Glowlab

School of Missing Studies

School of Missing Studies "(SMS) aims to 'turn what is missing into a mission' - by bringing together artists, curators, architects and theorists from the former Yugoslavia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the USA for two years' of research and workshops."

SMS looks at the spaces between the traditional architecture, art and social studies and attempts connections that would not be otherwise sought. One project includes "Belgrade's city streets, inserting the experiences of marginal residents such as the homeless, disabled and prostitutes into the usual maps."

< a href="http://www.normalgroup.net/sms/index-sms.htm">Other SMS projects include The Manhattan Shadow Project and the Looking for October project. Each project has a unique investigation upon the issues that slip through the cracks of urban academia.

Freecycle

For those of you in need of a bike for a derive, or looking for a nice bartering system in your town, Freecycle is a good place to start. Think of it as a psychogeographer's art supply store.

"The Freecycle Network is a project of RISE, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission includes reducing waste, generating employment training, and fostering cooperation between other nonprofit organizations and the public."

The Private/Public Realm

PAA, a group in Hungary, raises the conscious awareness of the private/public boundary in art and media. A well thought out mission statement explains, "The general aim of PAA is to ensure that contemporary art should also reach large public besides the experts, thus, along with its function of environment formation it should obtain social, educational and economic significance as well."

Though they have a well developed mission and theory base, they do not have any projects posted at this time. That's ok, though, because it gives you more time to browse through the theory section. An interesting questioning of the relative term of "public" seems to be their focus. "One may call art that manifests itself outside museums, galleries and private collectiions –art of community, however, better known and more wide – spreadly (sic): public art. However, the latter does not fully cover the thing that this art stands for; since the "expression": public may remind us of monument (sic) sculpture."

The theory goes on to briefly focus upon the influences of mass media upon the boundary of public and private. "How can we define space today in the epoch of media? Where is the real space amongst the every day reality and medial picture and how does this affect our conscience and senses? How does this space appear in art and how does art that functions contextually constitute public?" Psychogeography also has a role in this questioning, however, so what PAA has to say can be understood as an alternative voice to the psychogeographic process. Substitute "psychogepgraphy" for "media" and it still makes sense.

PAA is a well thought out group that appears to be constructing in-depth explorations of the public and private boundaries of society. You can get involved with them if you are so inclined. Hopefully the projects that manifest from the group will be well documented and displayed on their site sometime soon.

Temporary.Travel.Office

The Temporary Travel Office produces a variety of services relating to tourism and technology aimed at exploring the non-rational connections existing between public and private spaces.

The group is currently working on an audio tour of the Chicago Technology Park. You can download MP3s, PDF transcripts as well as a PDF guide.