Chat-Workshop
14 & 28 May 2020, 6–8PM

In the chat-workshop attuned touch in times of physical distancing, Sky M. J. Carranza (they/them), together with Clay AD (they/them), facilitates a public chat-space on the messaging service Telegram to foregather and address different perceptions of the body.

We invite you to join somatic exercises, imaginative writing, and multilogue on how we sense the shifting relations to our own body and the bodies of others, and the dynamics that inevitably determine so much of our sense of self. With everybody walking too close to us —a potential infectant— we need to find new methods to mediate and convey our feelings and sensations. The current heightened vulnerability blurs bodily boundaries. In which ways does this physical distance forced upon us as “protection” impact the way we relate to individual and collective bodies?

Invitation for participants:
The free chat-workshops will take place in the Telegram group https://t.me/attunedtouch over two hours. You are invited to wear comfortable clothes and find a calm space in which you will not be disturbed; maybe you want to air out the room or to sit in the sun outside. Exercises are an invitation and you can always step out, take a break, and listen to your own needs. The workshops will not be recorded and after the second chat, the group will be deleted. There will be moderation and some framing will be offered in the first part of the chat meeting. We want to explicitly mention beforehand that there will be zero tolerance for sexist, racist, queerphobic, ableist attitudes, and other kinds of hatefulness. Our goal is to create a stable setting to tenderly explore orienting our attention to visceral sensations.

Dates: 14 & 28 May 2020, 6–8PM
Language: English
Registration: No registration needed. The event happens through the messaging service Telegram (https://telegram.org). To join the conversation, you need to download the app on your mobile device or computer, create an account, and follow this link https://t.me/attunedtouch.

Text recommendations (it is not required to read the texts before the workshop):
Sky created the reader “On the politics of the nervous system, desire and mindful body awareness” for Bibliotecha, the digital library at Gemeinde Köln. The collection of texts illuminates, among other things, the neurophysiological basis of affects and emotions, forms of repression against bodies within an extractivist capitalist system, and the body as a carrier of not consciously accessible traumatic memories.

Sky M. J. Carranza’s conceptual work and research aims to pose questions and open up intersectional multilogical spaces by experimenting with physical and psychological parameters. Scenarios take the form of moving image installations or the application of semi-participative arenas designed for collective hangouts. Recurring topics include observing the interconnectivity of our embodied values, elusive sentiments of belonging, and an analysis of power relations through perspectives of individual and collective precarity. Sky has recently shown work at the Festival of Architecture, Montevideo, Uruguay (2019); NRW Forum Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); Los Nuevos Sensibles @ Casaplan, Valparaíso, Chile (2019); T.Y.4.VISITING, Hildesheim, Germany (2019); AFTERSUN, Vozdovackagalerija, Belgrad, Serbia (2018); URRA Residency, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2018); and MONITORING, Dokfest, Kassel, Germany (2018).
https://miriamjcarranza.tumblr.com/
Instagram: @_m_jc

Clay AD was born in Indianapolis Indiana and now lives in Berlin working as a somatic bodyworker, artist and writer. In their interdisciplinary practice they honour and explore illness, ecology, science fiction, transformation and the politics of care under capitalism -- by themselves, collectively and with their clients. Their first novel, "Metabolize, If Able" is available through Arcadia Missa Press UK and was named a finalist in the 31st Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Their writing has been published by Pilot Press, Futures Journal, Hematopoiesis Press, and Monster House Press.
https://clayad.hotglue.me/
Instagram: @pastacomplex

Curated by Agustina Andreoletti