The Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs Presents: An Exhibition of Proposals for a Socialist Colony

Autonomous Organization did some research and found that because a box of archives was lost during the Archive War of 1842, the land that Skydive’s gallery stands on is currently up for grabs by any group starting a Socialist colony on the property. Upon learning this, we formed the Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs to publicize this opportunity. The works in this project are responses; proposals for new systems, tools, communications, research, democratic gestures, public relations and reflections on past utopic experiments.

Sasha Dela and Elysa Lozano

Zanny Begg

I employed a somewhat subversive approach to revolutionary consciousness by utilizing capitalist marketing tools, which are, of course the antithesis of the socialist approach to developing revolutionary consciousness as traditionally understood (and yet are deeply embedded within the psyches of those who would be potential revolutionaries) to address the problems with "brand socialism". I have used market research questionnaires and focus groups with self-professed revolutionaries and enlisted the assistance of a range of marketing experts such as crisis management firms, viral marketing companies, PR gurus and spin doctors to come up with a marketing campaign for socialism. The work will be a tongue in cheek look at the possibilities of revolution in the twenty-first century: the joke a double edged sword – poking fun not only at the unmarketable nature of socialism but also the manipulative and coercive nature of marketing itself.

The work involves a looped video projection documenting the first leg of the Re-branding Socialism campaign in Sydney.

BAW

Salah Days

N55



Its called manual for COMMUNAL BAKERY. Its a bakery run by a small community. It could be placed outdoors or indoors. Its part of an upcoming series of production facilities, that aim to re-introduce local production in small communities.

Chto Delat

The Builders

Erin Elder

More than anything else, I think our new colony requires a campfire circle.

Campfire circles serve many functions. They are a place to gather, to tell stories, to warm one's hands and heart, to sing, to cook, to eat, to make merry. It is a safe place and a space to share. Making a fire circle is a declaration of comfort and intention (one wouldn't build a fire circle if enemies lurked beyond the next ridge) and yet it is a temporary construction. In the travels of settlers and pioneers, adventurers and vagabonds many fire circles are built and then dismantled; oftentimes fire circles are left behind for use by another group of travelers.

José Filipe Moreira da Costa

This work is based on Thomas Harlan’s documentary of the unique moment in Portuguese history when a group of workers occupied the manor of Torre Bela, and formed a self-organized agricultural cooperative on the property. The film juxtaposes the 'shovel sequence' from the original documentary with outside commentary on the event. In this sequence one group member tries to convince another to donate his shovel to the collective as he remains unconvinced that giving up his personal property will be beneficial for him.

Aharon

The significance of the sq root of minus 1 is that historically it is a controversial calculation. The result of the calculation, 1i, brought about a whole new set of numbers, "imaginary numbers". If you think of "normal" numbers as a line going horisontally, say -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3, the imaginary numbers' line goes vertically crossing the the "normal" numbers' line at point 0.

Karl Marx wrote a paper slamming the possibility of imaginary numbers...