Roudinesco 'In Praise of Psychoanalysis' from For What Tomorrow book.

September saw us at The Nerve Centre looking at Sentences on Littoral Art by Bruce Barber. This was a public event.

In October we took part in The Cooperative's event at the Liverpool Biennial. Here we generated an hour's performance that asked questions about participation in an event run for the Biennial and sponsored by Diesel.

In November the Institute welcomed Maresa MacKeith with Ange Taggart and Caroline MacKeith and discussed some of Maresa's writings on Inclusion and Vulnerability together with Ernst Bloch's writing on The True Architect in The Principle of Hope, Volume 3. The encounter was recorded on a temporary pirate radio station as a part of Homeland a series of transmissions organised by Charlotte Morgan and No Fixed Abode. More information and recordings are available through Disrupt Dominant Frequencies.

In December we read Pierre Bourdieu's introduction from Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.

This concludes the Politics and Aesthetics Reading Group activities for the year 2009.

By the way, Lincoln is thriving....

Archive 2009

EVENTS and ACTIVITIES in 2009

Participation at PLATFORM's C Words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture, Arnolfini, Bristol

The Institute took up a residency at C Words - Half-Term Holiday on a barge with an array of events, performances and activitiies.

Here's a peek at the Institute's week diary:

Monday 26th October: Gary Neal and Gabriel arrive in Bristol, sleep in a canal barge with the Arnolfini to one side and LloydsTSB to the other. We live that way for a week.
Tuesday 27th October: Spending taxpayers money on an ethical shopping tour and picnic (led by Bristol based James from Action Hero)
Wednesday 28th October: A performance 'Planes, Trains and Slow Travel' at the Embedded Symposium. Branka, our eco-au pair arrives from Zagreb, Croatia just in time to take part in the performance - check her slow travel blog.
Thursday 29th October: Branka's performance with Neal and Gabriel 'Acid Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' about the easy flow of Acid Rain from affluent to non affluent nations in this case Austria to Croatia. Lena and Sid arrive.
Friday 30th October: Mizzy day in the gallery (inspired by mischief night) + the painting of the banner with a new slogan 'With our £2000 artist fee we are going to COP 15'.
Saturday 31th October An anti-capitalist Halloween. We sat in Trapese's Geodome and reached group consensus with children and others on how best to protest the current banking crisis under the disguise of Halloween.
Sunday 1st November: A Performance Report - A performance that detailed most of the week's highlights (and lowlights). Full text and edited video version is available in DOCUMENTS

Participation in DIY 6 'Exercises to Activate the Political Imagination of the City Wanderer' led by Lorena Rivero de Beer

A Couple of Attempts at Slow Travel

From Liverpool to Dubrovnik in June 2009 - part of Two Degrees commission:
Liverpool - London train, sleepover at Ben and Tina's 16/6
London - Paris train, Eurostar 17/6
Paris- Munich overnight train 17/6
Munich - Zagreb, all day train, sleep at Branka and Sandro's 18/6
Zagreb -Split overnight train, 4 hours late, makes us miss our ship to Dubrovnik 19/6
Split - Dubrovnik coach 20/6

From Dubrovnik to Liverpool in August 2009 - the aim was to get to Climate Camp, but we never made it...
Dubrovnik - Rijeka ship 27/8
All day in Rijeka 28/8
Rijeka - Munich overnight train 28/8
Munich - London all day train via Brussels, sleepover at Christine and Charlie's 29/8
Climate Camp, we came to the very brink of it and defeated/run down, conspiracy of circumstances, decided to turn back.... 30/8
Rent-a-car to Liverpool! 30/08

Participation at Two Degrees event at Artsadmin, London

We performed A Promising Family Picnic on the 16th June at 7pm. Working from the prototype performance we had devised for Hazard 08 we decided to make speeches and promises to end climate chaos as a family. We listed all of the flights we have taken over the past nine years, most of them to get from Liverpool to Dubrovnik - where Lena is from. We were inspired to forego the chance of flying directly from Liverpool to Dubrovnik - with EasyJet which was running this connection for the first time ever and so, as we packed our family picnic away we delcared that this performance would end with a four day slow travel to Dubrovnik, then up to Zagreb for the Performance Studies international conference. You can see video footage and read the entire performance text in DOCUMENTS.

Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping Visit the Institute

Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping came to the Institute to catch their breaths on a breakneck Shopocalypse tour of the UK. After an exorcism of the tills at TESCO on Bold Street and a sojourn in the bombed out church, St Luke's, the Rev and the church all crammed into the Institute and poured blessings upon it and ourselves. We bought some locally sourced and sold cakes for the bishop of anticapitalism and his faithful and inspiring crowd to munch on before they bolted back to the Bluecoat for another evening show. We felt truly holy and really inspired both at the Institute's blessing and at the evening perfromance. Eternal Life to the Church of Life After Shopping and its prophetic ministering! Here is the Institute In Reverend Billy's own words and
the initial Letter of invitation to Reverend Billy available in DOCUMENTS.

Financial Fools Day G20 Protests

The Institute went on a day trip to the Square Mile, London's Financial District. We joined thousands of others determined to bring down the capitalist system and imagine another world. Check out our very short videos: A Family Day Out and Clowns Have The Last Laugh

Beyond the Nuclear Family

As part of the Institute's ongoing quest to politicize and critique family structures, we invited Kate Rowles to share with us her home videos, we took part in 'artists as parents as artists', a weekend organized by Townly and Bradby at Wysing Arts Centre, spent a child friendly and critical (what a welcome combination!) weekend with Paula McCloskey & co at the Institute, and were interveiwed by Thelma Mort who is carrying out research into alternative structures for children's education. Abi Lake joined us for a residency in July in order to investigate family structures.

Dissemination

Lena presented the Institute with two different topics, one on internationalism at Internationale: Radicalizing Internationalism in the Arts, an event at the Bluecoat, one on maternal labour at M(o)ther Trouble conference at Birkbeck. The Institute is pleased to present Maternal Labour DVD.

Participation at Performance Studies international (PSi) Conference 'Misperformance' in Zagreb (June 2009). Lena chaired a panel of ourselves, Branka Cvjeticanin along with curators of the Salon of the Revolution Ivana Bago and Antonija Majaca.

Ania Bas invited the Institute to make a banner for her blog for the month of May. We decided to draw from the rich tradition of Mayday banners and made our own. We believe that another world is possible and can hear the rising cry of our own capitalistic subjectivities screaming “MAYDAY!MAYDAY!MAYDAY!”

Gary thought it might be useful to offer a dissenting voice to the Climate for Change event at FACT. During a panel Assault on Culture III covened by Mute Magazine (April 2009) he gagged himself with gaffer tape and read out (in a muffled voice) a prepared statement about the inherent dangers afoot when institutions actively promote dissent.

In September Gary made a trip to Bristol for Residence in Residence event and in October he joined in INTERROGATION Walsall event.

Archive 2008

AGM December – to coincide with the closure of Liverpool 08 and the onset of the monster hangover of post08, an AGM took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia! This gave twoaddthree a chance to digest the very heavy Christmas cake 'Viva Dissent' whilst deciding what to do in 2009.

Autumn Interventions

We've been a little bit naughty at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool for the Black Market for Useful Knowledge and Non-Knowledge. We were a bit worried that many artists and 'experts' were being appropriated by Liverpool 08. We staged a domestic argument, annoyed an expert next to us, Gary got on the table, Lena drank champagne and painted our banner with words: I MUST NOT INTERVENE IN LIVERPOOL 08.

I must not intervene in Liverpool 08. Photo by Peter Petralia

Video of the full event by Leon Seth.

Anfield tours of derelict houses around the fabulously wealthy Liverpool Football Club ground Anfield (the very cooperative, Andre Guedes and Francisco Malheiro) to the soundtrack of You'll Never Walk Alone by local singer Geoff Caddick (on the cd player)

We publsihed our dissenting thoughts in MUTE, Future Visions of History and local grassroots magazine NERVE.

PLATFORM returned to talk about future collaboration, Nicola Kirkham came to hold the fort over the festive season and Malcolm Miles has written about the Institute in a forthcoming publication - watch this space for more.

DIY5: First Retreat then Advance!!

We completed DIY5: First Retreat then Advance!! 6 participants + 1 guest + twoaddthree.
DIY5: First Retreat then Advance!! took place in two stages over the two weekends: 11/12 Sep (Retreat) and 20/21 Sep (Advance). twoaddthree were joined by Abi Lake, Ange Taggart, Caroline Wilson, Lorena Rivero, Jane Trowell, Janice Harding and Steve Higginson. The project’s been supported by Live Art Development Agency. As a group, we collectively spent £500, mostly on feasting. In Retreat we discussed capitalistic subjectivity, went swimming, listened to presentations, walked to the highest and lowest points in Liverpool, experienced some pretentious culture, ate loads and drank some. In Advance we floated some paper boats, distributed ‘illegal’ leaflets, hid some letters, talked to the young and the old, ripped and hid some money, tagged some buildings, took a ferry across the Mersey, posted a message in a baby bottle, walked all the way to New Brighton, ate Fish and Chips and recollected. A full report and some additional documentation are available under DOCUMENTS.

