Common Bond Society is a web-based digital artwork that takes the form of a series of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms, built in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project explores the implications of our increased dependence on the Internet as public space and investigates the Internet’s potential to offer safe spaces to discuss, disseminate and carry out acts of mutual aid. It is brought to you by artist Larisa Blazic for UP Project’s digital commissioning strand, This is Public Space.
Common Bond Society takes as its starting point the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of which have been felt simultaneously on a global and intensely local scale. Almost overnight the pandemic resulted in a dramatic shift away from real world interactions to an increased reliance and dependence upon the digital realm as our predominant public space for dialogue and exchange. At the same time, a proliferation of mutual aid groups sprung up world-wide – set up to help those most vulnerable in this time of uncertainty. Chat groups and websites were created, phones were distributed, and posters emerged in the streets.
“The delayed beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK brought about an amazing wave of community organising, a sort of self-assembly for the protection of self and others, a beautiful act of solidarity where neighbours reached out to each other for help and support.” – Larisa Blazic
Through her artwork, Common Bond Society, artist Larisa Blazic reflects on the very origins of mutual aid as an act of solidarity not charity and suggests that understanding its political origins could lead us to rethink new ways of working post COVID-19. The work uses anarchist philosopher, Peter Kropotkin’s essay Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) as a starting point to spark debate about how acts of mutual aid carried out today could be harnessed to bring about longer-term changes in the way we as a society operate tomorrow and in the future both on and off line. Kropotkin suggests that charity “bears a character of inspiration from above, and, accordingly, implies a certain superiority of the giver upon the receiver.”
Common Bond Society is a virtual platform that questions how mutual aid groups can become sustainable in the long term. Are there ways of sustaining, supporting, encouraging or even rewarding acts of mutual aid? The platform invites audiences to engage in this conversation through three distinct chatrooms for exchange.
Common Bond Society is also inspired by the very foundations of the Internet as public space and its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee’s vision to create a place for the germination and proliferation of new ideas. Through the creation of “old school” IRC chat rooms, Blazic’s work reuses communication tools of the Internet before web 2.0 (see definition below) to provide safe and collaborative spaces for people to come together to formulate new ideas for how co-operative working can be harnessed and even institutionalised in order to ensure our “society’s safety, progress and existence” both in the real world and in the digital domain. Tim Berners-Lee once stated “Had the technology been proprietary, and in my total control, it would probably not have taken off. You can’t propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it.”
By using the IRC format Blazic invites us, the audience, to question the platforms we are currently using to carry out our interactions online and to think twice about our own safety and security when operating in the digital domain. Who owns the platforms we are using? What is happening to our data? And is anyone listening into the conversations we are having? Are we ever truly safe online?
We invite you to step inside the Common Bond Society IRC chat rooms to learn, reflect and discuss. Please read our code of conduct before entering.
Room 1: Mutual aid, it’s a political practice
Learn about the historical principles behind mutual aid by chatting with a Kropotkin-bot, where you can use key words associated with mutual aid to prompt relevant quotes from Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution.
Room 2: Solidarity not charity
Join us on 14 July at 18:30 BST for a curated IRC chat on mutual aid now and in the future, chaired by artist theorist and curator, Ruth Catlow. If you are unavailable to join the conversation we will present a live recording of the event in this chat room once it has happened.
Room 3: In this place of safety
This chat room is a platform to facilitate conversations around notions of safety within the digital realm, uncertainty and public space. A curated conversation on these topics will be hosted by UP Projects on 18 August at 18:30 BST. Further details coming soon.
Room 4: All things brighter future
This room provides a space for further reading through access to mutual aid related resources.
Live Events
Event 1: Mutual Aid in an Age of Uncertainty
Date: 14 July 2020
Time: 18:30 – 20:00 BST
Join us for a curated conversation about the role mutual aid has played in these times of uncertainty and a discussion on how we can harness mutual aid practices as we move forward into tomorrow. The conversation will be chaired by artist theorist and curator, Ruth Catlow with participation from Larisa Blazic.
Agenda:
- An Introduction to Mutual Aid
- Now: mutual aid in an age of uncertainty
- Next: mutual aid beyond moments of crisis
Event 2: In this Place of Safety
Date: 18 August 2020
Time: 18:30 – 20:00 BST
Join us for a curated discussion that explores safety within the digital realm, uncertainty and public space. Hosted by UP Projects, further details coming soon.
Definitions
About IRC
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a network of Internet servers through which individuals can hold real time online conversations via electronic devices. Internet Relay Chat facilitates conversation in the form of an online written chats. IRC operates on a client/server model where individuals use a client programme to connect to an IRC server.
About Web 2.0
Web 2.0 also commonly referred to as Participative and Social Web refers to websites that contain user-generated content, ease of use and foster a participatory culture and interoperability. It is a term to describe today’s interactive Internet.