RETHINKING PRIORITIES

different
kinds of
ways to be
all over the place
Hannah Todt

1
 To all

who want to oscillate between different worlds

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 – 11 Introduction
12 – 15 Fish or Fowl
16 – 23 Vessel Instruments
24 – 27 Dependence is not a Drug
28 – 29 Inside the Outside
30 – 31 Berries in a Basket
32 – 35 There are no Accidents
36 – 43 One Thing Leads to Another
44 – 49 Different Kinds of Ways to Be All
Over the Place
50 – 55 From Hand to Mouth
56 – 59 Conclusion
60 – 61 References
62 – 63 Gratitude
INTRODUCTION
“We are, in effect, walking coral reefs; the lat-
est information discloses that 98 percent of the
atoms of which we consist change annually. So
we’re simply a kind of form, as the Queen Eliza-
beth is a form, with life going on inside.” 1
6 7
According to Gilles De- In nature, a rhizome is a plant stem that grows
2
leuze and Félix Guattari horizontally along or just below the soil surface. It can be
quite long and branch in many directions. Unlike roots,
rhizomes are divided into nodes, and roots and new plants
can grow from these nodes. Tracing the origin of a rhizome
is a difficult undertaking.
In philosophy, a rhizome is a nonlinear and
nonhierarchical structure that is characterized by a widely
spanning network.2 In a rhizome, ideas and knowledge can
1
Buckminster Fuller, A spread and grow in a decentralized way, rather than being
candid conversation with
the visionary architect/
controlled by a predominant force. Rhizomes are adaptable
inventor/philosopher R. and resilient because they can change and evolve in re-
Buckminster Fuller, in: sponse to their environment. A rhizome is always in a state
LAUWAERT, Maaike, VAN of becoming and is open to new connections and potential-
WESTRENEN, Francien
(Ed.), Facing Value. Radical
ities.
perspectives from the arts,
Valiz, Amsterdam, 2017 In my artistic practice, the rhizome symbolizes a way of
doing things. Works spread out in different directions and
it is difficult to say where they come from or when they are
“done”. A body of work usually consists of several elements
like video, sculpture or drawing, all of which relate to each
other.
INTRODUCTION RETHINKING
INTRODUCTION
PRIORITIES

Rhizomes are versatile entities, and I consider versatility

to be a feminist practice. Choosing not to choose and not
confining myself to one role can be seen as a way to em-
phasize the importance of transitions and entanglements
in art. I believe that appreciating connections can support
the creation of a sense of community and belonging.

If, in trying to organize a rhizome, you break it down into

all its parts, you will end up, instead of having found its
origin, with a multitude of disconnected snippets. What
you can do, however, because you find the rhizome inter-
esting and want to understand it better, is to examine the
individual sections and their points of connection in order
to place them in relation to each other and to locate them,
as on a map. Then you can refer to this map when you feel
like you’re getting lost. It offers reference points and makes
the different aspects of the rhizome accessible to you, the
reader. You’re holding it in your hands right now.

8 9
FISH OR FOWL Jane Rendell, Critical
4
In the context of art making, the prefixes „multi“ and
Spatial Practices. Setting
Out a Feminist Approach
„inter“ have been described by Jane Rendell as distinct ways
to some Modes and what of integrating various media. For Rendell, multidisciplinary
Matters in Architecture, art involves the juxtaposition of a multitude of techniques
in: BROWN, Lori (Ed.), and materials within one project. Each medium retains its
Feminist Practices: Inter-
disciplinary Approaches
distinctiveness and autonomy. Interdisciplinary art on the
to Women in Architecture, other hand focuses on transitions between disciplines, in
Routledge, 2011 order to understand the relationships between them.4
Given the terminology defined by Rendell I wonder if dis-
5
I like to think of it as
tinguishing between the two terms does not run counter to
“I am sure that no two people have the same 3
Deborah Hay, My Body,
internal or invisible the desire for versatility. Artists might find themselves in a
the Buddhist, Wesleyan
definitions of „body“. For some of us, the way we University Press, 2000 processes like learning, state of ambiguity, where they must balance the desire for
digesting, changing opi- personal expression and autonomy with the practical need
write the body can fluctuate even in the course of nions or growing a baby
to react to market demands with flexibility and adaptabil-
a day. I have come to understand that the body in the uterus.
ity. I am interested in the relationship between need and
as form and content is not what it seems to be, necessity, between freedom and free will, or basically any
and that my dances are not about specific transition between two modes that is intangible.5
The tricky part is to position yourself in the face of a mul-
subjects.” 3 titude of possibilities, and to create your own vocabulary
given the many different languages you can speak.

