Im Dialog mit der dOCUMENTA: "100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts"

“Note taking encompasses witnessing, drawing, writing, and diagrammatic thinking;
it is speculative, manifests a preliminary moment, a passage, and acts as a memory aid.” (1)

“A note is a trace, a word, a drawing that all of a sudden becomes part of thinking,
and is transformed into an idea.” (2)

Als Auftakt für die diesjährige dOCUMENTA (13), die am 9. Juni bis 16. September 2012 in Kassel stattfindet, hat die künstlerische Leitung in Kollaboration mit Hatje Cantz die Serie 100 Notizen - 100 Gedanken herausgebracht, die sich aus Notizbüchern verschiedenen Formats - von Faksimiles handschriftlicher Essays und Gespräche bis hin zu Künstlerbüchern - zusammensetzt. Die Beiträge stammen von Autoren unterschiedlichster wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen (wie z.B. Kunstgeschichte, Anthropologie, Philosophie, Politik, Literatur und Sprachwissenschaft).

In diesem interdisziplinären Projekt des wissenschaftlichen Gedankenaustauschs zeigt sich eine besondere Affinität zum Konzept der a.r.t.e.s. Forschungsschule der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln. Aus diesem Grund wurde das Forschungsprojekt "100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts" ins Leben gerufen.

Ziel ist es, ein wissenschaftliches Forum für einen interdisziplinären Austausch zu schaffen, um Verknüpfungen zwischen den einzelnen Disziplinen herzustellen, die Themen der unterschiedlichen Notizbücher zu diskutieren und dem Prozess der Gestaltung der dOCUMENTA (13) zu folgen.

*** English version ***

100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts

a.r.t.e.s. Research School, the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities Faculty of the University of Cologne, announces 100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts, an international open research project focussed on dOCUMENTA (13).

premise
As prelude to dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel, 9th June – 16th September 2012), the artistic direction, in collaboration with Hatje Cantz is publishing 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts /100 Notizen – 100 Gedanken, a series of notebooks comprised on facsimiles of existing notebooks, commissioned essays, collaborations and conversations.
Contributors from different disciplines (art, science, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, economic, political theory, language, literature studies and poetry) have been asked to publish their notes and thoughts in view of dOCUMENTA (13). The contributors have been invited “to open up the thinking, the discussion, the debate, the ideas” and “to think the documenta before the documenta opens.” (3)
The notebooks project aims to investigate and show “the way ideas are formed, […] the way knowledge is built, […] the way we can think before thinking, think before thought is constituted into something” (4). It is an open mental and written discussion, a free, interdisciplinary, multicolored debate, through which different approaches to a complex cultural event such as dOCUMENTA (13) are to be developed. It is envisioned as a constitutive part of the exhibition: “a space of dOCUMENTA (13) to explore how thinking emerges and lies at the heart of reimagining the world”. (5)

100 Notes – 100 Thoughts and a.r.t.e.s. Research School
The aim of 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts /100 Notizen – 100 Gedanken has particular affinities with the mission of a.r.t.e.s. Research School. It provides a three-year structured PhD program with a strong international and interdisciplinary approach. a.r.t.e.s. aims to open possibilities to extend knowledge of epistemic processes regarding language, history, culture, mediality, anthropology and ethics; and to contribute to the understanding of the complexity of cultural contexts. The key concepts Anthropologie - Rezeption – Transkulturation - Episteme - Sprache, which form the acronym a.r.t.e.s., underline the main interdisciplinary emphasis and refer to the longue durée of epistemic processes which cannot be neglected in light of present challenges. a.r.t.e.s. offers its doctoral candidates a stimulating environment to debate and share ideas, intuitions and methodologies of research, deepening and broadening their different fields of studies without losing sight of the particularities and the complexities of cultural processes.

aims of the project
a.r.t.e.s. Research School is launching the international open research project 100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts in order to stimulate a dynamic exchange between contemporary arts and human sciences, to debate and understand the issues better, as well as to follow the process of creation of dOCUMENTA (13). Starting in April 2012, PhD students and young scholars from different fields of study will analyse, discuss, and question the thoughts proposed in the notebooks 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts /100 Notizen – 100 Gedanken, thereby giving birth to the project 100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts. 100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts aims to build an international network of PhD students and young scholars to engage spaces of collaborative reflection and exchange. This will challenge and stimulate critical abilities, collectively improve effective tools and instruments to face complex and multifaceted cultural events and allow ideas to arise freely when confronting and interlacing them with those of colleagues.

to participate
Every person wishing to take part in the project can:
1) Read and critically approach one notebook, briefly presenting on the blog its content as well as the thoughts, reflections, and ideas which arise while reading (written contributions, in English or German, as well as visual and audio-visual contributions are accepted and welcomed).
2) Interact with other participants, discussing, debating, exchanging and sharing ideas through the blog.

meeting in Cologne
During the spring 2012, all the participants in 100 Ideas on 100 Thoughts will be invited to take part in a public round table that will be organised in the spaces of the A.R.T.e.s. Galerie, the non-profit gallery of a.r.t.e.s. Research School. The meeting will be the occasions to meet face to face, to present the state of the works and to discuss the most interesting posts on the blog.

meeting in Kassel
During the summer 2012, all the participants will have the chance to visit dOCUMENTA (13) together. A discussion and debate with the exhibition´s curatorial team of dOCUMENTA (13) is planned.

reading and presenting a booklet
Those interested in reading and presenting a booklet can:
1) Read one or more notebooks of the series 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts /100 Notizen – 100 Gedanken.
2) E-mail the title/titles to the following address 100ideason100thoughts@gmail.com to be registrated as an author. They can then proceed to publish their contributions on the blog.

(1) Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Chus Martinez, http://d13.documenta.de/#publications/?tx_publications_pi1[cat]=3&tx_publications_pi1[details]=6&cHash=a7d7f220c1aa63502c482fadcff9c0ba, 20 October 2011.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Interview with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Jutta Heeß for 3sat at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011, http://d13.documenta.de/, 7 November 2011.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Letter to a friend, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010, p. 12.