Sylvère Lotringer will be the gues for Intervention #5: Born 1938 in Paris; editor of Semiotext(e), he is professor of French Philosophy at Columbia University in New York and Jean Baudrillard Professor at EGS in Switzerland. He is credited for introducing "French Theory" in America. He has published catalogue essays for the Guggenheim, the Moma, the New Museum, the Musee du Jeu de Paume, Modern Kunst in Vienna, etc. and edited dozens of magazines and books.

In past months I have been researching work of artist Michelle Teran, that resulted in an extensive interview on her work, methods and positions when working with social and media networks within urban environments
(http://MichelleTeran.interview.pr0be.info/)

Michelle Teran will conduct 2 day WORKSHOP as a part of Imaginary Property event City Lab starting on Thursday 21st at noon in Annex (workspace of Jan van Eyck Academie) and concluding it with public action on evening of Friday 22nd (could be as late as 23:59 ;-)
It will include technical tutorial, discussion, city research, experiments with different media technologies and setups, mapping walks and maybe something else...

Bakhtin's theory of enunciation is a 'carnevalesque' integration of all the elements that Hannah Arendt's theory of action and the word had emptied out or subordinated to the totalising power of language. The recognition of the multiplicity of the semiotic, the polyphony of matters of expression (both verbal and non-verbal), the heterogeneity of linguistic and non-linguistic elements, becomes on the one hand, the basis of a 'strategic' theory of action between speakers whereby it is possible to define meaning as an 'action on possible actions' (to use Foucault's expression) [1], and on the other hand, it is the basis of a theory of creativity and production of subjectivity.

Intervention #3 will be centered around some of the theories of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. The "imaginary property" research group invites to a small symposium on May 16th featuring three guests and a screening: After "Passing Drama" a film by Angela Melitopoulos, Arianna Bove, Maurizio Lazzarato, and Angela Melitopoulos will give presentations that are linked up with Bakhtins radical reconceptualization of the relation between self and other. Bakhtin suggests an event-like relation between “possible worlds”. The other is neither an object nor a subject; it is the expression of possible worlds.

"Bakhtin’s philosophy can still speak to us because it poses the problem of the relationship between life and culture, between life and art, a problem that traversed the entire beginning of the century, and the 1920ies in particular. The solution given by Bakhtin to this problem is markedly distinct from the solution of the ‘avant-gardes’. According to Bakhtin, in order to ‘overcome’ the separation and opposition between art and life, between art and culture, the elaboration of a ‘first philosophy’ is required: The philosophy of event-being. Art and life cannot and must not tend towards identification, as was the case with the Situationists, for example. But, in order that the enriching, excessive and productive difference between art and life be able to express itself, it is necessary to possess a theory which, whilst maintaining the irreducible differences between these two dimensions, articulates them in the achievement of the event." (Maurizio Lazzarato: Dialogism and Polyphony).

Imaginary property // Intervention #2 has been delivered by filmmaker Eyal Sivan. He presents "Towards a common archives: Manipulating the enemies images". Eyal Sivan is a London based filmmaker, producer, essayist and research professor in media production at the school of social sciences, media and cultural studies at the University of East London (UEL). Sivan directed more then 10 worldwide awarded feature-length political documentaries and produced many others. He is the founder and Chief Editor of 'Cinema South Notebooks' in Israel - a journal of cinema and Political critic, editor at the Paris based publishing house ‘La Fabrique’ and member of the editorial board and columnist at the French social studies journal 'De l'autre Côté'. Among Sivan’s films: Aqabat-Jaber (1987 & 1994); Izkor, Slaves of Memory (1991); The Specialist (1999); Route 181, fragments of a journey in Palestine-Israel (with Michel Khleifi 2003); Aus Liebe zum Volk / I Love You all (2004 with Audrey Murion). Currently he is finishing his film "Jaffa-story of a brand name".

New York based media theorist Ted Byfield will be the first guest in Interventions, a new series of events hosted by the imaginary property (.imp) research group at Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht. Ted Byfield is a professor at Parsons the New School for Design and visiting fellow at Yale Law School (Information Society project). In his intervention he will be reflecting on methods and practices that make up (im)material architectures. Intervention #1 has been video recorded and can be viewed below.

Undermining the borders between text and image, between private property and public space through the design of 'imaginary' advertisements and (ironically) deconstructing some of the basic conventions of a magazine, Imaginary Property is curating the 77 issue of HTV-De-IJsberg, investigating new fields of image-production beyond the hard-coded notions of the commercial versus the editorial.

On January 30th, 2009, the 77th issue of HTV De Ijsberg was launched at a session of Killer TV at the De Waag, Center for old and new media in Amsterdam. The entire magazine is devoted to questions of "Imaginary property". It has been edited and compiled by the researchers of the "imaginary property" research group at Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht in close collaboration with the editorial team of HTV. The magazine as well as additional material can be visited and downloaded at: http://www.htvdeijsberg.nl

The symposium Imaginary Property, introducing the research project by the same name, explores new potentials for design practices across various registers at the intersections of design-theory and image-production. What challenges emerge from the paradoxes that research into ‘imaginary property’ has given rise to? How could these potentially generate new rules of production, bearing in mind that property relations are constantly exchanging meaning? Do we have to rethink and re-evaluate the notion of ‘design’ against this background?