12 13
FISH OR FOWL
As a way of defining my artistic vocabulary, I began by ima-
gining the practices I feel close to as realms with a particu-
lar name, like cities or rivers – performance, sculpture, or
music, for example. I move back and forth between them,
sometimes staying longer, sometimes shorter in one of
them.6
14
6
It is good and important
that they are there, and
give me support, but I
don‘t want to stick to
them like a shell. Then I‘d
rather be stuck to a
whale, which moves
at least and I see new
worlds.
FISH OR FOWL
7
David Lynch, Lamp, 2003 As I drew the lines between those realms I became aware of
the in-between zones, and I decided to paint them yellow.
The yellow zone acts as an intermediary, like the moment
after waking up but still lying in bed, the transitions from A
to B or a project where, starting from a text I wrote, I make
a song that then becomes a video. It reminds me of the
David Lynch film, “Lamp”, where David Lynch is building
a lamp.7 You see him working and fiddling around, hav-
ing a coffee break, his studio is a total mess, and he never
wears gloves or has any assistants close-by. He’s handling
the plaster with his dried out hands and at the end of the
day, the fact that he’s building this weird lamp is totally
secondary. It’s about seeing him in this process that also
demystifies him. Relieving to see that he also just does it
without knowing why. I may be getting off track here, but
the more important thing is to realize: the lamp, while
perhaps the reason why this film is being made, is ultimate-
ly not so important anymore. Filming the manufacturing
process creates a gray zone between the lamp and the film,
or, as in my drawing, rather a lemon yellow zone. It is in
this zone where I see the magic happening. Things might be
placed side by side, but they are brought together in a way
that creates a shared language between lamp and film, a
language of the non-specific.
In the end, the important thing for me is not to arrive at a
place and settle there, but rather to navigate in
the with varying intensities depending on the
context and desire. I like to build a playground where things
change, fluctuate and move around.
At the moment, I work with flutes and whistles. I find them
or make them, draw them or use them in performances. I
don’t feel the need to be a whistle specialist or to design the
most melodic flute. Rather, I seek to identify a process of
creation and appropriation of these objects and to explore
in a playful way the relationships between their symbolism,
their function, their form and their sound.
15
VESSEL INSTRUMENTS A flute is what I like to refer to as a vessel instrument. The
basic requirement for a vessel instrument is a resonating
body that you can blow into with mouth air. That means
that an empty beer bottle is also a flute. Or an oil lamp.
The difference between the flute and its little sister, the
whistle, is blurry. A whistle, according to Western musical
notation, may produce a less distinct tonality. Nevertheless,
with a little practice, you can change the pitch by changing
the angle of attack, and thus transform the whistle into a
flute. Such a whistle would be, for example, the acorn hat,
which is used in Austria as an emergency whistle if you
ever get lost in the mountains. By clamping the acorn hat
between the fingers and blowing hard, a very, very, very
loud whistling sound is produced. The same can be repeated
with shells, plastic lids, bells, walnut shells, generally all
sorts of vessel-like objects small enough to fit between your
fingers. You see, flutes and whistles speak many languages:
they are warning signals, musical instruments or imitate
animal sounds. To me, they are containers in which I collect
processes and experiences and redistribute them as stories.

16 17
VESSEL INSTRUMENTS VESSEL INSTRUMENTS

18 19
VESSEL INSTRUMENTS VESSEL INSTRUMENTS

If, for example, you take a shell found on the beach and 8
Jordan Flaherty, No More 10
Angela Mesiti, The If you have a hat, you can turn it upside down, and then
use it as a whistle, the question arises as to what a shell Heroes, AK Press, 2016 Calling, 3 channel video you have your own carrier bag. An acorn hat is a miniature
installation, digital video,
is, as well as what a whistle is, or, to go further, how value 9
Ursula K. Le Guin, The sound, 35:36 min., 2013-14 carrier bag. Last summer I learned to use it as a whistle. I
is attributed according to symbolism, function, form, and Carrier Bag Theory of Ficti- have found that animals respond to this whistle in differ-
language. It is also linked to the question of how stories are on, Ignota Books, 2020 ent ways. Birds answer by chirping back, sheep startle, and
told and how we decide which part of the story to make the cats run away. If I had whistled in the Turkish village of
protagonist, if we do that at all. Kuskoy, on the Greek island of Evia or the Canary Island of
Maybe we decide for protagonists, but perhaps temporary La Gomera, I might have received a response in whistling
ones who take turns or complement each other, instead of language. The video installation „The Calling“ by Angela
heroic leaders who dominate the story. Jordan Flaherty’s Mesiti explores human whistling languages and the people
book „No more Heroes“ comes to mind.8 He talks about her- who still use them.10 The work shows how the languages
oism as a privilege, a person that is, as savior, more skilled have transformed from their traditional use as means of
and powerful than the rest of us, implying that others need communication across great distances into tourist at-
to be rescued. In a certain way, acts of heroism reinforce tractions and cultural artifacts, while still being taught to
that privilege, which is why heroism in itself follows a school children.
dividing rather than a uniting cause. Furthermore, Flaherty
talks especially about cis, white heroism, people who want
to help and “just mean well”, without being especially suited
to provide a certain kind of help. The problematic nature
of this approach is further amplified when the people who
are the „victims“, or in other words, the people who receive
help, have either not asked for it or are not actively involved
in the process of change.
Ursula K. Le Guin offers another take on heroism and sto-
rytelling. Her essay „The Carrier-Bag Theory of Fiction” chal-
lenges the traditional, hero-centered narrative structure
that, in her opinion, dominates much of Western literature
and privileges individualism, competition, and conquest
over collaboration and mutual support.9 Le Guin proposes
a “carrier-bag theory” of storytelling, which is based on the
idea that the earliest human tool was not a weapon, but a
container for carrying food, water, and other necessities.
The carrier bag represents a more communal mode of A few months after I had acorn-whistled from hand to
storytelling, by valuing the collection and preservation of mouth for the first time, I decided to cast some hats in
diverse perspectives, experiences and voices. Rather than bronze. I wanted to know if the timbre would change with
focusing on the journey of a single hero, the carrier-bag the material and what bronze would sound like, and I want-
collects multiple narratives that come together and cherish ed to make whistles that were sturdy and durable. Whistles
the complexity of human experience. that could provide some sort of support.

20 21
VESSEL INSTRUMENTS

The result offers a different timbre, but the sturdy material

makes it more difficult to clamp the acorn hats between
the fingers, as they are less able to adapt to the shape of the
fingers. Therefore, when using acorn hats for whistling,
flexibility is more essential than rigidity, as it ensures
proper support.
Even though I rarely whistle with the bronze acorn hats, I
still incorporate them into performative situations because
they can produce a variety of metallic and high-pitched
sounds, for example, by rubbing, tapping, or shaking them.
Since it is difficult to describe sounds with words, I will try
with the score of a performance I developed in February
2023.

