2025 - 2026 FACTORY student led: Mike Check
Mike Check is a series of open-mic gatherings that invites participants to take over the stage during DAI confluences for some good ol’ fashioned comic relief (or, obviously, anxiety relief and over-sharing). Each iteration will have a different focus where participants can share their preferred form of content–spoken word, singing, poem reading, letter sharing, comedy skit, powerpoint presentations, etc…–on stage.
VISIT THE 2024 -2025 ITERATIONS HERE.
JANUARY 18, 2026
04. UNITY
Led by Ayse Idil Idil
When: 20:30 - 22:00
Location: Exhibition Space
New acts will be prioritized, otherwise slots are first come first serve, and a maximum of 10 minutes each.
a b c ç ş t s
check one check one
calling everyone
to become two in one
or one
in two
to
come talk about
what helps you sleep at night
when were we available for servitude for each other, another, ourselves?
Though our paths are many, we are made one community in love. (all about love, bell hooks)
The most primary organising logic in colonial order is separation. (In tune with their time, Nasser Abourahme)
Freedom is the process by which you develop a practice for being unavailable for servitude.
(freedom as the process by which we develop a practice for being available for servitude of each other)
Some people do not find—indeed, cannot find—refuge where others imagine they could or should find it; some forgo anchors for lines of flight; some instinctively spurn moralistic edicts set forth by others; some find—or are forced to find—solace or sustenance in nomadism, cosmic hoboism, unpredictable or uncouth identifications, illegible acts of disobedience, homelessness, or exile than in a place called Home. …
Seen from a different angle, they may reveal themselves as further expressions of our elementary entanglement, rather than signs of our unresolvable es-trangement (the terms are Denise Ferreira da Silva’s, from her essay “On Difference without Separability”). How to forge a fellowship that does not rely on their purge, or that does not reflexively pit freedom against obligation,
(On Freedom: Fours Songs of Care and Constraint, Maggie Nelson)
We want relation
polyphony (n.)
"multiplicity of sounds," from Greek polyphōnia "variety of sounds," from polyphōnos "having many sounds or voices," from polys "many"
(from PIE root *pele- (1) "to fill") + phōnē "voice, sound," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say."
"act or process of simultaneously combining two or more voice parts so that they harmonize with each other but maintain their individuality"
confluency
1
a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point
2
a: the flowing together of two or more streams
c: the stream or body formed by the junction of two or more streams : a combined flood
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free
SEPTEMBER 29, 2025
03. In the Middle
Led by Ayse Idil Idil, Henriks Eliass Zegners & Javier Rodriguez PerezCuriel
When: 20:30 - 22:00
Location: Ballroom
DAI can feel like a liminal space, somewhere between not-real and sur-real. As we start a new study term together, for some a return and for others a fresh beginning, let's come together and ponder: How can we imagine ourselves always in the middle?
In Deleuze’s philosophy, the “middle” isn’t a fixed midpoint between two ends, but rather a space of emergence, growth, and becoming.
But can we trust the process? Spiraling in a world that's like a washing machine, how do we know if we are spinning on the fast cycle if everything around us is spinning at the same speed? And what if, after all the efforts we put into always being in the middle, all we ever end up being is "mid"?
Let’s find out!
Come and tell us how you found yourself here, what were some beginnings and endings for you that brought you to this insane-bonkers middle (of the storm, of nowhere, of these amazing people), what's happening in your worlds, what you are spiraling around or what spirals around you.
New acts will be prioritized, otherwise slots are first come first serve, and a maximum of 10 minutes each.