Trade School
Barter for class time
From January 25th to February 28th, we hosted 35 days of co-working and classes for barter at GrandOpening's Lower East Side storefront. Over 800 students bartered with teachers for class time. We will re-open Trade School in September. Until then, we are planning, hosting potlucks, and gathering resources.
Read about past classes at the OurGoods blog, view OurGoods photos on Flickr, and follow OurGoods on Twitter.
Temporary space:
The Fragmental Museum
107 Suffolk Street, 4 fl
New York, NY 10002 map
Join our mailing list:
Help us launch Trade School again.
If we raise $9,000 by June 1, we can open Trade School from September 1 to December 1.Each donation ($1 to $1000) is a vote for Trade School to continue.
Our Kickstarter campaign will launch in 3 days!
Barter with Trade School
We have:
A place that values action, ideas, and techniques.
A platform that connects creative, rigorous, and generous people.
We need:
Spaces to host Trade School, month-long or longer-term; help organizing and running Trade School; funding through donations and/or sponsorships.
Upcoming Events:
POTLUCK
There were amazing people at Trade School. Please don’t disappear! We want to know you and you should all meet each other.
We’re having a potluck at our temporary space: The Fragmental Museum, 107 Suffolk Street, room 415.
Athena‘s cooking something, Elizabeth‘s bringing caviar, Caroline’s making butter, and Julia might just sing. I’m sure you have a special recipe to make and share. Let’s hang out!
JOINTeachers and classes
Foraging for Mushrooms and Cultivating Surprise
Monday January 25
Taught by Gary Lincoff
Gary Lincoff is the author of the Audubon Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, and has combed Central Park for mushrooms on a daily basis for the past three decades. He moved to New York as a philosophy student with a side interest in networks and experimental music, met John Cage on a mushroom walk, and never stopped looking for mushrooms. Gary will speak about the connections that mushrooms aggregate, the eternal present, NOWness, John Cage, and surprise. Anything could happen.
Q: What does it feel like to be out foraging for mushrooms?
A: It might be close to surfing. You’re riding a wave or looking for the next big one. The body and all the senses are engaged in this pursuit. The mind, if there is any difference here, is performing like a computer or a GPS, calculating and re-calculating locations for possible mushroom discoveries. When you’re “into it,” that is, when hot weather, wet conditions, mosquitoes, and other distractions are “subdued,” you become a pre-historic hunter, or any other mammal, hunting prey. It’s Day One of an Eternal Present!
“When ‘experts’ bask in the glory of explanation, they stop looking.” -Gary Lincoff
In exchange for:
Business School for Artists
Tuesday January 26
Taught by Amy Whitaker
An introduction to finance and economics for artists. Much the same way everyone is an artist, everyone is a business person. This isn’t a class in how to do your taxes or market your work but how people believe economics works as a system.
I have both an MBA and an MFA in painting. I used to give these lectures as lunchtime talks to fellow painters at the Slade in London. The book of the lectures is sold at Printed Matter.
To barter, I would like: web, Twitter, Facebook author marketing and social networking tutorial; music recommendations, vegetarian recipes, and help knowing how to keep up with cool events in New York. I am functionally 85 when it comes to understanding new-fangled technology, but an eager student. Or, you can volunteer to bring snacks or drinks to class. Cookies and beer are traditional.
In exchange for:
Running/Building an 8000 sq ft Studio and LLC
Wednesday January 27
Taught by Caroline Woolard and Christine Wang
Christine Wang and I run a large studio space with friends. It’s a huge industrial loft that we converted into studio spaces: 8000 sq ft, with 25-30 renting artists. After a year and a half of relative success as a studio and LLC, we can advise you about the business, logistics, and complications involved in running a space. We’ll bring our paperwork and bills to walk you through our daily routine.
In exchange for:
Preserving Function in an Ornamental Wilderness: Foraging and Preserving
Thursday January 28
Taught by Emcee C.M., Master of None
How to make sauerkraut from ornamental kale growing in city planters. We will walk the neighborhood around Trade School and gather kale, then prepare sauerkraut from our harvest. BRING: a large glass jar or tall tupperware container for your sauerkraut, (3) a small covered jar or container that fits inside the larger jar, (4) a pinch of salt and optional spices to share (bay leaves, fresh herbs, garlic, etc).
Further workshops are possible if there is interest, including pine needle tea and sap or syrup from maple, birch, and sycamore street trees.