22
DEPENDENCE IS
NOT A DRUG
“I would like to claim nothing of disciplines and
their complicated boundaries, but I am interested
in the relationship between things, ideas,
people, and how that takes place in space – and
in taking up a position that therefore still has
some room for manoeuvre.” 11
24
Céline Condorelli, ibid.
12
Jan Verwoert, Exhaus-
13
tion and Exuberance, in:
LAUWAERT, Maaike, VAN
WESTRENEN, Francien
(Ed.), Facing Value. Radical
perspectives from the arts,
Valiz, Amsterdam, 2017
Maggie Nelson, On Free-
14
dom: Four songs of care
and constraint, Penguin
Céline Condorelli,
11
http://www.celinecondo- Random House, 2021
relli.eu/files/curacondo-
relliwadedisplay-min.
pdf, 2015
Acorn hats, just like bowls, shells, bags or vessels, are
supporting entities. The same could be said about the pages
you are holding in your hands, as they carry ink and the
words you are reading.
When talking about objects that are also containers, I think
of the artist Céline Condorelli, who uses display or support
as a means to address both the discourse on objects and the
discourse on containers. She believes that this approach can
help ease the tension between art and ideological critique
and allow for a practice that reconnects form and the social,
two things that are often seen as separate.12
For me, visualizing structures is also about ascribing value
to connections and relating to one another. Being inspired
is often thought of as an internal ability born out of one.
This assumption is based on the illusion of the „infinite
potency of the self“13, as Jan Verwoert calls it, and overshad-
ows the approach that most of our ideas arise from latent
memories. According to Verwoert, acknowledging our
indebtedness to others as a necessary condition for our own
agency means that we must also recognize the significance
of care. For me, it is also about positively connoting the idea
of dependency: relating to each other, supporting each oth-
er, needing each other; in short, dependence is not a drug.
Connectedness, however, should not eliminate the possibil-
ity of growing or changing one’s mind. Because, as Maggie
Nelson has it, „very rarely does one story ‘stick’ throughout a
life“14.
25
DEPENDENCE IS NOT A DRUG DEPENDENCE IS NOT A DRUG

My installation made of steel tubes grew from the desire

to create a system that, in the sense of modularity, could
be adapted to different situations and therefore expand or
shrink. The several meters long structure acts as a mount-
ing system, display and support for video, drawing, or
sculpture, while also being a sculpture itself and thus part
of the narrative. To repurpose a work in several ways also
means to be able to „finish“ it again and again, thus redefin-
ing artistic work as a commodity.

26 27
INSIDE THE OUTSIDE
“I think the question is whether the mouth skin
is now actually inside walls or part of the facade,
because if they are actually one with the skin
outside via the lips, are we then tubes or pipes.” 15
28
The car as a place of transit offers a protected intimacy that
four straight sheetrock walls do not. Maybe it’s because
a car doesn’t have four walls, but usually more or less,
depending on where you’re looking at it from. There’s the
trunk, for example, which is again a room within a room,
so it’s hard to say how many exterior walls there are. In
many cars, for example, the space where I don’t know what
it’s called, where the engine and all the organs are, is open
at the bottom. As if the abdominal cavity could be opened
with a front lid, and you can see into the magic of life, and
15
Daniel Fonatti
the back simply doesn’t exist, everything hangs and holds
on somewhere, to the inner walls, or to each other. The
poor car organs, are totally exposed to many circumstances,
noise and dust from below, hot asphalt roads in summer,
or snow storms. Floor plates exist only for the people who
drive this system. Compared to normal rooms, the car
offers faster escape, because unless you sit in the back in
the middle, you can actually always lean on the door. That
means that your own of the „four“ walls is actually also a
door, which makes it easier to stay mobile and leave the
„room“ in an emergency. Everything is so flexible.
The steering wheel moves the conversation in different
directions, and you find yourself in familiar places, no
longer on the sidewalk, but in the middle of the street, in
the middle of it all, here we go! No matter where you drive,
the conversation always stays connected and doesn’t jump
around randomly. The hare hops differently here. No one on
the outside can hear you, and yet somehow you’re in public
space. You can be onlookers. This gives the car such a spe-
cial status when you’re trying to feel comfortable in spaces.
29
BERRIES IN A BASKET Imagine you are taking a very long walk along a path called
„Thesis Research“. There are berry bushes growing along
each side of the path. You may have been walking for a long
time when you see that the once green berries have become
juicy and ripe. Those that catch your eye are the ones that
are waiting for you to pick them. You collect them in your
basket, where they gather, share experiences, and possibly
breed new ideas by learning from each other.

I was taking this walk when a particularly striking berry

caught my eye, calling out to me „Hello, hello! I am here! Pick
me up!“. This berry is called „Accident”, and since I
collected it and put it in my basket, I can’t help but
introduce it to you.

