AUDACITY Issue 1
IN DEMAND Self-published newspaper
for free
WHO|WHAT|WHY
DEMAND
IN
WE ARE DANCERS,
OUR ACTIONS ARE POLITICAL AND ARTISTIC DECISIONS THAT ARTISTS, STUDENTS, ARE THE ESCALATION OF A AND WORKERS LIVING GENEALOGY OF STUDENTS’ IN THE TIME OF THE ATTEMPTS FOR CHANGE. ECO-CRISIS, THE A CHANGE IN THE COMMUNICATION CULTURE, PANDEMIC, WAR, AND FEEDBACK CULTURE, AND NUCLEAR THREAT. WORKING CULTURE BETWEEN W E A R E A R T S T U D E N T S STUDENTS, TEACHERS, AND FROM THE ZZT STAFF. THIS HAPPENED THROUGH ZZT,HOCHSCHULE FÜR DISCUSSIONS, PERSONAL MUSIK UND TANZ KÖLN. LETTERS, POETIC ACTS, WE ARE QUEER, PERFORMANCES, REFLECTION S T R A I G H T , T R A N S , N O N - DAYS FORMAT, EMAILS, ABSTAINING FROM CLASSES, BINARY, CIS, OR ALL. ETC. WE ARE DAUGHTERS, ALL ORGANISED BY STUDENTS. SONS, MOTHERS, OR FATHERS. WE ARE HUMANS. WE CRY, AND WE LAUGH, NOW. WE ARE “IN DEMAND.”
WE WANTED TO LIVE IN A SPACE WHERE EVERYONE COULD FIND THEIR RIGHTS AND HEAR THEIR VOICES. WE DO THIS TO HEAL OURSELVES, FRIENDS, AND THE SCHOOL.
We created this newspaper to find a way of communication with each other as well as the generations to come. One of the biggest “enemies” of change is the fact that we pass through the institutions, that we are temporary. This newspaper will solidify our ideas, wishes and voices.
ARTICLE
„In demand for better scheduling! In demand for support of my art! In demand for transparency!”
On Friday 3rd December 2021, in the garden of the Zentrum für Zeitgenossichen Tanz, a group of students screams and dances these words on repeat at the top of their lungs. We are disturbing the morning dance classes because we want to be loud, and we want to be heard. The Zentrum für Zeitgenossischen Tanz (ZZT) is a university for contemporary dance in Cologne NRW. ZZT is, obviously, an institution, a system of power, an establishment of rules, of hierarchy. We, as students of ZZT, are part of an increasingly loud movement that addresses abuse of power within artistic universities. And we, as students, want to share our experiences to contribute and promote change. That Friday was the beginning of the third month of returning fully to physical classes after the long “online / offline” covid-situation and we were excited and ready to move, to dance, ready to make art again, but we were also ready to not go back to how things were, to what didn't work. We were not ready to be threatened like we had been, to sustain dynamics that were based on a heavy hierarchical construction or to feel discomfort and competition like we used to. We were ready to refuse them. The collective trauma of the pandemic opened or deepened, in the dance scene and elsewhere, important discourses on mental health, racism, abuse in its different form, acknowledgement of boundaries, sexism and other criticism towards systems of injustice. During the first lockdown, at ZZT, a 2-day online workshop was held by "Whistle While You Work", a platform founded by a dramaturgist and a dancer, that brought examples and confrontations about harassment, sexism and abuse in the performing arts to both students and teachers. Yet, there was a lot of resistance to carefully scan the institution itself and the people in positions of power and face the issues. Did the staff ask themselves if they were supporting a system that allowed episodes as the ones Whiste While You Work were presenting to happen? If yes, who and how many? The gap between the staff and the students in experience was tangible as we, the students, are the ones that experience these things mostly, and us students wanted to openly scream how we were feeling and our experiences. Though we don’t declare that students are the only ones suffering by institutional abusive systems, we definitely hold the most vulnerable position and we experience it on different levels as abuse is very personal and touches upon several intersections of discrimination. In the past years and generations of students at ZZT there have been constant discussions about the abusive dynamics that consistently take place, but it has always been difficult to find a voice or, even, to find enough "brave" individuals to support an action against these obstacles. We believe that this is due to the same system of control and culture of individuality established at ZZT. The very few attempts that have happened over the years were either ignored or not taken transparently into consideration. At this point, it is important to mention that in the last four years change has already moved things in the general atmosphere and in some of the dynamics at the institutions, but at this momentum of social awareness, the need for bigger change is truly important, and even more essential in the context of education! This time, behind InDemand (the signature of the political action and this article) stands a large group of students that gathered and, partly or fully, agreed to the different needs and urgencies that each of us were having: the idea was to accept, without questioning, every individual demand of any student, to assure each and every perspective as valid, valuable and important. Needless to say, on some points there have been discussions and controversies: the paper was a political, as well as an artistic decision, with some irrealistic and even contrasting demands but, for us, this is in line with reality: functioning together is complicated and contrasting and