A cartoon illustration of an office scene, with person sat at a computer wearing a witches hat. They have their back to their viewer, sat on a chair with a coffee in hand.. It is night and there are lit candles.  On the screen are bouncing yellow emojis.
Workshop
Somerset House Studios

Grounding Practice: A---Z

Wed 08 Feb 2023
18.30-21.00
£8
G16
New Wing

A world building workshop from cultural producer, researcher, and founder of curatorial platform A—Z, Anne Duffau.  

I began writing about power because I had so little

O. Butler

Coinciding with A---Z's curation of Gallery 31 exhibition The Voices of A Tempest, the exploratory platform's founder Anne Duffau leads a writing and sound workshop for Grounding Practice, exploring world building through speculative and sci-fi fictions. Participants will collectively build a short story, recording from phones and utilising online effects and sound libraries.
 
Thinking together of alternative paths, spaces, and possibilities, the group will start to form a potential world - a landscape, a home, a community, a group of friends, a family or a chosen one, a character - to ask how we might think of options beyond pre-conceived ideas and stereotypes, and question what could exist outside of or after capitalism - could it be re-imagined?
 
You are encouraged to bring something to take notes in, and have a phone to hand to record voice memos. If participants have a laptop/tablet + headphones to download free audio software Audacity, this is also recommended for the session.
 
 

About A---Z (Anne Duffau)

A—Z presents works that focus on unbuilding systems of oppressions in terms of gender and racial identities. They are interested in empowerment in deconstructing racist and sexist structures and generating alternative (hi)stories in exploring personal experiences and non-linear, re-enacted storytelling. In line with this proposition, language and other forms of expression, from the bodily to the non-descriptive, are given a platform to create new ways of thinking and working together. The emphasis is placed not only on the audiences’ relation to the works, but also how various means of presenting politically-engaged work can become an activist practice, looking at practices that align with modes of resistances, resilience and positive/alternative futures. 

Anne Duffau is a cultural producer, researcher, and founder of A—Z, an exploratory/nomadic curatorial platform. A---Z aims at opening up to audiences by sharing discursive practices in order to challenge preconceived ideas on race, gender identities and the so-called history in terms of power relationship. Anne was the interim curator at Wysing for the Polyphonic Festival 2020/2021 Editions, & a Tutor at the Royal College of Art’s Contemporary Art Practice Programme. She is part of the collective Transmissions.tv and Décalé. She produces live music under Alpha through several projects and collaborations (Décalé, MAENADS, Polisonics).