I am just finishing a 4-week residency at a city-funded hothouse of projects called the Seoul Youth Factory for Alternative Culture, or Haja (Korean for “let’s do it”) Center. It was begun by feminist activists in the aftermath of the IMF financial crisis in the late 90s, when a liberal city administration was looking for projects that might respond to the needs of dropouts facing an environment of unemployment. One of its missions is to offer a facility and resources for participants to do what they want, in contrast to mainstream education.
It currently houses video and audio production schools, performing arts team, an alternative school called “global school”, a 30-member resident touring percussion ensemble playing instruments made of recycled materials, visual art and writing classes, an adult learning network, dance studio, 50-seat movie theater, black box theater, homestyle cafeteria, playground, library, playground, patio performance space, probably other projects I didn’t hear about.
Carol Huang was here for two weeks and gave presentations for staff on arts education and “biography to history”, TESL with a group of English teachers from The Philippines, and helped me with workshops for the global school. There were 8 “jukdols” (a neologism, in avoidance of “student” meaning “those who are here for a while”) and “pandols” (meaning “keepers of the venue”) — this group had done some work comparable to Habitat for Humanity on a refugee island in Philippines, and sought help for theater they want to do with refugees in northern Thailand.
I worked with a video group on making four miniature videos related to the idea of silent movie; writing games with the writing class bilingually; crash course for a group of keepers-of-the-venue in composing a community and designing a society; played excerpts of Rzewski and Brün with the percussion ensemble (Les Moutons de Panurge and The Laughing Third); made “theater of the wrong question” with the art class and “spoken music” with the musicals group: song collage and variations on a phone call.
After two weeks, Jeff Glassman was flown in, and we were taken to look at the looking-at-North-Korea; to an acupuncture clinic with grade school kids, to a weekly street protest by locked out stewardess workers of the high-speed railway, to a high spot overlooking the city, on a neighborhood tour of wholesale markets and small machine shops threatened by re-development.
A theme of my presentations ended up being “appoint your own standards”. There was a lot of mutual appreciation and willingness to try things. If the new right-wing city administration doesn’t shut the place down (an after-school program was cancelled by the administration at the end of December) some ‘we’ from SDaS may be invited back next year.
Microtonal Design, or Alternative Crystallizations of the Pitch Continuum No aspect of music has become more rigidified in our minds and practice than the potential of musical pitch. Out of the vast pitch continuum, we find ourselves making the same non-choice over and over again: 12 equal divisions of the octave. Are alternatives possible, and do they make any sense? Yes! Join us for an exploratory seminar at the School for Designing a Society in Urbana, Illinois. Expertise unnecessary; only a willingness to un-stick yourself in good company.
Cybernetics and Social Change Cybernetics as an interdisciplinary field of study was proposed in the 20th century by scientists who wanted to fight fascism. From this study there ensued various unexpected theoretical and practical attempts and tendencies. A starting point for this course will be the view of cybernetics as a praxis for generating radical projects. Radical: getting at the roots of a problem; changing whole frameworks. The questions of cybernetics—regulation, self-regulation? observation, self-observation? stability, dynamics?—are invited to help actively answer the questions of social change: which social? how change?
Liberation Ecology What does sustainability look like when it refuses to sustain white supremacy? What is the meaning of liberation in a civilization that cannot feed or fuel itself? The choice between ecological objectives and social objectives is lose-lose. Rather than make it, we can unveil the connections between the two sets of issues, and create strategies for change that build on those connections. This class will weave together two elements: principles of ecological design, and exploration of the relationship between real and desired ecosystems and real and desired societies.
Ongoing Composition/Performance Projects
Pester Power! A collaborative compostion made by SDaS 2013-2014, now a kid’s performance to empower adults to help them change the world. Collaboration with writer Faranak Miraftab and her book Making a Home in the Heartland: Immigration and Global Labor Mobility We’re in the process of creating a touring program based on this book. “My Work in the Light of Herbert and Marianne Brun”Presentation/workshop series by local and visiting artists and activists.
Who is invited?
