Documentation is an act that inherently thinks about the future. Assessing and editing the here and now, all mechanisms of documentation become frozen in time. Regardless of what we choose to preserve – thoughts, photos, catalogues, reportage, etc. – the information becomes archived after its date and forms a new perspective on history.

Time passes by quickly and the present day presents itself as a challenge to traditional forms of documentation. Technology takes the old roll of film out of the picture and offers an immediate and global way to transfer, share and manipulate information every minute everywhere. Templated-documentation platforms like weblogs, social network websites and their mobile equivalents are accessible for the layman and the learned. But the question of how they are used and their social and psychological effects on behaviour (future, past, present) is still unfolding.

Looking at representation and documentation we would like to offer a collaborative workshop and an opportunity to share research, viewpoints and practices around this theme. The workshop will open with an exchange of select readings focused around this subject matter before entering a practice-based exercise. Throughout the afternoon we would like to experiment and look at documentation as a platform for creativity and a question of social context. What do we achieve through immediate and self-representational documentation? How does the ‘template culture’ constrain our creative output? Using these provided platforms – is it expression, fact or mimicry that archives the ‘here and now?

Registration: To attend this workshop, please send a short RSVP to rsvp@supermarkt-berlin.net
Fee: Although donations appreciated
Language of presentation: English

Here you can find the dropbox file, which was created in order to share the workshop’s documentations. It already contains a list of amusing and inspirational texts and links.

About the workshop leaders:

Gretchen Blegen graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Colorado State University in 2010. As a firm supporter of DIY aesthetic and practice, she has been active in a numerous amount of independent non-profits and DIY spaces in the Southwestern region of the United States (Ventero Open Press, Matter Bookstore, TITWRENCH FEST, Hammertime Tool Co-op/free school). Living and working in Berlin since September of 2011, Gretchen continues to support this exchange of ideas, experimentation, information and skills on a communal level in and outside of Berlin (Ausland-Berlin, Ponderosa Tanzland, Lucky Trimmer, AADK, SUPERMARKT). Recognizing the process and not the product as a key to progressive and creative thinking, her personal as well as collaborative projects are rooted in a continuous loop or an ongoing open discussion and exchange.

Jurriaan Pots is an organiser and researcher based in Amsterdam. In the summer of 2013 he resided in Berlin to assist at SUPERMARKT as a creative producer. He studied musicology and media studies in Groningen (NL), Amsterdam and briefly in Helsinki. Jurriaan’s interests are manifold, but he decided to devote his professional attention to digital media and (artistic) behavior. At the moment, besides making a living as a librarian, he is working on a research project about Moroccan electronic music and digital culture in the Netherlands (see: osdorp-oujda.com). Jurriaan is very happy to return to SUPERMARKT for a creative merge with Gretchen.