LAUREL PTAK

‘A Debt To Society’ is a forthcoming exhibition at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York City in fall 2012. The project will present the work of artists and collectives who have dedicated themselves to themes of economy and finance in their work, asking them to turn their attention to one key financial form in contemporary American society — debt. Of particular interest is the way in which debt has inscribed itself as a highly abstract but fundamental mechanism of power and subjugation, intervening in numerous social relations. 

While being in debt is probably as old as human civilization itself, the structure of that indebtedness has changed. Today, credit card, mortgage and student loan debt account for trillions of dollars of wealth in America — and although many people are in debt, it is much less clear if they have the ability to pay it off — ever. Rather, many of us live in a state of constant deferral, a relationship to an uncertain future when our debts will come due and the collection agencies will begin calling. To be in debt is to have one’s future tied in with another and in the contemporary American case that other is probably a bank. The creditor used to be condemned for lending with excess interest; now it is the debtor who must pay her or his “debt to society.”

I’m excited to be curating this exhibition in collaboration with Leigh Claire La Berge whose academic work examines the representation of financial forms in film, literature and popular culture. Our work together will also result in a publication on debt exploring a wide range of theoretical and artistic perspectives. Participants to be announced soon.

‘Publishing in Process: Ownership in Question’ is a series of public seminars at Tensta konsthall inviting artists and writers to present projects and perspectives around the intersection of art, intellectual property, political economy and the public realm.

At a moment when the distribution between what is privately owned and publicly shared in society is being fundamentally questioned and protested in many parts of the world, what do notions of production, property, ownership, exchange, surplus and value mean to us right now? Seminars by Florian Schneider, Antonia Hirsch, Marina Vishmidt, Matthew Stadler.

Part of a year-long collaborative project between artist Marysia Lewandowska and curator Laurel Ptak, culminating with a book publication in 2012.

In 2011 I joined the team at Tensta konsthall in Stockholm where I have been working on a number of curatorial projects including the launch in January of a brand-new website made together with design studio Metahaven and programmer Henrik van Leeuwen. I will continue to curate the ‘space’ and ‘bag’ sections of the site where you can soon look forward to specially-commissioned artist projects and texts. Please check back often for updates. www.tenstakonsthall.se.

‘Towards A History, A Politics, A Philosophy Of The Online Image’ is a research project initiated in December 2011. Does the online image have the potential to disrupt established notions of visual culture and artistic practice in profound ways? Beyond undoing photography’s prior relationship to the real, indexicality, or materiality the online image defines itself on new terms — through its flexibility and pathways of circulation and distribution more than its act of creation or production. How are artists and theorists negotiating these new meanings and implications of the photograph inside network culture? How can we make sense of the online image’s new forms of hybridity, modes of authorship, economies of attention, and conditions of sociality? 

This inquiry exists as a series of encounters hosted by various institutions internationally, and will include teaching, curating, public events, residencies, publishing and other outcomes along the way, including:

001: Conversation with artist David Horvitz published in Foam Magazine’s What’s Next Issue, December 2012, Amsterdam

002:  Workshop ‘Towards A History, A Politics, A Philosophy Of The Online Image’ at the art school Konstfack, April 2012, Stockholm

‘Art & Intellectual Property’ is a research project conducted from 2009-11 in collaboration with artist Marysia Lewandowska exploring relationships between artistic practice, legal structures, open culture and the public realm. The project has taken the form of discussion group (The Showroom/London); published conversations (Paletten/Göteborg, Shadowboxing/London, Zeszyty Artystyczne/Poznan); and reading room (Center for Curatorial Studies/New York) encouraging publics to explore the ways in which models of property ownership, power relations and the boundaries between public and private are quietly, and not so quietly, being redrawn inside our knowledge economy. 

Read conversation between Lewandowska & Ptak on intellectual property here. 