needs constant dialogue and re-evaluation. The paper of demands is therefore ever-changing, and we see it as the starting point of a re- evaluation of the structure, the scheduling, behavior, communication, content, evaluation, accessibility, support and overall studies and life at ZZT. Change can only happen through collaboration and constant dialogue. While writing this article, a professional mediator has been chosen to guide the institution through a process of discussion and confrontation between teachers and students. With this article we want to echo our experiences and our action to a larger community of students, dancers and artists “out there”. We felt alone and isolated inthe hard and emotional work we put into this action, yet we slowly came to understand that ZZT was not the only institute in Europe where a need of structural change is demanded. We wish to inspire and give strength to those that feel lonely and powerless because of the the way in which they are treated or represented and we are open to help out in any way wecan. With this article, we also want to address society out there and institutional structures to look among themself and ask “Is the current way of working supporting a system that allows power abuse and oppression to happen?”
D e f i n i t i o n s Responsibility
by ZZT Professors
derives from the notion of answering, of responding to something. Over time it has aquired the meaning of being in charge, of being obliged to answer, to be in the state of owing an answer to somebody. Accordingly, one way of thinking responsibilty is to see it as something that is relational, that derives from interactions with others, it is something to be negotiated and also something to be learned. To answer to questions may be scary, may face one with not knowing. Responsibilty means to ask more questions. Responsibilty is also an attitude, one that is or should be informed by one’s values, it is bound to one’s social status. Not all things are everyone’s responsibility. Teachers have more responsibility than students. Parents more responsibility than children. Responsibility is therefore interlinked with dimensions of conflict and resistance, of being challenged and to be able to stand being challenged and criticized. Responsibility is therefore not bound to individual persons, but to constellations in times. People can strive, take or resist more responsibilty. Responsibility would ideally mean clarity of one’s own position as much as the ability to question oneself, to change one’s position in the light of conflict as different people alter and take on more and different forms of responsibility. To let go of feeling responsible is not easy, it is part of a culture of care as much as a culture of distinction. Asking for more or less responsibilty is a sign of feeling that something needs to change.
To be responsible means: being able to respond. Response-ability. We have an old black and white postcard at the mirror in our corridor that says: Who is responsible? A friend gave it to us when our daughter was born. It sounds a bit like: Whose fault is it? Who is accountable?
But if we ask: What do I need to be able to respond? It is a very different question.
Communication Counication relates to community. Hannah Arendt, one of my long term companions in life and work, says about speech that it is the place where we experience how different we are in a system that powerfully establishes the utopia that shared meanings are possible. When I say: “tree” and you say “tree”, we may say the same word but our trees are different. When I say: “dance” and you say “dance” … When I say: “thought” and you say “thought” … For Arendt the idea of sharing a language or of the public sphere as place to exchange words is where we enter the political. Because we are encountering ourselves as different but also as equal. A friend of mine (a philosopher) likes to joke that there are so many philosophical books because nobody ever understood anyone, so we keep trying. And in the end communication, be it verbal or not, comes down to this for me: Is there an interest, a respect, a love for irreducible difference and disagreement. Because the common of community does not mean that everybody is the same. Particularly not
institutions sind keine statischen Gebilde. Sie sind von Menschen hervorgebracht und unterliegen dynamischen Prozessen. Institutionen entspringen einer „Wunschökonomie“ nach klaren Regeln und Strukturen, die Transparenz und Gleichberechtigung fördern und etablieren dabei über die Zeit den Eindruck von Stabilität und Unumstößlichkeit. Sie sind historisch entstanden aus dem Wunsch personalisierte Herrschaftssysteme aufzulösen. Sie vereinfachen, vereinheitlichen und systematisieren Prozesse. Institutionen leben von dem, was Menschen mit ihnen machen. Institutionen bieten Räume für Schutz und können ebenso selbstgefällig werden oder Raum geben Macht zu missbrauchen. Institutionen sind das Produkt von Aushandlungsprozessen und können wieder aufgelöst werden, auch wenn sie sich dem in der Regel widersetzen. Institutionen sind keinesfalls nur negativ. Sie sind das, was wir damit machen. Sie sind kollektive Gefüge, die es zu gestalten gilt. Sie geben Gruppen, Ideen, Prinzipien eine institutionalisierte und daher machtvollere Position in der Gesellschaft. Sie haben die Möglichkeit Ein- und Ausschlüsse zu erzeugen und zu fördern.
