Tyler Coburn (USA) will be performing I’m that angel in HomeShop at 7 pm on Saturday, August 3rd. The language of performance will be English.

“I’m that angel is a cycle of writings and performances that explore the conditions of how we work on and against the computer, narrated from the perspective of a “content farmer”: an emergent type of online journalist contracted to generate articles based on words peaking in Google Trends.” —Tyler Coburn

八月三日下午7时，泰勒科伯恩（美国）将在家作坊做《我是那个天使》行为艺术表演。工作语言：英语。 “我是天使”是一个系列写作和行为艺术，探讨我们是如何用电脑工作又对其充满无奈的状态。从一个“时文佃户”的视角来叙述：一种新兴网络记者，受雇于人，以谷歌高频词为基础生成文章。

泰勒科伯恩(出生1983年,紐約市),長年在纽约市發展,具有藝術家和作家背景。 他獲得耶魯大學的比較文學文學士以及洛杉磯南加州大學美 術碩士。
科伯恩的作品已在倫 敦當代藝術院以及惠特尼美國藝術博物館、安特衛普和紐約的雕塑中心展示。

即兴MV：White Hinterland乐队的“Vessels” （或者叫“家作坊的冬天”）
“Vessels” by White Hinterland, an instant music video (or, HomeShop in winter)

This comes in the after effects of our reading group discussing Claire Bishop today, a contestable figure in the realm of participatory art practices today, we fall in and out of line. We discussed quite a bit about the different politics of maker/audience relations, the possibilities and limitations of criticism (or the lack thereof) amidst the alternating roles of curator, artist and audience. Whether it’s about critique or pure naiveté, what necessarily emerges in this triangulation is the question of community. Who is speaking to whom, and does that relationship generate community, make it elitist, or raise propositions to completely unpredictable others? We move from the Argentinians who use socially engaged art to motivate participants to push forward in the realm of the socio-political, to the Eastern Europeans and Russians who evade the directly political for a meta-political alter-realm of the sensible, to ourselves. Dialogue evinces a form of self-reflexivity that cannot conceptualize self without other, a 对方. Is that 对 antagonistic, or, like the best love letter i ever received, simply… “Yes.”? 对 Duì, in that Chinese sensibility, pragmatic, like its ‘寸 hand’ on the right and in the traditional 對, where on the left 业 industry stands over 王 rulership. Our being in place is oppositional, but insofar that we do in order to be relative to others (power). And if those power struggles are not finite, we have a form of agonism that does not value one way over an other, but in its perpetual instability, the way itself. This ‘way‘ is meta-politics, it is aesthetics, and perhaps, it is from here the beginning of a research into style. Style here cannot be separately conceived from its actors or audiences, and perhaps, it may be one of the last remaining realms where the spectator possesses the most valuable rights of critique towards an author who does not see him/herself (is that democratic?). So who is the curator here? The media, the mob, or the system itself? That which cannot be critiqued in and of itself is power, is the stampede sparked by inadvertent incident, where action supersedes any one intention or attempt to communicate. Style is only manifestation, it is the superficialness of the masses, it is a form of representation that both critiques (bitchy) and evades critique (inessential). So to go from there, it seems possible to start from two cultural forms of analysis: one, fashion and semiotics, starting from Barthes and moving forward, and then, translation as a mediator of meaning. Maybe thereafter, something more spiritually or politically charged, but that will come upon further introspection of what that “we” really meant… Until then…

森林（Céline）拍的即兴教育短片：吴思远学英语，小欧学汉语（“家作坊，现代的巴别塔，在那里，在学习对方的语言的积极性，新奇特生命形式的语言出现……”）
“Ray studies English, Orianna studies Chinese”, an instant educational video by Céline LAMÉE (“HomeShop, a contemporary tower of Babel, where, in the enthusiasm of learning each other’s languages, strange new lifeforms of languages emerge…“)

实战语言演练场 COMBAT LANGUAGE

活动时间 date__  2012年5月17日，星期四晚上七点 | Thursday, 17 May 2012, 19.00
地点 location__ 家作坊 HomeShop［地图 / map］

外语学习的最高境界有两个：1，用所学语言谈恋爱   2， 用所学语言吵架 第一种相当私人的，亲密的，心有灵犀的，语言不可或缺，但并不十分重要，我们无需练习，第二种是相当公开的，针锋相对的，你死我活的，语言十分重要，演练 必不可少，哪里可以演练？实战语言演练场系列为我们开辟了最佳演练场地！通过语言实战进入文化背景，通过语言实战熟练掌握关键词，通过语言实战进提高逻辑思辨…

There are supposedly two areas in which you can know you’ve mastered a foreign language: 1) being able to speak in the language of love and 2), being able to verbally put up a fight. The first is private and intimate, a heart to heart where language is necessary but perhaps not the most important, nor possible to practice in a group setting. The latter is a public, sharply dialectical, either you or me head-to-head where language is very important. So why not come together at HomeShop for our COMBAT LANGUAGE playground? Learn more about culture, hot topics in China and your real fighting spirit through COMBAT LANGUAGE. Improve your vocabulary and put your logic on its toes!

