51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

We all need more care. That much is clear. As it pertains to modern social justice and public action projects, the imperative to incorporate systems of care and healing into the greater conversation has increased dynamically. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased environmental issues due to climate change, it has become even more vital to consider holistic care models in this age of perpetual global crisis. But how do we practice care within contemporary community structures? How might we center technologies of rest in the face of calamity? This seminar examines how contemporary creative researchers and activists might consider dramaturgy as a radical care strategy within contemporary culture and public life. Course readings and viewings offer historical and contemporary case studies. We will regularly have in-class writing exercises and viewings to collectively refine our textual and discursive relationships to public action and performance across various genres of liveness and time-based forms. We will practice meditation, rest, and modes of horizontality. This seminar draws on research methods used in the fields of visual culture and aesthetics, mediation, emergent performance practice, and literature. Creative responses across a variety of media and a final project, in lieu of a final paper, are expected. Module dates: September 24 27, October 4, 8, 11, 15