[Basekamp Events] The Think Tank that has yet to be named - Jul 27 2010

[scott at basekamp.com]

======== THE THINK TANK THAT HAS YET TO BE NAMED =============================

July 27, 2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm EST
Hi Everyone,

This Tuesday is another event in a year-long series of weekly conversations  
and exhibits in 2010 shedding light on examples of Plausible Artworlds.

This week we’ll be talking with Jeremy Beaudry from the anomalously named  
“Think Tank that has yet to be named”, a sort of roving creative public  
policy institute that initiates site-specific conversations, performative  
actions, and educational projects questioning contemporary urban issues  
wherever they happen to crop up. Specifically, the group is concerned with  
how artists and their creative practices so often end up embroiled in urban  
(re)development strategies, gentrification and the general homogenization of  
urban space.

http://www.thinktank.boxwith.com/

Since its inception in 2006, the Think Tank’s permanently open-ended  
denomination draws particular attention each time it is enunciated to the  
perils and pitfalls of name giving — above all naming’s inherent tendency  
to a assign a fixed identity, something any would-be plausible artworld must  
be wary of. Naming is a powerful political act when it makes a previously  
unauthorized body appear; yet perhaps only “as-yet-to-be-naming” can  
perpetuate this political potential over time. As Jeremy Beaudry, Director of  
the Dept for the Investigation of Meaning, explains, “the Think Tank is  
comprised of several Departments, each led by a single Director. There can be  
no Department without a Director, and there can be no Director without a  
Department. Directors are both autonomous agents and cooperative  
collaborators. In this respect, the Think Tank has no members, only  
directors. The declaration of a directorship in a Department amounts to a  
statement of that individual’s bias and agenda. Nothing is more offensive  
to the Think Tank than the pretense of neutrality.” The list of names of  
the Think Tank’s Departments (past and present) wryly makes the point:

• Dept. for the Investigation of Authenticity (DIA)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Cross-Pollination (DICP)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Documentary Subjectivity (DIDS)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Ecological Subjectivity (DIES)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Failure (DIF)
• Dept. for the Investigation of InterSubjectivity (DIIS)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Meaning (DIM)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Metaphorical Agency (DIMetA)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Neutrality & Palatability (DINP)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Radical Pedagogy (DIRP)
• Dept. for the Investigation of ReHumanization (DIRH)
• Dept. for the Investigation of the Structure of Expectations (DISE)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Tactical Education (DITE)
• Dept. for the Investigation of Tactical and Strategic Alignment (DITSA)
• Dept. for the Investigation of the Unmentionable and the authentic
• Dept. for the Investigation of the Unthinkable (DIUT)

See you all then!

Join us every Tuesday night – in person, or on Skype, skypename:  
‘basekamp’
If you come to the potluck chat in person, be sure to bring a dish :)
Basekamp space: 723 Chestnut St, 2nd floor, Philadelphia usa

To join this week’s Potluck Chat:

Download from skype.com if you don’t already have it
 * In Skype “Add a contact”: basekamp
 * Send a message when you want to join the chat, by selecting us from your
   list and clicking ‘Start chat’
 * We’ll add you to the text chat, and when everyone is ready we’ll start
   the conference call


Follow Plausible Artworlds:
http://twitter.com/basekamp
http://basekamp.com/info

Comment here
http://basekamp.com/about/events/think-tank-has-yet-be-named#comments [1]

/Plausible Artworlds is a project organized by Basekamp and Stephen Wright,  
and has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the  
Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative./


[1] http://basekamp.com/about/events/think-tank-has-yet-be-named#comments
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