Date: 9/19/2010

View photos from the Feral Share

Sunday, September 19, 6PM
Building 944 | $30 – $50 sliding scale
Read Joseph del Pesco's note "On Sharing"

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Organized by Chez Panisse chef and artist Jerome Waag and curator Joseph del Pesco, The Feral Share is an evening of gastronomic philanthropy. The cost of a meal, paid into the coffer by each dinner guest, will be transformed into funding for artists’ projects. In addition to serving as micro-funder, each dinner guest doubles as a member of the selection jury and will be asked to cast a vote for two artists from a group of twelve. The evening includes a menu drawing from wild and surplus sources, brief artist presentations, and a debate about issues ranging from food to politics. Featured debaters include Sunny Taylor and Nicolette Niman; Robert Jones moderates.

On Sharing: A Note by Joseph del Pesco
What is surplus and how do we use it? If we have more than enough (food, money, energy) doesn't it make sense to share it in productive and creative ways? Why does it feel different to share surplus as compared to resources we have to work/pay for? What's intellectual surplus and how does it relate to art? How is surplus (activities, materials, ideas) valued and how does it shape our culture?

From Georges Bataille's The Accursed Share ("La Part Maudite")
"On the whole a society always produced more than is necessary for its survival; it has surplus at its disposal. It is precisely the use it makes of this surplus that determines it: The surplus is the cause of agitation, of the structural changes and of the entire history of society."

From Lars Bang Larsen & Kate Fowle's essay "Lunch Hour"
"To 'waste' significantly, as in the pagan-influenced festival or a ritualistic slaughtering of sheep, can be seen as a metaphysical and ideological process of collective renewal and stimulation. But, while surplus remains a fact of society, its definition and use have changed. This in turn has affected the way that art production and acts of generosity are related."

From Clay Shirky's talk "Gin, Television, and Social Surplus"
"Because if people knew what to do with a surplus with reference to the existing social institutions, then it wouldn’t be a surplus, would it? It’s precisely when no one has any idea how to deploy something that people have to start experimenting with it, in order for the surplus to get integrated, and the course of that integration can transform society."