Hi there!
My name? It’s Austin.
Yes, I’m a student at the School for Designing a Society. We usually just call it “SDaS” or the School, for short.
Well, sure I can update you about what’s been happening lately. Actually, it’s been happening. Between the Performatorium and IMC-Omnia, continuous returns from class invitations, and the upcoming dance performance … okay, I’ll slow down.
Look. This semester, the School has three distinct tracks: (1) Connecting Cybernetics & Social Change, (2) Microtonal Design, and (3) Feminist Composition & Design. Some of our full-time students, especially visiting students who’ve traveled to Urbana to participate, are engaged in all three tracks, but others participate more selectively. I (Austin) participate in the Feminist Composition & Design course, in addition to some other general SDaS classes, such as the all-student weekly Plenary (a kind of SDaS-fundamentals course that includes a community meeting) and the Design Groups, a creative zone where folks bring their desires for new societies to groups to explore the ins-and-outs of their designs.
In the Feminist course, we’re seeing “returns” from a number of different invitations (invitations is code for assignments; the existing political system uses mandates to accomplish its goals; for folks at the School, voluntary participation is of utmost importance). We’ve been exploring counterpoint & narrative, the performance of everyday life, pivot points in any context where the viewer is required to retroactively correct her understanding of the preceding events. We watched part of a documentary on early feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony and talked to to Safiya Noble about feminist approaches toward technology; after Safiya’s provocative presentation, our class spun off into a lively conversation about intelligent technology systems, economic ethics, and how to design web search engines that promote human values over economic profit. The other tracks have been similarly busy.
We all got together as a group for a few big events recently:
- IMC-Omnia 2: IMC-Omnia is a semi-regular event hosted by Oddmusic (organizers of the Microtonal Design track) aimed at turning the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (our host organization; an incredible, diverse community media project) into a temporary artists’ colony where anybody can work on a project within the IMC’s 30,000 square foot facility for a set period of time (24 hours, ideally). This time, IMC-Omnia 2, the length was shortened: it lasted 12 hours, starting at 11:59pm on Friday night and continuing until lunch the next day. Highlights of the night:
- Microtonally re-fretting an electric guitar
- Watching Rafter’s 2004 archival film of the School
- Julianne returning from the dumpsters with crates of food at 3 in the morning!
- The next IMC-Omnia, lasting a full 24 hours, will start Friday, April 22nd, before midnight. Do you have a project you want to work on? Contact Jacob Barton at udderbot@gmail.com.
- Oddmusic hosted the 2nd Performatorium at the IMC. The Performatorium, or Oddmusic Mixer, is a trying-out space for SDaS students & community members, where they can bring projects in various stages in completion to a room of willing collaborators, available to offer advice, participate in the composition process, or just pay attention. Jacob’s prompt: “We are approaching the midpoint of a semester of agitation and wonder. What desires, designs, compositions, can WE—having presented and mingled—now TRY onstage at the IMC???” Presentations included:
- Ya’aqov whistling “Sarabande in C Minor” (for solo cello) by J.S. Bach
- Julianne’s and Aba’s poetic/pugnacious dance piece, choreographed to a recording of SDaS organizer elizaBeth Simpson singing “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”
- Snow Leopard encouraging us to verbally challenge a segment of Macbeth as it was read
- Mark Enslin conducting a microtonal ensemble performing a Paul Koltheimer piece in “11-edo” tuning
- So many others: Andy Burton doing some right-on free improvisation with his percussion smorgasbord; Rodney Peacock performing on the black keys of a piano; Carey Smith reading some micro-poetry …
Other School for Designing a Society-related news:
- Long-time SDaS organizer & friend Danielle Chynoweth gave birth to a boy, Ezra Shine! Congratulations, Danielle!
- Susan Parenti & I are going down to New College of Florida to present some SDaS fundamentals at that historical college’s 4th annual All Power to the Imagination! Radical Theory and Practice conference. (We’re getting ready to blow some minds!)
- SDaS Movement class continues. Rumors are there’s going to be a dance performance, fundraiser, & carnival-of-sorts planned in the next month. Stay tuned!
Until then … we’ll be here.
