Workshop #2

Thanks for a very stimulating class. Next week we will begin by returning to the list of "practical choices" one faces when organizing gatherings and events. I will fill out the abstract categories by giving you some specific approaches I've used (or I've seen others use) to deal with such issues as inclusiveness/exclusiveness, making symmetrical relations, keeping control over an event versus letting it go, hosting, finding the right room (or beach!), making the mix, and a few others.

We'll also return to the readings I gave you at the end of class last night. It occurred to me that the Harry Kessler reading (which is from his diaries, published in English as Berlin in Lights) covers events that might be unfamiliar to you. Germany in 1918 underwent a revolution, called the November Revolution, that (much like its counterpart revolution in Russia the year before) deposed an old monarchy and unleashed populist, democratic forces including strong communist parties. But in Germany, a populist anti-communist party, the socialist democratic party (SPD), took control. By January 1919 (when Kessler's diary pages begin), the communists, especially the Sparticists, behind the leadership of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, threatened to overwhelm the SPD government and bring a real communist revolution. It is this battle, fought largely in the streets of Berlin (and ending with Liebknecht's and Luxemburg's arrests and deaths), that we witness through Kessler's diary. (This struggle also gave birth to the German Freikorps, groups of populist SPD vigilantes unleashed against the Sparticists, who formed the vanguard of the Nazi movement that would grow to overwhelm Germany in the 1930s.) Kessler, working as a diplomat for the SPD government, was as suspicious of the communist leadership as he had been dismissive of the old Kaiser.

Okay, that reading together with the Canetti excerpt (from Crowds and Power) are meant to remind us of the political dimensions of people gathering in public space and of the potentials that people gathering together have -- if, and only if, the space where they gather is sufficiently important to the civic/political life of the state.

Which brings me to our other pending business, to which we'll return next Monday: a proposal for working on a public gathering. I outlined an ambitious project to gather a large crowd in a significant public space. I'd like you all to keep that thought on hold (and to yourselves) until we meet again next Monday. At that meeting I will present a clear, concise page describing the reasons and methods of that proposed project. And we can take (or leave) it from there. I'd strongly prefer that we take the next step on this in person, in class, and not in detailed discussion online or with others. Thanks so much for that.

And remember, next week Vanessa Renwick will visit to talk to us about taking her film shows on the road. As I did with Michael Hebberoy, I'll send you some URLs for background on Vanessa later this week. See you next Monday.

Matthew