Place-making and forming an affective commonality: sharing the ideas, skills and experiences against the capitalization of commons
Kenichiro EGAMI
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the practices of networking by cultural collectives relating to art/activism in Asia. In recent years, independent, grassroots cultural and social spaces based on equal membership and multi-level networks have been created in this area. These spaces also function as experimental places to create models of alternative societies featuring sustainable lifestyles by connecting people beyond separate genres, such as art, music, agriculture, and craft. Thus, the practice of creating such places leads to an attempt to form new social relationships for common life, creation, and labor through the networking of individuals’ lives, which have become withdrawn, isolated, and forcefully separated by repressive social structures. Moreover, gathering at these places creates a collective subjectivity and shared emotions among their members. In many areas, collective political and artistic practices have been created, which transcend borders, cultures, and languages. The sharing processes of such practices have been steadily advancing.
KEYWORDS: Networking; collective; East Asia; DIY; placemaking; affective commonality; voluntary association
Notes on contributor
Kenichiro Egami is an independent researcher and photographer residing in Fukuoka, Japan. He studied sociology and media studies as an undergraduate at Waseda University, received an MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a PGd in Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art. While in the UK, he began to participate in political and social movements in the UK and Japan, and to take photos documenting political actions. Currently he is carrying out independent research on autonomous spaces around the world. His main concerns are the anthropological study of political movements, alternative cultures in Asia, and vernacular urban space. http://www.kenichiro-egami.com/