‘Seminar Room Three’ is an exhibition project in collaboration with the 2011 graduating class of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and designer Eric Nylund. Conceived as a discursive space inside Bard’s Hessel Museum, Seminar Room Three hosted screenings, discussions, classes and public events related to students’ thesis projects. All of the objects inside the space were reclaimed and repurposed from pervious exhibitions that had taken place inside the museum during the two years they were students there. 

‘Free Kevin’ is a hacker screening series which re-imagines the role of the curatorial inside network culture, where information is often freely, widely and anonymously distributed online. 15.4 GB of downloaded films and documentaries depicting computer culture from the 1980s-2000s, from blockbuster films to educational television programming to documentaries produced within the hacking community itself, are made available on request to individuals and institutions wishing to host a screening and to stimulate dialogue around issues of open culture.

Free Kevin premiered in New York City at Art In General hosted by General Public Library in October 2010; was hosted in Stockholm by Konst & Teknik and Martin Ström in December 2010; and was mirrored in Amsterdam by Roel Wouters & Jonathan Puckey in December 2010. 

You can view trailers for many of the films here and read an interview about the project here.

‘Mass Recording (To Be Read From Right to Left)’ is a photographic installation, performance and publication by artist Erik Blinderman exploring the intersection of representation, media and politics in contemporary life where an increasing number of individuals have the means to record, manipulate and circulate information. At the Center For Curatorial Studies at Bard College, February-March 2010.

‘Like the English Language, Formulae of Newtonian Physics, the Works of Shakespeare, and Patents Over Powered Flight’ is a collaboration with artist David Horvitz and the 2010 graduating class of Bard College’s MFA program. Project invited emerging artists to reflect on the relationship between their artworks, intellectual property, and culture-at-large. Resulted in the release of 25 artworks into the public domain, compilation of a pirated critical reader, and donation of artworks to the Red Hook Public Library, August 2010.

‘In Real Life’ is an exhibition inviting innovative and independent online art initiatives to come do a 4-hour residency inside exhibition space—attempting to explore how the production, distribution, consumption and analysis of culture are rapidly evolving in an online context. In particular the exhibition aimed to render the labor of these online practices transparent, providing “real life” access to these cultural producers and overall inspire public dialogue around their practices. At Capricious Space, New York City, March 2009.

Participating websites: Art Fag City, ASDF, Club Internet, Ffffound, The Highlights, Humble Arts Foundation, I Heart Photograph, Loshadka, Netmares/Netdreams, Platform For Pedagogy, Private Circulation, UbuWeb, VVORK, Why + Wherefore.

iheartphotograph.com was a five-year project, from 2006-11, that looked indepthly at contemporary image-based practices on a global scale and also explored the terms of what an online curatorial practice might mean. 

WHAT’S NEXT. Foam, Amsterdam, March 2011. Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Charlotte Cotton, Constant Dullaart, Lisa Oppenheim, Laurel Ptak, Fred Ritchin, Thomas Ruff, Joachim Schmid and many others.

Expert meeting and public discussion about the future of photography.

FINDING PHOTOGRAPHY. New Museum, New York, January 2010. Tim Barber, Roe Etheridge, Mary Manning, Laurel Ptak, Lauren Cornell, organized by Matt Keegan.

Panel discussion considering how new technologies and cultural forms have impacted the recent understanding, production, and distribution of photographs.

WORDS WITHOUT PICTURES. The New School, New York, September 2009. Matt Keegan, David Reinfurt, Charlotte Cotton, Alex Klein, Fia Backström, Johanna Burton, Melissa Catanese, Sarah Charlesworth, Moyra Davey, Darius Himes, John Lehr, Miranda Lichtenstein, Arthur Ou, Ed Panar, Laurel Ptak. 

Discussion about the role and status of the book inside contemporary photography.

BROWSER AS EXHIBITION SPACE. Capricious, New York, March, 2009. 

Roundtable discussion with founders of and contributors to online arts initiatives including UbuWeb, Club Internet, Private Circulation, Why + Wherefore, Art Fag City, The Highlights and others as part of the exhibition In Real Life.