The SQUID project was presented as part of LIVE ART LIVE BLOG, which was launched at Chapter Arts Center’s annual performance festival Experimentica 2011 in Cardiff, Wales. The presentation, Performing SQUID, was written by Katja Aglert, Martijn van Berkum and Janna Holmstedt, and was carried out live at Experimentica 12 by two of the artists and initiators of the LIVE ART LIVE BLOG project.

LIVE ART LIVE BLOG is run by the performance platform random people and aims to increase the visibility of performance and live art events through the medium of a live blog. It was launched the 12th of October and can be followed online at: http://liveartliveblog.net

For more information on the festival: http://www.chapter.org/24305.html
For more information on random people: http://random-people.net


Photos: Erin Rickard for www.culturecolony.com

During this event, hosted by Platform at Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art, four new texts were released, the SQUID archive was on display and the audience was welcome to print their favourite texts. The artists Anna Lundh and composer/sound artist Johan Landgren both individually conducted live performances deriving from their text contributions.

Johan Landgren performed one of his experimental voice acts, which he commented with the words: The voice is false. False like a bad copy, a hybrid, an impostor. Lend me your ear and I will tell you why. And show you how.

Anna Lundh took as starting point her investigation of composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl’s unfinished opera project ‘Sagan om den stora Datamaskinen', and specifically one of the remaining documents (dating 1967) – a list of concrete sounds to be used in the opera. Through Lundh’s performance she problematized the relationships between concepts as time, history, ‘the now’, technology, sound and text.

The contributions released during this event were:
#50 Knowing You, Knowing Me: An Appendix for Why We Cannot Speak, by Barrie James Sutcliffe (Gothenburg, Sweden)
#49 OPERATION: Sagan om den Stora Datan – Akt II, by Anna Lundh (Stockholm and NYC)
#48 Technology Of The Voice, by Johan Landgren (Gothenburg, Sweden)
#46 The Boy, by Meira Ahmemulic (Gothenburg, Sweden)

During Textival, a text-based festival in Göteborg, Sweden, that includes live activities and an alternative book fair, a new contribution was released, The Great Satan, by the artist Kalle Brolin. The full SQUID archive was on display and as part of the event Brolin had an artist talk and screening in connection to his text contribution.

From Sep 4-26 the SQUID archive was on display as part of the exhibition "Plattform" at Röda Sten, Göteborg. During the opening we organized an event that consisted of live readings of the most recently released texts:
- Pojken, by Meira Ahmemulic (Berlin)
- OPERATION: Sagan om den Stora Datan – Akt I, by Anna Lundh (Stockholm and NYC)

The new contributions are:
#46 Pojken, by Meira Ahmemulic (Berlin)
#45 OPERATION: Sagan om den Stora Datan – Akt I, by Anna Lundh (Stockholm and NYC)

The 19^th of February 2010, we organized a SQUID event in Helsinki, Finland, hosted by HIAP. The event consisted of two performances by Toine Horvers, followed by an artists' talk, on different approaches to independent art publishing, with the Finnish artist duo IC-98.

One of the performances by Toine Horvers, Sound Scape, has been recorded and is available in the archive as audio file:
#42: Sound Scape, by Toine Torvers (Rotterdam)


Photo: Oskar Lindström

Five new texts were released online in relation to a public event at HIAP in Helsinki, Finland:
#44: Clip Kino: Helsinki and beyond, by Andrew Gryf Paterson (Helsinki)
#43: Buying The Museum, by Alessandra Di Pisa (Stockholm)
#42: Sound Scape, by Toine Torvers (Rotterdam)
#41: Alienation Stories, by Jari Silomäki (Helsinki)

In an ongoing project at SQUID, notes for a book have been dispersed around the world. Please take a look at the latest addition from São Paulo:
#8 Untitled [In Progress], by A. S. Bessa (New York)

Furthermore, one of our previous contributions has now been translated into English: #37: The Publicly Private And The Privately Public, by Adriana Seserin (Stockholm)
#37: The Publicly Private And The Privately Public, by Adriana Seserin (Stockholm)

During Nov 7, 2009 - March 13, 2010 the SQUID project was part of ”Labyrint 09 - Writings and Observations” at Botkyrka konsthall in Sweden. "Writings and Observations" refers to the artistic practice of writing as a way of seeing, a way of altering the world. The 2009 year’s edition of Labyrint focused not only on artist’s books, but also text art, and the aspects of writing in contemporary art.

