WHAT IS TTN?

The Transversal Navigation (TTN) is a performative-educational entity which works towards a different state of global reality – meaning that it creates other ways of being in the same world. An integral effect of transversal navigation is gradual, systemic and conscious alienation.

This project was in preparatory stages even before the advent of the SARS-COV-2 epidemic. Much has changed since then. The situation forces us to think how the contemporary situation of SARS-COV-2 might shift our understanding of reality. Can we fully (or at least partially) understand the changes which are taking place around (and within) us?

What types of relationships can become reality in such an environment and how might they influence our lives? Are they really so fundamental? It is quite possible that if we were able to understand these “new” relationships, we would also be able to understand how “power” affects our bodies.

Open commentary on TTN:

  1. Transversality is a dimension which allows the transgression of those limits within which the mind has been inserted.
  2. Transversality is neither vertical nor horizontal.
  3. Transversality has neither center nor periphery.
  4. Transversality is a thin line – it cuts in a single stroke.
  5. Transversality is that which allows anything to become anything.
  6. Transversality questions any limits.
  7. Transversality transcends individuals, creators, authors, their function and opens heretofore closed pathways of movement and perception. It is an open articulation.
  8. Transversality is the ability to evade, overcome, but also to protect oneself.
  9. Transversality creates a whole new constitution for both institution and group.
  10. Transversality is beyond any collective, although it begins with what appears to be one, it always tends towards maximum (radical) openness (sensitivity) – sensorial awareness.
  11. Transversality creates its own concepts and affirms the singularity of everyone in the group.
  12. Transversality consists in the interchangeability – haziness – blur – transparency of roles.
  13. Transversality looks for no cure but integrates everything through its relation to the environment.
  14. Transversality cuts through both text and matter. It cancels out polarity.
  15. Transversality is processuality. The movement between the perceivable and the almost imperceptible.
  16. Transversality projects the new, but it is not a new method.
  17. Transversality is an immortal force rejuvenating life.
  18. Transversality has pedagogical (and also political) potential for expanding the conditions of a given praxis.
  19. Transversality occurs when we are conscious of how we move and act in a space, but not as individuals, but rather as a gathering of human and non-human, material and immaterial perceptions.
  20. Transversality is a total welcome of all possibilities.

Transversal Navigation focuses on how art, objects, collectivity, and thought are formed and transformed in relation to other human and non-human elements. The Transversal Navigation project is a distributed experimental praxis within which the human is exposed to a vaster and ever more complex configuration. The transversal navigation is a collaboration of the environment – an ecology of praxis.

Project author: Aleš Čermák Theoretical Support: Jakub Albert Ferenc Supervision: Jindřiška Křivánková, Jakub Gottwald, Jan Bárta, Matouš Hejl Graphic Design: Terezie Štindlová Sound Design: Matouš Hejl Technical Support: Jaro Repka, GAMU Documentation: GAMU Project curator and coordinator: Petr Krátký (GAMU)

STRUCTURE & CONCEPTION OF TTN

The Transversal Navigation project was initiated in early 2020.

In the first half of 2020, the Course of Decelerated Reading_001 took place as part of the modular education platform at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Czech Technical University in Brno, which is also part of TTN. The course was originally conceived as a space for physical encounter, but over the course of the year it migrated to on-line space.

It will continue in the academic year 2020/21 with the iterations _002 and _003 which were since the very beginning conceived for the on-line environment of a collective blog. As opposed to _001, _002 and _003 are accessible to the public via this link.

In March of 2021, the spaces of AMU Gallery (GAMU) will host the most extensive phase of the project. This year-long project will be curated by AMU Gallery’s director Petr Krátký, and will consist of three thematic segments; each will take place over the span of two months.

In 2022, NAMU publishers will release a publication mapping out these activities throughout the years.

After due consideration, I decided to include two more extensive and still active processual projects as parts of TTN. The first of those is the performative-collaborative project Země se chvěje / The Earth Trembles (TET) which I started preparing in various phases and at various world locations in 2015. Many diverse people and communities have taken part in this project. So far, the latest event took place in 2019 in New Delhi in collaboration with the University of New Delhi. The second project, Unofficial Proof, reacts to the contemporary urban global discourse and praxis. This project is now in the preparatory phases. The focus and structure of both projects is wholly compatible with the parameters of TTN.

