The School of Making Thinking offers year round classes designed to bring rigorous thinking into conversation with experimental pedagogies.
IMAGE SPEAKTHE SYMBIOTIC VIDEO ESSAY
Wendy's Subway
Mondays 7-PM October 16th – December 4th |
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INSTRUCTORSRACHEL JAMES is an artist and poet with a background in cultural anthropology and experimental ethnography. She has exhibited or performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, including at Essex Flowers, La MaMa, Situations, Spectacle, and Recess in New York City, The New Gallery in Calgary, Totaldobze, in Riga, and Kamppi Chapel in Helsinki. She is an MFA Candidate at Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts and curates exhibitions and performance events in Mexico City and New York, where she lives and works.
GEORGIA WALL is an artist based in New York. Wall’s videos have been exhibited at Team Gallery, Document Space, Faena Art Center, Anthology Film Archives, Spectacle Theater and Flux Factory. In New York she has presented her performance work at New York Live Arts, HERE, US Blues, Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, Ortega y Gasset Projects and CATCH at The Invisible Dog. Her work has been written about in publications including, ART-News, Mousse Magazine Online, The New Yorker, Hemispheric Institute E-Misférica and Time Out Chicago. Wall also has a curatorial practice and is part of Bottom which has organized events at Abrons Art Center, Spectacle Theater, Glasshouse Projects and Essex Flowers. Wall holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. |
IMAGE SPEAK
Image Speak delves into the world of video art, specifically works with little hierarchical delineation between text and the moving image. In addition to making video essays, we will discuss texts that address the theoretical underpinnings of the medium and screen seminal and experimental works in the field. Examples include videos by Moyra Davey, Ismail Bahri, Anicka Yi, Trinh T minh ha, and Chris Marker. The course will culminate in a public showcase of student work at Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn.
Does the moving image become an illustration of text, or is text created in response to footage? What does a process look like in which the text and image is being developed simultaneously? Exploring these processes together, the eight weeks will include many experimentations in writing and image making. Students will be asked to self-generate material as well as respond using the video essay form. Each participant will have the opportunity for group critique. By the end of Image Speak students will have produced at least one video essay for public screening at Spectacle Theater and a series of written, video, and response pieces as potential material to develop in the future. Participants will ideally have access to:
If you would like to sign up for this course yet access to equipment is prohibitive, please contact The School of Making Thinking as limited equipment is available. October 16th – December 4th
8 Sessions Mondays 7-9pm $200 |
INSTRUCTORDJ Sabine's work focuses on the exposure and pleasures of African diasporic music. Brooklyn Mecca, Cumbancha, and Oyasound are a few of her creative projects. Over the years, DJ Sabine's mainstay and cultivation has been the monthly event Brooklyn Mecca which has been coined the home of "Grassroots Dance Culture". Sabine worked for Ocha Records label as a Brand Marketing Director/Producer and Bembe NYC Party resident DJ. Today, she is the resident DJ for US & Cuba party Cumbancha featuring African inspired rhythms of House, Soul, Latin music and more. Oyasound Ep is currently in the works.
Dj Sabine spins Global Soul: House, Afrotech, Afrobeat, Haitian Roots and other diasporic tunes. She's had the great opportunity to spin nationally in the US in NYC, Atlanta, St. Louis, Memphis, Chicago, Omaha, Boston, New Orleans, Miami, LA/Oakland, NJ, Washington DC, Dallas, Denver and internationally in Canada, Senegal, Haiti, Cuba, London, Paris, & Mexico. www.oyasound.com |
LAKAY SE LAKAY
Lakay Se Lakay: Exploration of Haitian Culture and Electronic Music explores the intersectionality of digital audiovisual technology and traditional Haitian culture that investigates questions of diaspora, identity, notions of home, ritual, and artistic creation. Specifically, this is will be examined through the lens of syncretized traditional Haitian rhythms and electronic music. From vodou ceremonies, park drum circles, social justice art collectives, electronic music performance venues to production studios, Haitian sonic ambassadors are cultural innovators of the ancient and future. We will look at these environments and how Haitian sonic ambassadors aka “Haitianists” are developing a new scholarship of community-based work and music production for meaningful intergenerational, international, and intercultural exchange.
In this course, students will: • Explore how African/Haitian ancient traditions influenced the technological innovations in sound across the Haitian Diaspora • Examine the functionality of Haitian musical compositions when transposed into a global context • Assess spiritual information that is lost or transformed in the movement from analog to digital transmission in Haitian music • Identify various kinds of cultural networks that have emerged to push these new genres of music from Haiti to the global stage September 19th - November 7th
8 Sessions Tuesdays 7-9pm $200 |
INSTRUCTORSAlex Schmidt is a comedian, sculptor, and athlete living in Brooklyn, NY. Schmidt has performed at The Kitchen, La MaMa, and the Estate of the Mexican Ambassador for the BOFFO 2017 Fundraiser (among other venues). Schmidt’s collaborations and writing groups with Millie Kapp, Rachel James, Alexandra Tatarksy, Colin Self, and Julia Crockett have drawn her to Abrons and the School of Making Thinking. Schmidt stars in Sad Girls Club TV: Season IV, where she met and performed with her collaborator Lily Marotta.
Lily Marotta is a character actress and performer living in Brooklyn, NY. Lily co created and starred in the darkly comedic web series Monica The Miniseries (Paste Magazine’s Top 10 web-series of 2016) about a 27 year old Monica Lewinsky navigating her life post scandal. She co-hosts a monthly L Word trivia night and performs around NYC. Lily has trained at UCB in New York. |
QUEER ART OF IMPROVQueer Art of Improv embraces failure, values non-binary relations, and makes room for a wide variety of motives and games that go beyond the language we already speak. We create new world futures as a group by saying yes to each other’s experiences and building upon what we’ve heard with a generous “and,” accepting that a belly-flop may be on our immediate horizon. The space of laughter has joyous pleasure as its goal and biting social commentary as its content; our newly performed scripts come to shape how we act in the world. Comedy is a rich site for making a fool of the present: enjoy the possibilities that evolve from the free fall! Much like children hide in basements practicing the observed scripts of adulthood, the permission to play offers us an opportunity to experiment with new modes of being a Grown Up.
Queer Art of Improv is informed by the writings of Jack Halberstam, LARPing, and social constructivist paradigms such as the Harold (long form improvisation), the Reggio Emilia Approach, and social performance group therapy. The 8-week course aims to equip performers with the skills they need to transform real life observations into compelling characters and interactions. In the beginning, basic standards for improv (“Yes, and”; performing from the top of your intelligence; making statements rather than asking questions) will be emphasized through short-form games such as “Park Bench” and “Movement Telephone.” Further into the course, participants will be challenged to explore long-form scene-work, where there no game is given to frame the play. Rather, side-coaching and feedback from the instructors will guide the participants to generate laughter without reverting to heteronormative tropes. This workshop has been practiced with a variety of groups, extending the spectrum from ameliorative social justice retreats in Western Massachusetts to corporate bankers on Wall Street. Past participants of our improv classes have come to the “back wall” with a wide range of backgrounds: performance experience is not a requirement! In fact, we’re always inspired by the fresh content that comes from novices whose life experiences reflect alternate, surprising world-views. Although the aim is to offer a queer approach, the content is by no means exclusive to queer-identified participants. Rather, we aim to use improv comedy as a tool for developing collaboration and connection between individuals who want to punk the world. September 21st - November 9th
8 Sessions Tuesdays 7-9pm $200 |