Summer School for Designing a Society 2007 is rolling, and here are some of the things that may be reported (without explanation) for all the “you”s out there.
During the first week, we discussed our personal “courts of criteria” — the “voices” in our heads that we consult when we make a decision. This culminated in an uprising of cartooning, which illustrated the various criteria people consider when making a specific choice. The first week also saw the start of a flurry of “desire statements” writing. We broke into “design groups” to connect otherwise unconnected desire statements, and formulate proposals for what to do about our desires. For instance, one of the design groups is now editing the first installment of a magazine for teens and non-teens who might be closet feminists and/or deniers of global-warming.
Danielle’s “art everywhere movement” has people making wedding dresses with protest messages on them, and stencils (the “don’t listen to the little fascist inside you” stencil has gotten around), complimented by Susan’s “housewife’s revenge” broken plate mosaics and talking shoes. Maggie, Gesundheit’s new zen gardener/rancher/engineer, can make a pair of clown pants in one hour — given a choice of fabric and waist/thigh diameter measurements. June 9th marked the 30th annual celebration of >80-year-olds birthdays in nearby Richwood, WV, to which we sent a vanload of radical clowns.
Ginevra Sanguino, from Clown One Italia lubricated our bones with a week of workshops on clown technique. Bob Naiman, from Just Foreign Policy provoked us to be activists, not cynics. Patch Adams, from the Gesundheit Institute taught “love strategies” over four days, whenever there was a spare moment. We also received a visit from Sabine and Benjamin of Tamera “healing biotope” in Portugal — a 100+ person ecovillage with an emphasis on peace research. Later in the month we expect to receive a visit from K. Qilo Matzen and Andrea del Moral of the Change of State Performance Project, as well as cybernetician Larry Richards.
Everyone is impressed by our new friend Geoff, a Vietnam Veteran who endured homelessness, substance abuse, and the cold shoulder of society after returning from Vietnam, and who started a new non-profit Out From The Woods. Geoff’s dream is to create housing and living alternatives for some of the ~300,000 homeless veterans in the United States. During the second week, we “workshopped” Geoff’s project presentation, which he is working on as he gears up for a fundraising campaign.
We’ve also been treated to movies made by Accessible Horizon Films and brought to us by Koushalya, who is also collecting footage from this summer school to make a video someday. The blog for her project is here.
Graziella Pesce (from Italy) has been offering to teach people how to make art from wetted artists’ papier d’ toilet and dilute paint pigments. June 15th was the debut performance of the “New Society Orchestra” and Graziella’s “Tsunami de A.M.O.R.E.” text was used as a source material for a piece performed with found objects. The text was read in French, Tamil, English, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.
At the second week’s performance evening in the woodshop, tag-team MC’d by Angie and Joanna, there was a love poem complete with addressee, a ten-year-old story told for the last time, a multimedia dance of shredded text (Nolalis on poetry), and a silent slide show of volunteering at Ground Zero alongside a prophetic loving critique of all before and aftermaths, a poem entitled “The Day the Flags Fall” from Stephen: Letters of Courage and Hope a book of letters published by Chrissy Nelson and her adopted son Stephen.
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.
