Seminar 4: 21-23 May, Amsterdam

Dear All,

For the upcoming Confluence, we are thrilled to gather in our theatre space for a three-day workshop that continues our research on listening, thinking-in-assembly, and tradition.

The program will deepen our practice of listening and singing through sessions with Lisa Montan. The context of our meeting will be enriched by a reflection on the long and vibrant history of collaboration between the Dutch Art Institute and If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution, as we explore the archive together with Anik Fournier and Sara Giannini.Together with them, we will engage in a conversation about the acts of listening and singing, focusing on their potential as reparative practices in times of grief, violence, and harm.

As part of this, we have also invited Waad for a Learning Palestine session. Waad is a collective name that brings together individual artists, academics, intellectuals, and community members who form the Learning Palestine Group.

How do we tell history from the point of view of the zombies?
The Learning Palestine sessions aim to share and disseminate knowledge about ongoing oppression and resistance in Palestine through both historical and personal storytelling.

This is a four-hour, in-person session in which the story of Palestine is told across time and place, using militant pedagogical techniques of drawing and writing—without the use of images or pre-made visuals.

As you already know, this session will be an opportunity to open our working process and methodology to an audience. We want to emphasize once again that this will not be a representational moment, but rather an act of sharing — offering what is already there, without pressure, but with the joy and desire to make our process visible as an intermediate step towards the upcoming summit.

In light of all this, we warmly welcome you to our next gathering and look forward to reuniting as we continue this inspiring journey together.

Wednesday 21 May - Amsterdam

Time (morning) students go by train > Amsterdam

Tram > WG Plein

IICD: buy tickets

Estimated arrival 12:00/13:00

13:00-14:00: lunch and coffee

14:30-16:00: Thinking-in- Assembly/ Anik and Sara about IICD and DAI history with questions from students.

16:00-16:45 pause

17:00-19:00 Warm-up and listening exercises by Lisa 

19:00-20:30 Dinner

From 20:30 to 22:00  Group session led by Snejanka, Frederique and Lisa. Themes: upcoming presentation, summit, accompanied by a glass of wine and a session with guitar, singing songs together. 

Thursday 22 May - Amsterdam

10:00-10:30: Coffee

10:30-13:00: Thinking-in- Assembly/ Learning Palestine meeting with Yazan Khalili

13:00-14:00: lunch

14:30-16:00:  Feedback on the morning session & Summit proposal 

16:00-16:45 COOP Summit conversation/check-in with Peter and Flip (online)

17:00-19:00 Warm-up and listening exercises by Lisa 

19:00- 20:00 dinner 

From 20:30 to 22:00, you are invited to attend the If I Can't Dance event, curated by Sara Giannini. Jennifer Scappettone will present her new book, Poetry After Barbarism: The Invention of Motherless Tongues and Resistance to Fascism, published by Columbia University Press. Please note that this event is not part of the curriculum. If needed, this time may also be used to finalise the summit proposal.

Friday 23 May – Amsterdam

10:00-13:00: Warm-up and listening exercises by Lisa 

13:00-14:30: lunch  

14:30-16:00: Walk and sharpening the structure for the event

16:00-16:45 pause

17:00-19:00: An invitation to think-in-assembly/ The Word and the Wound - And Now You Are Ready to Sing/ opening to our process with audience   

19:00-20:00: drinks/snacks (student get train snacks)

20:00 departure to Middelburg (check what should be latest departure time to arrive in the bungalows)

Seminar 3: 27 - 29 March 2025

Thursday 27th March

10:00 - 13:00   Warm-up/Composition with Lisa Montan   

Lunch break 

14:00 -16:30   Thinking-in-Assembly/ When Thinking Was Done with the Lungs … Adriana Cavarero and the devocalisation of the logos with Snejanka Mihaylova 

pause

17:00-18:00 Walk with Frederique Bergholtz 

18:00-19:00 Reflection

Dinner break  

20:00-22:00  Gathering together 

Friday 28th March 

10:00 - 13:00   Warm-up/Composition+ A Song with Lisa Montan and Snejanka Mihaylova

Lunch break 

14:00 -16:30   Thinking-in-Assembly/  The impersonal (The notion of the gab between the past and the future of Aredth in relation to the notion of the impersonal in Simone Weil).

pause

17:00-18:00 Walk

18:00-19:00 Reflection. Assignment

Dinner break 

20:00-22:00  Working on assignment

Saturday  29th March 

 10:00 - 13:00  Presentations

Lunch break 

14:00 - 16:30  First conversation on Summit

 pause 

17:00-18:00 Reflection and Conclusion 

Other useful information:

Reading list:

The readings for the Thinking-in-Assembly can be found in our reading lists:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tLI5F18ZEOgia2lPdI3K4R4UVIDoMPSf/edit

Seminar 2: 14 - 17 January 2025

Happy New Year! We are excited to welcome our guest Lisa Montan during the gathering in NIDA. While keeping and building into our daily vocal routine we will reflect on the practice of composition and performance. We will keep in our mind the key component of the coop which is deepening into a practice of listening and at the same time we will again try to look at simple exercises of breathing, walking, singing, scoring and thinking–in-assembly.

Tuesday 14th January
Led by Snejanka and Frederique

10:30 - 13:00 Grounding.

Lunch break

14:00 - 16:30 A Song, Snejanka’s presentation and discussion

pause

17:00-18:00 Walk

18:00-19:00 Reflection

Dinner break

20:00-22:00 Gathering together

Wednesday 15th January
Led by Lisa

10:00 - 13:00 Lisa’s Workshop

Lunch break

14:00 - 17:00 Lisa’s workshop

Dinner break

20:00-22:00 Gathering together

Thursday 16th January
Led by Lisa

10:00 - 13:00 Lisa’s Workshop

Lunch break

14:00 - 17:00 Time allocated for the assignment

Dinner break

20:00-22:00 Show time

Friday 17th January
Led by Snejanka and Frederique

10:00 - 13:00 Grounding. Reflection

Lunch break

14:00 - 17:00 Working together on ideas and some plans for the future. Face to face?

Dinner break

Seminar 1: 10 - 12 December 2024

Welcome to the COOP study group ~ The Word and the Wound 2 / And Now You are Ready to Sing! We are going to organize our first gathering around organic and in-depth introduction from which we hope to form a concrete idea about the approach of our working together during the year. This will include two of our practical modes: * presenting practices and * thinking-in-assembly.

* presenting practices

We will start the study group with two days dedicated to presenting our practices to each other, so we get to know (aspects of) each other’s work. We suggest to try to skip the classical type of presentation and take the opportunity to think out loud about aspects of the practice which you find often overlooked or not really explored and that are in one way or another are related to the research that we are going to undertake.

We are keen to collectively explore questions like: What is an artistic practice? How actually do we initiate a process of creation? How do we form a practice, and how are we formed by practice? How can the form of ‘work’ be viewed in connection to what we do in our daily life? What aspects of the practice are in connection to the research group, what can I contribute to the group?

* thinking-in-assembly

We will continue with a thinking-in-assembly where we will practice both, thinking and listening. This is our group laboratory for sharing inspirations, sources and extending our own cultural references based on the background of personal experiences.

Thinking-in-assembly is a training that does not simply mean a gathering of different subjects exercising the expression of their thoughts. Thinking-in-assembly is a psycho-physical process. It begins from an inner and rather individual impulse and cannot be simply identified with thoughts. Thought here must be conceived entirely in relation to listening to another “in the flesh.” In thinking-in-assembly we do not have a discourse; the process is one of a search for words. This search is made up of gaps, silences, of everything that lies submerged in the body. Our whole body is invited to be a part of the thinking. In this process, one has to make the tools one needs; you do not use tools that are already available. The performative aspect of thinking emerges when the voice operates as a link between different spheres in the formation of the self. The performative aspect of thinking does not lie in performing in front of an audience, or in our being a thinking subject, or in speaking out loud, or in drawing out the formation of thoughts that I am voicing – this is a very narrow spectacularization of theoretical labour. The performative rather occurs when I am listening, and in my recognition that in the process of listening a transformative process takes place within me. As Adriana Cavarero writes in For More Than One Voice: Toward a Philosophy of Vocal Expression: “The task of the voice is therefore to be a pathway, or better, a pivotal joint between body and world.” From all this labour of listening, another way of thinking emerges, and, even more importantly, another way of practicing it.

* Our thinking-in assembly is not necessarily to be viewed as a theoretical seminar. All forms of responses are valid, and we do not concentrate on discourse and literacy even when the practice of learning is put at the center. We are exercising attention, listening, and learning in a collective environment and all forms of linguistic and anti-linguistic approaches are welcomed.

Suggested sources to read/watch together during our evenings. Suggestions from the COOP most welcome.

In keeping with the title of our COOP, the word and the wound, we would like to propose to watch together the documentary film Regilaul - Songs of the Ancient Sea, directed by Ulrike Koch in 2011.

Synopis: On the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples originated a singing tradition of mysterious power called the Regilaul. These songs are the roots of Estonia’s renowned singing culture. Based on the continuous repetition of eight-syllable verses, they produce a haunting sound able to connect the fleeting present with the eternal circle of life. Against the stunning setting of modern Estonia, this film explores how Regi songs still fire the imagination today, weaving together people and nature through song.

About the director:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulrike_Koch

Review of the documentary film (in Dutch):

https://www.volkskrant.nl/es-b3593acb/ (review, in Dutch)

A text on regilaul by the composer Veljo Tormis featured in the film (in English)

Programme

Tuesday 10 December

10.30-11.00 Introduction by Snejanka and Frederique

11.00-13:00 Presentations

Lunch Break

14:00 - 19:00 Presentations and a walk

Dinner break

20:00 – 22:00 Evening Film/Reading

Wednesday 11 December

10.30-11:00 Warm up

11:00-13:00 Presentations

Lunch Break

14:00 - 19:00 Thinking-in-assembly#1 - a walk

Dinner break

20:00 – 22:00 Evening Film/Reading

Thursday 12 December

10.30-11:00 Warm up

11:00-13:00 Thinking-in-assembly#1 - an assignment

Lunch Break

14:00 - 17:00 Presentations

17.00-17.30 small break

17.30 – 19.00 ‘Evening slot’: wrap up session

Dinner break