Application due: 10/13/24
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
This is a “writing” workshop about how to live and play with intention. Drawing from Paul Peng’s conceptual drawing show Intentions and riffing off of Pittsburgh Sound Preserve’s Open Improvisation Lab, OPEN INTENTION LAB is a re-dis-orientation guide for the chronically improvisational.*** In this workshop, Elina Zhang and Jenna Peng will lead participants in a series of writing & anti-disciplinary exercises that veer equal parts existential and playful. OIL (not to be confused with OIL) asks: Can we expand our understanding of “intention” to be not just what we are building toward? Can we in turn expand our understanding of “improvisation” to be more than the holding off of the former dreadful question? We are intent on integrating this understanding in our creative and non-creative lives.
Some key words and items -- inversions, mirrors, doppelgangers, letting the image move itself, childhood shows where the cartoon characters look at you for 10 seconds, waiting for you to speak back. Foregrounding the shadow. Audience participation. Brechtian consciousness of a play, Brent-ian consciousness of play. time management, transcription, facing the dragon, endless cycles of knowing toward rest. Paul realizing things.
***You may be chronically improvisational if you... cannot finish a sentence; cannot make anything that needs more than one sheet of paper; organize your life around moments of pure becoming; feel more like the wind than a person; despise narrativity; are codependent on art; think thoughts are real; want to be understood... and also want to be not understood... and also want to not want, you (not) get what I'm saying???
LOGISTICS
When: Saturday 10/19, 2–5:30pm
Where: april april (409 S Trenton Ave)
Facilitated by: Elina Zhang & Jenna Peng
$15 NOTALOF
Workshop capped at 16 people. Open to all disciplines and experience levels. BIPOC & furry applicants prioritized.
ACCESSIBILITY
The gallery is located at street level off of South Trenton, just south of Franklin. The sidewalk lowers just shy of the main entryway, and a 5-inch raised platform leads you through a 33-and-½-inch wide doorway. The gallery is on the 71C bus route (South Trenton / Franklin stop).
The workshop will involve 25 minute periods of sitting with 5 minute breaks. Participants will be seated on hard-ish chairs at tables, but are encouraged to do whatever they want.
Masks are required for this workshop.
