[蒸汽船] Steamboat

The image of a Steamboat emerged through a collective drawing session when we were joyously talking and imagining building a place for ourselves. A place where we can support each other by engaging in stimulating dialogues, a place where the imagination can run free, a place where the plant of our interaction is carefully cultivated. We took the image as a mythical origin from which our inquiry materialized into reality.

In our first exhibition at ruimteCAESUUR (Middelburg), we looked into the history, science, technology, and ecology of the steam engine, its analogy to search engine of today with respect to the relation between the way the world is known, displayed, and represented. This rough sketch was documented in a video essay. As we were mapping out the relations, we started to get a clearer sense of the way we work together. This has led to a reflection on the importance of the way collaborations are constructed, in our specific situation as artists and social production in general. How are ideas—considered as steam— formed from a multitude of singular beings? How is collective and collaborative working talked about in the contemporary capitalist framework? What are the limitations and potentials of collective creation in terms of artistic production and the general idea of societal progress? We will attempt to look deeper into these questions through our second exhibition at Trixie The Hague.

During the four weeks at Trixie, we are opening up the gallery space as a collective “steam” making plant. Every Saturday there will be workshops that you can register for, with a maximum amount of 6 participants. The workshops will take steam as a conceptual material. Together we will construct a world in which steam can exhibit its full conceptual potential. We will practice collective writing in its broadest sense, through different exercises, games, and reading materials.

Program

04 sept: Opening 18:00-22:00 *
05 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
Workshop 14:00-16:00 *
How to make steam in a Scientific World?
06 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
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11 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
12 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
Workshop 14:00-16:00 *
How to manage steam as an unwanted byproduct?
13 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
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18 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
19 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
Workshop 12:30-16:30 *
How to make steam in an Extro Science Fiction World?
20 sept: Open 12:00-17:00
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25 sept: Open 19:00-22:00, Hoogtij
20:30 Collective Drift
Please bring headphones and your phone to have access to the sound fragment online. Make sure to keep 1.5 m distance from one another at all times.

Workshops

Steam, considered as a mental process, has the capacity to disrupt existing borders and inject different trajectories of thoughts. In the world of steam, multiplicities of bodies move around each other and push and pull in various directions. Once the state of condensation is established the bodies slow down and their relations solidify. We are skating on a shield of ice that is our culture until it melts into a non-homogeneous patchwork of ice/water mixture. As the motion of water continuously erases the boundaries of ice, no static border can be kept.

How to make steam in a Scientific World?
Sat. 05 sept, 14:00-16:00
This first chapter in our workshop series departs from our current world based on the reading of an excerpt from the steampunk novel: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, wherein the computer age arrives a century earlier. Based on this we will engage in several writing exercises.

How to manage steam as an unwanted byproduct?
Sat. 12 sept, 14:00-16:00
The second chapter in our workshop series looks at steam as an industrial byproduct. We will look into existing industrial management strategies and will take the description of these complex processes from academic papers as an inspiration to write steam poetry collectively.

How to make steam in an Extro Scientific World?
Sat. 19 sept, 12:30-16:30
In the last chapter of our workshop series we will take the writings produced in the first two chapters to inform us how an alternative world of steam could look like. We will also collectively read and discuss a short paragraph from Science Fiction and Extro Science Fiction World. Concluding into collectively enacting, testing, and thereby building this alternative world of steam.

*RSVP for all workshops is necessary. For regular visits to the gallery reservation is optional. To reserve your place email us at: info@sssttteeeaaammm.com