30 31
THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS
“What can make us utter the magic
words I Can’t? Does it take a break-
down to stop us? Does the utterance
of the words I Can’t already constitute
or confirm a breakdown, a failure to
perform, justifiable only if our body
authenticates our incapacity by refus-
ing to function?” 16
32
16
Jan Verwoert, Exhaus-
tion and Exuberance, in:
LAUWAERT, Maaike, VAN
WESTRENEN, Francien
(Ed.), Facing Value. Radical
perspectives from the arts,
Valiz, Amsterdam, 2017
I vividly remember a The other day I broke two vertebrae when I fell down the
17
professor warning me stairs. It was a sunny Monday morning. I am usually not a
not to drift into „house-
wife art“ when I told morning person, especially not on Mondays, but I remem-
her that I felt the urge ber being in a remarkably good mood that day. In my mind
to integrate painting I was organizing my upcoming week, thinking about what
into my artistic practice, I wanted to get done that day, at least I suppose that’s what
which until then had
been almost exclusively I was thinking about, because honestly I was daydreaming
photographic. when I fell, and I felt caught losing myself in my thoughts, my
mind being everywhere but in the stairwell. I was wearing my
18
Jane Rendell, Critical boyfriend’s oversized slippers and holding a pile of clothes in
Spatial Practices. Setting
Out a Feminist Approach my hands, when I suddenly slid down a dozen stairs.
to some Modes and what A little while after the accident, I spend some time with
Matters in Architecture, friends in front of our fireplace. One of my friends says that
in: BROWN, Lori (Ed.), he just doesn’t have as much drive as other people, drive in
Feminist Practices: Inter-
disciplinary Approaches the sense of ambition and motivation. With my injured back,
to Women in Architecture, I immediately thought: I’m one of those driven people; driven
Routledge, 2011 by many desires, having trouble settling down. I think of my
many artistic approaches: the sculptures and musical instru-
ments I imagine, draw and make, my video work, the post-
punk band I sing in, my musical solo project, the performanc-
es where I try to increasingly work in collaborations, … These
are all familiar environments through which I move, without
being able to say where I feel the most at home. During my
first years in art school, I thought I had to start concentrating
on a particular practice, in order for others (and even more
so myself) to be able to figure me out.17 It reminds me of what
Jane Rendell describes, in reference to Jacques Derrida’s phi-
losophy of deconstruction, as a binary model in which “every-
thing that one is, the other cannot be, thus limiting the possibility
of thinking of two terms together“18.
33
THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS

I enjoy being able to think of everything as one and the 19

Still, this newfound
other, to experience the in-between as a possibly perma- dependence reminds
me that waiting for
nent state. public transportation
The drive, the need to stay in motion and be able to move has always driven me
in any direction I want has lost its significance since my crazy. Who is this person
accident, as I am no longer physically able to do so. There who has neither a face
nor a voice and yet tells
are some things I can‘t and shouldn’t do, like ride my bike, me that I now have to
which I usually do every day. Now I walk a lot and it feels wait, say, eight minutes?
good, actually totally nice, to take more time to get from A Tangled up in this web of
to B and not lose energy while concentrating on trying not rules I sometimes think
about how far I would get
to get run over in the car-dominated city of Brussels.19 in those eight minutes by
There is something relieving about having to limit myself in foot. Because theoreti-
the face of the situation, which leads me to question some cally, I could move. I just
decisions I made weeks ago. I think about my upcoming can‘t accelerate anything
in this predefined situ-
performance and decide to keep it simple. I’m not going to ation.
show up with all my electronic instruments, not only be-
cause I don’t want to, but also because I physically can’t. 20
Jan Verwoert, Exhaus-
Using these words, “I Can’t”, brings me to what Jan Ver- tion and Exuberance, in:
LAUWAERT, Maaike, VAN
woerts describes as a way out of the pressure to perform. WESTRENEN, Francien
Verwoert argues that by saying „I Can‘t“, we are recognizing (Ed.), Facing Value. Radical
the limits of our own experience and abilities, and opening perspectives from the arts,
ourselves up to new possibilities. By reclaiming the „I Can’t“ Valiz, Amsterdam, 2017
as a positive term that refers to empowerment rather than
deficiency and weakness, a dual form of agency unfolds:
Saying „I Can’t“ to one thing can be seen as an expression of
free will while at the same time offering the possibility of
doing the other thing.20
Verwoert finds another connection that occurs through the
„I Can’t“: the connection to care. Because of my injury, I am
beginning to learn mindfulness and rethink my priorities.
As much as I care about my artistic work, I also care about
my health. And one very effective way to express that self- Breaking my vertebrae in the months leading up to my
care is by learning to say „I Can’t“. I specifically say by learn- graduation certainly affected me in this process. I often
ing, as I have to admit that I am only now, at the age of 29, feel somehow obsessed or affected by objects, situations or
learning about the importance of care and self-care. I used thoughts. Sometimes they impose themselves on me, but
to have a rather pessimistic philosophy of life, which was in a good way. It corresponds to my way of letting artistic
that at the end of the day, I don’t really care about anything projects arise from very concrete, everyday occurrences.
anyway. Now when I say that sentence out loud, I kind of To give you an example, let me tell you about the time I
want to slap and hug my old self at the same time. encountered the puzzle piece.
34 35
ONE THING LEADS Last year, in preparation for my Master‘s thesis, I had
to take a course called „Thesis Methodology“. One of the
TO ANOTHER exercises was to present the master’s thesis project in the
form of a PowerPoint presentation, which had to include,
„choosing a topic, identifying references, formulating the prob-
lem, proposing working hypotheses, presenting the methodol-
ogy, identifying where to consult sources, possibly identifying
resource people, outlining the research plan, and developing a
work plan“. My artistic practice is based on an interest in
working with entanglements and correlations, with fluidity,
“TRANSFORMATION feminine. Laure Prouvost,
21

LEGSICON, Book Works/M

elusiveness, processes of transformation, and so on. As I
HKA, 2019 tried to organize my practice and follow the guidelines step
by step, I increasingly felt like I was taking myself apart.
Legs into brains. I didn’t know how to proceed, so I went for a walk in my
neighborhood to clear my head.
Walls into floor door here to get to lost hope. As I walked, I saw a puzzle piece lying on the cobblestones
in front of my feet. It was all by itself, no sign of its home
or any of its friends, and it was lying face down. It looked a
Words into film, little sad with its back up, but I was excited because I didn’t
Film into word. immediately see what was on it, and I thought, Maybe that’s
the solution!”. I picked up the puzzle piece (kind of like a
berry on the path) and turned it over. I uttered a sound of
Film into performance. disappointment, something like a low „uuuuhhh“, because
Performance into painting. it was just a gradient of blue to white. The image was so
Improvement or not. universal and featureless that it could have been anything. I
put it on the next windowsill and kept on walking.

