British English subtitles for clip: File:Fabian Tompsett at DADA 99-ojo jubiliejaus paminėjimo renginių Alytuje.ogv
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1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,800 We as a group of people now should split into two groups 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,800 Fabian will run his workshop here 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,800 Another workshop downstairs will be run by Asim – he speaks a lot 4 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:21,800 Fabian‘s - almost wordless 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,800 he‘s tired from speaking 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,800 he‘ll show something he worked on some years 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,800 and what I had no time to understand yet 8 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:39,800 9 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,800 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,800 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:55,400 I'm going to stand up and also look around to see all your faces. 12 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:00,400 And really it's quite impressive, you've actually filled the room. 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:06,800 Standing room only. So thank you all for coming. 14 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,800 Firstly I want to say that although I do art 15 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,800 I am very suspicious of the social identity of the artist. 16 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,800 I want to live in a society where people are doing art 17 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,800 all the time in their daily lives 18 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,800 and it's not the preserve of a particular group of people. 19 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,800 In relationship to Dada one of the things I have been looking at 20 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,800 are a group of people starting off in Cologne 21 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,800 who became known as the Figurative Constructivists. 22 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,800 a little bit later, by the end of the twenties. 23 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,800 But they were there at the beginning of Dada 24 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:53,800 They had dealings with Max Ernst 25 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,800 They also when Lissitzky was in Germany 26 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,800 when he came over from Russia they met up with him 27 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,800 and they got influenced by constructivism 28 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,800 which they took on board 29 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,800 They were also involved with the debate in Germany 30 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,800 about what was happening following the Russian Revolution 31 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,800 and the setting up of Proletkult 32 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,800 It brought together in terms of culture 33 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,800 a very broad range from the arts, 34 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:33,800 drama, theatre, painting through to science. 35 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:40,800 So, the whole is gamut there 36 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,800 The idea was developed by Alexander Bogdanov 37 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:46,800 one of the theorists of this. 38 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:48,800 He said you can bring all this together 39 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,800 You don't have to have complete separation 40 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,800 It is useful to have focused activity 41 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,800 So if you were a practicing artist 42 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,800 you could get very much into the material 43 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,800 understand how to deal with paint and the application of paint 44 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:07,800 It is not to say that that is bad, 45 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:09,800 it's more to say 46 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:14,800 How can we relate that to other areas of activity? 47 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,800 How can we have better cross-over? 48 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,800 Rather than this kind of silo of different sets of knowledge 49 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,800 and people being very constrained 50 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,800 which is what a lot of the academic world is like 51 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,800 That's what they were talking about 100 years ago 52 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,800 So that is an ongoing issue 53 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:40,800 One of the things that the Figurative Constructivists got involved with 54 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,800 was the presentation of statistical information 55 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,800 what we call nowadays infographics 56 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,800 lot of this is stuff that you see on the internet 57 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,800 The sort of thing you see on the internet 58 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,800 It is very easy to accept things on the internet as just being there 59 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,800 just being part of what's there when you open up your computer 60 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:08,800 A lot of this goes back precisely to 61 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,800 what came out of Dada, what came out of constructivism 62 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,800 It is a way of representing information that is statistical 63 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,800 in a way that's very visual 64 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,800 Doesn't rely on language 65 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,800 They developed a whole theory of that 66 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:32,800 A lot of it relates to some of the discussions going on in science 67 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,800 Particularly with some of the feminist scientists 68 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,800 when they start to question how science is socially constructed 69 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:47,800 They are looking at the scientific practice 70 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,800 in relation to the apparatus of science 71 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,800 Well ,the same can be done with Art 72 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,800 For instance you have Virginia Woolf 73 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:04,800 when she writes A Room of My Own 74 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:07,800 You don't get women artists for a very long period time 75 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,800 because they did not have the apparatus 76 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,800 in which they could develop their own way of being 77 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,800 they didn't have a room of their own 78 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:19,800 where they could develop their concepts 79 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:21,800 they were spending all their time rushing around 80 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:25,800 doing stuff in the household for other people. 81 00:05:26,000 --> 00:04:29,800 Whether it was for men or for children 82 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:32,800 There is already a parallel going on between 83 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,800 discussions Science studies and discussions in Art studies 84 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,800 I think it's very useful to bring that together 85 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:45,800 They were also very much involved in education. 86 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:47,800 Pedagogy was a central of Proletkult 87 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,800 and it was part of this whole ethos 88 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:56,800 of presenting information which was easily understandable 89 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,800 One of the things I have brought along 90 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,800 is what we might call the new cubism 91 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:15,800 These are cubes. Some of you might have come across 92 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,800 - you'll get an opportunity to see these close up - 93 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:25,800 meeple a representation of a very basic idea 94 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,800 to represent a human being 95 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,800 One of the things I have also been involved in 96 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:36,800 using games particularly Guy Debord's Game of War 97 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,800 as a way of representing struggle 98 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:44,800 Looking at the way the whole Eurogame phenomenon 99 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,800 which has developed over the last twenty-thirty years 100 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,800 The aesthetic is very much like the constructivists 101 00:06:52,000 --> 00:05:56,800 they move towards designing a game that anybody in any language 102 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,800 you don't have written instructions, but images 103 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,800 very basic images based on the same concept 104 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,800 Of reducing things down to things which are really simple 105 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,800 This is a move towards constructivist games 106 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,800 It is taking part of pedagogical element 107 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:23,800 that was emerging out of constructivism 108 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,800 and re-interpreting it in a very contemporary fashion 109 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:30,800 Thank you