In conjunction with the opening of ”Labyrint 09”, one new text was released at SQUID:
#40 Family Album, by IC-98 (Turku)

One of the SQUID contributions is an ongoing project, which is regularly updated with new material. Please take a look at the updated version:
#8 Untitled [In Progress], by A. S. Bessa (New York)

The 7th of November we released one new text:
#40 Family Album, by IC-98 (Turku)

The 17th of June we released five new texts:
#39: Urban Narratives – A round-table discussion with Meira Ahmemulic, Antonio Scarponi and Elin Wikström. Adapted to text by Katja Aglert, Martijn van Berkum and Janna Holmstedt.
#38: URBAN NARRATIVE: A MANIFESTO, by Antonio Scarponi (Zürich)
#37: Det publikt privata och det privat publika, by Adriana Seserin (Stockholm)
#36: Dolma, The Taste Of Kurdistan, by Francesca Recchia (Erbil)
#35: The 20th Century Chronicles, by Carl Åkerlund (Stockholm)One of the SQUID contributions is an ongoing project, which is regularly updated with new material.

One of the SQUID contributions is an ongoing project, which is regularly updated with new material. Please take a look at the updated version:
#8 Untitled [In Progress], by A. S. Bessa (New York)

And finally, two of the contributions, which have so far been available in Swedish only, can now be read in English as well:
#23: THEMES, AGAIN. (Part two of  “All Talk, No Action”), by Fredric Gunve (Göteborg)
#22: All Talk, No Action, by Fredric Gunve (Göteborg)

The artists' run intiative Bezdomny invited us to make a lecture. It took its point of departure from the SQUID project. We talked about what we call parallel knowledge and different approaches to text and writing in contemporary art. We also talked about the practices involved in the SQUID project.

Since 'Urban' and 'Narrative' are two of the most common search words in the SQUID archive, we wanted to take the opportunity to explore different artistic approaches with the use of 'Urban Narrative' as starting point for a discussion on investigative, site-specific practices. We arranged a round table discussion, which brought together a group of professionals that have each developed, through different fields and practices, strategies and knowledge for engaging into the city. The participants were the artist Meira Ahmemulic, the architect Antonio Scarponi and the artist Elin Wikström.

The discussion was held at Hit where the SQUID archive was on display Nov 29 - Dec 6, 2008.

The discussion has been adapted to text by Katja Aglert, Martijn van Berkum and Janna Holmstedt:
#39 Urban Narratives. A round table discussion with Meira Ahmemulic, Antonio Scarponi and Elin Wikström. (ENG)

The project space Hit, run by the artists Åsa Norberg and Jennie Sundén, hosted this SQUID event. The Swedish artist Elin Wikström made a presentation and screened a video, which is part of her project ‘Aquatic Aliens versus Norwegian Marines, part I - IV’.

During the following week the SQUID archive and furniture was on display. Visitors were welcome to have a chat over a cup of coffee, sit down and read the texts, listen to the audio files or print out their own favorite collection.

With support from Nordic Culture Point.

Five new texts were released online in relation to a public event at the project space Hit, Göteborg, Sweden:

#34 DESIRE, by Mairead Case
#33 Behind The White Door, by Imri Sandström
#32 Scrambles Amongst The Alps, by Martijn van Berkum
#31 Aquatic Aliens Versus Norwegian Marines, part I – IV, by Elin Wikström
#30 20th Century Type Coins. Radio Play For Two Characters, by Marc Ganzglass

In Nov 2007, Martijn van Berkum (NL) joined as project manager to run SQUID on a regular basis. Thanks to this cooperation and Martijn's programming skill, the entire website was redesigned and moved to a new URL: www.squidproject.net.
Our aim was to create a website that would do justice to the diverse and dynamic content the authors at SQUID have generated over the past years. The new layout makes the website easy to navigate; various functions have been improved and it’s now possible to search the texts by theme, author, or in chronological order. Some of the texts are also available as audio files.

When the Russian magazine Chto delat?/What is to be done? was part of Documenta Magazine during Documenta 12, Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt were invited to write for one of their issues. For this occasion the poster "To turn one's anus towards the sun and say "GO"!" was published as spread in #16: Potentialities Beyond Political Sadness. Iaspis financed three issues of Chto delat?/What is to be done? magazine and co-produced a seminar in Kassel in August 2007. Read more about the collaboration here.

The poster "To turn one's anus towards the sun and say "GO"!" can be downloaded as pdf here, or can be read in English and Russian here (text only).

Ersta konsthall, initiated by the Swedish artist Linus Elmes, is located in a restaurant and forms a natural meeting point between the bar and the WC. For Ersta konsthall we made recordings of three of the SQUID contributions. The visitors could sit down in the small intimate space and listen to texts by Veronica Brovall, Po Hagström and Jan Verwoert. Anders Karnell, Jenny Telemann and Mako Ishizuka made the readings. A compilation of all the texts available at SQUID was also available. Furthermore, the new SQUID website, designed by the artist Sunny Lee, was officially launched.

Three new texts were released online in relation to the opening at Ersta konsthall, Stockholm:

#29 Genusvägrarmanifestet / The Manifesto Of Gender-Refusal / Le Manifeste Anti-Genre, by A. K. Westin
#28 New Territories In Acre And Why They Matter: Notes On Hope And "The Game" Of Coexistence, by Marjetica Potrc
#27 Ma And The Four Dimensional Concept Of Reality In Today's Tokyo, by Ninia Sverdrup

When Travelling Magazine Table was exhibited at Iaspis, April 22-30, 2006, SQUID became part of the TMT archive. In relation to this, Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt made a presentation of SQUID.

