Season 1
Season 1 focused on critically understanding and simultaneously producing a concept for a poiesis of history situating this idea in the practice of considering how to care for, dream in, refuse narratives, repair wounds and reform infrastructures of the archive (institution) in the time of ecological, economic and social crises.
The study group situates itself in the contemporary tumultuous conditions reading through these conditions of duress, and desiring to create a space to spend time understanding how this duress impacts subjectivity in relation to the archive (institution), before seeking potential modes of joy, escape and imagination for working under such stress.
We will develop a thorough understanding of the history of the archive (institution) and archive theory before developing questions around what a poiesis of history could be, and how such a poiesis can produce new strategies for being.
Some of the key questions that will be discussed over the course of the curriculum are: How does poiesis allow us to intervene, interrupt, or communicate with history? Working within the idea of a poiesis of history how can we research and work with and for what has been forgotten, hidden, overlooked or erased in the archive (institution). How do we go about finding and listening to the documents that may not exist, or that are in peril? What is the role of imagination and the world of dreams in the archive (institution)? And how can we allow our imagination and dreams to interact with history as a method to transform and liberate the unseen, unspoken and unheard and potentially recalibrate the archive (institution)?