The Norteas network launches the following intensive course for students and teachers in our member institutions:
SENSITIVITY – POWER – BORDERS (3 ECTS)
A theatrical space can be a risky one. Have we as students, educators and artists become afraid of making mistakes, asking sensitive questions, discussing topics that might disturb or hurt our colleagues and audiences? How might we together (students and teachers) fact check this concern?
How might we explore this concern together, find out what our blind spots are, and how we respond when faced with bias?
What might Radical Diplomacy look like? Could it offer a way to imagine reconciliation processes?
And how might we develop ethical guidelines and procedures for all of us to lean against in our daily work?
Are there pedagogical styles or ways we work in art that need to be abandoned? Could this inform a new pedagogy or new ways to structure artistic work?
The Norteas Intensive Course is aiming to ponder on these questions, and furthermore these topics:
1. The question of sensitivity and sensitiveness
How do we understand sensitivity and how do we negotiate the sensitiveness of our pedagogical processes?
Sensitivity is key for an artist but is there a difference between the sensitivity one exhibits towards one's art compared to the sensitiveness one might have as a private person towards a certain issue? An “appropriate” reaction to something “inappropriate” in current society might be a form of self-censorship within the arts. As arts institutions we should be in front not behind the societal debate, but we need to develop new terminology and methods that equips us for this task.
2. The question of power
How do we recognize and negotiate embedded power structures in education and artistic work?
Power is complex and paradoxical, and in all social aspects where two or more people interact, one will find that there are power dynamics at work. However, power is also the ability to pass on important tools, methods and techniques and the ability to find the strength needed to express that which is un-voiced.
How do we give and/or take power through an artistic process? We need to view power, powerlessness, and empowerment in light of our differences and similarities. How do we negotiate power when we interact, students to students, students to teachers, teachers to students, teachers to teachers, artists to audiences? Where and how might we need to deconstruct existing power dynamics?
3. The question of boundaries and borders
How do we recognize, share, and negotiate our personal and social boundaries to create safe and BRAVE spaces to work together as curious artists?
To be aware of one’s own boundaries (personal, social, etc.) and to be able to negotiate about them in various contexts is essential. How can we recognize which borders are needed and which are possibly even harmful? Borders are negotiated and decided, borders are narratives, borders are fictional, and they can be renegotiated. But to be there, we need to talk, negotiate, and agree.
As artists we are facing constant questions. It is crucial to know how to be brave but stay safe when staging our art?
Place: Theatre Academy at the University of Arts Helsinki
Time: 28.8. - 2.9.2023
Planning group
Ville Sandqvist (Uniarts Helsinki), Tine Damborg (DASPA), Saul Garcia-Lopez (NTA), Augustas Gornatkevičius (LMTA), Nína Hjálmarsdóttir (Iceland University of the Arts), Samuli Nordberg (Tampere University)
Expenses
The course is arranged with support from Nordplus, that will cover travelling and accommodation (dormitories/shared rooms) for the participants.
Registration
A quota of three students and one teacher per member institution is reserved. We ask also to register for the waiting list as not used quotas will be distributed among our members.
For registration follow the instructions in your own university.
Deadline for registration is the 10th of May 2023.
For information contact:
Ville Sandqvist, Norteas chair, ville.sandqvist@uniarts.fi (course content)
Lotta Karlsson, Norteas coordinator, lotta.karlsson@uniarts.fi (practical matters)
Detailed information will be sent to the registered participants in May.