CONCEPTION

If art and thought of the 20th century created space for an analysis of social and political realities, the art and thought of the 21st century constitute a space for the activation and expansion of new vocabularies, new realities nestled within superstructures.

Wherein lies the space from which we express ourselves – where do we speak from, the space between systems, technologies, between generations, mentalities, time zones, between mutually entwined histories, between borders?

How can we present, narrate and communicate oftentimes difficult and multidimensional phenomena – ecology, neurodiversity, various forms of care-engagement?

Knowledge and ignorance coexist in close connection. The moment of turbulence contains within itself a moment of ignorance, when it is uncertain what exactly might happen. If language is absent as a means of communication, it becomes necessary to translate or to ponder a different language (means of communication). If the mind comes closer to the body, control mechanisms and systems fail, historic knowledge terminates, and the time for common=collective thought arises. The moment of uncertainty contains possibilities which open new horizons. How to move within such an environment? What navigational means will we choose if we move as part of a situation which has no clearly defined map, but one which also requires common thinking and shared development of strategy? How to move forward?

STRANGE HOMELESSNESS: DREAMING AS REAL PRAXIS

3 March – 18 April 2021, AMU Gallery

Let’s for a while consider waking life and dreaming together. If our dreams were duly interconnected, so that every night the same people and the same circumstances returned, we would be unsure as to what is waking and what is dream. And so, if we speak about a waking state, we must also include a state of dreaming. We dream for a single reason, and that is to access reality.

17 February (2021): To have no other dream – but this one!

We close our eyes and dissolve in blackness. We do so without fear because that which we call our ‘I’ disappears. We feel we are in direct contact with outside reality, but that is a naive assumption. Dreaming is likely something which happens in a dream, and not something we do. Within the seemingly infinite world of dreams, we begin to exist. We lose our sense of self only to find it again. In the morning, we wake up and continue with our real life although, in a way, we continue to dream. Just like at night, during the day we are plunged into the same dream as well. We move – we travel, in the same medium.

I am an artist, a writer and the founder of A-B_HPP (Ausdruck Books Hybrid Publishing Platform – which brings together authors and performers interested in researching hybrid thinking and writing). Over the last ten years, I have been deeply involved in researching hybrid praxis in the field of performative conduct, social choreography, collective action, care and writing.

What happens when dreaming becomes explicit? Will it shake the foundations of that which seems real? What happens when an overabundance of dreams is applied to reality? We’re already there. Is there an optimal method of dreaming which would make the world a “natural reality”? What regularities might we find in this intoxicated world of dreaming if we wake from the dream and return back to reality?

DOCUMENTATION I.

Documenting the first phase of the TTN project can be found at > On the strange homelessness

Project author: Aleš Čermák Theoretical Support: Jakub Albert Ferenc Supervision: Jindřiška Křivánková, Jakub Gottwald, Jan Bárta, Matouš Hejl Graphic Design: Terezie Štindlová Sound Design: Matouš Hejl Technical Support: Jaro Repka, GAMU Documentation: Světlana Malinová GAMU Project curator and coordinator: Petr Krátký (GAMU)

WE’VE IN FACT STOPPED COMMUNICATING WITH THE WORLD LONG AGO

15. 7. – 27. 8. 2021 Gallery AMU

Hands and other limbs are considered part of the body. Why then couldn’t all beings who possess a body be considered as part of a single being? There is no such thing as a disabled body, but only disabled socioeconomic systems.

From the perspective of the other, being slow needn’t be considered a weakness, and the weak/weaker needn’t be slow/slower – they merely achieve a different speed than the speed of the medium which they inhabit at the given time. A “sick” person needn’t mean “visibly sick”. Sickness also includes that which has not yet been recognized, and which is treated as if it weren’t sick at all. To accept one’s vulnerability and fragility in order to reorganize – reprogram relationships, not only towards oneself, but also within a broader social context.

Are our bodies this dangerous biological factor? Is the body itself at the core of this crisis? Do we only start paying attention to bodies once they become sick? Are there more types of invisibility? Is invisibility beyond everyday experience? What does it mean to stand next to an invisible one?

