M HKA Ensembles

Some people feel that precious places, processes and values are threatened or destroyed by allowing continuous economic growth. […] These people may also say that we should orient our lives around a set of fundamental values – natural, spiritual, religious, political or cultural – and find a deeper purpose in life than the pursuit of endless wealth and consumerism. Life should be ‘disciplined’ around these fundamental values […] (Jim Dator, Alternative Futures at the Manoa School, 2009)

Just as collapse may be both the destruction of a culture or the seed for new growth, a disciplined society may be organised either from the top down, with ideology as an instrument of control, or from the bottom up, with ideology as common ground.

The futurist and the artists in this segment interpret discipline by narrating possible protocols for consumption in a future disciplined society (Mei-Mei Song) or by submitting themselves to highly disciplined working protocols involving scripted, repetitive painting tasks (Kasper Bosmans) or the transformation of humble materials and surfaces, via high-definition digital imaging and computerised jacquard looms, into elaborate and luxurious woven images (Miriam Bäckström).

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