01.03.2014
Together with Caterina Giuliani we started to work on Precarity Pilot a follow up project to Designers’ Inquiry in which many of the aspects around precarious work and de-precarisation developed through this research project are disseminated.
03.02.2014
Bianca passed the viva with Doina Petrescu (Architecture, Sheffield) and Matthew Fuller (Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths).
No corrections – which means time to think about dissemination!
06.12.2013
Just in time before the fellowship at Goldsmiths runs out, the thesis is bound and ready to be handed-in for the viva.
28.04.2013
To see the activities currently organised with the New Cross Commoners to investigate and experiment with practices of commoning, see: newxcommoners.wordpress.com
10.02.2013
The Construction site for non-affirmative practice has a brand new website, which is being updated much more often than D.E.C.
10.02.2013
To have a look at the works produced while at Campus in Camps please visit the following links:
For an up-to-date list of activities and projects the Construction site organised after the residency in Milan, please visit pratichenonaffermative.net.
Stéphane Rapelli released a study on the socio-demographic characterisation of I-Pros across Europe. I-Pros are defined as self-employed workers, without employees, who are engaged in an activity which does not belong to the farming, craft or retail sectors. They engage in activities of intellectual nature and/or which come under the service sector.
The study shows that the number of I-Pros has grown by 82% between 2000 and 2011, with the biggest concentration of I-Pros in Italy (1,688,894), the UK (1,608,436) and Germany (1,533,050).
For more details see the study itself: EFIP report English
A research project initiated by Manuel Castells.
“In this crisis, some people are trying to go back and other people are trying to discover what the future could be. What doesn’t work anymore is the present, for anyone. That’s why it’s Aftermath Time.”
Manuel CastellsThe Aftermath Project is an expanding database for ideas, texts, videos and images relating to the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. It invites people to provide their perspective on life beyond the crisis and brings together four video documentaries and twelve audio interviews produced in the framework of Aftermath Network, a research program on the social consequences of the crisis.
28.09.2012
Until the beginning of December we will be working as “project activators” at Campus in Camps. This will give us the chance to think and work through our research on economic cultures in a complex context.
With the support of the project DE.MO./MOVIN’UP 2012
BY
Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
Direzione Generale per il paesaggio, le belle arti, l’architettura e l’arte contemporanea
with the participation of Direzione Generale per lo Spettacolo dal Vivo
AND
GAI – Associazione per il Circuito dei Giovani Artisti Italiani
In the United States, two-thirds of college graduates leave school with student loan debt, an average of $25,000 each. Debt rates have increased 500 percent since 1999, and there are more and more of us across the country facing six-figure loans who will make monthly payments for the rest of our lives.
[…]
Indeed, the debt explosion has brought students and families to a grim milestone: on April 25, 2012, total student debt in the US will surpass one trillion dollars.
http://uninomade.org/april-25th-is-1t-day-occupy-student-debt/
The ethics code of the Precarious Workers Brigade lays out some basic principles according to which the group structures its work. Inspiring!
20.06.2012
We included the first 9 conversations (CUP, Conway + Young, Islington Mill, Goldex Poldex, Feral Trade, Emma Hostel, Zoe Romano, image-shift and The Nonformal University of Teremiski) in a small publication, which is part of the exhibition Panorama 4 (16.06-30.09.2012, Franzensfeste-Fortezza). Visitors can assemble their publication and take it away.
Download the publication (zip, 2,1 Mb)
03.06.2012
The Construction site for non-affirmative practice has been invited by Casco to give a presentation on the 5th June at 7pm within the current exhibition “I Can’t Work Like This”.
We just finished drawing this representation of the 7 ‘activity spheres’ within the evolutionary trajectory of Capitalism, which David Harvey identifies and describes in The Enigma of Capital. Click on the image to open it as a pdf.
From the 13th to the 22nd April 2012, During the Salone del Mobile in Milan, we gathered again at Careof for 10 days in order to build up the Cantieroteca and to launch Designers’ Inquiry.
