Seminar 7: 12 - 17 June 2023

During our very last COOP, we will transition from conceptualising the outcome to implementing it. We will re-ground and continue our discussion from our previous meeting in Salina. The students will share the most recent iteration of their group’s plan and project, and then they will collaborate to develop a production schedule for the Summit week. We will continue to work on the composition of the performance, the organisation of groups, the specification of technical aspects, and the establishment of the publishing’s groundwork.

Seminar 6: 18 - 20 May 2023

Dear study group,

I am so excited to learn of this world you have slowly made together, and the special attentions your collective study has carried till now. We will devote this time in Salina to listening to your journey of study; to prompt and structure our group conversations toward the final production, and begin to give curatorial cues, and be as hands-on as possible in the steps toward the final presentation at Nida: the crafting, conceptual reasoning behind each choice, and practicalities. By this I mean, The conceptual choices: to interrogate together how site, weather, time of day, and context will change the reading of the work. We will question our choices of mediums, define our lineages, inheritances, and questions of research and concerns, or what compels us, and how to transfer this sense of urgency. I have framed 2 questions to discuss with you. The practicalities grounded in theory: how practical considerations can come into line with the project’s theoretical criticalities. Decisions of agency, roles; location; budget allocation. The crafting: the poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of artworks. Working together on the completion of your script, visualisations, treatment, and technical requirements. 

–Zasha Colah

18 May 2023

Morning 10:30-13:00

10:30-11.30 With Chiara Figone joining online. Introducing group members

11.30-13.00 Revisiting and re-reading your document, Vision3

13:00 Lunch

Afternoon 14:00-18:30

14:00-15.00 Practicalities grounded in theory: how practical considerations can come into line with the project’s theoretical criticalities. Decisions of agency, roles; location; budget allocation. 

15.00-16.00 Visit by Peter and Nikos to answer any questions you might have and share updates on planning for COOP SUMMIT. 

16:00-16.30 dance or walking break

16.30 -17:30 Presenting Journal Exercise: Scene Studies. To share your interactions with this exercise. Exercise from previous DAI week, from a prompt by Yaniya Lee: “Every week, write one scene; then write the same scene again and again. Like Raymond Queneau in Exercises in Style, you will write one scene in three different ways every week. This is a way to stretch and experiment perspectives in storytelling by way of what you focus on, and how you tell it. Something as simple as ‘Kate planted flowers in the backyard’ or ‘Germaine went into the kitchen to make tea’ can be brought alive into a full scene. You can achieve this with description, reflection, dialogue or further story telling. By the time you arrive in Salina, you should have 3 scenes told 3 different ways.” In turn, I will devise my own prompt according to the topics and reflections of my time with you all.

17.30-18.00 dance or walking break

18:00-20:00 The crafting: the poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of artworks. Working together on the completion of your script, visualisations, treatment, and technical requirements. With many small breaks.

20:00 Dinner

Evening 21:00-22:00

21:00- 22:00 Star-gazing. (1) Read the script aloud. (2) We form a linked ring, and visualise the script treatment, what each one is doing on the day, imagining without actually performing. 

19 May 2023 

Morning 10:30-13:00

10:30-11.30 I will introduce some of my own past projects that overlap with the themes of the day before. 

11.30-12.00 dance or walking break

12.00-13.00 Presentation by me of the 80s work of Nalini Malani (India) and Yuriko Ando Lochan/ Dumb Type (Kyoto, 1984-1987), radical founding member of the collective, who both in the 80s worked with theatre as an artistic format. These are meant to add to the theatre works of Beckett and Brecht you have previously worked on. Artists like Malani and the first works by Dumb Type carved a specific art genre, which is not performance or installation, but indeed theatre, only, where actors are replaced by or interact with sculptures, and in which installation and moving image blur with set design; and in which narrative devices are tampered with by the still arts. To what purpose, and from what compulsions? Each practitioner has different answers, and this can be used as a springboard for our own introflection.

13:00 Lunch

Afternoon 14:00-18:30

14:00-15:00 Practicalities grounded in theory: how practical considerations can come into line with the project’s theoretical criticalities. Decisions of agency, roles; location; budget allocation. 

15:00-16:00  The conceptual choices: We will question our choices of mediums, define our lineages, inheritances, and questions of research and concerns, or what compels us, and how to transfer this sense of urgency. To what purpose, and from what compulsions? What stories do we want to tell? Question 1. To what purpose, and from what compulsions? What stories do we want to tell?

