Nonsite Symposium this Winter in NYC?

Can we consider meeting while I am in SF July 19th-26th? Perhaps the 23rd? Will be great to see folks in person regardless.

Looking forward!

This coming January I would like to collaborate with others to organize a symposium in New York City that would focus (on) the efforts of the Nonsite Collective. I'm imagining this as a series of conversations, public presentations and readings. The purpose of such a gathering would be multifold as it might advance curricula already developed by the Collective, as well as provide an opportunity for Nonsite to extend its efforts in NYC where, as in the Bay, there exists a critical mass of interest in the Collective's work. I'm
proposing this symposium in the interest of pursuing questions we agree matter to us,
and that are consequential for discourse about the future.

I would also like to propose here four "conversations" which could accommodate a variety of participants from New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere. These four "conversations" may be devoted to four problems which originally preoccupied the Collective's attention during the creation of the original "draft proposal" in the spring of 2007. The first, concerning the creation of new archives; the second, concerning new forms of commons; the third, regarding activism and aesthetic intervention/response; the last, revolving around on- and off-page poetry as a nonsite.

The question of how these conversations are organized remains open; but regardless of how the discussions are formatted, I believe it is principle that we think collaboratively about how to design a forum that may be most open for all, and that will generate a rich record for possible ongoing curricula and further collaboration.

While I imagine there are any number of sympathetic venues that may offer Nonsite adequate space for a symposium in NYC, a few that I would like to contact initially include The New Museum, Vera Center for Art and Politics (at New School University), Housing Works bkstore, and St. Mark's Church. As many of us participating in Nonsite are poets and writers I will also like to propose a series of group and individual readings at the Segue series (of which I am a cocurator this following January and February), St. Mark's, and other local series for emergent poetry and writing.

While there is obviously much exchange among folk on the west coast and folk
on the east, the Nonsite symposium could also be a rare experiment in alternative assembly and organization. That we continue to explore such experiments on large and small scales obviously remains crucial for our coexistence, especially in lieu of the changing character of the university that would increasingly exclude many from its community and striate its resources, as well as the shrinking of a (physical) public
sphere that once provided for more various and multiple social spaces.

While we will no doubt want to have a larger open discussion about how to organize
such a gathering, both in person and by way of the Collective's website, I am proposing some ideas about a loose organizational model here as a way of opening the discussion. While I realize it is a lot to ask for people to fly to NYC for such an event, I'm hoping we might imagine a way to make this event happen, and for as many to participate as would like.

I look forward to hearing feedback from others, and remain open to anyone who would like to assist in the effort of making a symposium happen this winter or at some point in the future "here" or elsewhere...

Warmly,
Thom Donovan