Grandma’s desire to improve Grandad’s art work.” 21

36 37
ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

A few days later, I noticed something strange. I could not A pair of stonewashed jeans
get that puzzle piece out of my head. I began to imagine
all the things it could have been a part of and wrote them
The contrail of an airplane
down in a list. Zoomed in
Into the end of a 35mm film
A forget-me-not
A galaxy
Sea spray generated by breaking waves

A prototype
A gradient
A transition
A transient
A 20 Euro bill
A credit card
A shoelace
A neon light
An iceberg
A Bob Ross painting
The packaging of a milky way candy bar

It could be hair
Eyes
Nails
Veins
Liquid
Solid
A break
A fade
A phase

38 39
ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

I also started searching for photos that showed a blue-white

color gradient, online as well as in my personal photo archive.

40 41
ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

Mathilde Roman, Swim-

22

Around the same time that I stumbled upon the puzzle ming with Laure Prouvost,
Manuella éditions, 2022
piece, I was invited to give a five-minute performance at
Oscillation Festival 2022 in Brussels. I decided to turn the
list of words into a song that I would share with the audience.
Later, I recorded that song and turned the photos that I
had collected into a video clip, which then became the video
work „Could be“.

Letting one thing lead to another helps me to explore alter-

native forms of storytelling. I invite values that have been
denied visibility but are crucial to creative processes, such
as learning and failing, sharing, supporting, collaborating,
or showing vulnerability.
I think about what making these values visible can mean
for creating a sense of community, what writer Mathilde
Roman calls „the performativity of life”22. If meaning can be
created through everyday experiences and encounters, we
can begin to imagine a shift in the attribution of value, and
with it a separation of creation from commodity, process
from progress, and worth from monetary value.

42 43
DIFFERENT KINDS OF Since last fall, I’ve noticed that I increasingly feel the desire
to work in collaborations. For this reason, together with
WAYS TO BE ALL OVER Anna Lugmeier, Francesca Hawker and Johanne Shan, we
THE PLACE
decided to initiate the event “RESTWäRME” (German = re-
sidual heat). “RESTWäRME” was our first attempt to create a
format dedicated to sharing artistic processes. Rather than
presenting finished works or performances, the evening
was intended to bridge academic, institutional, and festive
events. We sent out an email among our circle of friends
encouraging participation and sharing. In that email, we
described the goals of the evening as follows:

It is aspired to be a safe space for sharing fragile, but often fun

processes and is also aiming to encourage to look at/listen to
something together. Feedback is not so much important, it is
more about to get to know other people‘s practices and listen/
watch/gather and so on.
We encourage anyone who is working for the first time (or not)
with a performative medium (e.g. music, dance, reading, video,
listening session, stand-up, drag, performance,...) and who has
inhibitions to share this type of art creation publicly. We would
like to include in the program works in progress or works that
may not be fully developed yet. The goal of the evening is to
emphasize the desire to share and make, and especially to have
fun. Perfectionism and exhaustiveness are secondary.

