steirischer herbst 2006 · English

Nothing but control (Nichts ausser Kontrolle)
Spielfeldforschung on questions of surveillance, participation, collaboration, and open sources

The art of control - central to all forms of society - assumes different guises in different geographies, cultures, political systems and situations. Who is in control, what is the effect of control, how is it avoided and where is it required? These aspects and others are investigated, visualised and reviewed in "Spielfeldforschung" (playing field theory), the theoretical backbone of the festival. Because politics and economy are no longer divisible today, one question that arises is that of models of society and relationships jettisoning the idea that people can be modelled completely around the economy. Participation and collaboration are the buzzwords used to discuss the interplay between the controlled calculation and subversive uncontrollability of society. The theoretical field covers considerations of the critical art and net scene, the open source movement, aesthetic approaches and analyses of governmental studies; reflections that - following the French philosopher Michel Foucault - proceed on the premise that rule often exists in a strange alliance with those being ruled, which is why self-rule and foreign rule are often indivisible.
"Spielfeldforschung" is not an academic programme that examines art as an object but rather seeks to find ways of exposing itself to art in a rambling understanding of theory, in formats that allow visitors to meet artists, theorists and activists on location in the course of the festival programme.