The journey (conference programme): 11 - 20 September 2005

click map for enlargement

Current status
We have booked the train and hotels and are waiting for your payments to be able to redeem them!
We are also in the middle of organizing the web-realization of the project. This includes a streaming video documentation and online web-realization which can be followed throughout the journey. It also includes a blog for participants to introduce themselves, to discuss and get to know one another before the physical journey starts, and to inform other participants if somebody for example comes up with an idea on cheap flight arrangements etc. We will let you know about this soon.
However, as a crude starting point, the list of participants and abstracts of the project proposals have now been posted to this website. Should you wish to make some changes to them please let Demola Obembe know.
We expect the submission of your full paper (or project) by the end of August, so that there will be enough time for people to familiarize themselves with your work. Please submit your work to Demola.
At the moment it looks like the conference will result in the publication of edited Special Issues in Conflitti Globali (Italy, Shake), ephemera: theory & politics in organization (UK), and Framework. The Finnish Art Review (Finland).
Besides being thought of as a work of theory and politics, and a work of creating wealth - since wealth is the absolute movement of becoming, as says Marx - the entire event is also being thought of as a work of art. We have been invited to participate in an exhibition at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki where the journey is also followed online.
If you have ideas about the web-realization, know www-sites, people or other places that would be interested in following the journey, please let Dmitri know.

General directions
The next step is to get you all moving: to contribute to and organize this conference. This is to say that "nobody" is the organizer of this conference, or alternatively "we all are". In practical terms this means, among other things, please make sure that your insurances are in order and they cover the nature of the event.
This is also to say that please do not expect to sit at a table that is served; to arrive to a set-up already set up. There will be nobody taking care of you, nobody will be checking on you, the train just leaves. We will all be there "alone together" or "within oneself with others" at the same time yet differentiated. Or as Deleuze and Guattari say it: "when the pack forms a ring around the fire, each man [sis] will have neighbors to the right and left, but no one behind him; his back is naked and exposed to the wilderness. We recognize this as a schizo position: being on the periphery, holding on by a hand or a foot…". Welcome to movement!

General timetable
07.09. Pre-conference seminar and press conference at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki
11.09. Gathering and Seminar day I in Moscow 16-20:00 at the Hotel Rossija; Welcoming dinner
12.09. Departure from Moscow at 16:35, Seminar day II on board the Trans-Siberian train
13.09. Workshop day I
14.09. Workshop day II, arrival in Novosibirsk at 15:00, dinner in Novosibirsk
15.09. Seminar day III at the State University of Novosibirsk; departure from Novo at 19:37
16.09. Production day I
17.09. Production day II
18.09. Production day III
19.09. Arrival to Beijing at 14:31
20.09. Seminar day IV at the Qinghua University Beijing, Dinner in Beijing

Organization of conference sessions
As should be clear by now, this conference won't be like any other. It is about movement. So, don't expect to be served with a finished product. The product is of our own making, and, in fact, the production process has already started.
We will have a number of more 'normal' seminar sessions in Moscow, Novosibirsk and Beijing. But the moving space on the train is just that: movement. For that space we are imagining a series of mini-workshops which will take place in people's cabins, the train's corridors and the restaurant car. Beyond these physical spaces we will also have a radio station in self-operation, and we will also try to set up a wireless LAN network; so bring your laptops (although be aware of security questions). The idea is to provide a context of autonomous self-organization on the train. This is how we intend to allow you to self-organize movement. There will be structured talks and presentations too, but we would like you to start thinking in collective terms, not to think the journey as a means to present past work, already thought thoughts, already made moves and said words, but as a way to create something new, a larger and collective project, collective mind in movement, a memory. After all, this is an organizational experiment.
By the time we get onto the train, we will already know each other. We will have read each others abstracts and hopefully some of our papers, and we will have talked to each other via email and blogs. Each project has presented itself and its organization (for extension) in Moscow. We have set up a blog on this conference website, which we can use to discuss all sorts of practical things as well as introduce our projects to each other.

Preliminary programme (pdf version)

Tue 6.9. “Live-lab” Workshop on media-activism, its methods and strategies at M-cult, Helsinki (MT)
Launching of the mobile-casting platform used for Trans-sib streaming documentatio, workshop on the organization of an alternative web-based TV-Station General Intellect etc.

