SHIFT TITLE
Institute of Failure
SHIFT DATE 27.6
SHIFT TIME 17:00 - 20:00
SHIFT VENUE Zagreb Youth Theater ISTRA
SHIFT CURATOR MATTHEW GOULISH and TIM ETCHELLS
SHIFT PARTICIPANTS MATTHEW GOULISH, TIM ETCHELLS, SEBASTIÁN CALDERÓN BENTIN, GAVIN BUTT, ISIL EGRIKAVUK, JOZEF AMADO, OLIVER FRLJIĆ, VLATKA HORVAT
SHIFT ABSTRACT
- a three-hour event, hosted by Tim Etchells and Matthew Goulish, with special guests Sebastián Calderón Bentin, Gavin Butt, Isil Egrikavuk and Jozef Amado, Oliver Frljić, and Vlatka Horvat.
Event philosophy
In relation to the conference theme of the misfire, our concept for this event begins with two simple ideas: 1) as our grade school classmates used to say, “If you have to explain a joke, you’ve failed,” and; 2) jokes are notoriously difficult to translate from one language or culture to another. The first starting point considers the difficulty of the joke within one language, as a joke usually depends on some risky linguistic nuance, shared or grasped by a sub-community. The second starting point considers how such linguistic or cultural nuance resists translation altogether, in the sense that even a quote unquote successful translation will most likely fail to translate the humor; and in this indirect way the joke points to the local, or that situated position of speech which resists globalization.
With these thoughts in mind, we (Tim Etchells and Matthew Goulish), in the guise of The Institute of Failure (a collaborative project we began in 2001) have invited six guests from various cultural, linguistic, and aesthetic backgrounds, to enact these ideas in 20-minute time slots. We have asked them to present a case study of a culturally specific joke of their choice, which they will “tell” and then “explain.” Two important related considerations are 1) we have not asked them to “be funny,” but rather have suggested that they take a fairly serious approach to the directive, and simply allow for any humor that might or might not emerge; and 2) we have requested that they restrict the case studies to some recognizable joke form or grammar, which may itself be culturally specific, to limit the analysis to one particular joke (as Tim describes it: a funny story that can be told in a pub) rather than a consideration of funny things in general, in performance, film, or the ordinary. We hope to frame our shift narrowly in order to prevent it from descending (or ascending?) into chaos.
We have not set out to propose conclusions or discover a common language. We have instead attempted to devise a structure within which we might start out from a set of diverse centers, a constellation of nine or so jokes, through which we might gain, or regain, or renew, some appreciation for our relative positions as perpetual outsiders to one another’s humor. Community, for these three hours, might become a tentative movement in particular directions: of joke telling (an act in the direction of subjectivity) and explanation (an act in the direction of neutrality), as we circulate around the question, or experiment, or perhaps the questionable experiment, of explaining the joke.
Event schedule
Hour One:
Introduction part 1 / Case Study #1: Matthew Goulish
Introduction part 2 / Case Study #2: Tim Etchells
Case Study #3: Isil Egrikavuk and Jozef Amado
Hour Two:
Case Study #4: Gavin Butt
Case Study #5: Sebastián Calderón Bentin
Case Study #6: Oliver Frljić
Hour Three:
Case Study #7: Vlatka Horvat
Conclusion part 1 / Case Study #8: Matthew Goulish
Conclusion part 2 / Case Study #9: Tim Etchells