第二场 Debate Two

论题 topic__  “可更新能源挑战化石燃料  Fossil Fuels or Renewable Energy?”

随着人们对气候变化问题的日 益关心，确信者和怀疑者各持己见，我们面临的问题是：工业燃料所用的能源资源对环境和经济都有影响，有时我们会顾此失彼。中国大量依靠煤 炭燃料，消费量超过世界总消费量的一半。在另一方面中国在世界上也已经成为了风能和太阳能利用的先行者，无论哪种方式，能源生产都是一个获利颇丰的行业。煤炭燃料与可更新能源相互冲突，以长远的目光看，谁将入主中原？答案尽在我们的语言实战演练场！

With people getting caught up in the politics of climate change, believers versus skeptics, the reality is that the source of energy that fuels industry affects both the environment and the economy. China is heavily dependent on coal burning more than half of the world’s annual consumption. China has also become to world leader in wind power capacity and solar panel manufacturing. Any way you cut it, producing energy is a highly profitable business. Burning fossil fuels is in conflict with renewable energy, so which one has the long term future in China? Get yourself ready for combat language debate!

价格 cost__  30元（包括饮料 includes beverages）

参与者 participants__  中高级英语学生以及任何对本话题感兴趣的朋友
Intermediate to Advanced students of English, or any English speakers interested in the topic

报名请联系 registration required__  qu@homeshopbeijing.org, 138 1180 9604
报名后你将通过邮件收到一份相关阅读材料。
After signing up for this workshop you will receive all the necessary materials/vocabulary list by e-mail to prepare for the debate.

组织者 organised by__  曲一箴 Twist QU and Michael SABELLI

实战语言演练场 COMBAT LANGUAGE

活动时间 date__  2012年4月8日，星期日下午两点 | Sunday, 8 April 2012, 14.00
地点 location__ 家作坊 HomeShop［地图 / map］

外语学习的最高境界有两个：1，用所学语言谈恋爱   2， 用所学语言吵架 第一种相当私人的，亲密的，心有灵犀的，语言不可或缺，但并不十分重要，我们无需练习，第二种是相当公开的，针锋相对的，你死我活的，语言十分重要，演练必不可少，哪里可以演练？实战语言演练场系列为我们开辟了最佳演练场地！通过语言实战进入文化背景，通过语言实战熟练掌握关键词，通过语言实战进提高逻辑思辨…

There are supposedly two areas in which you can know you’ve mastered a foreign language: 1) being able to speak in the language of love and 2), being able to verbally put up a fight. The first is private and intimate, a heart to heart where language is necessary but perhaps not the most important, nor possible to practice in a group setting. The latter is a public, sharply dialectical, either you or me head-to-head where language is very important. So why not come together at HomeShop for our COMBAT LANGUAGE playground? Learn more about culture, hot topics in China and your real fighting spirit through COMBAT LANGUAGE. Improve your vocabulary and put your Chinese logic on its toes!

第一场 Debate One

论题 topic__  “子非鱼，安知鱼之乐？ You’re not a fish, so how can you know if a fish is happy or not?”

两千多年前庄子和惠子在濠水的桥上游玩时开始了一场辩论：“你不是鱼，怎么知道鱼的快乐？”“子非我，安知我不知鱼之乐？” 他们的这段对话看似轻松诙谐，其实其中蕴含着许多极为深刻的文化，逻辑，以及人与人之间的关系问题。来吧，喜欢汉语的朋友们，让我们一起用汉语来参加这两位哲人的讨论，庄子，惠子，谁更善辩？你呢？能否超越二者？答案尽在周日下午两点的汉语演练场

More than two thousand years ago, Zhuangzi and Huizi started a debate at the bridge over the Hao river: “You’re not a fish, so how can you know if a fish is happy or not?” It sounded like a joke, but their dialogue was full of the intricacies of a deep culture, logic, and the relations between people. So if you are an intermediate to advanced learner of Chinese, why not try and join these two philosophers’ debate? Will you follow Zhuangzi or Huizi, or will you surpass them both? Get yourself ready for COMBAT LANGUAGE debate!

