WORKSHOP
MICROCOSMOS: Ancestral Science & Storytelling at Micro Scales
November 8, 10, 15, and 17, 2021
6pm–7:15pm ET / 3pm–4:15pm PT
Online Workshop
$10–$30 Sliding Scale
Sold Out
In this four session workshop with Jeffrey Yoo Warren, BIPOC participants will build a microscope based on a 7th century Korean artifact, craft short microscopic audiovisual narratives, and reflect on non-eurocentric, non-masculine ways of seeing and knowing. 7th century records in Korea describe a 火珠 hwaju, or “fire pearl” – an artifact shaped “like a Go stone” that we would know today as a lens. In this workshop, we’ll use a replica of this artifact to build a papercraft microscope that might have existed then.
Imagining possible pasts is as important as possible futures. It requires rethinking how the world looks, feels, and with whom it is in conversation. Using lighting, color, sound, and motion, we will each use our “hwaju microscope” to craft a short, abstract video about an important memory or experience you’ve had, at an intimate microscopic scale. Building on personal experiences as people of color - family heirlooms, recipes, legends, or memories - we will each create our own micro-landscapes for these stories. Exploring or examining - those are scientific or even colonial terms. Categorizing, analyzing, “learning the science behind” something. Instead, we will spend time up close with materials and artifacts in a way that doesn’t evoke those ideas. Over four evening sessions, we will use microscopes, not as scientific instruments, but as a means of listening, knowing, and “tuning into.”
The workshop will happen on Zoom. Registering participants should bring a smartphone and a bright light, such as a bicycle light or flashlight, as well as a small artifact whose texture, color, or shape evokes a memory of personal importance.
Note: this session will be open to BIPOC participants. A subsequent session will be open to a general audience. The sensitive nature of ancestral knowledge and memories among BIPOC-identifying individuals makes the experience of sharing them–and explaining them–complex and at times fraught. Reserving a space for such exchange has proven powerful.
Tickets are available on a sliding scale ($10–$30). A portion of free tickets are reserved for the workshop. If you cannot afford a ticket at this time, please email info@culturehub.org and CultureHub will arrange a free ticket.
Registration closes October 25!