This data visualisation by Sara de Bondt and Merel van der Berg says it all about the gender divisions within graphic design today.
See more on their blog: Feminism and Graphic Design
18.04.2012
Designers’ Inquiry, a survey by the Construction site for non-affirmative practice on the socio-economic condition of designers today is on-line. Check the link for details. Or go directly to the on-line survey in English or Italian. It takes about 15-20 minutes.
Spread it widely please.
18.04.2012
Cantieroteca, the archive of the Construction site for non-affirmative practice, is now open. Check the link for details.
18.03.2012
Archivio del Cantiere
a project by Construction site for non-affirmative practice
in collaboration with Careof DOCVA
During this year’s Salone del Mobile (Milan, 17-22 April 2012), the collective Construction site for non-affirmative practice inaugurates the project “Archivio del Cantiere” (archive of the construction site) at – and in collaboration with – Careof, a non profit organization for the promotion of contemporary artistic research situated at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.
The designers of Image-Shift produced a set of playing cards that introduces a series of collectives working in Berlin. The game is called “Das Richtige im Falschen” (The right inside the wrong).
Here is a list of all the collectives presented:
Printing
Hinkelsteindruck (print and layout)
Oktoberdruck (printing)
Bust your boss*!
During a negotiation about work you have the right,
NOT to remain silent about money.
NOT to subsidise the production from your own pocket.
NOT accept a change of agreed conditions without a renegotiation.
NOT to take this job on the promise of a future!
Bianca Elzenbaumer and Caterina Giuliani participated in the two-day conference Designing and Transforming Capitalism in Aarhus (DK). What follows is the abstract of their presentation:
Construction site for non-affirmative practice: building collective support structures for critically-engaged designers
As designers struggle with precarious labour conditions and an uncertain future, they are also re-evaluating their role in society as creative practitioners. Designers are increasingly questioning the ambitions of a commercial design career in the context of the recent economic crisis, while also expressing concerns that social and environmental problems have reached a critical threshold.
Read on…
18.02.2012
Next Friday, Bianca will be talking about Designing Economic Cultures at public works’ studio, during one of their beloved Friday Sessions. The evening, titled “Sunday soup and other ways to feed culture”, is organised and curated by Matilde Martinetti, who is currently collaborating with public works.
Friday 24 February, 7pm
public works studio
1-5 Vyner Street
London E2
09.02.2012
Tomorrow Bianca Elzenbaumer and Caterina Giuliani will give a talk at the Designing and Transforming Capitalism conference at Aarhus University (DK) titled “Construction site for non-affirmative practice: building collective support structures for critically-engaged designers”.
Very insightful documentary about planned obsolescence.
On the 12th of April 2012, in Switzerland a referendum will be started for introducing a guaranteed basic income. The guaranteed basic income would allow all people living in Switzerland to lead a dignified life. It would be paid to everyone independently of their needs and without need of returning a service.
Here a list of all the activities that were organised by the Construction site at Careof in Milan.
As the group of people involved in the Construction site was already in Bolzano for the roundtable discussion Werstattgespräche, we took the opportunity to organise a workshop with Valeria Graziano to reflect on the micropolitics, challenges, opportunities and visions of our forming collective.
Giorgio Camuffo invited the Construction site for non-affirmative practice to host a roundtable discussion at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano as part of the series Werkstattgespräche.
“The (US) government defines affordable housing as housing that costs no more than 30% of your income.”
Centre for Urban Pedagogy, The envisioning development toolkit
Seen at the Tent City University, London, December 2011.
Link to the chart on-line.
17.12.2011
Giorgio Camuffo invited the Construction site for non-affirmative practice to give a talk on the 19th December at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy as part of the series Werkstattgespräche.
Poster by Stefano Capodieci / illustration inspired by J.K. Gibson-Graham
Article 6
1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right.
2. The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and economic freedoms to the individual.
11.12.2011
On the 13th December at 4pm the Construction site for non-affirmative practice will give a short lecture at Stefano Maffei’s class Factory@everywhere at the Politecnico di Milano.