16:00-16:30 dance or walking break

16:30 -17:30 The conceptual choices: We will question our choices of mediums, define our lineages, inheritances, and questions of research and concerns, or what compels us, and how to transfer this sense of urgency. To what purpose, and from what compulsions? What stories do we want to tell? Question 2. Why an artist’s theatre as a publishing practice?

17:30-18:00 dance or walking break

18:00-20:00 The crafting: the poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of artworks. Working together on the completion of your script, visualisations, treatment, and technical requirements. 

20:00 Dinner

Evening 21:00-22:00

21:00- 22:00 Star-gazing. (1) Read the script aloud. (2) We form a linked ring, and visualise the script treatment, what each one is doing on the day, imagining without actually performing. 

20 May 2023

Morning 10:30-13:00

11:00-11:30 Invited online speaker: Pedro Gómez-Egaña (Colombia). He will give presentations of how he worked with theatre  and choreography as an artistic format. He will zoom-in to discuss particular his sculptural theatre-plays in a 15-minute session followed by questions.  

11:30-12:00 Invited online speaker: Yuriko Ando Lochan/ Dumb Type (Kyoto, 1984-1987), radical founding member of the collective. She will give presentations of how she worked with theatre, costume, electronic music, cues, and choreography as an artistic format within the early days of Dumb Type in the 1980s. She will zoom-in to have a conversation with us about that period of work in a 30-minute session. “The Karma was before Dumb Type, a theater group. A group of like-minded people from the members of The Karma, from which Dumb Type Theatre was formed. After that, we moved to the non-categorised expression of art.”

12:00-13:00 The conceptual choices: We will question our choices of mediums, define our lineages, inheritances, and questions of research and concerns, or what compels us, and how to transfer this sense of urgency. To what purpose, and from what compulsions? What stories do we want to tell?

13:00 Lunch

Afternoon 14:00-18:30

14.30-16.00 Grounding our study in the Aeolian Islands, Lipari, Vulcano, Salina, Stromboli, Filicudi, Alicudi and Panarea. Walk with Elettra ​​Bottazzi, amaneï, our host in Salina, delving into her research about spiritual practices on the island. Watching the film, Streghe di Alicudi (28 minutes) together. 

16:00-16:30 Introduction by the artist duo, Edizioni Brigantino, working in Milano and Salina.

16:30-18:30 The crafting: the poetics, aesthetics, and ethics of artworks. Working together on the completion of your script, visualisations, treatment, and technical requirements. With many micro breaks. Sending out (to Archive tutors): First Script. 

18:30-19:00 dance or walking break

19:00-20:00 Submitting: title, image, 2-paragraphs of abstract, extra curatorial notes on ambiance and structure, tech requirements, ideas of visual traces; updated budget. Submitted by the Editorial/ Production/ Finance representatives for the group. 

20:00 Dinner

Evening 21:00-22:00

21:00- 22:00 Star-gazing. (1) Read the script aloud. (2) We form a linked ring, and visualise the script treatment, what each one is doing on the day, imagining without actually performing.

Seminar 5: 19 - 21 April 2023

Theaterarbeit

Dialectical Theatre emerged as a response to Richard Wagner's ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ or ‘total artwork’ in the twentieth century. Set forth by Bertolt Brecht, this form is recognizable by its direct audience address, estrangement effect, and attention to ‘gestus’ — meaning; attitude, style, or carriage. The gist or gesture may function as an index, revealing social relations, habits, and historical idiosyncrasies, all sustaining the narrative structure of a play.

During this session, we will consider form and style, either embodied or on the page. We will turn our attention to design, experimental video, theater, and performance to consider the inseparable pact of form and content. Our companions include; Bertolt Brecht, Med Hondo, Agnes Varda, No Wave, Abounaddara, Etel Adnan, and Paris.  

This session will include visits to Librairie Florence Loewy, Ciné-Archives (with Anabelle Aventurin), Centre Pompidou, and After 8 Books.

