Freee-Carracci-Institute

What makes a kiosk social? Can the immediacy of exchange through a kiosk on the street be transformed to deliver social exchange as opposed to commercial exchange? Kiosks are more public, more intimate and more approachable than shops. They have a sociality that shops lack. By taking away the commercial profit-making utility of the kiosk we can capture its social dimension. The kiosk shows how socialism exists inside capitalism, trapped in financial exchanges we can see glimpses of a world of public exchanges. By taking away all retail aspects of the kiosk and replacing its branding and advertising with opinions and beliefs we can draw out its full social potential. In the Freee-Carracci-Institute, Freee have produced a series of kiosks and organize a timetable of events and meetings with different groups and people. These ‘contributors’ engage with the affect and transform the project adding to it and creating, as their new manifesto shouts, MORE!. The ‘Social Kiosks’ are designed specifically for the publishing of opinions rather than advertising or publicity. The Kiosks will also be activated in Northampton town centre and displayed inside the gallery with numerous slogans, manifestos, props and billboard posters. Art theorist Emma Mahoney says of Freee’s work, “Freee propose that the most radical response to the hegemony of commercial advertising and the debasement of the media is not to call for its reform (or even its abolition), but to encourage and promote the emergence of a ‘ counter-advertising’ or, as they otherwise put it: ‘publishing differently’. When Freee make the claim that ‘everyone is or can be a guerilla advertiser’ they are proposing that the public should reclaim advertising from the debased public sphere by publishing their political opinions to other private individuals. The inclusivity of this message is underscored in their billboard poster ‘Advertising for All; Or For Nobody at All; Reclaim Public Opinion’ (2009) that depicts an inverted photograph of the trio standing in front of a construction site, wearing shopping bags over their heads that display the slogan. “[1] [1] Mahoney, E (2014) ‘Locating Simon Critchley’s “interstitial distance’ in the practices of the Freee art collective and Liberate Tate’, Art & Public Sphere Journal, 3:1 pp 9-30