Wed 7.9. Trans-sib pre- and press conference at Hämeentie 33 A, 2nd Floor, Helsinki (AV)
15:00-15:20 Intro to the project, its themes and methods (Tuula Karjalainen, Jussi Vähämäki, KlausHarju)
15:20-15:40 Launching of the mobile documentation (Minna Tarkka, Adam Hyde et al.)
15:40-16:00 Trans-sib as a work of art (Akseli Virtanen, Anna Daneri, Genova)
16:00-17:00 Questions, interviews, refreshments
17:00-19:00 "Aesthetics of Resistance" - seminar with Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv), Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Stockholm), Jordan Crandall (Los Angeles), Steffen Böhm (London)
20:00 - Party at Tutkijaliitto publishing house

Thurs 8.9. “Art without ends” workshop with Jordan Crandall et al. at FRAME, Helsinki (MS)

Fri 9.7. “Tolstoi” train from Helsinki to Moscow at 17:42  (arrives Sat 10.9. morning in Moscow ) - see here for more infos on this part of the journey.

Sun 11.9. The beginning of the conference (JV)
16:00-16:30 Introduction to the project (Jussi Vähämäki and Akseli Virtanen)
16:30-17:30 Short presentations (2 min) of each project
17:30-18:00 Coffee
18:00-18:30 Practical instructions (Dmitri Melkoumov and Klaus Harju)
18:30-19:30 The Russian Condition (Michael Chernysh)
19:30-20:00 Summary (Alessandro Dal Lago et. al)
21:00 - Welcoming dinner (DM)

Mon 12.9. The train departs (SB)
14:30 Bus from the hotel to the railway station
15:00-16:00 Susan Allen et al, and “Future is on the table” at the platform (AV)
16:35 The train departs
17:00-19:00 Introduction, the opening panel with 3 interventions at the restaurant car (SB)
19:00 - Trains Station open studio (NH)

Tue 13.9. Workshops (SB)
11:00-13:00 3-5 simultaneous workshops I (Capturing, Moving, Cooperation between Minds)
14:00-16:00 3-5 simultaneous workshops II
17:00-19:00 3-5 simultaneous workshops III
22:00 Common space

Wed 14.9. Workshops (SB & OM)
11:00-13:00 3-5 simultaneous workshops IV
15:00 Arrival to Novo (Novo time 18:00 ), bus to the hotel
18:00 Dinner (Novo time 21:00 )

Thurs 15.9. Novosibirsk : reflection + novo input + next step: the switch (SB & OM)
Breakfast at the hotel
Walk around Akademgorodok
11:00-12:00 Seminar: review documentaries from the train, discussion
12:00-13:00 Lunch
13:00-14:30 Seminar: presentation of the Trans Siberian project, working groups reports
14:30-15:00 coffee break
15:00-16:30 Novosibirsk speakers, open floor for questions and discussions
17:00 Departure to the city, visit Novosibirsk Museum of Art, dinner, free time in the city
21:00 Meeting at the railway station
22:37 Train departure at 22:37 NSK time (19:37 Moscow time)

Fri 16.9. Production (KH)
11:00-13:00 3-5 simultaneous productions I (Capturing, Moving, Mind…)
14:00-16:00 3-5 simultaneous productions II
17:00-19:00 3-5 simultaneous productions III
22:00 commons

Sat 17.9. Production (KH)
11:00-13:00 3-5 simultaneous productions IV (Capturing, Moving, Mind…)
14:00-16:00 3-5 simultaneous productions V
17:00-19:00 3-5 simultaneous productions VI
22:00 commons

Sun 18.9. (KH)
11:00-13:00 3-5 simultaneous productions VII (Capturing, Moving, Mind…)
14:00-16:00 3-5 simultaneous productions VIII
17:00-19:00 3-5 simultaneous productions IX
Practical instructions for Beijing (MN)
Train party (KH)

Mon 19.9. (MN)
14:30 Arrival in Beijing (Beijing time)
15:00 Bus to the Unicenter hotel (arrival around 18:00)
Opening of the Beijing 2nd Biennale, meeting with Chinese artists
Videoconference with Australia

Tue 20.9. (MN & JV) 
14:00-17:00 Seminar at Tsinghua University , School of Public Policy & Management (located just about 500 meters from the East gate)
20:00 Final dinner
More details of the programme in Beijing will be published to the blog soon.