Nsumi, or "Nsumi Collective" is an art collective, initially formed as a New School student association called Nsumiscope in the fall of 2001 the week directly following September 11th. Their projects last for years at a time, and are not always documented or publicized. Nsumi's work occurs mostly within the back-end of the art world where ideas wobble around before becoming embodied as art. Members of Nsumi have claimed that the group spawns art collectives and experimental groups through a

gift economy A gift economy or gift culture is a system of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. Social norms and customs govern giving a gift in a gift culture; although there ...

consulting project and other tactics, such as workshops, art exhibitions and performances, zines, street classes, academic research, and public interventions. The group's changing membership has included educators, artists, scientists, architects, landscape designers, curators, collectors, and others. Nsumi operates fluidly, frequently collaborating with artists and collectives including

Trevor Paglen Trevor Paglen (born 1974) is an American artist, geographer, and author whose work tackles mass surveillance and data collection. In 2016, Paglen won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and he has also won The Cultural Award from the ...

, Brandon Ballengée,

Rainer Ganahl Rainer Ganahl (born 18 October 1961 in Bludenz) is an Austrian-American conceptual artist who lives and works in New York. His work has been widely exhibited, including the Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; The Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, ...

, AUNTS Collective and Peter Fend, in addition to those who participate anonymously. Their insider/outsider practice involves a range of disciplines including traditional

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

trend analysis Trend analysis is the widespread practice of collecting information and attempting to spot a pattern. In some fields of study, the term has more formally defined meanings. Although trend analysis is often used to predict future events, it could be ...

and

Network theory Network theory is the study of graphs as a representation of either symmetric relations or asymmetric relations between discrete objects. In computer science and network science, network theory is a part of graph theory: a network can be defi ...

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

and mapping, interventions within

ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

political organizing and

prefigurative politics Prefigurative politics are the modes of organization and social relationships that strive to reflect the future society being sought by the group. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, the desire is to embody "within the ongoing political p ...

. Sometimes Nsumi fully or partially joins other art groups, adopting an individual or quasi-individual identity. Occasionally the group will exchange or swap members with different collectives, bring on temporary members, or work with artists who join the group for one-off events and exhibitions. Nsumi blurs its own boundaries since it is unclear which identity the group is operating through at a given moment or who exactly is involved. Nsumi operates under different monikers, such as Lightning Chasers, Black Magic Guild and Nsumi Group, and has been known to appear in the same group exhibition under multiple individual and group names. Nsumi also appears in more conventional art exhibitions at galleries, universities and museums including the Queens Museum, Momenta Gallery, Deitch Projects and the Center for Architecture in New York City. Their work has appeared in Satya magazine, ARTE Television and TRACKS TV in Europe, Total Theatre Magazine, The New York Times, Archinect, The Economist, the New York Sun, and Art News. Between 2013 and 2014 Nsumi launched two projects that blur the lines between creative production and grassroots politics. Banner Action (2013) is a performance involving protest banners, formal

decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. Conce ...

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

and

memetics Memetics is a study of information and culture. While memetics originated as an analogy with Darwinian evolution, digital communication, media, and sociology scholars have also adopted the term "memetics" to describe an established empirical study ...

. Oubliettes (2014) is a project about prison abolition and the human rights crimes at the MDC federal prison in

Sunset Park, Brooklyn Sunset Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, bounded by Park Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery to the north, Borough Park to the east, Bay Ridge to the south, and Upper New York Bay to the ...

, following up on their 2005 collaboration with Trevor Paglen. The project resulted in a protest outside MDC prison on New Year's Eve, December 2014.

References

*{{cite web , url=https://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/batesons-influence-from-circuitry-to-crickets/5191/ , title=Bateson's Influence, from Circuitry to Crickets , author=Gary Shapiro , date=November 22, 2004 , website=

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

, access-date=March 20, 2017 , quote=NY Sun Newspaper review of a conference about the anthropologist Gregory Bateson. Nsumi both organized and participated in this event
Program for the Bateson conference, which took place at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Lawrence Hall of Science, UC BerkeleyArchinect Review of Exhibition with Trevor Paglen
* ttp://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1392 Review of an exhibition co-curated by Nsumi working through another art collectivebr>Slides from the Nsumi/Trade School presentation on Swarm Intelligence from the Creative Time/Living as Form show in 2011

External links

Banner ActionArtists in Residence for the U.S. Government (Self-Declared)Impose Magazine coverage of Nsumi exhibiting under the name Space Puppets, as a part of a DIY music festival: You Are Here/The Maze Show at Death by AudioNew York Post article on School of the Future, featuring Nsumi's Mutant Student Groups Think Tank
American artist groups and collectives Culture of New York City New media American conceptual artists