价格 cost__  30元（包括饮料 includes beverages）

参与者 participants__  中高级汉语学生以及任何对本话题感兴趣的朋友
Intermediate to Advanced students of Chinese, or any Chinese speakers interested in the topic

报名请联系 registration required__  qu@homeshopbeijing.org, 138 1180 9604
报名后你将通过邮件收到一份相关阅读材料。
After signing up for this workshop you will receive all the necessary materials/vocabulary list by e-mail to prepare for the debate.

组织者 organised by__  曲一箴 Twist QU

Last meeting we discussed desire from two distinct but quite broad perspectives:

From Deleuze and Guattari, we saw desire as part of a machine that includes but subsumes the individual and their ego, and makes of subject and object a co-determining relationship rather than a hierarchical structure;

In Bataille, we saw a dangerous desire that threatens to dissolve the subject and the object into one another, and if pursued to its ecstatic ends, approaches death;

Keeping in mind why we arrived at desire in the first place, we wondered what these perspectives could do to help our dilemma of abstraction and speed;

In the former, where in the machine does intention fit? Where do we locate the means to make a distinction between desire and abstraction such as that made in Bifo’s article?

In the latter does the subject and object divide that the subject must overcome presuppose its inability to make the connection between them? In other words at the extremity of becoming an object (to the point of suicide) do we gain the capacity to “reactivate our ability to connect language and desire”(Bifo), or do we simply assume they can ultimately never be resolved? (Bataille seems to offer a partial answer to this: literature as the substitution of death and sacrifice.)

The next reading proposed is “Bodies That Matter” by Judith Butler (1993) to approach desire through a more focused lens on the construction of sexuality.
The meeting will be held Sunday the 8th of January at 5pm.

Hope you can join in one more repudiation of the solar hegemony before our flight from the terror of the lunar!

It seems that we are full of offers lately. Hmm… presumptions aside, it’s not really an offer, because everyone wants reciprocation. To communicate and to understand. To love and be loved. Are skills naturally to be shared? If you know, will I know better?

So what is on offer today? Let’s attempt skill-sharing set number 1. HomeShop’s very own Twist QU is now offering language instruction for those of you interested in Chinese culture and history and hoping to improve your Chinese or English skills. This is the offer. What is the return?

We learn about Twist via the return, the things he could be interested in (French, documentary film, etc.), and through these (hopefully) common dialogues, we create the bonds that make an offer into an exchange, into something sustainable, into something like an understanding between people. Twist is most interested in communication.

About his offer, Twist is a graduate from Liaoning University with over 15 years of experience in language instruction, both in Chinese and English. His students have ranged from post ’90s Tongxian teenyboppers to expat architects and even a few liu mang-kind of artists, and his interests include philosophy and literature. For more information, you can download Twist’s CV here [PDF, 45kb].

His language lessons are taught one-on-one or in small groups, and meetings can be held at your convenience in the neighbourhood of Gulou/Nanluoguxiang. If money is the easiest way to go, lessons begin from RMB 60 per hour, but Twist’s exchange could also involve French lessons, or video assistance for his new documentary project involving a series of dialogues with members of Beijing’s artist community. If you are interested to pursue one or more of these kinds of “sharing” or “exchange” (where do the two intersect?), Twist is happy to meet with you for a free trial lesson. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact him directly:

mobile: 138 1180 9604
e-mail: qu@homeshopbeijing.org

您对英语感兴趣？希望提高您的英语交流或应试能力？“家作坊”的曲一箴愿协助您！

曲一箴，毕业于辽宁大学，对哲学与文学兴趣浓厚，在英语和汉语方面有着17年的教学经验，辅导过的学生有90后青年学生，建筑师，以及艺术家。欲知更多，请下载他的简历：［PDF格式, 45kb］。

教学方式可以是一对一或小班式，地点可按您的方便选定。本教学的目的重在交流，首次上课可以免费，若感兴趣，学费可商定（你真的那么愿意跟人说可以免费作吗？！我觉得你还是需要把skill-exchange强调多一些！如果你能找一个人帮你拍，你教英语，那样最好）。

免 费上第一次，互相认识一下，对大家都有好处。另外，我想把英文广告中的技能交换改成法语，你看行吗？因为请一个不认识的人来帮我做记录片我不知道他的技术 好不好，也不知道他有没有负责心（靠普）怕他耽误我的机会。我下周想把录像机买了，大家都说便宜的也可以用，这样我随时可以去录制，更方便，你说是吗？希 望你能有时间帮我选录像机。

若有问题欢迎直接和曲一箴联系：

手机: 138 1180 9604
e-mail: qu@homeshopbeijing.org