Wednesday 19th April — Notation

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and arrival 

Text: Brecht on Theater: The Development of An Aesthetic, Bertolt Brecht

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00 Practice 

Text: Breath and Other Shorts, Samuel Beckett 

A Dramaticule

*Mid-term evaluations 

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Screening of Agnes Varda; The Gleaners and I

Thursday 20th April — Synchesis

7:00 - 13:00: Traveling Assembly

Text: Dignity Has Never Been Photographed, Abounaddara

Paris Departure:

Ciné-Archives: 10:00 - 11:30

After 8 Books: 12:00 - 13:00

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00: Spring Practice

Centre Pompidou (Who You Staring At?): 14:30 - 16:00

Librairie Florence Loewy: 16:00 - 17:00

Paris Return:

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 21:00: Experiment 

A Weaving 

Friday 21st April — Paragoge 

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion 

Text: Exercises on Style, Raymond Queneau

13:00 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 18:00 Practice

99 Retellings in Composition

Text: Of Cities and Women, Etel Adnan

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment

99 Retellings on Stage

Seminar 4: 8 - 10 March 2023

Translation, Transcription, Transmutation

There are five semiotic systems — the aural, gestural, linguistic, spatial, and visual. There is said to be one mother tongue. 

This session, we will reflect on dictation, transcription, and the im-possible task of the translator. Here, translation implies a transference; from one side to another, or one language to the next. Historically, the discipline bears its own aesth-ethical implications. Equivalence, mutability, and multiplicity can augment the voices on a single page.  

We will engage with the translingual dimensions of print. Our studies will include works by Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin, Gayatri C. Spivak, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, Adelkebir Khatibi, Hortense Spillers, and Yasunari Kawabata.

Wednesday 8th March  — Transcription

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly 

Close reading and discussion

Text: A Prayer In The Mother Tongue, Yasunari Kawabata

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 18:00 Practice

On Paper: Genealogies 

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner

20:00 - 22:00 Experiment

Listening Session: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 

Thursday 9th March  — Translation

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly 

Presentation and discussion

“I’ll Get you There”: Translation, Aesth-Ethics and The Undercommons

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 19:00: Practice

On Paper: The Diseuse

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment

Dreaming session: Learning from Jacob’s Dream 

Friday 10th March  — Transmutation 

10:00: 13:00: Assembly

Morning Reading 

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch

14:00 - 19:00: Practice

On Paper: The Page

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Open Farewell

Seminar 2 & 3: 14 - 19 January 2023

The Absolute Image 

However tentative, the history of writing begins in ancient Sumer. Early scripts emerged from crop rotations and accounting — with farmers tracing lines to mark the seasons, moonrise and sunset. Other methods included knots for counting herds. The first autobiographies popularized the book as a subjective narration of verifiable events. Later, the modern novel introduced ‘I’ at the center of the story. Today, the book is inseparable from a long history of property, economics, and self. 

At Nida we will consider the possibility, and impossibility, of the book as an absolute report. Or the absolute image. This week will reflect on print, experimental filmmaking, recordings, diaries, and archives as narrative devices — both personal and collective. We will discuss the problematics and horizons of subjective narration, editorial transgression, and environmental text to challenge print as an authoritative medium. Our studies will include works by Jonas Mekas, NouberSe Philip, Pauline Oliveros, reflections on deterioration, radiation, documentary filmmaking, archives, and forest spells.

This session welcomes Yaniya Lee, art writer and editor at Archive Books. Her archival investigations consider methods for organizing historical material. Lee will share her current research on the formation of a new Black Canadian Art History.  

Saturday 14th January — Proto-Writing 

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion 

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 19:00: Practice

Nothing Happens, Everything Happens

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Screening of Jonas Mekas; As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

Sunday 15th January — Immaterial Text 

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion

Text: Atomic Light (Shadow Optics), Akira Mizuta Lippit

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 18:00: Practice

The Path of the Cloud

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Vision Presentations

Monday 16th January — Songs and Spells 

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion

Text: Songs and Spells

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 18:00: Practice

An Inherited Song

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Listening Session 

Monday 17th January — Archives 

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion

Text: Labour Ambivalence and Vulnerability in Joyce Wienland’s Film Hand Tinting, Yaniya Lee 

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 18:00: Practice

No Archive Can Restore You

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Screening of Cheryl Dunye; The Watermelon Woman

Tuesday 18th January — Übertragung

10:00 - 13:00: Assembly

Close reading and discussion

Text: In Defense of The Poor Image, Hito Steryl 

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 18:00: Practice

Extended Appointments

19:00 - 20:00 Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Experiment 

Preparation for Sunrise

Wednesday 19th January — Environmental Text

7:00 - 10:00: Assembly

Sunrise Session 

10:00 - 13:00: Practice

Deep Listening  

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 - 19:00: Kitchen Proposals 

19:00 - 20:00: Dinner 

20:00 - 22:00: Open Farewell

Seminar 1: 22 - 24 November 2022

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