CREATIVE TIME: Ranu Mukherjee

On October 12, the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley and the Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts are partnering to host a live-streaming of the Creative Time Summit, an annual conference in New York that brings together cultural producers--including artists, critics, writers, and curators--to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world. To jump-start the conversation in advance of the event, attendees have been asked to submit a paragraph on a keyword associated with one of the summit themes: Inequities, Occupations, Making, or Tactics. This posting is by Ranu Mukherjee, artist and producer of Tender Transmissions Radio.

Keyword: Expectations 

I have been thinking a lot about expectations lately- as a mutable, sliding scale barometer for how things are going. They seem to be an ever present but difficult to acknowledge measuring device used by all on a daily basis. Are they being met, exceeded, upended or not met at all. What can we expect as a public?

When do expectations become demands and when do they evolve? How do unmet expectations produce new ways of doing things and change culture? What can we expect from the public sector if anything, and in our efforts to reoccupy the commons and bring about change from ground up, are we also encouraging further privatization. I feel that the way that I formulate this question needs to evolve. Looking forward.