44 45
DIFFERENT KINDS OF WAYS TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE
We also established a few ground rules for the evening’s
proceedings that would be applied to future events:
– Host: The event will be opened by a different host each time,
who will guide the participants through the evening.
– Contributions do not have to stick to any particular artistic
practice, but should last a maximum of 15 minutes.
– Closing Song: The end of the evening is introduced with a
closing song performed by a different person (or duo) each time.
– There is a guestbook where you can sign up for future events
and express your interest to participate next time as host or
performer. Furthermore there is the possibility to take care of
the decoration, drinks or snacks.
46
DIFFERENT KINDS OF WAYS TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE
The first initiation of “RESTWäRME” met with great inter-
est. About one hundred people came to see six contribu-
tions. Since we had not expected such a crowd, the desire to
create a safe space for sharing turned into something else,
much bigger and more elusive. We received mostly positive
feedback, and soon people who had attended the event were
asking about the next edition of “RESTWäRME”. It was a
beautiful and overwhelming evening. As organizers, I think
we all agreed that we needed to digest for a moment before
we could start thinking about a sequel. Especially since, in
retrospect, we realized that each of us might have imagined
this evening differently.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF WAYS TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE
Another attempt I made to create a collaboration around
a performative gesture was the performance “Glander”
(French = to waste one’s time doing nothing), which took
place in December 2022 in a largely abandoned shopping
mall in Brussels, on the occasion of the opening of the
exhibition La Bassine, curated by Lola Meotti. I taught some
friends in advance how to whistle with acorn hats. During
a five to ten minute long performance following a score,
we used acorn hats as whistles to communicate with each
other in different rhythms, volumes and tonalities.
Although both the first edition of “RESTWäRME” and
“Glander” received a positive response, there were no fol-
low-up events. In the future, instead of moving from one
project to the next, I would like to give first attempts more
space to develop. It would have been important for both
“RESTWäRME” and “Glander” to come together as a group
afterwards, and share our personal impressions in order to
understand how a collective process can grow. A sense of
community can be short-lived if we don’t enter and exit the
experience in an adequate way. I realized that developing
a collaboration (especially in the early phase) requires a lot
of time and dedication. Regarding my upcoming diploma, it
didn’t seem doable to let these collective projects manifest
in such a short period of time or to integrate them into my
diploma project. However, it remains my intention to pur-
sue collaborative projects more profoundly in the future.
48
Glander
A performance score
Hannah Todt, 2023
Glander (french) = Wasting time doing nothing; lazing around or doing useless things
What? A guided sound improvisation
Who? At least 5 performers
Clothes? Everyday clothes
Length? Variable
Location? Variable – public spaces, open fields, exhibition spaces, …
Props? One acorn hat per person plus the five bronze acorns for one of the performers
I. Tuning / In the beginning the performers gather to tune in with each other. It is important in order
to set the tone for the following interaction and to feel connected to the group. To tune, each
performer places an acorn hat between their fingers and begins to blow air into their fist, until they
find the right placement of the acorn and thus the whistle. One person starts, followed by the others.
At this moment, there is no rush. The performers take their time to tune.
II. Introduction / The performers will spread out in the space. They move around until they find a spot
that they like and remain standing in silence for a while. The person in possession of the bronze
acorns initiates the performance by rubbing them between their hands. They rub and shake them to
make sound, and they may walk around.
III. Dialogue / After a few minutes, the first performer begins to whistle. At this moment, the whistlers
should take it slow, which means that one person's whistle is followed by silence. Imagine a dialogue
between the performers where one person says something and the others answer a few seconds later.
A conversation that goes back and forth between the group members.
IV. Chaos / In this phase the whistles get more and more intense, thus more frequent and louder. They
might overlap and interrupt each other. If desired, one whistler can approach another and try to
synchronize with them, finding a common whistling rhythm, and then separating again by moving
on. During this chaotic part, the person holding the bronze acorns passes them to another performer.
V. Wind down / To end part IV., the group members will wind down, find a slower pace and whistle less
frequently (but this does not mean they become quieter). The person who received the bronze acorns
assesses when the performers are "out of breath" and begins rubbing or shaking the bronze acorns
between their hands to make noise. The use of the bronze acorns signals to the group that their
whistling should slowly fade out. The metallic rubbing sound of the bronze acorns should end up
being the only sound audible after everyone has stopped whistling.
General guidelines
• Slow down: Take your time, don’t rush. Create an atmosphere, tune in, and have a dialogue with each other. It is
good to take things slowly.
• Position: Throughout, the whistlers can stand still, sit, lie down or walk around if they feel like it.
• Connect: Try to maintain regular eye contact with the other performers. It makes a difference to feel connected
and to not wonder what the fuck you are doing here. When you look into the eyes of someone who is making the
same gesture as you, you are reminded that something is happening, that there is a connection, and things start to
make more sense.
• Volume: Be loud! It may feel like you are taking up all the acoustic space, but you are not. Remember that you may
always sound very different to others than to yourself.
• Humidity: If you can’t whistle anymore because your fingers and acorn are too wet from your spit,
take the time to dry them a bit with your sweater.
FROM HAND When you are a baby, you instinctively bring your hands to
your mouth. You chew on them until they’re soft and wrin-
TO MOUTH kly from the spit, without knowing that they will one day be
the hands that feed you.
During the pandemic, we were asked to keep our hands
away from our mouths, and even more so the hands of
others. The mask was the tool that reminded us of this.
Instead, the hands were used for other movements; an
itchy nose, for example, was quieted by rubbing the mask in
circular motions. The hands should avoid touching bodies
while continuing to perform work-related activities.
When using your hands for work, there are different ways
to do so. For example, so-called handcrafts, like knitting or
kneading dough, require dexterity and coordinated muscle
strength. Often, it’s more about the upper ends of the hand,
the fingertips, which are then used, for example, to type on
a computer keyboard. Some people can be surgeons, if they
have a steady hand.
Many professions require a person to move their hands in
a repetitive motion. The gesture is part of a larger whole
of gestures performed by other hands, which can lead to
individuals wondering what purpose their gesture serves,
ultimately leading to alienation.

Those who do not question the meaning of their hands

movements may live from the hand of another, sometimes
even someone long dead, whose ghost hand still holds the
silver spoon. Or, before putting their earnings directly to
their mouth, they place them somewhere on the way, for

50 51
FROM HAND TO MOUTH FROM HAND TO MOUTH

example in a bag, or on a bank account. the problem with 23

the term “perruque”
this technique is though, that you carry a heavy load that (english = wig) refers
to a type of everyday
might get taken away from you, which makes you scared resistance in small and
and greedy and sceptical. So even if living from hand to seemingly insignificant
mouth often comes out of a necessity, you could also see it ways. putting on your
as something liberating. “perruque” means using
your work time to do
something that is not
Personally, I do feel like I live from hand to mouth, but I part of your job, but that
use my hands in a caring way. I move them in all possible you want to do for your
directions in order not to neglect any muscle. My hands and own personal fulfillment.
for example, use your
I give each other the freedom to make different movements, office printer for printing
which is the basic principle of the interwoven relationship out personal documents
of freedom and work. The work that appears to be the freest or work on a creative
is artistic work, because its motion patterns are integrated project during work
hours.
into everyday life and are rarely limited to a specific time,
repetitive action or place.
While hands are often used to transform something into a
product, the artist’s hands perform a variety of movements
that are not directly tied the production of a specific work,
but are still crucial. They are executed more in the back-
ground, like a wheel that keeps the machine running. This
makes it difficult to assign an appropriate value to the many
skills that are, at hand. The artist’s hands are adaptable and
flexible, words that represent a dilemma, since it means a
lot of freedom and possibilities to be these things, while at
the same time corresponding to the desired job profile of a
neoliberalist labor market.
This is why I found that the best way to use my hands is
to put on my version of michel de certeau’s “perruque”23,
which is an acorn hat that I clamp between my fingers for
whistling, and therefore produce while I am just hanging
out (French = glander).

