publication, laboratories, web archive

Vocabulaboratories is an ongoing collaborative project consisting of a publication, a web archive and a series of laboratory spaces for working on self-made conceptual vocabularies.

In this project, we work with the idea of a “vocabulary” as something through which we position ourselves, say things, and make sense in and of the world. We understand that a vocabulary is connected to a voice, and hence to a body which moves and acts in the world. The ways in which we engage abstractions and concepts through our vocabularies offer us modes of strategically operating within the world. Via our vocabularies, we become vocal and position ourselves, not to arm ourselves against reality, or deny it, but to work and exist within it. Vocabularies exist in an inter-subjective space, which is constantly in negotiation with instances and ideas we encounter in life. These negotiations help us displace ourselves and things – allowing us to move, relate, act, make gestures and movements.

Our vocabulary frames our ethics, collectively as well as individually, and as such constitutes a point of access to our lives and practice – its multiple components allow us to enter and relate to problems and instances in specific ways. Hence we think of those entries as frames to work upon, by way of coming to share our questions, ideas and strategies through a collective process and vocabulary.

Vocabulaboratories is a project consisting of a series of laboratory spaces, in which vocabularies are explored as a relevant, local and self-organizing practice. We propose to make a space within which we can map out, exchange and discuss the strategies and hopes we invest in concepts. As such, Vocabulaboratories are spaces where everyday, aesthetic, and social practices and articulations will be brought into relation with self-made conceptual frameworks. Discussions, diagrams, research and writing are important modalities in this process. We aim to make a space to address the problems and desires that we deal with through our vocabularies, and how these allow us to position ourselves and increase our capacities of acting and being affected. This always involved questioning our very concrete, local and material positions and the subjective conditions those produce.

Project facilitated by Paz Rojo, Manuela Zechner and Anja Kanngieser
Made possible by LISA