How to Reside – On Temporary Presence and States of Coexistence

by Dmitry Paranyushkin

September 2010, Berlin

This text was written in response to SI residency in Gent with Les Ballets C de la B and during TAMTAMTAM
residency at Direktorenhaus in Berlin.

To reside is to be present temporarily.

When we reside we leave our space and time behind, opening up to the constraints and
propositions that the residency proposes.

These constraints are there to produce friction that makes movement possible. You need to push
against something when you walk.

“I like the notion of ‘walking as controlled falling’. [...] It conveys the sense that freedom, or
the ability to move forward and to transit through life, isn’t necessarily about escaping from
constraints. There are always constraints. [...] You move forward by playing with the
constraints, not avoiding them.” [1]

During my time at SI the only constraints were the time and space. The only propositions were
to continue working on your project and to meet other practitioners. After a few days it felt like
dancing.

When the movement is determined solely by economical, political, and personal objectives it
becomes about fulfilling a certain task. This can be useful, however it doesn't produce the
knowledge, but results. The movement solidifies and stops there. Which is not a bad thing, but
that's not what I'm looking for right now.

During our time at Direktorenhaus we constantly had to negotiate and look for some sort of
balance between the gallery’s desire to produce results and our own desire to explore. After a
few weeks it felt like being stuck. But we let our guests move freely, as if nothing happened.

What kind of constraints and propositions do we need to maintain the movement, to avoid
fulfilling tasks but to generate them instead?

"True creativity is all about finding a business model that makes intelligent content
sustainable." [2]
I found this quote while I was thinking about residencies today. Coincidence. They also talk
about performance and possibility. The notion of "true" is a bit suspicious, but let's say it's the
echo of economical, political, and personal.

Maybe what I'm looking for has something to do with the constraints and propositions the
residency offers. The question of where is solved with misplacement, the question of when is
solved with temporariness. So the circumstances, the relations become more prominent than
anything else.

Now back to the intelligent content and sustainability. Intelligence is about knowing that you
have multiple choices, sustainability is about leaving the knowledge behind and starting to move
in a certain direction.
Perhaps intelligence is related to propositions and sustainability is related to constraints.

Making intelligent propositions that are sustainable produces the movement. The friction comes
from constraints and makes it possible. The time and space are eliminated. Possibility of
performance.

So what could the propositions be? Let's start from the beginning. Multiple choices are already
there from the beginning when the people arrive, within their intelligence. So to propose
something is just to acknowledge this fact. Just go on. Continue. Do whatever you feel like. Do
whatever you don't feel like. This is not enough.

What are the constraints? They are already there from the beginning. The place has its borders,
the time has its limits, there is only this much people. The objects, the space, the time, the
conditions, the people produce relationships. A multitude of differences, tension, friction.
Choices. The movement starts.

Another quote. " They all did their own thing, but yet it happened in the same space. And there
is the possibility that certain encounters happen. " And then – "For me, it is very important to
work on these things as if it were long distance running, over many years. Little by little, new
ramifications happen. So, the answer to your question of how one can bring these things
together is by, first of all, not rushing them, and, secondly, not jumping from one project to the
next, but instead having sustained projects that evolve over a long time, through different
chapters. " [3]

Sustained projects and sustainable content. Residency as the time and space that produces the
possibility for encounters to happen or the possibility of performance. Propositions that produce
multiplicity within this possibility. Constraints that point to the right choices.

The time is over and I have to leave, but let's maybe talk about it when we meet again.

Bibliography

[1] Brian Massumi (interview by Mary Zournazi)

[2] 032c Magazine, Berlin - http://www.032c.com/2010/performance-p/
[3] Hans Ulrich Obrist - http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/obrist08/obrist08_index.html

SI residency in Gent was produced by Les Ballets C de la B (August 2010), initiated by

Christine De Smedt and co-curated by Myriam Van Imschoot –
http://www.lesballetscdela.be/#/en/projects/productions/si/introduction/

Direktorenhaus residency in Berlin (September-October 2010) was initiated by Illustrative

EV / TAMTAMTAM – http://www.direktorenhaus.com/?id=1464

Dmitry Paranyushkin is a researcher and artist from Moscow based in Berlin. He’s the founder
of This Is Like – the online network exploration and research community and PLAYBerlin – a
Berlin-based periodical for intelligent content. Dmitry can be contacted via his website
www.deemeetree.com or e-mail d@deemeetree.com