are not static entities. They are created by people and are subject to dynamic processes. Institutions arise from a "desire economy" for clear rules and structures that promote transparency and equality, establishing over time the impression of stability and immutability. They have historically emerged from a desire to dissolve personalized systems of rule. They simplify, standardize and systematize processes. Institutions live from what people do with them. Institutions offer spaces for protection and can also become complacent or give space to abuse of power. Institutions are the product of negotiation processes and can be dissolved again, even if they usually resist this. Institutions are by no means only negative. They are what we make them. They are collective structures that need to be shaped. They give groups, ideas, principles an institutionalized and therefore more powerful position in society. They have the possibility to create and promote inclusion and exclusion.
courage to bring out what is not there or is too much there
PROTEST
Resistance is rooted in practice and articulated in tactical statements and justifications addressing specific historical contexts. Resistance denotes power relations. Those who are more vulnerable in these relationships deploy variety of tactics (such as secrets and silences, hit-and-run style actions in everyday life, politics of humor and irony, protests in forms of nonviolent civil disobedience) in order to resist hegemonic strategies of oppression. Some forms of collective action (such as vigils, sit-ins, marches, and other forms of assemblies) culminate in a form of resistance to systemic forms of destruction and commitment to the world building that honors interdependency. Subversive discourse and action can also be in artistic forms such as folk tales, poetry, singing, and dancing. Aesthetic interventions can serve as counter-hegemonic involvements because they make hegemonic social and political relations visible while promoting discussion and debate. Such critical art practices would thus foment agonistic struggle against domination in multiplicity of social spaces.
References: Foucault, Michel. 2003. Society Must Be Defended, Lectures at the College de France, 19751976. Translated by David Macey. New York: Picador. Caygill, Howard. 2013. On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance. London, New York: Bloomsbury. Butler, Judith. 2015. Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Abu-Lughod, Lila. “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women,” American Ethnologist 17, no.1 (February): 41-55. Mouffe, Chantal. 2007. “Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces.” Art and Research 1(2). http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/mouffe.html
In this sector you will find some artistic suggestions.
An online collection of contemporary (queer) manifestos
EZ by Elena Zanzu (Circus next)
Elena Zanzu is an ar tist researcher and activist who is interested in topics around gender, vulnerability, content and the intersection of artistic practice and philosophy.
"Good practices regarding sexism and decolonization in art schools"
NOW OPEN Healthy relationship: connecting, understanding, accepting each other's reality // confident and allowing change to occur - that this is natural and inevitable// Awareness: stop look listen feel accept inwards and outwards
Racism and sexism in art education: a subjective mapping
Structural discrimination is not going to simply disappear over time. No school will be changed by patience. In fact, postponing this process will only make things worse. If you want to be a relevant art education today, you need to do the work necessary to make change happen and you need to start doing it now.
