Devise & Disperse: Developing Iterations of the Provocations Project

Event Overview

For the third and final phase of SloMoCo 2021, the Provocations Project is looking to expand conceptually and geographically, to develop new questions, to pose them to new communities, and to distribute and decentralize this work by launching a Call for Calls for Provocations. Over the course of two sessions, we will share our approach to developing questions and provocations as a means to probe discourses within and between differentiated communities of practice. Participants of this two-part workshop will be invited to interrogate and remix the provocations process in relation to the prospective communities they wish to engage and provoke, and then, to submit a proposal to host a future call for provocations as part of the Provocations Project.

Getting Involved

As part of the final phase of the Provocations Track at SloMoCo, we invite you to join us for two sessions of structured sharing and devising of questions, as the basis for your own future calls for provocations. The methods and resources that we share as part of this process of decentralization and multiplication of the project are intended to be generous and generative, and will inevitably shift and transform as we enter into collaboration with each of you. There are no a priori restrictions on the topic, timeline, or context of future calls for provocations, so you can think about how your own iteration of the Provocations Project might develop in the coming months or years.

These events are open to everyone, and you do not need to prepare anything in advance or commit to future involvement. Just register online by November 10, and show up to learn more!

Key Dates

• Event 1: Questions upon questions -- Wednesday November 17, 2021 | 2:00-3:30pm ET | Online*
• Event 2: Calls upon calls -- Wednesday December 1, 2021 | 2:00-3:30pm ET | Online*

*A link for each online event will be provided following registration.

About the Provocations Project

The Provocations Project involves a series of open calls for provocations meant to spur dialogue regarding differences that have come to matter within and between cultures of research in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Once launched, these calls remain open indefinitely, inviting contributions on a rolling basis to iteratively (re)configure the contours of emergent discourse. All provocations are posted online, and everyone who submits a provocation is invited to join in conversation with other provocateurs through our online community, as well as curated video conversations and roundtable discussions.

Spanning its multiple iterations since 2018, the Provocations Project aims to hold space for generative exchange around novel and systemic conditions that affect cross-disciplinary and collaborative practices. The project is not specific to any one discipline, topic, or community, and yet each question posed as part of the project becomes situated through its resonance in a particular context.

The Provocations Project can be seen as a meta-community practice, intended to reify the boundaries of a discourse by bringing its utterances into close proximity to those that lie outside of it. The goal is not agreement, understanding, or translation, but rather to gain insight into the shape that discursive boundaries have taken, and to sense what is, and is not, presently intelligible and available.

This work requires more than collaboration across disciplines; it requires a decentralized approach of autonomous actors operating in their own communities, with the support of a network that can do the work of bringing traces of their discourses into proximity with one another.

Learn more about The Provocations Project @ https://www.provocations.online

About Us

The Provocations Project is currently coordinated by Teoma Naccarato, John MacCallum, and Jessica Rajko, drawing on their hybrid backgrounds in contemporary dance, music, and computing, as well as performance philosophy and critical theory. From the outset, the trajectory of the Provocations Project has remained intentionally fluid, such that ongoing iterations may be (in)formed by the needs and desires of the communities in which it grows. The project leadership is likewise open to ongoing reconfiguration to invite new voices and visions into the mix.