DOCUMENTATION II.

Documenting the second phase of the TTN project can be found at > WE’VE IN FACT STOPPED COMMUNICATING WITH THE WORLD LONG AGO

Project author: Aleš Čermák Supervision: Jindřiška Křivánková, Jakub Gottwald, Petr Skala, Matouš Hejl Theoretical support: Jakub Albert Ferenc Sound design: Matouš Hejl Graphic design: Terezie Štindlová Technical podpora: HAMU, Dokumentation: Lenka Janíčková, English translation: Vít Bohal Project curator and coordinator: Petr Krátký (GAMU)
Guests: Roman Radkovič Collective, Tereza Hauserová, Veronika Maschke

COMMUNITY AT THE MOMENT OF DISINTEGRATION

18. 11. – 19. 12. 2021

When the sun is shining and the rain comes with it, we see a rainbow in the sky. Similarly, all the diverse forms we encounter are the result of a fleeting connection among a number of variables. But none of them have any physical existence.

When we say body, we mean that constantly undulating assemblage of bones, meat and blood, but in fact, no such entity exists. The illusory feeling of a physically existing self.  In each individual pore of the body we see endless spaces – empty spaces of wisdom – spaces of creativity.

To be a body means to not wholly be a body. The body reproduces noise and interference out into the world. The body is a form of life which must always be reconstructed anew. The body naturally calls for a different language. With eyes closed you see a dark blue which disappears as soon as we open our eyes. The body is just as alien to us as the world, and that is why we should accept its strangeness.

Project author: Aleš Čermák Theoretical Support: Marie Štindlová Supervision: Jindřiška Křivánková, Jakub Gottwald, Jan Bárta, Matouš Hejl Graphic Design: Terezie Štindlová Sound Design: Matouš Hejl Technical Support: HAMU/GAMU Documentation: Vít Trunec Project curator and coordinator: Petr Krátký (GAMU)

TEXTS

Aleš Čermák, On Strange Intimacy

Aleš Čermák, O podivné intimitě

Marie Štindlová, EN

Marie Štindlová, CZ

The Transversal Navigation anthology contains texts from all three parts of TTN. The texts are arranged chronologically and also include an updated edition of the work-in-progress text Infinite Manual.

The Transversal Navigation, EN

The Transversal Navigation, CZ

Text by: Aleš Čermák, Marie Štindlová, Jakub A. Ferenc Graphic Design: Terezie Štindlová Translation: Vít Bohal Published by Ausdruck Books_Hybrid Publishing Platform / GAMU 2021

UNOFFICIAL PROOF

Are we able to imagine a space which anyone could freely use and transform without imposing the maxim of “survival of the fittest?”

The Unofficial Proof project is based on the assumption that identity, and also the so-called reality around us, is fluid. We work with the idea that though performative mapping we can provide participants with an extraordinary opportunity to play while modelling new realities.

Collective project-making = modeling space

The project Unofficial Proof is an educative, performative-processual experiment. As a shifting collective of authors and performers, we focus on researching performative mapping, collective insight and urban interspatiality. We are drawn by “hybrid” spaces (anonymous realities) considered as neglected – spontaneous – ambivalent (odd or otherwise chaotic). These spaces possess a great level of dynamic energy. Various human and non-human actors are woven into this dynamic web and further support or disrupt its relationality. From this point of view, we can consider these spaces as possessing a high level of openness and ingenuity. We can observe them as local ecosystems – dynamic interfaces. Performative mapping is thus rather a platform within a frame, allowing for an improved development of imagination. It can thus become a product of a collective attempt at understanding the role of a given place. All the activities which constitute the UP project are focused on projects of [designing / mapping and modeling reality] which tend towards performativity.

Keywords: #performative mapping #performative architecture #performative urbanism #decoding locality #transition design #sensorial awareness, #generic mapping, #cognitive mapping, #multimodality, #gamedesign, #simulation games, #systemic thinking (and praxis)

CASE STUDY #01

Location: Department of Slavonic & Finno-Ugrian Languages, Tutorial Building, University of Delhi, North Campus, Delhi 110007

Implementation date: 2022 – ?

