WHAT TO DO WITH A BAD IDEA [take that and run with it, if you will] – with the UNDOING&DOING collective

[an extended 6 wk program over three months, 4/5 – 6/28]

Workshop dates:

Apr 5, Apr 19: Synchronous meetings 8-10EDT

May 3, May 17: Asynchronous project-based/DIY experiments and explorations sent to folks via email. These may include video/audio components, as well as text-based prompts.

June 14, June 28: Synchronous meetings 8-10EDT

Questions? Please email ortega dot sierra at gmail dot com!

Workshop Description:

Members of the UNDOING&DOING Collective will co-facilitate a workshop that interrogates our cultural fixation with abstract ideation, which often leads us to ruin at larger structural levels. Good theories can become terrible practices. We’ve got an abundance of ideas that sounded good on paper, but are currently failing us as a society. What do we reexamine and rework, and what do we scrap entirely?

We’ll begin with discursive practices that lead us into the somatic (i.e., practices engaging the interaction of body and mind). We’ll look at the very root of a “bad” or “good” idea in our bodies, and explore what to do with our attractions and resistances. At the same time, we’ll critically examine the process itself, asking:Does playing with an idea physically really enable us to envision it in our lived experience, or does it just reiterate its abstract importance? And what does talking about it do?

The workshop will blend the wildly different values and understandings of each facilitator, enabling and recruiting generative conflict as a resource along the way. So, the workshop will be an emergent process. Each session will respond to the last, within an overarching structure that blends discursive and somatic practices via synchronous and asynchronous options. Each class may feel quite different from the next, and will shift through the input of participants.

Practices will range from easeful, playful physical practices with voice, breath, and soma, to long-form discussion and writing, to creative prompts for sound and body. We will approach these physical-intellectual processes in a vehemently accessible framework, assuring everyone feels able to engage and work with what’s given. No prior experience in any given form necessary. We do not position ourselves as experts, but explorers. There will be choose-your-own-adventure modular options, both live and on-your-own-time.

Facilitators include Helen Yung, Sierra Ortega, Lorene Bouboushian, Tatyana Tenenbaum, and 3dwardsharp.

Members of the UNDOING&DOING Collective [3dwardsharp, Lorene Bouboushian, Rina Espiritu, Sierra Ortega, and Simone Johnson] stand smiling in bliss in front of the Ashokan Reservoir. Photo by Nina Isabelle.

UNDOING&DOING is a collective of artists reconsidering our roles in the systems and institutions that define our work and our communities. We confront the conditioning we have inherited from the grant-speak of art institutions through intertwined somatic and discursive practices. By connecting feelingful movement practices to vulnerable conversation, we orient ourselves toward novel ways of communal support. We dare to wildly imagine new social landscapes, and to dive into the messy nature of that process. We value emergent creativity rooted in discovery through play, equally as much as we value envisioning and building a future together. Learn more HERE.

ALL ACCESS PRICING MODEL / PAY WHAT YOU CAN / COMPARISON COSTS:

Liminal Lab is committed to providing a source of income for our collaborators and facilitators in an increasingly precarious time for culture workers and educators. However, no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. We ask that those who can pay the suggested price, and/or help cover the cost of scholarship slots in each of our programs by sponsoring other participants.

Compare the below to the cost for a similar accredited workshop in a university setting (where most of the $$$ goes to institutional bloat): $2000 — we show you this so we can begin to think about wtf is happening in our institutions, where both students and faculty get the short end of the stick.
At a standard “Market Rate,” at arts orgs: $500*
Recommended Sliding Scale: $30-60/session → $180-360 for the series
Precarity Pricing: $10-20/session
Barter / Volunteer / No Cost Option Available
Membership / Sponsorship: You may now become a member of Liminal Lab! Which allows you to support as well as participate in this and other programs. By becoming a member, you can also sponsor low or no fee participants in this workshop with a donation of any size.

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to make a donation to support low and no cost participation in our programs for others!