10/14/07 meeting minutes

SPARKPLUG 10/14/07 meeting minutes taken by Karen Joan Topping

(These will be posted in the file section of the Google Group – if I have missed something please feel free to download the notes and add or correct, just make sure to date & initial the newly posted document)

Agenda items were covered as follows:

1-meeting times

We will try to maintain meeting on a regular schedule of alternating days at the DC Arts Center. Plans are to meet in the second week of every month, alternating between Sundays at 7:00 PM and Mondays at 7:30 PM. Following this proposed schedule the next two meetings are scheduled for Monday, November 12 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, December 9 at 7:00 PM. This schedule is subject to change based on the availability of the space and requirements dictated by the agenda of the meeting.

2-survey

Those in attendance agreed to fill out an introductory written survey, (you may have already seen it). The survey was posted in an email to the Google group by Jenny Walton or can be downloaded as word file in the files section of the Google group. The hope is that these surveys will help us in forming our first goals for sparkplug and be useful as a reference of skills for future projects.

3-ideas about ideas-(in no particular order)

~Set up an online photo group like flickr or yahoo photo
~Have everyone summarize their work in just one sentence without identifying themselves and then as a group begin categorizing these sentences to get ideas
~Have a meeting where we do a drawing project together (work/play nite)-like make posters for ‘fantasy’ art – i.e. shows that don’t exist yet that we could curate
~Discuss & form themes, do work about elevating the ordinary as an idea
~Have a slide night where participants show one slide of their own work and one by of another artist they admire/is important to their work
~Consider look for collective public art projects-like grants for art in pocket parks
~Come up with concepts that allow artists in the collective to interact directly with the public/viewer in an unexpected manner and document those interactions (presumably as inspiration for both audience and artists)
~Have additional meetings at people’s personal studios
~Investigate a theme show on planning vs. spontaneity
~Have a slide show and have people introduce and start talking about themselves and their work

It was decided that the last item on this list should be acted on immediately-so the following format was discussed and decided on by those in attendance:

There will be presentations of work starting on the Monday, November 12th Meeting at 7:30pm. There will be up to 12 presentations lasting no longer than 10 minutes a piece (which adds up to 1 hour and 20 minutes-add a half hour for other issues and realize this will be about a 2 hour meeting.) This should assist us all in coming up with themes and working relationships with the groups work and give us an idea how and where to move from here.

In order to accommodate the digital needs and reduce “fiddling with the projector/computer/changing discs between artists” time, Please submit your digital images (NO MORE THAN 5!) in jpeg format to me at jenny.walton@gmail.com before November 10th! Please make them a reasonable size and know that they will be projected. If you are unable to furnish digital images, please bring one (transportable up stairs) piece of work with you to the next meeting.

The 12 presentation slots are already filled for the November Meeting. **However, to get your work in the line-up for December, please submit them here as well. Slots are filled on first come first serve basis.**


4-agenda items for November meeting

~Status of returned surveys
~10 – 12 people show slides
~Schedule new group to show slides as necessary
~Ideas about ideas
~Do we want to start a list of possible goals for the next 6 months-year?
~Set Agenda for December meeting

SPARKPLUG MEETING ON OCTOBER 14

Meet at DCAC at 6:45 PM on Sunday October 14th. Right now plans are to meet in the gallery. Help with setting up a table and chairs will be greatly appreciated. If you feel like bringing something to share, I'm sure refreshments would also be appreciated, but not required.

4 points for discusion:

WHERE to meet and do we set a regular schedule,

WOULD you mind filling out a survey, that way we can get a more quantifiable idea of the skills that are being brought to Sparkplug and what interests people are coming to Sparkplug to develop collectively,

HOW do we begin to develop the IDEAS that will hold together a collective of people, their respective art work and an eventual exhibition. SUGGESTION: Please write down one idea you have for collectively generating ideas,

AGENDA ideas for the next meeting

I wish more people had been able to come the talks that Dos Pestañeos and Skote gave at DCAC. I think these two groups really showed the two extremes that collectives go to. Dos Pestañeos showed us some very high quality intellectual/curatorial oriented group exhibitions, while Skote, (which started as much freer investigation of process and identity in a group of friends animating alter-egos, creating a product that was not originally meant for public consumption) is tentatively taking their provocative style of collectivized improvisation, ego investigation and nostalgia for naive TV public through DVD technology and the constructs of performance art. Still, both these groups - and in other collectives I've experienced, developing ideas about WHY the work was together even if the idea is fluid or generalized is tantamount.

A very important way in which these two collectives are similar is that neither shys away from entertainment and product, though certainly questioning this commodification is also part of the dialouge There are plenty of other art collective models that exist soley to question (maybe even undermine) the commodification of art. I would point out, that after going to both the Dos P's & Skote's talks that both groups stressed that making product happen (making catalogs or videos and treating your grant proposals like they were works of art in and of themselves) as a component of exhibiting - though it took crazy financial and work commitments, have to become a part of your repertoire as an artist. We might all know this already, but certainly Dos P's and Skotes frankness about having achieved and having to achieve these things collectively is a practicality to keep in mind as we move on.


Check Dos P's and Skote out at:

http://www.dospestaneos.com/

http://www.skoteshine.com/index.html

Ian Jehle - Here's to You

Hi Folks,

I've been AWOL from Sparkplug for some time now, but I've been keeping up with the goings on and I hope to return to full participation after my upcoming show has opened. Here are two of the large drawings