52 53
55
CONCLUSION Dear A,

I’m writing you this e-mail now, I have a bit of a writer’s

„My work is always about communicating.“ 24
block for my diploma thesis, and I think it could help to do
some kind of automatic writing for you, and I’ll say right
at the beginning that it‘s possible that I’ll take some of the
following text into my diploma thesis afterwards, if it’s any
good, but of course only if that’s okay with you. Because
often what you write spontaneously is much more honest
anyway, and also makes more sense, because the connec-
24
Laurie Anderson, in:
GOLDBERG, RoseLee
tions arise naturally and you don’t try forcefully to organize
(Ed.), Laurie Anderson, a rhizome (which in itself has no visible origins, but rather
Harry N. Abrams, 2000, connections).
p. 6 I read your letter twice, once in Marseille, once at my desk.
You described this dilemma of wanting to share things, but
not through these creative compulsion channels like Ins-
tagram. I have a similar problem as you, namely, with what
legitimacy I post this or that, who cares longer than five
seconds, I mean most things fly by anyway above our heads
and screens. I also believe that the difficulty with your and
my practice is that they are so strongly based on process-
es and experiences that it is not possible to knock out the
whole concept in thirty seconds like in an elevator pitch.
Such channels are not made for that. Even if my website is
totally not up to date (I should really take care of it), it is at
least a possibility to assume a certain attention of the peo-
ple. And even if, as you rightly said, there are psychostalk-
ers who then look at your stuff, at least they take enough
time to do so.

56 57
CONCLUSION
I’ve been thinking about my website lately and how I’m
dissatisfied with the way it’s structured. To get back to that
rhizome, I’d rather see everything on one page, because
most of the time, one thing relates to the other, and it feels
unnatural to draw lines between the video and the draw-
ings, and say, ok, this is now work A and this is work B. I’m
also trying to build up my master project like a network, a
rhizome, that maintains connections rather than dividing
them.
The difficult thing about sharing creative processes on
Instagram is that you immediately get the image that
creating equals producing. Now if I took a photo of myself
in bed, because I usually still stay there after waking up and
think a bit about the day ahead and usually fall asleep again
anyway, that’s actually also a very important part of my cre-
ative process. But unlike, say, a desk full of drawing paper
and pencils and a stack of sketches, thinking is an internal
process that can’t easily be made visible. I mentioned before
in my thesis that I‘d like to find a way to attribute value to
often inaccessible processes, such as digesting information,
processing, learning, unlearning, or growing a baby in one‘s
uterus, without exposing myself and selling out my privacy.
Instagram just makes visible what‘s already visible anyway.
I would like to come back to one more thing, and that is this
individualistic creative pressure to which we are exposed.
Capitalism feeds on this, and of course, as you rightly say,
we all have to earn our money somewhere and take part in
it. I read and watched quite a lot about whether there could
be any room to imagine alternatives to this system, and the
answer I could read through almost everywhere was: create
community. Work in collectives.25 The feeling of belong-
ing in a group is strengthening, and also the idea of being
able to move something together, to find meaning in what
you do, but also to not feel so alone. I also believe that the
question of meaning no longer arises when you work in a
group, because at least you create meaning for each other,
and in the best case also for others. For example, when I
58
CONCLUSION
25
I am thinking about play in AUTOR and we rehearse, and I see how everyone
the Viennese expression, enjoys it, then I don’t care whether I’m singing complete
„sich auf a Packerl haun“,
which means to join bullshit or not, because at least the four of us have a good
forces, unite in a group, time together. I don’t experience that when I rehearse alone
and which literally trans- in the basement.
lated means something Finally, I would like to send you a text that I quickly typed
like „to throw ourselves
in a bundle“, whereas this morning, also in the spirit of this automatic writing
„Packerl“ can mean thing that Daniel showed me. I find it somehow fitting.
package or parcel. I like I miss you also totally, dear A, and hope you are well. I
to imagine that we can would infinitely love to sit down with you soon and maybe
throw ourselves in Ursula
Le Guin‘s carrier bag. do something together, it’s totally my goal anyway to open
up more to such things, to give them more time and space,
because I think it would make me a hundred times happier.
when i feel uncomfortable between the people i’m supposed to
resemble and i don’t know how to act at all. so weird, like i’m 12
again and just can’t master these codes. i then feel like an ac-
tress playing an art student who works in a gallery on the side.
people also talk so weird, what are your sales strategies? is it
urgent, is it exclusive? are you representing the heteronormative
white man? everyone laughs heartily because it’s so sad that it’s
the only way to cope with it. then ten people come to the opening
and later go out for swordfish. is it going too far when i ask
this or that? in music it’s different, there you’re just like hey, i
have a band, can i send you something or play a concert in your
venue, but here, it quickly feels as if you’re desperately trying to
sell your vacuum cleaners. it should come across as casual and
effortless. you’re not supposed to impose yourself and ideally
you should shit success all by yourself. but i have to shove my
steel pipes in someone’s mouth. does it fit? is that cool with you?
and what do i get out of it? that some old farts hang the stuff
in their collections and i can go admire them lined up like poor
lambs in a barn? i really hope that this is just a door you can go
through if you want to. i think i have to find the others. the ones
where i can feel comfortable. where i like to share, show, mean
things. i’m glad that this will all be over soon and i can turn
around and look at my track.
59
REFERENCES Bibliography
BERARDI, Franco, The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility, London, Verso, 2020
BOLTANSKI, Luc & CHIAPELLO, Eve, The New Spirit of Capitalism, London, Verso, 2005
CAGE, John, Empty Mind, Berlin, Suhrkamp, 2013
CAIRO, Aminata, Holding Space: A Storytelling Approach to Trampling Diversity and Inclusion,
Figures Aminata Cairo Consultancy, 2021
DEWEY, John, Art As Experience, New York, Perigee Trade, 1980
All drawings, photos and video stills: Hannah Todt DUSAPIN, Alice, Wolfgang Stoerchle: Success in Failure, Paris, Daisy Editions/Daviet-Thery,
Photo p. 42: Camille Poitevin 2022
RESTWäRME photos: Johanne Shan, Hannah Todt FISHER, Mark, Kapitalistischer Realismus ohne Alternative ?, Hamburg, VSA Verlag, 2020
FISCHLI, Peter, WEISS, David, Plötzlich diese Übersicht, Zurich, Stähli, 2001
Fonts FLAHERTY, Jordan, No More Heroes, Chico, AK Press, 2016
Via LIBRE FRONTS BY WOMXN GOLDBERG, RoseLee (Ed.), Laurie Anderson, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 2000
Combine by Julie Patard GRAEBER, David, Bullshit Jobs, Paris, Les Liens Qui Libèrent, 2019
Rasa by Anna Giedryś and David Březina GRAEBER, David, Pour une anthropologie anarchiste, Paris, Éditions Lux, 2006
HAY, Deborah, My Body, the Buddhist, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, 2000
Articles LAUWAERT, Maaike, VAN WESTRENEN, Francien (Ed.), Facing Value. Radical perspectives
from the arts, Amsterdam, Valiz, 2017
MOUFFE, Chantal, Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces, in: ART & RESEARCH. A Journal of LE GUIN, Ursula K., The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, London, Ignota Books, 2020
Ideas, Contexts and Methods, Volume 1, n° 2, summer 2007, https://chisineu.files.wordpress. NELSON, Maggie, On Freedom: Four songs of care and constraint, Dublin, Penguin Random
com/2012/07/biblioteca_mouffe_artistic-activism.pdfm.pdf House, 2021
CONDORELLI, Céline, WADE, Gavin, You Display, I Display, We Display, http://www.celine- PROUVOST, Laure, LEGSICON, London/Antwerp, Book Works/M HKA, 2019
condorelli.eu/files/curacondorelliwadedisplay-min.pdf, 2015 ROMAN, Mathilde, Swimming with Laure Prouvost, Paris, Manuella éditions, 2022.
MILLET, Catherine, The Wealth in Art. Luc Boltanski and Arnaud Esquerre talking to Cath- RAINER, Cosima, ROLLIG, Stella, DANIELS, Dieter, e.a., See This Sound, Promises in Sound
erine Millet, Artpress No.441, February 2017, p. 32-40 and Vision, Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2009
RENDELL, Jane, Critical Spatial Practices. Setting Out a Feminist Approach to some Modes
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LYNCH, David (Dir.), Lamp, US, David Lynch, 2003 STEYERL, Hito, Duty Free Art. Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War, London, Verso, 2019
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2013-14