Since we all live with the consequences of the current design of society, everyone is invited to participate in designing a different one. No particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
Apply
To apply to participate in the School for Designing a Society, please click here and you will be contacted for a phone interview.
1. Contact Linda at 217-550-6189 or lindaturnbull800@yahoo.com to schedule the first meeting of your team with a live performance of Pester Power at a time convenient for you and your neighbors.
2. Invite your neighbors to your house, to meet and see the live performance. (It’s 25 minutes long, fun, performed by kids).
3. After the performance, participate in a discussion about ways you and neighbors can change environmental and racial climate in your own home and in your community over the next 1 to 2 months (a member of Urbana’s Sustainability Advisory Commission would be happy to help). Make a commitment to take certain steps from the Low Carbon Diet book.
4. Meet three more times with your neighbors to check in on your action plan.
5. Celebrate your success with your team and with other teams.
Does this cost anything?
No. The performers (all kids) are excited to empower you adults to help them to change the world! The Urbana Sustainability Advisory Commission is delighted to work with you.
Keep in Touch! Subscribe to our Newsletter.
Seminars and workshops meet regularly… we’ll keep you updated!
apply no particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
upcoming read about our upcoming programs and workshops for the year.
touring read about our touring and performance schedules for the year.
courses listed both alphabetically and by topic & a number of interdisciplinary programs cross boundaries between disciplines.
what happens? designing a society is a project that intersects the formats of classroom, commune, performance ensemble, activist group.
Stay in Touch
Keep in Touch! Subscribe to our Newsletter.
Exuberant Performance Workshops
Create your own One Woman (Man) Band!: Learn to multi-play various musical instruments. Waltzing Marching Band Take to the streets with a big band full of unusual instruments. Vaudeville, not Awed-ville Going back to the 1930’s, learn to be a performative ‘jack/jill of all trades’, rather than an expert in one.
Ongoing Composition/Performance Projects
Pester Power! A collaborative compostion made by SDaS 2013-2014, now a kid’s performance to empower adults to help them change the world. Collaboration with writer Faranak Miraftab and her book Making a Home in the Heartland: Immigration and Global Labor Mobility We’re in the process of creating a touring program based on this book. “My Work in the Light of Herbert and Marianne Brun”Presentation/workshop series by local and visiting artists and activists.
Who is invited?
Since we all live with the consequences of the current design of society, everyone is invited to participate in designing a different one. No particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
Apply
To apply to participate in the School for Designing a Society, please click here and you will be contacted for a phone interview.
Since we all live with the consequences of the current design of society, everyone is invited to participate in designing a different one. No particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
Apply
To apply to participate in the School for Designing a Society, please fill out the form here and you will be contacted for a phone interview.
Since we all live with the consequences of the current design of society, everyone is invited to participate in designing a different one. No particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
Apply
To apply to participate in the School for Designing a Society, pleaseclick hereand you will be contacted for a phone interview.
Film Emphasis In the fall of 2013, the School for Designing a Society began to put more emphasis on the medium of video, with forays into the creation of Public Service Announcements as part of the larger SDAS collaboration project. We will continue with this emphasis in 2014. Under what circumstances will a composition of sound, text and moving image provoke curiosity, action, reflection, and change of mind?
Collaboration with writer & urban planner, Faranak Miraftab This Spring 2014 SDaS participants have been invited to work with writer and urban planner, Faranak Miraftab on theatricalizing texts from her book, Making a Home in the Heartland: Immigration and Global Labor Mobility. The book is based on interviews with Cargil employees in Beardstown illinois. The idea would be to create a touring program based on these texts/interviews. Writers, musicians, poets, dancers, activists are invited to work on this collaboration.
apply no particular educational background is required; the prerequisite is the desire to participate in designing a society.
upcoming read about our upcoming programs and workshops in the fall, spring & summer.
courses listed both alphabetically and by topic & a number of interdisciplinary programs cross boundaries between disciplines.
what happens? designing a society is a project that intersects the formats of classroom, commune, performance ensemble, activist group.
