Dear Colleague:
I am writing to invite you to exhibit and/or submit to FAIR, an international conference to be held at Hotel MariaKapel, in Hoorn, Netherlands this October 2nd-3rd, which presents breakthrough, innovative, revolutionary, and visionary solutions for people and planet on what is fair. FAIR brings together the leading minds of as many people as possible to determine steps towards a Solution to the troubling, pervading, and systemic problem of unfairness. To this end, we are actively seeking presentations, solutions, responses, and answers to the following pressing question related to fair-ness:
What is a fair way to deinstall and discard of the materials used for Terrarium at Hotel MariaKapel in Hoorn, NL?
Please find below more information on FAIR and how you can play an integral role in making ours a fair-er world. Please also note that ALL submissions that meet the DEADLINE of WEDNESDAY, SEPT 29th, will be accepted and presented at and during FAIR. Also, please forward this freely, as everyone is welcome to participate (afterall, it’s only fair…).
I sincerely hope that you will find the time to participate in this experiment-of-a-guerrilla-but-nonetheless-real-and-hopefully-fun-and-enlightening-conference.
Sincerely,
Kyoung
Conference Director-Coordinator-Intern-Specialist-Consultant-Freelancer-Peon
2010fair.wordpress.com / reclamationproject.org / hotelmariakapel.nl
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Overview of FAIR
FAIR is: Art fair. Science fair. Book fair. County fair. World fair. Trade fair. Fair world. Fair trade. Bid fair. Fair deal. Fair use. Fair work. Fair statement. Fair and square. Fair ball. Fair sex. Fair skin. Fair surface. Fair off. Fair enough. Fair health. Fair weather. Fair weather friend. Fair fight. Fair play. Fair game. All’s fair in love and war… Held during the closing weekend of Reclamation’s TERRARIUM at Hotel MariaKapel, FAIR asks artists, researchers, policy wonks, lawyers, psychologists, waste managers, event organizers, gamers, skaters, and school children, among others, to offer solutions ranging from the practical to the fantastical on how to discard of the materials used for the installation in a way that is “fair.”
Submission Guidelines
1) Answer the question “What is a fair way to deinstall and discard of the materials used for Terrarium at Hotel Maria Kapel in Hoorn, NL?” in any medium you see fit. How you interpret the question is up to you. How you answer the question is up to you. Submissions can be as short or as long as you wish; in any language (or no language) you want; as simple and complex as you desire.
2) Include the following information with your submission:
- NAME as you would like it to appear on the program
- BIO of 50 words or less
- TITLE of your occupation
- CITY and COUNTRY of your current residence or work
- IMAGE of yourself for the FAIR website (2010fair.wordpress.com). A photo/drawing/image–all works.
4) Send your submission via email to info@reclamationproject.org or via post to: HMK { HotelMariaKapel }, korte achterstraat 6, 1621GA, Hoorn, NETHERLANDS
5) Submissions must be RECEIVED by Wednesday, September 29th, 2010, Midnight GMT.
To learn more about Terrarium, go to reclamationproject.org or http://www.hotelmariakapel.nl. To learn more about Hotel MariaKapel, go to http://www.hotelmariakapel.nl. To find answers to FAQs, read below. To find answers to more questions, email info@reclamationproject.org with additional questions you may have. To see what’s going on with FAIR, go to http://www.2010fair.wordpress.com.
FAQ
Q: What is Terrarium? What is it made of?
A: TERRARIUM is an installation and event series created by the Reclamation collective, which recombines practices of art, worship, and exploration in spaces and smashes together with the environmental discourse. TERRARIUM provides a space to share ideas, make a mess, and meditate on our relationship with the environment and thereby, each other. The TERRARIUM installation was created with used materials collected from the Hoorn recycling center and Hotel MariaKapel from previous installations. Used materials include lumber, bricks, stones, wine and beer bottles, broken plates and popped balloons from a carnival, plastic bags, old rope, dirt, glass, plexi, nails, screws, paint, plywood, paper, l-brackets, sheets, an organ, cords, water, mirror, eggshells, cardboard, and probably other things I am forgetting at this moment. “New” materials include screws, lightbulbs, wires, plants, silicon, L-brackets, water, fish, fish food, and other materials I am forgetting at this moment. It is approximately 1 truck container worth of materials. The installation was built by the four current members of Reclamation (Drew Denny, John Matthew Heard, Kyoung Kim, and Edwina Portocarrero) who were invited to Hotel MariaKapel by the fantastic Jantine Wijnja, Josine Siderius, and Wouter Sibum.