TMT was initiated by the art collective Nomads & Residents (Bikvanderpol and Cesare Pietrousti) 2001.

Four new contributions were released online in relation to a presentation of SQUID and participation in Travelling Magazine Table:

#26 Obligatory Passage Point, by Linus Elmes
#25 Ett parallellmanus till filmen: The Dream Of A Book, by Beata Berggren
#24 06.04.02, by Jelena Rundqvist
#23 Tema, igen., by Fredric Gunve

When we initially started to invite cultural producers to write for SQUID - not based on a given theme but in relation to the engagement and driving forces which runs through, or parallel to their own work - we realized it wasn’t all that easy. The lack of an apparent theme became an issue. As a result of the fruitful discussions that followed, we invited the artist Fredric Gunve to write on the theme of "Theme" and to moderate an open discussion at ak28. Based on the discussion, Gunve wrote a second text. These are his two contributions:

#23 Tema, igen., by Fredric Gunve
#22 Mycket snack, lite(n) verkstad, by Fredric Gunve

For this occasion the idea of a SQUID-specific furniture was further developed in collaboration with the Swedish furniture designer, Mattias Wreland. It contained archive boxes with the texts from squid-net.com for the visitors to take with them, a computer for browsing the website and comfortable seats. The program for the lounge included live readings of texts from squid-net.com, a discussion on the theme of "Theme" moderated by the artist Fredric Gunve.
The live readings were made by Martin Ahlberg, Anders Karnell, Mariam Nordmark, Petra Eleonora Näslund and Pontus Olgrim.

Five new contributions were released in relation to the public event at ak28:

#22 Mycket snack, lite(n) verkstad, by Fredric Gunve
#21 Excerpts From Bridge Over Deep Ditch, Poems Written In Ubud Nov 05 - Jan 06, by Torbjörn Säfve
#20 Dear Tom, by Michael Blum
#19 Love, Pain And Self-Erection, by Marcus Steinweg
#18 The Main Character Of The Scene, by Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt

Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt were invited by the Russian workgroup "Chto delat?/What is to be done?" to present SQUID and participate in "Chto delat?/What is to be done? working meeting in Petersburg". Both SQUID and Chto delat?/What is to be done? are accessible on the Internet, this doesn't mean though, that the work can be done only online. We believe that to meet and engage in discussions face to face is still a fundamental basis for this kind of work.

With support from Sleipnir, NIFCA.

While starting up the project, we often got the question "Why SQUID?" And what is the difference between a squid and an octopus anyway? We went to Greece to find out more about these great creatures. Squids have well developed senses, three hearts, blue blood and they use jet propulsion to swim. Squids, apart from having two more arms than octopuses, also have a reduced internal shell called a pen.

#18 The Main Character Of The Scene, by Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt

In relation to the first public launch of SQUID online, a public event was arranged at Tensta konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden. Our initial 17 contributions were:

#17 Lost Homing Pigeons, by Aaron S. Davidson and Melissa Dubbin
#16 Coca-Cola Holy Water, by Paula von Seth
#15 Reflections Of A Percussionist, by Thomas Wingren
#14 Yet Another Artist With A Project, by Katja Aglert
#13 How I Became An Artist, by Saskia Holmkvist
#12 Labyrinth, by Peeter Laurits
#11 Drifting Through Incomplete Renovation, by 'What is to be done/CHTO DELAT?'
#10 The Heroes Of Absolute Zero, by Janna Holmstedt
#9 Poetry Is What Gets Lost In Translation, by Ylva Mazetti
#8 Untitled [In Progress], by A.S. Bessa
#7 Through the Home Tunnel, by Veronica Brovall
#6 This I Know About Home, by Jan Verwoert
#5 The Melancholy Of Evolution, by Po Hagström
#4 For The Love Of Foucault, by Marcus Steinweg
#3 Crystal Palace, by Camilla Bergqvist
#2 The Story As Seen From A Moving Viewpoint, by Yukie Kamiya
#1 "I Have Never Seen A Girl Wearing A Muslim Headscarf On Television Without It Being About The Scarf...", by Ellen Nyman

For the first public launch of SQUID at Tensta konsthall, Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt designed a SQUID-specific furniture that contained archive boxes with the texts from www.squid-net.com for the visitors to take with them, a computer for browsing the website and a printer for print on demand. The web design was made in collaboration with the artist Robert Pörschke.

Before SQUID became public, Katja Aglert and Janna Holmstedt were invited to work with the project for three months in a production-site at Tensta Konsthall. During this period we used the production-site as an open studio where visitors were welcome to take part of the work process and ask questions about the project.

With support from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.