Photo by Ana Dzokic

Khadija, archive taxonomy brainstorm. Photo by Ana Dzokic.

Azra Aksamija and Ute Meta Bauer. Photo by Ana Dzokic.

Meg, Azra, Anna Neimark, Ulises, Carla Herrera... Photo by Ana Dzokic

Here's an email from Maya Balle who kindly attended the conference - which was great, thanks to all involved.
"
> Some quick thoughts and feedback and I am sorry I could not come for the
> archive talks today.
>
> 1. leadership as a new paradigm....want to lead but don't he said...You
> must lead and you are. It is very important that the new society have a new
> paradigm of what leadership can be. Do not back away from this. You are all
> being called and it is important world work.
>
> 2. was it Ivan or Marc who created the values game?Engage the values game
> and see what your core values as a group are!
> the 8 of you do the game and then grow from there. This is a very valuable
> process and could be something that corporations and non-profits hire you/
> and or your folks on the Highway. Look at other ways that you already have

CAVS staffer finds herself on Lost Highway
MIT affiliates among planners of art experience
Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent
September 25, 2006

Soon after Meg Rotzel arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia, this past July, she met up with 25 strangers at an art gallery, and they all set out to spend the next three days together--as fellow travelers on the Lost Highway Expedition.

The expedition, which ran from July 30 to Aug. 24 in the Western Balkans, drew some 300 people to what its organizers called "a massive intelligent swarm" of individuals, groups and institutions from the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The expedition was loosely centered around art, architecture and culture.

Rotzel, curatorial associate for MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), became intrigued by the ambitious project when she worked with some of the event's planners at CAVS.

Life is a highway
‘Lost Highway Expedition Symposium’ at MIT; ‘Inspired by China’ at the Peabody Essex
By: RANDI HOPKINS

10/17/2006 5:03:10 PM

In August 2006, in a spirit of shared purpose that could serve as a brave new model for political activism, more than 200 artists, architects, and assorted citizens of the world traversed the former Yugoslavia’s former Highway of Brotherhood and Unity (lately referred to as the “Highway of Post Brotherhood and Non Unity”), exploring the cultural and urban landscape of nine cities in the Western Balkans as an experimental, temporary society. The trek, called the “Lost Highway Expedition,” was initiated by two international cultural collaboratives, the School of Missing Studies and Centrala, Foundation for Future Cities, that were interested in seeing what new projects, artworks, architecture, and networks could be generated by sending a swarm of thoughtful folks along a road created in the 1960s to unite the many nationalities that once constituted Yugoslavia.

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Friday Oct. 27, 3-6 PM, CAVS
Designing an Archive: A workshop
Participate in a workshop and discussion about the LHE archive.
3:00-3:30 Summary of Thursday’s presentations
3:30-5:00 10-minute presentations of archive projects and work including Carla Herrera-Prats, Anneka Lessen, Anna Neimark, Marisa Jahn
5:00-6:00 Archive workshop moderated by Marisa Jahn and Eric Carver

Currently on view at the Center is a self-organized archive, a collection of photos, video, and other documentation of the Expedition.

The Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) presents
The Lost Highway Expedition
And Self-Organized Archive

Join the initiators and travelers of the Lost Highway Expedition during two workshops that consider the role of an archive in relationship to an expedition.

MIT archive workshop: Meg, Azra, Anna Neimark, Ulises, Carla Herrera...MIT presentations: Azra Aksamija and Ute Meta BauerMIT archive workshop, brainstorm: Khadija, archive taxonomy brainstormMIT archive workshop, folders

Thursday Oct. 26, 2-5 PM, CAVS

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Thursday Oct. 26, 2-5 PM, CAVS
Lost Highway Expedition and the question of an archive
Presentation by travelers Azra Akšamija, Katherine Carl, Khadija Carrol, Ana Dzokic, Ivan Kucina, Marc Neelen, Kyong Park, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Meg Rotzel and more. With responses by Ute Meta Bauer and Eve Blau

2:00-2:30 CAVS Introduction
2:30-4:00 10-minute presentations of LHE traveler experiences
4:00-4:30 Ute Metabauer presents work and responds
4:30-5:00 Eve Blau presents work and responds

6:00-8:00 Opening Reception of "Territories of Terror: Mythologies and Memories of the Gulag in Contemporary Russian-American Art," Curated by Svetlana Boym
Boston University Art Gallery
Boston University Campus at 855 Commonwealth Avenue