Kate Rich

This workshop brings the question of how to learn, act and strategise together to the neglected zone of administration. Regularly coded as dull and grey, a place without movement or potential, admin is also where the ethos and aims of organising are translated into actual practices. Admin is the substrate of all our projects: it summons resources, it makes collaboration possible. Yet its practice lacks a culture of celebration and channels for knowledge-sharing. As such, it is an overlooked place for transformation where radically other ways of doing things can be manifested. In this session we will shimmy into action in the lively format of a “do-si-do”: a partner dance in which the dancers circle the room from one pairing to the next, exchanging administrative tips, tricks and know-how on each encounter.

About

Kate Rich (AU/UK/IT) is a trade artist and feral economist, trading in and outside formal institutions for 30+ years. She worked for 20 years in varied roles at the Cube Microplex, an all-volunteer-run arts co-operative in Bristol UK. From 2003-23 she ran Feral Trade, a grocery import-export business and long-range economic experiment, using the spare carrying capacity of existing movements to transport coffee, olive oil and other vital goods. In 2019 she co-organised RADMIN, Britain’s first festival of Administration. In 2020 Kate established the Feral MBA, a radically reimagined training course in business for artists and others. Alongside colleagues from FoAM (Croatia), she is currently setting up the Institute for Experiments with Business which forms part of Kate’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship hosted at the Alpine Community Economies Lab (ACELab).