Sundown Salon #12: L.A. MASTERMINDING
April 4th, 2004
with:
A+D Museum
Bicycle Kitchen
Casa del Pueblo
C-Level
Center for Land Use Interpretation
Cornerstone Theater
Flor y Canto
Foundation for Art Resources
High Desert Test Sites
The Institute for Advanced Architecture
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest
L.A. Forum for Architecture & Urban Design
Machine Project
MAK Center for Art and Architecture
Materials & Applications
Outpost for Contemporary Art
Timbre Space
Our Social Dynamic
By Julie Deamer
It was apparent in each conversation that the group wasn’t simply a thing (or, a “sum of its parts”), but rather a performance. Perhaps this is most evident by listening to the way the representatives adopt the pronoun “we”: When does the “I” become a “we”? What actions can the “we” perform? It’s through this pronoun that one begins to hear the structure of the organization. It is not that the structure lies behind some institutional surface but that structure and surface are one and the same. - From a study called “Institutions: Los Angeles 1,” July 28, 2003, produced by Fiona Whitton, Sean Dockray, and Tim Pilla and Center for Advanced Architecture
Sensing a new cultural vitality in Los Angeles orbiting around a growing network of non-commercial art organizations and collectives, Sundown Salon organized “L.A. Masterminding” and hosted what turned out to be a very large round-the-room preamble with over 30 representatives from various groups in attendance.
“L.A. Masterminding,” the 12th Sundown Salon, happened on April 4, 2004 and followed other Salons with names like “hot rods n’ hot pants” and “lights>music>magic.” With no featured artists, musicians, dancers, or planned activities, or a particularly creative theme from which to draw a crowd, this Salon brought people together with a simple “call and response’ action, working on the assumption, or hope, that the invitees (those identified as fellow participants in the growing network of independent art organizations in Los Angeles) would share an interest in meeting and acknowledging one another’s work, and supporting each other’s projects. As a result, the Salon’s geodesic dome was packed with enthusiastic people who are finding an unbelievable variety of ways to affect positive social change through their creative work as cultural producers.
I left that day feeling like I found real camaraderie for the first time in Los Angeles, and this after living in LA for four years (!), albeit primarily absorbed in the gallery world, where, admittedly, my love for art had begun to wane. I sensed a connection that was based on a few key values: a belief that art plays a critical role in society, a strong interest in creating a space for an ongoing conversation that doesn’t end with a single exhibition or event, a desire to make crazy, unexpected shit happen (and, for better or worse, a willingness to do this work for free…), and a mindset that favors group action.
In a context like Sundown Salon, which generates enlivening occasions in a totally amazing environment, what could be described as a simple meeting, which “L.A. Masterminding” was, can also be considered, as suggested in the quote above, as a performance. Like the other Salons that had preceded it, it created a platform for something to happen on, in this case a conversation.
All together in one room were representatives from more established non-profit’s like MAK Center, Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, and Center for Land Use Interpretation, to collectives like The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest and The Institute for Advanced Architecture (with activities now housed within a new non-profit called Telic Arts Exchange), to experimental labs like High Desert Test Site, to cooperatives like C-level (now called Beta Level), to community meeting/reading room Flor Y Canto (no longer active), to new non-profits like Machine Project and Outpost for Contemporary Art, to casual forums like Sundown Salon. The variety of interests, continuance, and organizational structures was compelling. And while some groups have disbanded (usually to reconstitute into something new) the network has continued to expand. with Fallen Fruit, Shed Research Institute, ESL (Esthethics as a Second Language), Telic Arts Exchange, LAXArt and others. This list by no means complete, others like Bicycle Kitchen, Echo Park Film Center, LA Independent Media Center, LACE, Self-Help Graphics, were not present at this meeting but should be mentioned nonetheless.
I’d like to say that an incredibly generative discussion ensued but I’d be lying. The group was too large perhaps, or maybe we needed a moderator, or maybe its success is relative depending on what one was looking for. I was there looking for a world I want to live and work in, a dream world that includes a community of passionate people who are motivated by possibility and the inspiration that comes from producing stuff that isn't standard, that doesn't have to exist but because it does (even temporarily) it opens up new ways of thinking.
I also came to talk about a new organization, Outpost for Contemporary Art, publicly for the first time to find acknowledgement and support for this endeavor, which was still in the planning stages, and to see if our reasons for doing it would make sense to others. I don’t know for sure what motivated other founders of Outpost, but I know that I was looking for a way to step into a community and add something meaningful to it, to expand its offerings and participate on a deeper level, which for me means building friendships and positive relationships and trust in each others intentions. I think this is the most interesting part.
“Getting to it, sharpening the trajectory, really the opposite of what we want, which is—not perfection of mode—which would be hell—but starting at the outcome, in order to get started on the fathoming of it.” I like this line from a poem by my friend Suzanne Stein because it speaks to the process involved when compelling something into existence. If we do things that matter to a community, that invite community support and engagement, chances are we do these things not because we are making money but because we are making friends in the process and making a difference, we hope, in our lives and the lives of others. We do these things not to be noble but because it’s interesting and engaging to imagine a certain outcome. Sometimes we decide to make these things we imagine actually happen. Sometimes they work sometimes they don’t work. What ends up happening is something changes--a mindset, the way one might do things differently next time, an approach, a relationship, whatever, the point is that something changes and its usually for the better.
All of this is stuff we know. It feels redundant to even being writing it and I have struggled to find the point of this essay. Every essay needs a point, right? Well, the main points are easy to overlook. I think the major point here is that unless people make the time to get together they miss the point.
Overall, I think most attendees discovered that day that our kinship with one another is not an illusion and that our will to exist is worthwhile and important, and that it’s probably time to get together again.
LINKS
bike kitchen
center for land use interpretation
the institute for advanced architecture
journal of aesthetics & protest
l.a. commons
l.a. forum for architecture & urban design