A Key to UTOPIA

The Institute was pleased to be taking part in Salon Revolucije exhibition in Zagreb, Croatia. In correspondence, collaboration and with intellectual assistance from Antonija Majaca and Ivana Bago, twoaddthree have come up with A Key to UTOPIA: 68 keys of our humble house in Liverpool will be hanging on 68 nails spelling out Utopia. Audiences in Zagreb will be offered the possibility to take one and emigrate. Read more in our Propaganda Pamphlet ‘A Key to UTOPIA’ under DOCUMENTS.

Summer Performances

The Hazardous Family – as a part of HAZARD 08, outbreaks of hazardous behaviour and guerrilla live art, we investigated Engels’ collected works through political speeches and a family picnic at Parsonage Gardens and in front of Chetham’s Library, Manchester 12 July 2008, 1pm and 4pm.

The Hazardous Family was a performance intervention. This was an opportunity to investigate the construction of the family within present day consumer capitalism. This was a reading of Engels’ texts. This was a family picnic. This was a chance for us to make political speeches. This was the act of calling upon office workers. This was in red, green and white. This was an experiment in family activism. This was a family from Liverpool on a day-trip to Manchester.
‘The first division of labour is that between man and woman for the propagation of children.’
Marx & Engels

The Hazardous Family Propaganda Pamphlet and The Hazardous Family Performance Text are available to download from ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS.

Miss Julie in Utopia 2106200821 took place over the weekend of 20th and 21st June. This was a free event with limited capacity. This was history revisited! This was the Internationale sung! This was Strindberg undone!  A journey from 1888 via 1968 to 2008. Another wrld made possible. This was the revolution staged at home. This was Strindberg with a feminist make-over. This was about thinking class. This was about claiming history. This was about imagining Utopia.
16 audience members saw Preview on Friday and 15 audience members attended the Performance. Generic stew, red red wine and a revolutionary soundtrack followed afterwards. Performance text and Propaganda Pamphlet 2106200821 are available to download under DOCUMENTS.

SPRING ACTIONS

PLATFORM and Remember Saro-Wiwa lot occupied the space from 22nd to 26th April.

Photos by Martin LeSanto-Smith

PLATFORM were touring Remember Saro-Wiwa bus to Liverpool’s Albert Dock. Hope Collective from Liverpool Hope University joined them in their celebrations. For more information about their stay at the Institute, download ‘A Conversation with PLATFORM’ under DOCUMENTS.

Dan Simpkins and Penny Whitehead came for a ‘chat about thoughts of cultural dissent’. We did some DIY, tea, biscuits and wine. The Institute for the Art and Practice for Dissent at Home is now a part of a new artistic syndicate, established to raise questions about UK arts funding and to provide a structure in which alternative systems and approaches can be explored. We play lotto every Saturday! FANTASTIC!

Elaine Kordys and Di Clay were here for tea, some beer as well. We talked about kids and revolution. Helen Simpson visited us, brought a popcorn making machine and delighted us all. We talked about family matters, children, how popcorn works and what it might mean to be a feminist. We talked about class matters and struggled to define class sensibility - although we all seemed to like the term.

Gary and Lena presented The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home in a research context – paper presentation at Liverpool Hope University, to be followed by one at INTERREGNUM: In Between States, PSi # 14 conference in Copenhagen 2008, August 20-24.

twoaddthree presented The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home in greenroom, Manchester for emergency workshare. We will take this piece further! 

The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home forged links between Liverpool and Cardiff (one Culture of Capital to another). We advertised on Live Art list for a Live Art Opportunity, inviting interested parties to visit our Capitalism of Culture – we had a spare train ticket from Cardiff to Liverpool, on the day Riise headed in the wrong direction! Are we all doomed? Own goals, art exchanged for sport, culture for capitalism, home for activism?

Is Liverpool’s culture headed in the wrong direction?
Is Riise trying to tell us something?

Inspired by Unknown Poets and Papering over the Cracks
twoaddthree have visited a nearby derelict building and regenerated it with some poetry: Robert Frost’s Reluctance.

