Header Image: RLab – Pivot Culture (2021) Creative Commons Licence.
What is R-Lab?
R-Lab is a contemporary art organisation led by postgraduate students in Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh. We aim to collect and present a multitude of ‘pivots’ that might enact societal and artistic change post-pandemic. We seek to explore how different artworlds have adapted and survived during the pandemic. Reflecting the membership of our R-Lab, we seek to reflect upon Chinese and European cultural experiences during the pandemic. We hope that exchanging Chinese and European visions of post-pandemic possibilities can have a long-lasting impact.
R-lab是一个由爱丁堡大学艺术学院研究生组成的艺术组织。我们意在以多元化的视角洞悉“后疫情”时代艺术和社会发展的转变，并企图以当代艺术在这一特殊时期的“何去何从”为切入点，探究艺术世界在这一节点发生的变化。以组织成员的特殊构成为出发点，我们旨在洞察以中国与欧洲在这一时期所经历的“文化动荡”为研究目的之一，以中欧的“文化交互”为视角，探寻“后疫情”艺术的更多可能性及其对社会未来发展的辐射效应。
Mission Statement
We at R-Lab are a group who are scoping a restart, rebuild and reimagining of the art world, is a cross-cultural organisation associated with the University of Edinburgh. We aim to find new directions and potentials for contemporary art by researching and engaging with the art world’s different pivots during the pandemic. Simultaneously, we value the communication and fusion of cultures which are often thought of as distinct, with a view to mixing Chinese and European artistic and cultural experiences during the pandemic which reflects the cultural make-up of our organisation.
Our mission, then, is to think of the pandemic as a multitude of ‘Pivots’ that could enact socieal and artistic change post-pandemic. To do this, we offer artists a safe, online space to share and discuss their experiences and work during the pandemic. This space will be far removed from the bad faith practices and intense pressures moving artists towards increased, exploitative productivity which are both commonly associated with today’s platform culture.
A space like this would usually be based in a local community, and we want to show how art can create this safe space online, build a broader community online, with a sociable environment and contribute to a better culture online that can be practised during the lockdown and beyond it.
We believe that within this context of ‘deterritorialization – a ‘Pivot’ in its own right – the pandemic gives us different visions and possibilities for cultural exchanges and fusions that can have long-lasting impacts post-pandemic.
R-Lab 是一个以重新开始(Restart)、重新建立(Rebuild)、和对艺术世界的重新构想和展望(Reimagining of the Art world) 为基点的，以爱丁堡大学为学术背景的跨文化艺术组织。我们志在以疫情时期社会发展正在经历的种种变革为转折点(The ‘Pivot’)，为当代艺术的研究和与艺术世界的交互提供更多新的视角和可能的方向。
同时，我们也注重不同源文化的交流与融合，我们希望以 R-Lab 特有的中国文化和欧洲文化的“融文化”视角，从两方文化的不同角度，以艺术为手段，促进两方文化的交互发展。
我们取“转折点(The ‘Pivot’)这一概念中的“转折”为重点特征，意在以多元化的不同视角去全方位审视社会与艺术在所谓“后疫情“时期骤变下的发展转向。以网络平台是为主要落脚点，我们希望为在疫情“威慑”下的艺术世界和艺术参与者们，创造一个可以舒适地，没有压力地进行以现阶段自我以及艺术现状的艺术创作和思想交流“空间”。
我们希望艺术参与者们可以在 R-Lab 创造的这一虚拟的“空间”中，视疫情为某种“契机”，将视角脱离开本身社会施加于疫情的消极语境，以更积极的视角去看待这一时期，努力在这一场已成为既定事实的“灾难”中寻找到“为艺术世界重建希望和方向”的线索。疫情作为一次“横祸”，打破了很多既有的现状，那么在“破”中求“立”，或许是我们去脱离目前现状的一个机会。
然而，R-Lab 选择网络为平台创造一种“艺术虚拟交流空间”的原因并不仅仅只是以目前世界疫情的现状未考虑，同时我们也意在开发一种多样化的机构运营模式。我们希望用多元化的活动方式，更全面地吸引不同的艺术参与者加入进来（以大部分社区组织为参考），同时也希望能够通过对于互联网的特征的最优化利用，将我们的目标艺术群体向世界范围进行扩张。
我们相信，在这种“去地域化”的语境下，我们能发掘更多的可能性——疫情时期作为世界人类社会发展的转折点，会对世界的未来发展产生某种不可逆的改变，那么艺术作为对人类社会拥有指向性作用的强大因素之一，我们有义务为动荡中的世界寻找更多的潜力和空间。
(CC RLab - Pivot Culture (2021))
