In recent years, artists and scholars have deepened their inquiry into what it means to decenter humans and collaborate with other-than-human entities in the face of increasing acknowledgement of our ecological entanglements. As a meditation on the tangible and the intangible, this course crosses theories from the environmental humanities, philosophy and posthumanism with performance and writing practice to explore possibilities of engaging with nonhumans as active co-creators of a performance.
How do we create meaningful artistic interspecies and intramaterial collaborations with elements, materials, species, technologies, immaterial or other forces? As we approach matter and species as artistic partners who can relieve our estrangement from the animate world within and around us, we draw on feminist and Indigenous approaches. We venture to open different understandings of the material world and explore deep forms of beyond-human embeddedness and worlding.
Navigating practical exercises and critical reflections, we will:
•    Investigate how to choose and make kin with nonhuman performance partners.
•    Examine these artistic collaborations' ethical, creative, and practical dimensions and their speculative or empirical potentials.
•    Reflect on how (anthropocentric) power dynamics, domination and reciprocality shape our relationship with the nonhuman.
•    Discover how these partnerships can transcend the illustrative and become co-creations driven by reciprocal impact and agency.
•    Prepare mentally, spiritually and physically for the complexities of these co-existences and co-creations.
 
Course Outcomes
By the end of the course, participants will have experimented with theoretical and practical tools to reimagine performance as a space of care and collaboration with the nonhuman. You will explore key concepts from philosophy and the humanities, creating performance actions where nonhuman partners guide the creative process.
 
Requirements
Participants need a computer, stable Wi-Fi, writing tools, a blanket/sheet, chair, candle, light source, and other materials.
 

Syllabus