60 61
GRATITUDE
This thesis was written in the spring of 2023 during my
master‘s studies in the department of Espace Urbain at
ENSAV La Cambre, Brussels. I would like to thank the
professors of Espace Urbain, Erwan Maheo, Toma Muteba
Luntumbue, Laure Cotton-Stefanelli and Antoine Rocca
for their guidance, as well as Joachim Hollander for the
in-depth discussions and constructive feedback. My special
thanks go to Céline Gillain, my thesis advisor, who gave me
confidence in my artistic work with her inspiring nature.
62
Gratitude from very deep inside to
• My family, especially Christine, Franz, Manuel and
Sarah Todt whose unconditional care and faith allows me to
move freely.
• Jules Flamen, for being a source of inspiration, love
and support and for grounding me when I drift off in differ-
ent directions.
• Anna Lugmeier, for reminding me about the impor-
tance to care for others and for myself.
• AUTOR, that is Dominik Pilnáček, Jonny Nowak and
Angel Dodov, for giving me a sense of belonging.
• CK, for helping me to get a new perspective on things.
• Johanne Mortgat Shan, for their calming spirit that
inspires me to be more mindful.
• Camilla Schielin and Juli Müllner, Paul Ebhart and
Leonard Prochazka, for the trust and the opportunity to
create with you.
• And to my dearest friends, for making me laugh, think
and move. (Daniel Fonatti, Katrin Kreiner, Jana Kumpl, Leni
Stückler, Luize Nežberte, Paul Spendier, Philipp Daun, Rishi
Singh, Romane Bernard, Tobias Izsó, Zoe Stolterfoht, … ∞ )
63
„If meaning can be created through everyday experiences and encounters, we

can begin to imagine a shift in the attribution of value, and with it a separation

of creation from commodity, process from progress, and worth from monetary

value." (p. 42)

different
kinds of
ways to be
all over the place is a rhizomic arrangement of drawings,
photographs and various literary forms such as essays, song lyrics and au-
tomatic writing that aims to interpret versatility as feminist practice. The
anthology focuses on the exploration of storytelling and how the mean-
ing of (hi)stories may change through a shift in perspective. Immaterial
values that are crucial to creative processes, such as learning, unlearning,
sharing, supporting, engaging, collaborating, or showing vulnerability are
playfully reappropriated and put in relation to one another.