SERIES NARRATIVE

What is public space and within it what knowledge is shared? Furthermore, what is public, common, and/or permissible when so much seems defined at the discretion of civic and corporate power? If the commons helps us consistently perform and transform the Social Contract, what effects might develop from its enclosure?

Arguing that “public” is what you make of it, and that within this understanding, the so-called public-realm is a vital field of shared knowledge, Red76 started the Laundry Lectures series in Chicago, IL. in 2004 at a Laundromat around the corner from The Empty Bottle, with collaborator Salem Collo-Julin. The idea was deceptively simple. Invite someone to produce a lecture with Q&A to follow. Organize the lecture in a nearby laundromat - no permission required. Print up a program. Bring some laundry. Invite uninformed customers to join if they’d prefer a break from a magazine or mindless TV show.

A distributed, and as was always the case with Red76 projects, reproducible platform, the Laundry Lectures took place across the United States over a three year period highlighting a variety of topics, from the Chinese art scene in the lead up to Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 to techniques for constructing really good paper airplanes.

COMMENTARY

DOCUMENTS

COLOPHON

Editor: Sam Gould

Collaborators: Salem Collo-Julin, Tim du Roche, Dan S. Wang, Jason Wilson & Di-Ann Eisnor , Khris Soden, Bonnie Fortune, Dynamite!, Zefrey Throwell, Courtney Fink, Helena Keeffe & Joseph del Pesco, Tia Factor, Oliver Halsman Rosenberg, and others.