DOGMeNIAROF

Antonin Fourneau has just published the DOGMeNIAROF over at the ENIAROF blog. It is of course inspired by Lars von Trier & Thomas Vinterberg’s Domge95 Vow of Chastity (that said, our vow is more a vow of lasciviousness). The idea is to create an associative movement countering various unfortunate tendencies in digital art, and more importantly digital art festivals. And as an affront to the big daddy of all digital arts festival, we’re sending it into the Prix Ars Electronica’s Digital Communities category to see what they’ll do with it (we don’t expect much on that front, but who knows).

What does this have to do with code, you ask? Everything. Although ENIAROF is an inclusive project (mud wrestling anyone?), it emerged from artists working principly with code. A lot of us were inspired as youths from video games and 8-bit computers. While we might have since moved on to more elegant expressions, we found the need to create a messier, playful arena, with equally playful methodologies of production. What if CODE|ART had its own punk movement? ENIAROF tries to participate in that effort.

And it goes without saying that ENIAROF 0.2 will have a lot of Processing-based installations.

As rule 10 states that participating artists have to translate DOGMeNIAROF into their native toungue (if not yet already translated) and publish it online, here goes:

DOGMeNIAROF

1 Although ENARIOF takes as its point of departure the term ‘Carnival’ (§), in no means must it take place within a carnival (especially contemporary carnivals!). To the contrary, it can in fact be seen as its re-appropriation (détournement).

2 Installations must be built on-site, although materials may be prepared in advance. If a work has not been created for Eniarof, it must blend in with the rest. In the same vein, an Eniarof artist can introduce works of another artist, but he or she must then take charge of its integration.

3 Each Eniarof participant must contribute to at least one of the aspects of preparation: communication, management, installation, dismantling, etc.

4 Each participant can seek private financing/partnership for his or her attraction. A blank space will be reserved on all Eniarof communications for partners’ logos. (Artist-as-athlete?)

[5] Each participant will help in at least one other project, both to keep the atmosphere convivial, but also to take pride in another installation functioning if by chance one’s own installation is not working.

6 All participants must avoid superfluous expenses. Do not attempt to hide traces of the work’s production within an encasement for which you do not have the means.

[7] Eniarof organizers can only be paid percentages of fees that in the end are destined to artists. All other assistants in the production of Eniarof cannot be paid any more than the participating artists are themselves paid. In the same sense, the barman, the guardian, the ticket-taker, … are not paid any better than the artists themselves.

[8] Each participant must take care that people within their entourage know about ENIAROF.

[9] The authors of attractions cannot be labeled during the event itself, however attribution can be communicated in the press releases.

[10] Every artist participating in Eniarof, and for which the Dogme has not yet been translated into his or her native language, must translate said Dogme (or have it translated) and publish this document (for example: on-line).

[11] Each participant must identify the principal idea and material needs of his or her attraction approximately three months in advance of the event.

[12] Each participant must possess an Eniarof t-shirt to promote ’da crew in swank cosmopolitan parties. The artist can make his or her own t-shirt, or obtain one of the printed t-shirts during the event.

[13] An Eniarof must be produced within at least an hour of an Emmaüs (†) center, or its equivalent (for raw materials).

[14] All materials borrowed from Emmaüs or its equivalent must be returned after the event, except in special pre-negotiated cases (for example, in case the object has to be dismantled or transformed).

[15] In order to reinforce the idea of a network of participants, former Eniarof participants are invited to participate in at least one new Eniarof. In this way, artists enact the links of the network.

[16] An Eniarof project must be an attempt at making an attraction. The attractiveness of the work will thus be its judge.

[17] The attractions should ‘spill-over’ into each other. Do not get obsessed with some pre-defined form. The overall spilling-over of one work into each other will create a backdrop for Eniarof (its social cohesion), the esthetics of an Eniarof (not necessarily the same for each iteration). If a neighboring artist spills over too much into your space you have several solutions: reroute his or her spill-over, steal their work from them (risking being robbed from in turn), build on top it, …

Translator’s notes:

• § ‘ENIAROF’ is ‘Foraine’ spelled backwards. An english equivalent might be ‘LAVINRAC’

• ** † Emmaüs is a non-profit network of centers redistributing goods to the poor. Similar institutions exist in many countries, for example the Goodwill network in the United States.