pro-test lab

dossier: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

/ 2005

pro-test bab / media lab: tv, talk show, lounge zone, alternative kitchen zone, sound zone, internet forum, web site / 2005
The former ticket office (250 square meters) at the Cinema Lietuva is being squatted and has been converted into a PRO-TEST LAB. PROTEST LAB is a spatial device that registers the scenario of protest and generates an action. The logic of the spatial device refers to the Brothers Lumiere early model of the cinema camera that performed a twofold function both recording and projecting the action. PRO-TEST LAB is generating and archiving all available forms of protest against the situation of the Cinema Lietuva focusing on the discourse of public space vs corporate privatization. The protest is aimed at reclaiming the now privatized space. PRO-TEST LAB is testing the understanding of possible and/or impossible forms of protest. It is inviting participation in, and facilitating, protest from groups which as yet are unidentified and are searching for ways of making their opinions heard: and the particular activity that would best support their protest. PRO-TEST LAB is actively advertising itself as a space in which anti-establishment, or at least anti-hegemonic, opinion can flourish. The officers of the PRO-TEST LAB, and the technical support structure, will help give form to these opinions. PRO-TEST LAB will help develop a protest scenario. It is a production house of protest. PRO-TEST LAB principally employs media apparatus to test whether protest is or is not possible. It turns the space of the cinema into a production center rather than just a receptor: in an attempt to produce meaning rather than just receive it. It turns the praxis of passive audience dynamics on its headand in so doing invites the question: why is a Lithuanian audience passive? Why aren't they protesting? The question is more general than the one addressed to the plight of Cinema Lietuva.

dossier: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

The citizens joining the PRO-TEST LAB are from different communities and social groups, young and old, students and workers, intellectuals and pensioners. The space is programmed and discussed through an Internet mailing-list forum at: vilma@vilma.cc To date, it has been joined by over 150 people, including: architecture students, green party activists, vegans, anarchists, musicians, students from TV and cinema school, animators, film world people, theater students, social democrat party, community leaders, casual passers by and regular hangout goers. Their common desire is to cooperate in staging, performing and archiving pro-test campaigns that have congregated around the mailing-list community.

pro-test bab / media lab: tv, talk show, lounge zone, alternative kitchen zone, sound zone, internet forum, web site / 2005
The space of the PRO-TEST LAB maps and enfolds several aspects of architectural and programing access, that are suggested as number of overlapping zones: 1. LIETUVOS tv the PRO-TEST LAB is fitted with a public access television studio that visitors to the space can participate in/broadcast from. LIETUVOS tv is a meta-zone that maps new visibilities, and documents and archives other zones. 2. Modelling is a space for thinking and a workshop for architects and visitors interested to model situations: to produce and project visions of [the] future city. The Modeling area is for the construction/development of new housing models and for privatization role-playing games to be played. ASK (the Architecture Students' Club) has developed a daily street game merging Monopoly board-game strategies with local municipality characteristics in a game show VIP Turgus (VIP Market). 3. Wishes is a lounge space for discussions, chatting and brainstorming in which visitors can exercise their desires. It is a meeting place for a number of citizens' movements (for their weekly or daily meetings) and a drop-in spot for anyone concerned with the general community lack of awareness about "what's going on". The group Spaces in the City actively uses Wishes. 4. Talk show is a space for presenting concepts and making discussions, lead by film theorist Rytis Juodeika. 5. AViZa is an alternative kitchen space: to cook the discussions and discuss the secrets of cooking. AViZa invites cultural institutes and Embassies to present national cuisines and share views on city development 6. BAR is the socializing space of PRO-TEST LAB offering tea, soup and much more. As the sign says: cast your ballot (a sum not less than 2 litas) in the box and in return you will get beer, wine or water. 7. Green house is an area to rehearse the deejay in the role of the gardener. It's a place for DJs and VJs, poetry and voice, amateurs and professionals, for a sound and radio experiments.

dossier: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

8. Reading room is a space in which to archive and navigate the protest scenario. It contains a footnote library on disobedience and rebellion, as well as all kinds of documents mapping the development of privatization and gentrification, including a: VHS and DVD collection, PC with weblinks, collection of news, papers, magazines and books. 9. Pillars is the space in which visitors to PRO-TEST LAB may write their signatures on the protest ballot supporting the saving of Cinema LIETUVA from corporate development. 10. Internet Forum at the list-server: vilma@vilma.cc To date, it has been joined by over 150 people, including: architecture students, green party activists, vegans, anarchists, musicians, students from TV and cinema school, animators, film world people, theater students, social democrat party, community leaders, casual passers by and regular hangout goers.

pro-test bab / media lab: tv, talk show, lounge zone, alternative kitchen zone, sound zone, internet forum, web site / 2005
PRO-TEST LAB uses established platforms and personalities to encourage audiences to take over the reins and activate their own ideas. Well known performance artists, musicians, cultural producers and theorists, make presentations that refer to a lack of motivation of political will and the will-to-protest, reflecting various issues ranging from monuments, urban development, lifestyle, consumerism, and the dominance of labels. PRO-TEST LAB addresses the citizens with a request to propose a possible scenario of the protest. The form of scenario is open: audio or video interview, texts, schemes, posters, performances or other expressions that represent wishes of the citizens. PRO-TEST LAB doesn't discriminate against the development of scenarios that seem impossible; the concept is perfect protest content. Actions realised: game show VIP Turgus (VIP Market) by ASK / Architecture Students Club at the pro-test lab, April 2005; SOLD OUT the action by the people of Vilnius , April 2005; game show daugiaBUTIS (apartment house) by ASK / Architecture Students Club at the pro-test lab, April 2005.

dossier: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas