Cooperative Studies
Scaling Utopia
Opening performances are grounding moments within the festival intended to set the tone prior to each showcase. These sessions are delivered by musicians and live performers who are originative in their art. Musician, vocalist, and producer KeiyaA references the traditions of jazz, R&B, hip-hop, and various other genres in her performance, using live production and instrumentation to create new sounds in real time.
Our NEW INC member cohort consists of 5 unique Tracks or focus areas guided by a Mentor-in-Residence: Art & Code, Cooperative Studies, Creative Science, Social Architecture, and XR (Extended Realities). At the core of DEMO, members share their individual projects during Track Talks which are followed by a group conversation moderated by the Track Mentor-in-Residence.
In partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, our Cooperative Studies track explores community and worker-centered cooperative models for governing, funding, planning, and collective ownership. Following presentations by Duty Free, Gabriella Nelson, Jamica El, Mahx Capacity, Molly Ragan, the Trackâs Mentor-in-Residence Caroline Woolard will moderate a group discussion.
DEMO2024 Keynote Presentations serve as the meeting point between various disciplines, areas of inquiry, creative practices, generations, and career levels. Our invited speakers share their knowledge to bring further context to the ideas and projects incubated at NEW INC, as well as offer an additional perspective garnered from experience, passion, and illuminating creative work in their own fields.
Council Member Chi OssĂŠ delivers his keynote in alignment with the principles of our Cooperative Studies Track. In this keynote, OssĂŠ will share knowledge on envisioning new structures that center collectivity and applying such principles to local work relevant to his background in activism, community organizing, and focus on implementing innovative and human-centered solutions in solving New Yorkâs housing crisis.
This presentation offers visitors the opportunity to envision alternative worlds beyond the constraints of the economic, scientific, and institutional systems that defineâand limitâour everyday lives, thoughts, and interactions.
In place of static solutions or declarations, the presenting artists offer open-ended prompts that ask visitors to reconsider their individual and collective desires, aspirations, and complicities.Ubiquitous concepts, spanning from economic systems to notions of the sacred, are parsed into tangible exercises intended to evoke a critical and discerning lens that can be applied beyond the walls of the exhibition. In this space, care, rest, and fulfillment are prioritized over productivity and capital. Within this moment of respite and reflection, consider:
- How have your basic needs been commodified?
- What concessions in comfort and dignity have you been asked to make in exchange for access to resources?
- Does your (dis)comfort dictate the rules of this space? If so, should those be personal or communal choices?
Visitors enter the gallery through muvaboardâs installation, The Waiting Room Experience. Rooted in consideration, kindness, and intentionality, the installation is the antithesis of the impersonal environments we must contend with for government, medical, and emergency care. Ash Rucker and Gabriella Nelson honor guiding spirits and ancestors through performance and collaborative storytelling. Molly Raganâs installation, The Unlearning Library, offers the opportunity for identifying and deconstructing the assumptions of capitalist logic. Rounding out the gallery is a selection of pornographic works from AORTA Films providing the opportunity to experience viewing porn as a community practice and shared experience. Adjacent to the gallery, Duty Freeâs installation is embedded in the store, blurring the boundaries between real and artificial in an uncanny and satirical take on a corporate environment that asks visitors to reconsider their value systems.
These artists have scaled theory into practice through interactivity, sensation, and awareness, providing alternative strategies for navigating life beyond for-profit structures. In the wake of collapsing systems and impendingâor ongoingâapocalypse, the work of the Cooperative Studies cohort offers visitors a toolbox for new worlds premised on cooperation, mutual aid, resource sharing, and solidarity economies.
Through these artworks, interrogate your participation in, or rejection of, the sacred, capitalism, medical racism, whorephobia, and scarcity. Beyond this exhibition, use these prompts to opt into, or out of, systems that do not serve your vision for the world in which you hope to live.
About the Track:
Our NEW INC member cohort consists of 5 unique Tracks or focus areas guided by a Mentor-in-Residence: Art & Code, Cooperative Studies, Creative Science, Social Architecture, and XR (Extended Realities). Annually, our members are invited to contribute to a group showcase demonstrating the Trackâs guiding questions. These exhibitions are curated and produced by invited guests.
Our Cooperative Studies track explores community-and-worker-centered cooperative models for governing, funding, planning, and collective ownership. Artists, designers, and technologists in this cohort offer visions for untangling systems-level challenges and applying solidarity structures to building collective power and exploring the future of work, housing, community financing, cultural infrastructure and more.
Featuring Work From: