[Ccpg] Summer Session: June 1-30, 2004 desire & design Hillsboro, West Virginia
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson
lakinroe at silcom.com
Sat Mar 27 06:22:03 PST 2004
Summer Session: June 1-30, 2004 desire & design at the Gesundheit!
Institute Hillsboro, West Virginia
Composition, cybernetics, clowning and permaculture*
The School for Designing a Society, in its eleventh year, is a project of
teachers, performers, poets, and activists. It is an ongoing experiment in
making temporary living environments where the question "What would I
consider a desirable society?" is given serious playful thinking
discussion, and taken as input to creative projects.
Rather than orienting participants to find a comfy spot in the current
social system, the School offers time, ambiance, tools, and company in
which people can imagine and design a system they would prefer.
Based in Urbana, Illinois, The School For Designing A Society will travel
this summer to the hills of West Virginia and rest at the Gesundheit!
Institute. The Gesundheit! Institute is the dream of a growing number of
people, an experiment in holistic health care based on the idea that one
cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family,
the community and the world. The Gesundheit! Institute's land in West
Virginia is the future construction site for a free, silly hospital
incorporating all the healing arts to address the major problems in health
care delivery and provide a model of joyful service to the world. Situated
on 310 acres in rural West Virginia with two waterfalls, a four acre
pond, extensive gardens and orchards, and several unique buildings we
will use the land itself as a teaching tool as well as establishing
connections between the Gesundheit! project and a desiring and designing
society.
Participants will explore the question,
"what would I consider a desirable society?"
In addition to asking participants to formulate and consult their desires,
the classes and projects in the school will make use of conceptual tools
from the areas of critical theory, cybernetics, political economy,
feminism, epic theater, theater of the oppressed, radical pedagogy, media
critique, community organizing, permaculture, and collaborative composition.
Why design?
Criticisms of the problems of the present society are often met with
justifications. Once these justifications fail, many a conversation of
hopeful intention is stopped with the (final) statement:
"The present organization of society is the best we have."
or the question:
"Do you have a better idea?"
This is a moment of possibility and not one to be left speechless. Indeed,
many a time, the respondent finds herself sputtering, filled with a spirit
of rebellion which unfortunately gets watered down to the mere language of
complaint. Having had the time and opportunity to create in conjunction
with others of diverse experiences detailed maps, dreams, plans, scripts,
scores, videos, and blueprints of her desirable society, we imagine the
situation could go differently. Imagine an atmosphere of audacity: She's
asked the question: "Do you have a better idea?" Everyone taking a
coffeebreak looks at her or their shoes. She looks the interlocutor in the
eye and reaches into her purse? knapsack? briefcase? kitchen drawer? for a
booklet of proposals, slaps it on the table scattering cigarette butts, and
answers:
"Here, read thisthis will give you an idea of what I want."
Teachers and guest presenters
Mark Enslin
Composer; actor; bassoonist; has worked with composition students in
Brazil; taught such classes as "Music and Protest" and "The Art of Acting
as Audience" at the University of Illinois; cofounder of the Performers'
Workshop Ensemble.
Susan Parenti
Composer; playwright; poet; has written and lectured extensively on
composition and feminism; has taught courses on creativity in activism,
"Protesting the Forms of Protest;" present interests: creating a feminist
composition curriculum, cybernetic theory, the politics of managed health
care, the politics of vocal timbres. Has published a book of plays, The
Politics of the Adjective Political and a book of poems I and My Mouth and
Their Irresistible Life In Language. Has been performing partner with Patch
Adams for 10 years.
Rob Scott
Designer; connosieur of pedagogies and problems; interlocutor; performing
artist; organizer. Rob has taught classes on Permaculture, Cybernetics and
Language. He is the founder of the Urbana Permaculture Project, a
decentralized multi-site community gardening experiment in Urbana, IL:
www.prairienet.org/upp
Andrew Faust
Currently the Permaculture Designer and Bioregional Educator at the
Gesundheit! Institute. Faust is also a certified Alternative School
Teacher, having instructed at Upattinas Open Community High School for ten
years, where he developed the Center for Bioregional Living. He has been
developing the land at the Gesundheit! Institute to provide abundance and
to teach those who come, how to provide abundance for themselves.
Jeff Glassman
Experiments performing counter-intuitive structures in theatre solos and
with ensembles. He tours, teaches and collaborates, starting thirty years
ago as co-founder of the United Mime Workers, an experimental and political
movement-theatre company. He since worked with the Performers' Workshop
Ensemble and now collaborates with Lisa Fay. A recipient of NEA and state
awards, he has taught social issues theatre at the University of Illinois
and was a recent visiting faculty at The Evergreen State College. The task:
to design performance techniques for untried relationships between action,
gesture, and speech performable by individuals and groups, as the basis for
theatre composition appropriate to a hypothetical new society.
*And for one week we will be joined by Patch Adams and Judy Wicks:
Patch Adams
Doctor; clown; traveling lecturer; instigator of the Gesundheit! Institute,
a large scale project to build a free, silly hospital in rural West
Virginia and transform the present society's understanding of health
care-an irrepressible wanter.
Judy Wicks
Founder and CEO of Philadelphia's 20 year old White Dog Café, is a national
leader in the local, living economies movement. She is cofounder and
co-chair of both the national Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
(BALLE), and the local Sustainable Business Network of Greater
Philadelphia. She is also president of the White Dog Cafe Foundation,
dedicated to building local living economies by making small grants and
running programs to support local family farmers and independent
community-based businesses.
For more on the School for Designing A Society go to www.designingsociety.com
For more on the Gesundheit! Institute go to www.patchadams.org/home.htm
Application
All interested people, ages 18+, are encouraged to apply. Tuition is $1,000
for the month. The money will go towards the cost of food (which is
prepared collectively), housing, and compensation for the teachers.
Application Deadline: April 15
Name:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
Age:
How did you hear about us?
Submit
If you have any questions call or email Andy: (304) 653-4338,
android at patchadams.org
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