[Nettime-nl] knowbotiq, kotomisi – non essential mix Vol 1

[christian huebler <huebler@krcf.org>]

knowbotiq, kotomisi – non essential mix Vol 1
a diagram of a performative invention, audio pieces, radio settings,  
clothes and foldings, ornaments and voices

kotomisi denotes a traditional piece of clothing of female slaves  
(before and after liberation) of the former Dutch colony Suriname in  
the 17th century.Througout 2 centuriers it had been developed further  
by its wearers. The multi-layered cothing is a complex knitted fabric,  
encompassed of latent codings. The processed patterned fabrics of the  
costume passed translocal productions- and distribution processes  
between Europe, Africa and America. The fabrics represented the  
commodities and even the means of payment in an already highly  
globalised slave trade.

They were often named after news events – thus they became news  
carriers. They even became media themselves: The way the parts of the  
costume: skirt, jacket, headpiece, were worn, informed about the  
social status and property situation of the slave, and about the  
occasion the costume was worn at. Furthermore the foldings of the  
headpiece expressed feelings of the slaves and enclosed and  
communicated clandestine messages.

The ornaments of the fabrics, which were printed in India, Europe  
(i.a. Switzerland), referenced the African origin of the deported  
slaves (mainly Ghana, Nigeria), as well as former European fashion  
styles. A person wearing a kotomisi transform into an overcoded  
figuration which is tricky to decode and highly ambivalent. It refers  
to slavery and discrimination, as well as to self empowerment and  
emancipation from supression and control.

In its manifoldness kotomisi represents a vis a vis to the figuration  
of MacGhillie, a figur former developed by knowbotiq. Both figures,  
due to their erratic surface and opaque historic and cultural  
connotation, withdraw in its moment of appearance from decipherment.  
This withdrawal points towards a failure in the constitution of an  
„image“ – it cannot evolve due to an intransparent figure ground  
relationship.This interests in the context of a control society which  
is characterized by individuality, profiles, behaviour patterns and  
cybernetic presence. The shells of kotomisi and Macghillie resonate  
the processes of identification and classification and lead them into  
a void.

Becoming void provides an experimental potential in dealing with  
indeterminacies and intransparencies.

knowbotiq /Yvonne Wilhelm, Christian Huebler,  in collaboration with  
Zulile Blinker, Helen Mijnals and Radio Stanvaste Rotterdam.
info: http://krcf.org/krcf.org/?p=370 and http://krcf.org/krcf.org/?p=903

working blog: http://kotmisis.blogspot.com/

 ---

Connect. Kunst zwischen Medien und Wirklichkeit

Eine Ausstellung mit Medienkunstarbeiten des Sitemapping-Programmes  
(BAK) 2005-2011
Eröffnung: 13. Juli 2011, 19 Uhr
Ausstellung: 14. Juli – 11. September 2011
Spezialprogramm am 3. September 2011, 19 - 2h (Lange Nacht der Museen  
Zürich)
Kuratorinnen: Anke Hoffmann, Yvonne Volkart


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