DANDELION + MUSHROOMS: A RADICAL LABORATORY is a course that explores art as a holistic practice, one that fosters day-dreaming, wandering, wondering, playing, questioning, collecting, cultivating, and building new ways of making art and becoming well in (and with) the world. Together we will discover and share modes of building resilience by becoming more attuned to the very systems (neo-liberal conditions) that hold us back, do not include us, or, worse, traumatize and oppress us. By becoming aware, we can begin the process of navigating the what-is-already-out-there and the materiality needed to make way for sustainable and flourishing lives. To do this, we have to get as radical as dandelions and mushrooms - two critical detoxifiers and generators of information, each with its intelligent system of healing others and connecting across species.
What can dandelions and mushrooms teach us? They can show us how we exist in whole systems AND, more so, how we can and must thrive not despite but because of the crisis-capitalism that is depriving us of sustainable lives. It is vital that artists understand solidarity economics - what it is and how we can build new ways of supporting each other. How can we become better Eco-materialists? What are the implications of being an artist, and how can we use that to develop new ways of being for us and other communities, human or otherwise. In short, DANDELION + MUSHROOMS: A RADICAL LABORATORY is a class in world-building through art-making and the new paradigms that await our attention; they are out there.
This course is an inquiry into alternative, sustainable, and expansive forms of art production and being. Students create new or build upon existing work (either independently or collaboratively) and find empowering ways to share and show their work. It is important to note that this class is a collective lab where students decide the paths of the course, the goals to be accomplished, shape the interests at hand, and determine how to take charge of their art and lives. Come prepared to get radical.