Study of/as Commoning

Anette Baldauf

’Study of/as Commoning’ is one of the outcomes of a research project realized by a group of artists, architects and social theorists at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (2014–16). In times of ongoing environmental crisis, violent land grabbing and the aggressive financialisation of space, time and subjectivities, combined with global migration flows, the research group explored the debates on the commons and the different practices of commoning as potentially providing new entry points for a radical repudiation of neoliberalism. To date, the labor and conflicts involved in the process of commoning have chafed against a Western utopian understanding of the commons as a coming together free of friction. We explored commoning as a process, simultaneously made against and within, existing fields of power. As such, ‘Study as/of Commoning’ is part of a much wider endeavour to rethink and undo the methodological premises of Western sciences, arts and architecture, raising unsettling questions on (artistic) research ethics, accountability, and the entanglement of power and knowledge. In this context, ‘Study of/as Commoning’ considers commoning as a possible methodology, a modality of social relations, and the collective state of mind that framed the research group’s work together. Our research continuously encountered the limitations of Western concepts of the commons, framed as an enclosure that neglects conditions of coloniality and colonial dispossession. Is it possible to hold on to the empowering notions of commoning while acknowledging the significant absences within Western accounts on the commons and the many connections between the commons and the history of empire?

Aknowledgements

The ‘Spaces of Commoning’ research would not have been possible without the manifold input of different institutions, groups and individuals. In addition to our contributors, wewould full-heartedly like to thank Sarah Abdulhafiz, Ursula Achternkamp, Khan Adalat, Nicole Alecu de Flers, the Anarchist Library, Ayreen Anastas, Florian Anrather, Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew, Simone Bader, Christoph Baumgartner, Dani Baumgartner, Meret Baumgartner, Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Casco Art Institute: Working for The Commons Utrecht and team, Helen Chang, Chang Hsin-Hsien, Chen Fu-Lai, Chen Bo-Wei, Giulia Cilla, Paul Currion, Diana Drogan, Julia Edthofer, Eva Egermann, Andreas Exner, Silvia Federici, Ermyas Legesse, Alexander Fleischmann, Robert Foltin, Bea Füsser-Novy, Rene Gabri, Andreas Gautsch, Fasil Giorghis, Elizabeth Giorgis, Michaela Glanz, Janna Graham, Ernst Gruber, Martha Haile, Martha Halle Hagos, Stefano Harney, Rainer Hehl, Sophie Hochhäusl, Barbara Holub, Hong Chang-Yuan, Hosei University (Tokyo), Hsieh Si-Hai, Hsu Yong-Mao, Huang Yu-Lan, Rahim Ihsan, Mir Jahangir, Andrés Jaque, Jim, Jean-Baptiste Joly, Elizabeth Kata, Setargew Kenaw, Michael Klein, Elisabeth Kofler, Jakob Krameritsch, Elke Krasny, Brigitte Kratzwald, Gottfried Krause, Peter Krobath, Karin Kuchler, Gabriel Kuhn, Shalom Lemma, Orion Lemma, Marysia Lewandowska, Li Mao-Hsing, Maria Lind, Christina Linortner, Karin Lischke, Renate Lorenz, Lisa Lowe, Franz-Xaver Ludwig, Maria Mesner, Suzana Milevska, Sandra Monterroso, Helge Mooshammer, Peter Mörtenböck, Chantal Mouffe, George Née, Fernanda Nogueira, Lisa Maria Paar, Andi Pakesch, Nefeli Papakyriakopoulou, Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, Emily Pethick, the PhD-in-Practice Program at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, p.m., Platform for Geography, Landscape, Cities at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Marion Porten, Gerard Rauscher, Dunja Reithner, Jasmin Rilke, Nora Roscher, Helmut and Hildegard Schlatter, Torsten Scholtz, Mady Schutzman, Karl Sedlak, Ruth Sonderegger, Georg Spitaler, Michael Stampfer, Stavros Stavrides, STEALTH.unlimited (Ana Džokić, Marc Neelen), Pelin Tan, Brook Teklehaimanot, Heribert Thurner, Cordula Thym, Tom at Pizzaria, Günther Uhlig, Ultra-red, Nicolas Vass, Helmut Voitl, Wei Chin-Jung, Katarzyna Izabela Winiecka, Tina Wintersteiger, Emnet Woubishet, Wu Chin-Fu, Wu Chin-Yi, Wu Shu-Yuan, You Yu-Ling, Yu Shih-Fang, Yusuf, Helen Zeru, Rehman Ziat, the participants of the Commoning the City summer school in Vienna and the participants of the School of Commoning in Addis Ababa.

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