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