Wie können kreative Praktiken unser Wissen in soziale Bewegungen transformieren? Welche Perspektiven eröffnen alternative Wissenssysteme?
«Gathering Knowledges»-Day
Critical Media Lab, Raum D 3.05 der HGK Basel
Freitag, 29. November 2024, 10h – 17h
Gesprochene Sprache: Englisch
Eintritt frei, offen für alle Interessierten
Herzliche Einladung zum «Gathering Knowledges»-Day! Das Institute Experimental Design and Media Cultures (IXDM) der HGK Basel lädt zu einem eintägigen Forum, um gemeinsam zu reflektieren, wie Machtverhältnisse und Kontexte die Produktion und Validierung von Wissen prägen und wie wir unsere eigenen Standpunkte situieren können.
Es erwarten dich Beiträge von Kenza Benabderrazik, Kevin Ochieng Okoth und Bafta Sarbo, sowie Berichte aus den Workshops mit Otieno Sumba, Ozan Güngör, Elvira Soliman und Studierenden des BA Prozessgestaltung und des MA Transversal Design.
Nach dem «Dear Earth,»-Day im Herbst 2023 mit Kathryn Yusoff, Helen Pritchard und studio erde ist auch in diesem Jahr der «Gathering Knowledges»-Day aus dem neuen Jahresthemas im BA Prozessgestaltung entstanden. Gleichzeitig markiert der «Gathering Knowledges»-Day den Abschluss zum 25-jährigen Jubiläum von HyperWerk.
Programm «Gathering Knowledges»-Day
10.00 ༄ Introduction with Ann Mbuti, professor at IXDM; tina omayemi reden, lecturer IXDM and Matthias Böttger, head of IXDM
10.15 ༄ Sharing of the Workshops with students of the BA Process Design and MA Transversal Design that participated in the Workshops of Otieno Sumba, Ozan Güngör and Elvira Soliman
Students will share some of their outcomes and key questions coming out of the following «Gathering Knowledges» Workshops:
«Contemporary art and ‘artjacent’ Publishing: possibilities and limits of editorial and publishing practices as knowledge production in contemporary art contexts» with Otieno Sumba. «Spaces of Resistance: Unveiling Marginalized Narratives in Institutionalized Spaces» with Ozan Güngör. «Tools for Change: Writing for Justice» with Elvira Soliman
11.00 ༄ Cultivating knowledge at the margin with Kenza Benabderrazik
How do power and knowledge dynamics shape our food and agricultural systems? This lecture examines the forces influencing our plates, from food security to agroecological transition. We’ll challenge dominant narratives, explore marginal spaces of resistance and experimentation, and delve into decolonial perspectives on agriculture. Can Swiss institutions nurture transformative practices and subversive spaces to reshape food systems?
Kenza Benabderrazik is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Sustainable Agroecosystems Group, ETH Zurich
14.00 ༄ Breaking the Cycle – Dependency, Anticolonial Marxism and the Political Economy of Knowledge Production with Kevin Ochieng Okoth
This lecture examines the tension between efforts to «decolonise» knowledge and the institutional contexts in which they unfold. It critiques the shift away from anti-colonial Marxism, dependency theory, and liberation histories, arguing that this shift has diluted the revolutionary potential of decolonisation and allowed its co-option by dominant global north institutions. Drawing from Red Africa (2023), the lecture advocates for a revitalised anti-colonial Marxism, challenging perceptions of Eurocentrism and proposing it as a tool for transforming social relations beyond merely recovering subjugated knowledge.
Kevin Ochieng Okoth is a writer based in London, and the author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics (2023). He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and a member of the Salvage Editorial Collective. His work focuses on Marxism, anti-imperialism, twentieth-century anti-colonial struggles and Pan-Africanism. He is currently working on a book about Kenya and the Cold War.
15.00 ༄ Challenges in critical knowledge production with Bafta Sarbo
Marxism has been a marginalized discipline globally since the 1970s. In Germany in particular, anti-communist policies have driven Marxists out of universities and stigmatized them. If Marxist theory is still employed at all today, it is typically in the form of liberal sociology, in this context, the materialist method is typically rejected as reductive by accusing it of economism. This is contradicted by a growing body of students that are repoliticizing Uni campuses with their political activism. These are more often met with authoritarian measures that also challenge the University as a space to freely produce knowledge.
Bafta Sarbo is a social scientist, educator and activist. She has taught and written on a Marxist analysis of racism, imperialism and police violence. She is coeditor of the book Die Diversität der Ausbeutung (Engl. The Diversity of Exploitation) and wrote a preface to the German reedition of Walter Rodneys How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bafta teaches courses on the three Volumes Marx‘ Capital at Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, has been active on the Board on the Initiative for Black People in Germany (2016-2024) and the broader antiracist movement in Germany focusing on police violence and refugee migration.
16.00 ༄ Discussion
Discussions and open questions between the speakers, the IXDM and the audience.
17.00 ༄ End of the «Gathering Knowledges»-Day
Some snacks and drinks to round up the day!