In this series of encounters, run by the economic researcher Hervé Baron, we intend to propose an argument that is relatively unknown to the Italian public: the issue of the social imaginary. The argumentation will range from the general to the particular: after an initial introduction to the topic, we will see why the studies of the imaginary have developed mostly in France around Cornelius Castoriadis.
According to a recently published figure by the Carrotworkers’ Collective in their Counter-Internship Guide, cultural workers earn 60% less than the national median of all UK employees. Moreover, 75% of cultural sector employees have no pension.
The calculation of the income poverty threshold is generally based on the average national income. If your income is below 60% of the average national income, then you are considered below the poverty line.
Here a few samples of average incomes in Europe:
Germany (2007): €27,083 (60% = €16,249.8)
Italy (2008): €18,873 (60% = €11,323.8)
United Kingdom (2004-2005): £22,800 (60% = £13,680)
An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.
1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
#Milanuncut was a discussion kicked off by writers Marcus Fairs and Max Fraser who’d both heard and reported the anonymous grumblings of young designers at the level of work and payment they got for producing the prototypes that were being hyped during the festival. So with this tenuous link; I can post some images of designs around a cube whilst doing the maths to see what a young designer can hope to gain from going into production.
Poster by Caterina Giuliani and Melissa Destino
Giovanna Zanghellini and Caterina Giuliani – two designers participating in the Construction site for non-affirmative practice – proposed RUN RUN RUN RUN, a one-week initiative that intended to analyse and question the phenomenon of contemporary socio-economic precarity. During this initiative we heard interventions by San Precario, the Carrotworkers’ Collective and Serpica Naro.
San Precario is the patron saint of the precarious. San Precario is irreverent, mocking and offensive. San Precario is a creation of the precarious intelligence, a free and independent expression that does not refer to any party or union.
Serpica Naro is a ficticious fashion meta-brand that has been launched during the 2005 Milan Fashion Week. Serpica Naro is the anagram of San Precario. Today, Serpica Naro is licensed under the Creative Commons and the collective around it is working towards dismantling the conventional fashion industry with its exploitation of humans and nature.
Two members of the Carrotworkers’ Collective, a London-based group of ex-interns, students, researchers and cultural workers, who regularly meet to think together around the conditions of free labour in contemporary societies, introduced us to their work and followed up the discussion with a workshop on the next day.
During this series of informal encounters, organised by AUT and Filiera in the context of the project Quisai, different design historians, design theorists and design tutors joined the Construction site for informal discussions over lunch around the interactions between design and production in Italy.
Marta Bianchi, project organiser at Careof, whose field of expertise is cultural management, gave us an extensive overview of the legal options for setting up a cultural association in Italy. It came out that in Italy, the new model of the “Association for Social Promotion” could actually be and interesting one for groups who intend to work mainly on non-commercial projects and to apply for public funding.
We would like to thank Marta for taking us through all these legal things.
Dario Banfi, member of ACTA (Associazione Consulenti Terziario Avvanzato), gave us an introduction to the tax regulations for freelance workers in Italy.
As a conclusion to our stay in Milan, Isacco Chiaf performed his piece Made in Italy (behind the scene), which he had been expanding and improving during the two months at Careof.
In this seminar Tomek from the Warsaw Food Cooperative introduced us to the way their informal group organises around the purchase and distribution of food.
Moldovan artist and writer Teodor Ajder introduced us to a number of cultural DIY initiatives that had taken form in the satellite states of the Soviet Union, with a special focus on Moldova.
Adrian Zandberg, an expert of the cooperative movement and member of the Warsaw Food Cooperative, introduced us to the roots of cooperatives in Poland and discussed what is still existing on the ground today.
During this seminar we investigated peoples’ relation to public space in Poland. Together with our invited guests Piotr Juskowiak (human geographer) and Jakub Szczesny (architect) on one hand we explored the theoretical framework that surrounds many of the issues related to public space and on the other hand we learned about a number of projects initiated by architect Jakub Szczesny that suggest different ways of engagement with public space.