Swap Meet: How to Swap Meet

Then you can choose to share one blanket with others or you can join blankets together because we have sewn buttons on the sides allowing for multiple coalitions when necessary.

Sure you can, there is a lot to do at the Next 5 Minutes and we can imagine you want to take time off from squatting your blanket to see other things.

Post your idea on this list or email us in person at:

info@geuzen.org

Although we only have an afternoon for the workshops, we are open and excited about suggestions from others.

If you want a blanket to air your wares then simply email us at:

info@geuzen.org

We intend on giving them out as long as they last.

While surveying the net for images we found this. The title reads:

Mr. Robin's Grade 6 French Class Make a Human Peace Sign

okay, a bit cheesey and too hippy but nonetheless a few thoughts came to mind: "design for aerial views" and "the body as typography"

We just got news from the Next 5 Minutes production crew that the turbo event will take place on Saturday night from 9:00 until 12:30. Basically, all the spaces are booked up before then.

With this kind of time frame it looks like we are going to have to approach "the moment of convergence" less like a workshop and more like a kind of show and tell. This means everyone with a blanket will gather together and show their things simultaneously.

Although time is short and it is the end of a long day, we are still thinking of setting up a small production house where buttons, T-shirts and stickers can be produced on the fly. Is this idea interesting for you or your organisation? Let us know because we will need to make arrangements for materials in advance. (Basically we'll be bringing our own personal computers and printers, ironing boards, and the kitchen sink...)

Coming to the Next 5 Minutes and want to show some of your analog tactical wares and know-how?

THEN CLAIM YOUR BLANKET FOR THE SWAP MEET WHILE SUPPLIES STILL LAST
register now at: info@geuzen.org

For the Next 5 Minutes 4, De Geuzen (www.geuzen.org) is organizing a swap meet where tactical traditions and the politics they represent will be featured, exchanged and generally talked about. By tactical traditions we mean buttons, flyers, T-shirts, pie throwing, stencils, stickers and various other analog media .

For the event we are designing around 25 blankets that will operate as a tactical interface. Made to be viewed vertically as a banner, or horizontally as a surface, or from above as a shelter, our blankets are a kind of nomadic, carry-all, platform for attending participants. For the first days of the conference the blankets will circulate both inside and outside various venues of the Next 5 Minutes. Owners will quite literally unfold them and squat or occupy any space they see fit to air their wares and promote their cause. On Saturday evening from 9:00 until 12:30, the blankets and their owners will converge in a single place for a turbo exchange of tactical traditions. Audiences/participants will be able to peruse a variety of goods on view or participate in a series of "show and tell"/how-to lessons held at the same location. The space will be a cross between a junk sale and a DIY center where computers converge with ironing boards and the dilettante is valued as the expert. 

In preparation for the Swap Meet we have set-up this weblog for people to get to know each other and exchange ideas, resources, and know-how in advance of the event. We will also use the site for documentation and hopefully continue the debate around tactical traditions long after the event is over.

The Next 5 Minutes runs from Sept. 11 till Sept. 14. The blankets will be handed out on the first day and will be in circulation during the whole conference and the turbo moment of convergence will take place on Sept 13, from 21.00 till 00:30.

Carla,

Great to see the stickers on the site. Post more! One of the interesting things about that sticker project was that there was no singular image representing the vagina. In the end you made a kind of portrait of gestures circumscribing the form.

We are also considering bringing our Geuzennaam* T-shirts to the Swap Meet so your stickers will have some company in relation to the topic of female representation.

*Geuzennaam: a Dutch term for a negative or derogatory name appropriated and reclaimed as a positive label of empowerment.

1/250 negative names to call a woman (and the inventory is still growing)

*one more time in Dutch... Geuzennaam: zelfgekozen erenaam die oorspronkelijk als scheld- of spotnaam werd gebruikt.

for more info see Easy Iron on Geuzennaam on our DIY Page

My work ACT2

Lately I have been concern with our role as citizens within the collective construction of society, our society – Europe ore more broadly if you will an occidental globalised society. Imbedded and connected by mass media and economic monopolies.

Using art as an interrogative tool to analyse the world we live in collaboration with the audience my work balances between the art world and activism.

Act 2 can be visited on the website
http://www.anti-anti.net/act2/
or the blog:
http://www.takeaction.blogspot.com

Act 2 is a look-a-like political street hand puppet theatre .It is to be placed on public squares and it is meant for participation of the passers-by. Act2 is composed by a wooden box that: when open can be used as frame for the puppet show and holder of the puppets, when closed can be easily rolled through the streets.

«Act 2- do you want to manipulate for a change? » was enacted between October 2002 and July 2003 in Rotterdam and token to Geneva in the occasion of the G8 summit. It was active during the whole war against Iraq issue. Act 2 invites the passer-by to manipulate public and influential political figures, such as Tony Blair or George Bush, whoever is starring on the world political theatre at the moment.

Act 2 invites the participant to control the masters of the world, to play their own narratives or mimic the current ones and by doing so reflecting on their role in society.

Being the first question posed by Act 2 whether they want to be mere spectators or producers of culture, with the decision of stepping into the play or not. Ultimately the provocation is to take action.

From Thursday onwards (from 19:30----), you can pick up your blanket opposite the N5M registration desk at the Balie. (we will be stationed by the V2 bookstore folks) We are setting up a kind of depot where people can not only pick up their blanket but they can also drop it off if they are sharing one.

For those travelling from afar, have a safe and enjoyable journey.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Incomplete inventory of blankets circulating:

Hyla Willis / Cyberfeminsm.net
Undercurrents
Tony Credland / Cactus Network
Carla Cruz
Art Against Apathy
FAC_2 [we belong to you] slateford
Anna
Yomango
Laurence Rassel / Constant
Tracey Benson / UNAUSTRALIAN
Diana McCarthy / Faces / Bootlab
Autolab: tactical media from the masses!!
Deborah Kellly
Zeroglab Rotterdam / Origami
Rolf Homan

Claim your blanket fast - only 2 left!

The swap meet will take place at 22:00 tonight upstairs in De Balie [across the N5M4 registration desk].
We have also brought an original buttonmaker / diameter: 57mm

all packed with my Swap Meet and soft Blanket.

The Swap Meet blanket in action at the Melkweg, promoting a screening of the documentary Hippies from hell [directed by Ine Poppe, photography Sam Nemeth]
The film can be viewed on-line

this is my contribution for the swap meet on the balie, how I used my blanket. As a table cloth over which I was cuting some new stencil graffitti, that could be taken away and after sprayed, preferentially on the places requested on the stencil itself, such as Algeciras and tanger, for the series - Clandestino - marroco.