Description:

Soon…

CASE STUDY #02

Location: Osada Tornádo, Kazín, Czech Republic

GPS: 49°56’55.70″N, 14°20’19.92″E

Implementation date: 2021-22

A large part of the settlement’s objects are parts of historical buses of the brand Praha N or Praga 1930, which were decommissioned from the Czechoslovakian Post Office in the 1920s and were transported to the banks of the Berounky River.

In 2015, a plan for the development of the Berounky-Vltava river basin developed at the initiative of the Council of the city’s municipal threshold, where the Institute of Planning and Development of hl. m Prague (IPR) initiated the implementation of the Soutok suburban park and the creation of the Together at the confluence platform (it also includes the cooperating urban areas of Prague: Velká Chuchle, Zbraslav, Radotín, Prague 12, Lipence, Černošice). In the near future, the plan is also to support the favela of the settlement of Kazín and entire areas under the castle, and to build an artist-cultural colony for artist residences.

Brief description of the project:

Our goal is to design a project that creates more of a metaphysical description of possible relationships – or alliances. We assume that the “metaphysical” has specific, lasting effects in a given location that cannot be escaped. Our goal is not to physically transform the locality. Although it is possible that, by applying certain principles, this transformation may be gradually taking place. Project Unofficial Proof: Case Study #2: The Alliance is primarily about observing and perceiving the direction things are going and on that basis we offer options as to where future attention might be focused or where the future of the site might evolve if manipulated.

Team Collective A-B_HPP:  Aleš Čermák, Jindřiška Křivánková, Pavla Kouzalová, Jakub Gottwald Graphic design: Terezie Štindlová.
Implementation of this project is being supported by Prague City Gallery – Art for the City program, in collaboration with the interdisciplinary platform Neolokátor.

 

INFINITE MANUAL

Infinite Manual: Moving Between Intuition and Chaos

Infinite Manual is a constantly evolving handbook, a set of dynamic instructions which the users ought to keep in a constant state of becoming. Each version of the Infinite Manual is custom-made for the given project.

A key concept here – and throughout all of Čermák’s work – is flexibility. Flexibility as individual and collective practice, flexibility as an ability to change in complete and complex ways, flexibility as a way of empathizing with those for whom this world wasn’t created. Flexibility as the only feasible solution to the crises in the world, flexibility as a willingness to let go of our individuality in order to experience life in a fuller way. It’s an interesting concept to zero in on in such a wide practice as Čermák’s (spanning writing, experimental theatre, installation and more), but its importance cannot be denied or understated. Its implications are far-reaching and can be reflected on beyond this study. – Adam Badí Donoval

Keywords: #hybrid thinking, #intutition, #indeterminacy, #transparency/opacity, #flexibility, #choreography, #artistic practices, #methodology, #education, #post-dramaturgy, #artificial intelligence, #consciousness, #complexity, #alienation, #no-one, #dreams, #care

VERSION #01

Infinite Manual: Moving Between Intuition and Chaos

This version of the Infinite Manual is dated to 17 December 2020. The final version of the text is published from June 2021 on the UNSEEN website. IM is closely related to (TTN). Infinite Manual is a constantly evolving handbook, a set of dynamic instructions which the users ought to keep in a constant state of becoming. Each version of the Infinite Manual is custom-made for the given project.

Version #01 originated for the UNSEEN online platform and web archive. The platform aims to present different approaches to listening and developing the relationship between our bodies, space and sound.

Complete text with introduction by Adam Badí Donoval can be seen > INFINITE MANUAL: MOVEMENT BETWEEN INTUITION AND CHAOS #01

The full UNSEEN project can be studied >https://www.unseen.help/

THE EARTH TREMBLES

After due deliberation, I decided to connect TTN with the wider and continuing processual project The Earth Trembles (TET) which I started in 2015. Many people from very diverse communities around the world took part in developing this project. The project’s latest activity took place in New Delhi and Dharamshala in 2019 in collaboration with the University of New Delhi. This project can be considered as an ideational cauldron for the entire TTN project.

> The Earth Trembles

CONTACT

In case you have any question pertaining to the project The Transversal Navigation, please write us.

al.cermak(at)gmail.com

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