The Graveyard of complaints & Gossip Glitch
„Those complaints in the graveyard can come back to haunt institutions - it is a promise.“ Sarah Ahmed
For the full video scan here
This section finds an ongoing collection of anonymously shared experiences and stories of structural discrimination and abuse of power at ZZT. Next to the s e l f - e x p e r i e n c e s a n d c o m p l a i n t s , you find also s t o r i e s s h a r e d through g o s s i p i n g a n d s h a r e d t h r o u g h o t h e r s . G o s s i p i s traditionally understood as spreading rumors, witch-hunting, creating drama, or otherwise attention-seeking and generally negative behaviors (with a gendered and feminized slant). However, the term gossip originally was used for describing very close friends usually women, who were present at childbirth and or becoming godmothers of a child. In feminism it can be a political and social tool for sharing resources, pieces of knowledge, and experiences used in hierarchical structures. It creates an exchange, support, interaction, and a building of trust with partners/colleagues. I, as we, as a students, though this strategy we untangle the (social) norms in institutions. I as we learn from the experiences and stories of others. Those stories and experiences of previous students helped me as us to understand what is expected and what can possible consequences of "misbehavior" be.
The
effects and consequences of raising voices in formats of abuse of power can be very uncomfortable and, in worst cases, careerthreatening. I as we choose an anonymous form to give space to raise critique, voice individual complaints, and point out the difficulty of doing so in hierarchical structures in institutions. I as we choose this form to protect participants.
I as We invite all of the current students to an ongoing anonymous gossip round. You will find a box in the Aufenthaltsraum that you can write and read anonymous gossip.
..."When I had some complaints, I never used to communicate with them. I felt I would get "in trouble " instead of being listened to. Moreover, I could feel confident with a teacher and show them my complaints, but it would never work as the communication was so bad (or didn't exist) between some teachers. I only felt supported by one teacher in ZZT; for the rest, I was just one "good student" (a hard worker who never complained), and they didn't ask me (or anyone) why we were there, what we wanted to do or work on if we were interested in any specific work..."
..."If the teacher had a "not easy" talk with a student, the teacher would open a debate in front of the class, trying to "ridicule" in a way this student and make the others understand why their ideas are "stupid.” Even if they would, you can't do that. It was disrespectful, and you knew that the teacher would ignore that person during the following classes (if not more). They got the power in that sense. I never went to complain about anything (I thought I didn't have anything to say) but also never helped others in front of the teacher with their complaints. I knew I wouldn't be a "model student" if I did that, so I kept quiet." ..."I talked to other people, who studied at ZZT about their experiences with the structure of projects and auditions for entering a project. They experienced so much discouragement towards their own artistic practice of being a dancer, with fear and self-doubt as only two consequences, that they never auditioned again in the professional field. You can call this trauma..."
..."You never know how the audition processes of projects are happening. If only the artists who are invited are involved. I heard about teachers giving information about perceived working dynamics before the audition is taking place about specific students to the invited artists. I also heard that the director is involved in giving names of preferred students they wanna see in the projects to the invited artists. There are students who never joined a performance projects. But isn’t the experience and practice of being on stage part of the studies? Why do they hold auditions if the institution is still part of the decision making?"...
FUN GAMES
b u i l d i n g
c o n n e c t i o n s
network of German art universities
How do student movements sustain themselves over student generations? How can experiences, discourses, and processes be documented and made accessible to later generations of students coming to the institution? How do we escape the always turning wheel of constant repetition of dialogue and critical discourses at universities in relation to structural change? Sasa Asenic once said in a seminar something like "Institutions are not made for change. Students stay at them for 4 years max." 4 years to study, self-develop, learn and try. Heavy, slow, bureaucracy, not transparent, hamster wheel, hierarchies, Political movements and their discussions and discourses are often repeating themself at universities. The students who are starting a discourse are leaving the insitution after 3-5 years. This repetion due the structure of one part, the staff is staying over a longer period of time, and the other part, the students, is changing every year, is happening in similar formats at multiple (german art) universities. A networking group, alumnis, students and teachers, of several German art universities has existed for about two years. This network is aiming to exchange experiences, share ressources and strategies in order to support and empower each others political movement. Forming networks, looking for allies and building companionship to combine forces to become political active together. After a break of this already existing network group it is coming back to life. For this I as Us are looking for people who want to join this process. In the end of April/ beginning of May I as We will gather again to connect back and to see where I as Us want to go. If you would like to join me as us, please send me as us an email for more information: indemand@gmail.com. I as Us will keep you informed via notices when there will be a new meeting.
Contribution The InDemand Group ZZT "ancestors" ZZT Professors
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL FOR YOUR TRUST