FUSE#5

ELEMENT#6 Viral Archives: Study Notes
From August to November 2020, I facilitated a small study group of
artists in a workshop titled Viral Archives. We convened six times over
a duration of the three months in-person and online with two main
intentions, the first was to share research methodologies in relation
to artistic practice, and the second to share a space where we could
unpack our experience of the lockdown due to COVID-19 earlier this
year. We started with a group of five participants and concluded with an
intimate session of three. Various participants joined and dropped out
and this was part of the evolving process—there was a sense of fatigue
from the onslaught of arts events internationally and locally that were
made available with remote online experiences, and we were appreciative
what time we could afford together in this study group.
The organizing philosophy of the group was modeled after Fred
Moten and Stefano Harney’s notion of black study that they proposed
in The Undercommons. They call for a kind of fugitive work that refuses
instrumentalisation, coming together in a space outside of the
university to consider ideas, philosophy, practice. When drafting up the
structure, I was also thinking a lot about the study of sociality. I wanted
to interrogate both the subject of ‘social studies’ in the Singaporean
education system and critique the relational turn of socially-engaged
practice in contemporary performance and art. Social studies was
often wielded in our education system as an instrumentalized form of
government propaganda in the 1990s. I wanted to investigate what
would a reconfiguration of social studies with an orientation towards
sociology bring about? Some of the provocations I posed in the first
session included: What does it mean to revisit the study of the social?
Who is counted in this sociality and how do we pay attention to what
is left aside? What is the relationship between the notion of study and
the gesture of practice?
With a desire to break out of habitual modes of engagement, I
invited the group to bond over food and to bring something they consumed
as support through the lockdown period to our first meeting. I
made small jars of achar (pickled vegetables and fruit) for everyone—
something I learnt how to make during the Circuit Breaker period. The
act of assembling achar became a monthly family activity that anchored
us and marked passing time. The sharing of these jars of achar with
my extended family and friends also became a way to demonstrate
affection despite the inability to meet in person. Achar was like a collage—each
batch will be different according to the flavour profiles of
the ingredients added. I have attached the recipe as an appendix to
this document, I would encourage you to try making some yourself.
Others in the group spoke of taking the opportunity during lockdown
to change their dietary habits. A participant brought flourless chocolate
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