Sailing in the Pirate Sea of Art

Abstract

“Sailing in the Pirate Sea of Art” is a manual for the public to replicate and innovate artist Tzu Tung’s projects. Tzu Tung sees zer art as a creative common for public use and an open-source path for creators to innovate together. The manual includes the following: Writing the Time Lag (2016–), an experimental, participatory documentary about field-researching among women and queer within Indigenous activist groups. #Ghostkeepers (2018–), ritualistic social media protocols for writers to research and create avatars for people who have passed away due to political violence. Positive Coin (2019-), an economy circle designed to increase people’s relation to AIDS-related stigma. Lastly, Forkonomy() (2020-), a contract workshop co-created with Hong Kong artist Winnie Soon, gathers relevant stakeholders to discuss the question “How does one buy/own one milliliter of the South China Sea?” and drafts a contract in response.

Natural and cultural commons have been appropriated through deceitful contracts and the settler’s legal system over the last 500 years; these projects call attention to how to use participatory projects to pirate the current national property regime and so to release these commons to the public. The manual provides examples of the artistic use of participatory and technology forms for more people to cautiously re-conceptualize nationalism, property rights, and different modes of identity. The manual “Sailing in the Pirate Ship of Art” is a commoning ship for individuals and communities to have artistic and social change by making tangible space and intangible digital platforms places to deposit culture commons in the art open sea.