Q: What do you mean by “fair”? Fair to what or to whom–to Reclamation, Hotel MariaKapel, Hoorn citizens, the Dutch, the world population, children of the future, animals, the planet, the oceans, aliens? What do you mean?!
A: That’s what we want to know from you. Please enlighten us. Seriously. FAIR is not about what we’re thinking, it’s about what you’re thinking.
Q: What kind of submissions are you looking for?
A: We are looking for what you submit. In any medium, any genre. There are no parameters beyond an attempt to answer the question by the deadline. Video, audio, typed, hand-written, paper, diorama, performance, fluxus, bar napkin or coaster, composition, drawing, food, math problem-esque solution, sculpture, simple, complex, long, short, theoretical, practical, fantastical, feasible, hypothetical, technical, metaphorical, litigious, vague, detailed, etc. etc.—it’s all fair game.
Q: Who is participating in FAIR?
A: We are asking a myriad of people to participate, ranging from artists to engineers at MIT, human rights lawyers, school children, teachers, waste managers, event organizers, writers, musicians, and my mom, among others. Please feel free to invite anyone and everyone to participate in FAIR.
Q: What about my mom?
A: Yes. We’d love for her to participate. Please forward this to her, as well as your father of course, and others who you think might be interested. The more cooks in this kitchen, the better.
Q: How will my work be presented if I am not in the Netherlands?
A: All of the submission for FAIR will be presented in the gallery of Hotel MariaKapel in fair-like fashion. Depending on the work submitted, we will have booths and tables set up, as well as projectors and screenings, and schedule presentations throughout the two days. We have 2 projectors that can screen video, Powerpoint, and other multimedia solutions can be offered. Should you wish to present via videochat, we can arrange for that as well. We have a color printer that prints on standard paper should you want solutions printed and presented in a certain way. We also have audio capabilities to play any audio submissions. Instructional pieces will be printed and presented; in addition, we hope to perform some of the instructional solutions offered (see examples).
Q: Can you offer some examples of submissions you’ve received and how you are going to present them?
A: Sure.
Ex 1: Set up a milk can toss. Each time someone topples the milkcans, he/she can take a piece of the exhibit home.
Presentation: We will set up a booth with a milkcan toss in a corner of the Hotel MariaKapel space, and we’ll allow people to play the game and take a piece of the exhibit as their prize. Just like in a county fair. (In this one, I predict the fish, plants, and lamps will go first. Maybe the extension cords too. People are terribly practical).
Ex 2: Have the 4 members of Reclamation sit in a circle and draw straws. Whoever draws the shortest straw has to move everything out of the gallery space and find a way to get it to the dump. The other 3 can either nap and/or drink beer. Straws are impartial, so it’s fair, even if the distribution of labor isn’t.
Presentation: 4 members of Reclamation will sit in a circle and draw straws. Whoever draws the shortest straw has to move as much as he/she can in the course of an hour while the other 3 nap and/or drink beer.
These are probably the easiest of examples to offer (as they are textual and not, say, audio or a schematic, etc. and also because at the moment a beer or a nap sound really nice). There are submissions that have taken the problem from a physics perspective or as an engineering issue, others from a political angle, others from a fantastical point of view, others from a semantical one, and so on and so forth.
Q: What will be the outcome of FAIR? Will there be documentation?
A: Photographs will be taken of the FAIR and a schematic of the FAIR booth placements will be published on the website. The website will list the presenters, submissions, and an Official Confvergence Report will be pulled together from the submissions. The Official Confvergence Report will include submission summaries, key points, and action items; it will be uploaded to the website and made available for download by December 2010.
RECLAMATION 