Social Actors in Transformation

Social Actors in Transformation (SAIT) is a research project into the diversity of cultural and artistic practices in the cities of Belgrade, Minneapolis and Rotterdam. In association with artists, academics, architects, cultural institutions and individual facilitators, it compares and contrasts local situations and places them in the broader context of global developments.

Subdivided into three phases, the research will consider the differences and similarities between theoretical discourse and cultural practices in the three cities. The researchers will use theoretical and urban-planning models to map out a network, providing insight into the way in which global developments are manifested on the local scale as well as into the various roles that “social actors” play in this network.

During phase 1, sociologists, architects, academics, artists, and organizers talked with each other in roundtable discussions. The theme was the relationships between the local cultural systems and biotopes and the contemporary political and social developments. The objective was the exchange of information, material, knowledge and ideas between the international group of participants.

During phase 2 in the month of April, a “laboratory” will be installed which, in partnership with Witte de With and the SAIT participants, will function as a research and meeting space for the second phase of the project. Throughout the entire month there are lectures, performances, film screenings, interviews and public discussions, which have been organized with artists, architects, organizers and researchers from Belgrade, Minneapolis and Rotterdam.

During phase 3 the results will be pulled together in the form of concrete interventions, presentations and a publication.

THROUGHOUT APRIL: SAIT laboratory

Office Room

An operational installation.
This ‘office’ is where SAIT carries out its research and makes it available in text, image and graphics. The participants will process the materials and documents that are gathered in the course of the SAIT project, experimenting with different media strategies for the presentation of the material. The goal of the experiment is to package and distribute the content so that the information is accessible for a broad public.

WHY Rotterdam by innbetween: a project that searches for the ‘true Rotterdam’ that ‘lies innbetween factual history and consensus reality and it’s hidden legends or imagined utopias’.
Also see innbetween.noneto.com and why rotterdam

Presentation Room

WORM, one of the project’s case-study organizations, was evicted from its space in Rotterdam and is a temporary guest in the SAIT project during April with worm SHOP, worm IMAGE and worm SOUND. The worm SHOP is open from Tuesday through Saturday from midday to 6 p.m.
Also see: www.wormweb.nl and www.wormstation.nl

The WORM house architects, ‘2012 architects’, use the ‘Miele space station’ to embody the organization’s current nomadic existence. Also see 2012 architects

Lounge Room

Moving PrintROOM, a project of ROOM, Rotterdam, is a presentation of artists’ publications which is gradually expanding as it tours around different organizations.
Also see www.room.luna.nl
Video Library: footage from Belgrade, Minneapolis and Rotterdam.

Parallel Practices

Parallel Practices takes a look at Rotterdam ‘as if through the eyes of others’ in four sessions during the month of April (see program below). It concerns a search for activities, practices and initiatives related to individuals or institutions acting in the dynamics of urban culture. The series of roundtable discussions explores and highlights how a number of urban cultural initiatives have transformed themselves or been transformed into what they are today. By presenting different activities and contrasting initiatives from a variety of cities (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Minneapolis and Belgrade) on a single platform, we aim to create a forum where similar ideas from different backgrounds can be analyzed and tested and thus function as points for discussion.

The SAIT program is a collaborational effort of a.o.: Dragan Ambroziæ (B92, Belgrado), Heather Beal, (SOAP Factory, Minneapolis), Bik Van der Pol (artists, Rotterdam), Catherine David (director Witte de With), Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam), Ben Heywood (SOAP Factory, Minneapolis), Kelley Lindquist (Artspace Projects, Minneapolis), Shawn McLaeren (Choros International Projects, New York), Jaz (architect, Rotterdam), Stealth Group (architects Rotterdam), Worm (arts organization, Rotterdam).

PHASE 1: JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2003
19-25 January, Minneapolis
29 January, Rotterdam
30 January-3 February, Belgrade

SAIT is a project by CHOROS international projects, New York in collaboration with Witte de With.
The ‘parallel practices’ series of roundtable discussions is organized in association with Bik Van der Pol and Stealth group, Rotterdam.