WINTER WARM-UP

One of our core events Institute Warming, the Institute’s first house party took place on Sunday 2nd March. 17 people attended. £173.22 was spent on extra cutlery, food and drinks. We served a Croatian speciality from Vegetina kuhinja Primosten Chicken dish and some crveni toc pasta for the vegetarians. Red wine and Cains’ Best Bitter – official slosh for Liverpool 08 Capitalism of Culture. All guests were given a tour of the house and introduced to the Institute and its residencies and activities.

The Institute got new filing cabinets, books shelves and a carpet – all provided by Freecycle – a web based community that encourages free exchange of unwanted goods. Thank you Becky and Sheila.

  A filing cabinet received from Sheila.

Lena and Sid, 7 months already, did a performance ‘Sid Jonah Anderson by Lena Simic’ in Carlisle on the 14th March as a part of MAP LIVE. This live art event staged the daily labour of mothering and critiqued the impossible expectations placed on the Mother. Whilst The Institute puts the critical within the home this performance takes the home out into the critical. 

With the aim of putting capitalism back into culture we sent an email to Banksy with a request to increase the value of our council house property and do some good old fashioned regeneration work here at Bright Street in Everton. We suggested some Capitalism of Culture graffiti. We hope to see his very expensive artwork in our alleyway soon. We thought this might be a timely reminder that culturally led regeneration (aka Capital of Culture) is a dirty trick to bump up the prices of private property. We offered him the minimum wage £5.52 an hour. We’ll keep you posted on developments. A copy of the email is available in DOCUMENTS.

Website is up and running. Thank you to The Very Cooperative
£310 spent.

So far in the early days of February:
44 emails with messages of support and well wishes have been received.
1 gift accepted.
2 text messages.
2 post cards from UK and 2 letters from USA arrived. 1 post card on its way (all the way from New Zealand). Some might be lost at 19 Livingston Court, our previous address. The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home now operates from 7 Bright Street in Everton, L6 1DL.

Pack-It-Up 08 took place during the last two weekends in January.
A total of 13 people joined in Pack-It-Up 08. £133.96 was spent on 27 hours of labour. Adults were paid minimum working rate of £5.52 per hour. Children were only given pocket money (in agreement with their parents/guardians - £1 per hour, with the maximum of £2). Average working shift was 2 hours, with only one person working for only 1 hour and one person persuaded us to work for 7 hours. One person worked 1 hour overtime, and was paid ‘double-time’ for it.

Each packer and labourer received a form to record their labour.

Gifts donated to the Institute in 2008

Oak Tree – thank you Julian Hughes
Travarica – thank you Branka Cvjeticanin
Constant Traveller book – thank you Tina Gverovic
Phone at Nine Just to Say You’re Alive book, poetry, short stories and postcards collections – thank you Linda Hart
Marx Angels by Pavel Büchler  – thank you Cathy Butterworth
Live Art Almanac – thank you Bryan Biggs
Perform a Moment of Freedom sign - thank you Janice Harding
Liverpool 08 mug, 14 Edgy Cities books – thank you Steve Higginson
Good Housekeeping chopping board  - thank you John Bennett
Kiosk DVD – thank you Vladislava Fekete
Fwords book – thank you Simon Murray
Miranda July book  - thank you Anna Francis
Miss Julie in Utopia original card – thank you Bryan Biggs
Salon Revolucije catalogue - thank you to Ivana Bago and Antonia Majaca
Molecular Revolution in Brazil by Félix Guattari & Suely Rolnik - thank you Nicola Kirkham
The Institutionale Clock– thank you Cathy Butterworth
Multimap set of espresso cups – thank you Pete Hindle
Artist Book - thank you Ulla Hvejsel
Why Societies Need Dissent book - thank you Ruth Beale

Postcards

Thank you to (in no particular order)

Michèle, Abi, Anna.
Reuben&Karin, Andy, Julija
James, Cathy and Chris
Branka, Linda and Mel & Andy
Rochele and Ruth
Janice, Helen and Sarah B
Rob and Dave

Emails

Over the first year the Institute received over 500 emails. We found out about interesting, weird and wonderful artists-led initiatives, individual artists and different arts spaces have been in touch. Here’s links to some that made us think, drink or chuckle:
www.meantime.org.uk
www.conwayandyoung.com
www.spartaction.com/csr.html
www.rationalrec.org.uk
www.aasgroup.net
www.sprawl.org.uk
www.imaginativeeye.co.uk
www.thelurkinghole.com
www.aotearoaserbiafriendshipsociety.net