The Current I: The Kula Ring
Expedition #1 led by Ute Meta Bauer
October 2015
October 2015
Papua New Guinea
Artists Armin Linke and Newell Harry with Expedition Leader Ute Meta Bauer interviewing in an elementary school in Samarai, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
TBA21–Academy
Research
The first annual expedition led by Ute Meta Bauer in her three-year cycle as Expedition Leader of The Current, took five artists on board the vessel Dardanella to the eastern archipelago of Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea.
Inspired by the tribal exchange tradition of the The Kula Ring that takes place since centuries in the Trobriand Islands and Milne Bay area, expedition leader Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) invited artists Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/US), Tue Greenfort (Denmark/Germany), Newell Harry (Australia), Armin Linke (Germany/Italy) and PhD candidate Jegan Vincent de Paul (Canada/Singapore) to join her on the inaugural exploration of TBA21–Academy's The Current programme. Sailing through partially unchartered waters anchoring at rarely visited islands the group has been collecting local crafts items, documented their unique experience through photographs, video documentation and interviews with expedition participants and locals met on the various stops.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and until today more than 800 languages are spoken. Mining and increasingly fracking contributes strongly to the current economy of PNG, but is endangering the environment, its flora and fauna, and challenges the complex social hierarchies of the many local tribes. Global warming and the rise of sea levels already create a devastating impact on the Pacific Islands.
The beginning of this multi-phase research project involved three layers of enquiry that used a set of questions as a way to find a method of engagement with the complex challenges on the ocean and all who inhabit it:
Collective Body
What is the surplus of sharing and experiencing a new place/time as a group - rather than as an individual - and what space is produced through such collectivity?
The expedition considers a collective dérive, to drift from island to island as a method of dislocated Situationist practice. Instead of our urban known we move through the unknown of the Papua New Guinea littoral. Joining our intellects and senses will we be able to understand a new territory as one extended body? Is it possible to form an expanded sensorium to see and sense together?
Exchange
What constitutes contemporary modes of exchange between communities and cultures as well as between cultures and the environment?
We consider the Kula, a ceremonial exchange system of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, as a point of departure. First described by Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in 1922, the Kula is a network of exchanges (consisting of valuables such as necklaces and armbands) among the people of the Trobriand Islands. The act of exchanging allows for certain acknowledgment, agreement or peace amongst groups of people. What kind of gift economies do we have today and what kind of exchanges do we practice?
Knowledge
What constitutes knowledge, where is it embedded, how is it transmitted and what determines its ownership?
Knowledge throughout history has constituted power and determined social, economic and political hierarchies. One the one side Papua New Guinea has one of the lowest per capita income in the world, however it is one of the richest in terms of biodiversity, communities and languages. If knowledge is power and biodiversity and languages are considered knowledge, should we not revise our cultural understanding of the PNG and the Pacific Islands?
Inspired by the tribal exchange tradition of the The Kula Ring that takes place since centuries in the Trobriand Islands and Milne Bay area, expedition leader Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) invited artists Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/US), Tue Greenfort (Denmark/Germany), Newell Harry (Australia), Armin Linke (Germany/Italy) and PhD candidate Jegan Vincent de Paul (Canada/Singapore) to join her on the inaugural exploration of TBA21–Academy's The Current programme. Sailing through partially unchartered waters anchoring at rarely visited islands the group has been collecting local crafts items, documented their unique experience through photographs, video documentation and interviews with expedition participants and locals met on the various stops.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and until today more than 800 languages are spoken. Mining and increasingly fracking contributes strongly to the current economy of PNG, but is endangering the environment, its flora and fauna, and challenges the complex social hierarchies of the many local tribes. Global warming and the rise of sea levels already create a devastating impact on the Pacific Islands.
The beginning of this multi-phase research project involved three layers of enquiry that used a set of questions as a way to find a method of engagement with the complex challenges on the ocean and all who inhabit it:
- What is a collective body?
- What do we mean by exchange?
- What do we consider knowledge?
Collective Body
What is the surplus of sharing and experiencing a new place/time as a group - rather than as an individual - and what space is produced through such collectivity?
The expedition considers a collective dérive, to drift from island to island as a method of dislocated Situationist practice. Instead of our urban known we move through the unknown of the Papua New Guinea littoral. Joining our intellects and senses will we be able to understand a new territory as one extended body? Is it possible to form an expanded sensorium to see and sense together?
Exchange
What constitutes contemporary modes of exchange between communities and cultures as well as between cultures and the environment?
We consider the Kula, a ceremonial exchange system of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, as a point of departure. First described by Polish anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in 1922, the Kula is a network of exchanges (consisting of valuables such as necklaces and armbands) among the people of the Trobriand Islands. The act of exchanging allows for certain acknowledgment, agreement or peace amongst groups of people. What kind of gift economies do we have today and what kind of exchanges do we practice?
Knowledge
What constitutes knowledge, where is it embedded, how is it transmitted and what determines its ownership?
Knowledge throughout history has constituted power and determined social, economic and political hierarchies. One the one side Papua New Guinea has one of the lowest per capita income in the world, however it is one of the richest in terms of biodiversity, communities and languages. If knowledge is power and biodiversity and languages are considered knowledge, should we not revise our cultural understanding of the PNG and the Pacific Islands?
CONVENING # 1
The Kula Ring – A Gifting Economy
Jamaica, March 2016
The Kula Ring – A Gifting Economy
Jamaica, March 2016
The first Convening of three curated by Ute Meta Bauer took place in March 2016 in Jamaica. Bringing together members of the public with Expedition #1 participants, environmentalists, oceanographers, law experts, philosophers and activists, the event unfolded and explored themes emerging out of the first expedition to Papua New Guinea.
Read more here.
Read more here.