In exchange for:
How To Throw An Arts Festival for 1- 3 Days
Friday January 29
Taught by Chloe Bass
Interested in creating vibrant community events? Not quite sure how to get started? This is the workshop for you.
Come learn about what to do from day 1 to the day after your event is over in a step-by-step process that’s easy to begin, and even easier to tweak to fit the needs of your specific community (artistic and otherwise!). We will be discussing: how to target a production team, how to make inroads with local businesses and organizations (and how to keep them as friends), how much money is necessary, how big is too big, how to take the arts and turn them into something bigger, and how and when to say no—among other topics.
This is for anyone with a desire to do community organizing at a creative level. No experience required; lots of experience also welcome. Roundtable discussion and support will be a big part of our session.
In exchange for:
Round and Round and Round We Sing
Saturday January 30
Taught by Laura Harris and Emcee C.M. Master of None
Learn to sing some common and beautiful rounds. Spirit is more important than talent!
In exchange for:
Preserving Function in an Ornamental Wilderness DAY TWO: Foraging and Preserving
Saturday January 30
Taught by Emcee C.M., Master of None
How to make syrup from rose hips growing in city planters. We will walk the neighborhood around Trade School and gather rose hips, then prepare a delicious syrup from the harvest.
Further workshops are possible if there is interest, including pine needle tea and sap or syrup from maple, birch, and sycamore street trees.
In exchange for:
Composting- Everything You Want to Know
Sunday January 31
Taught by Amanda Matles
Master Composter, Amanda Matles, will show and tell all about human accelerated decomposition and how you can get in on all the action. We’ll cover how decomposition works in nature and how you can speed up the process, how to do outdoor composting in the city and how to start indoor vermi-composting (with worms in a closed bin) in your apartment. We’ll cover all the great reasons for composting This class is offered 3 times. Handouts and info sheets will be given.
Amanda Matles is an artist whose practice is at the core an ongoing fascination with the expressions of interrelation with the natural environment. Her work explores the social, political, religious, mythological, and economic impulses and conditions that have shaped our understanding, or lack thereof, of natural systems. Matles has exhibited her artwork and executed ecologically driven projects in the U.S. and Europe. She is currently working on a Certificate in Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, is a Master Composter, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
In exchange for:
FORESIGHT IS 2020
Monday February 1
Taught by Jeff Hnilicka
FORESIGHT IS 2020
ideas for the next decade
Join Jeff Hnilicka in a presentation of research collected during his recent residency at the West Bank Social Center (Minneapolis). He is taking the month of January to collect and cultivate 20 ideas that will be critical in shaping our lives over the next 10 years. Research will look at food, art-making, activism, identity, information sharing, futuristic daily living, technology, public space, privacy, transportation, faith, parties, politics, sex, environment, fashion, architecture, music making, tool-kits, localism, globalism. Post-contemporary? Pre-apocolyptic? Come to Trade School to weigh in on what will really matter in the next decade.
In exchange for:
Producing an Exhibition/Project: Workshop and Idea Party
Tuesday February 2
Taught by Erin Marie Sickler
What?
I will be hosting a workshop and idea party to develop a creative project or exhibition idea. After an introduction to the nuts and bolts of producing an exhibition, up to 10 participants will present their exhibition or project ideas in the following fashion:
“This is what I want to do:_________; here is my obstacle:_________.”
Everyone will get a total of 10 minutes to present ideas and get feedback. This event is not limited to artists, curators, or arts administrators. Others are especially welcome.
Who?
If you’ve ever had an idea, you are eligible.
How?
Enrollment is limited to 10 participants with a proposal, 15 total. To attend please email me at erinmariesickler@gmail.com, subject: Trade School Idea Party. Please indicate if you would like to present a proposal.
Erin Sickler is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. Previously, she has held positions at institutions including the Queens Museum of Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include: Queens International 4 (Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY 2009), Hanging Out at No Rio (ABC No Rio and Cuchifritos Gallery, New York, NY, 2009), Touching Feeling (Culturehall.com, 2010) and Apologies and Further Concessions (BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2010). Her current project, Think Tank, is a roving curatorial initiative that expands the art of social practice in the service of creating sustainable and ethical solutions to pressing social, economic, and aesthetic problems. Beginning in January 2010, Think Tank will run out of Trade School (Grand Opening, NY, NY, 2010), partnering with the the Amsterdam-based design collective Droog to design a series of art and food-related events, interventions and public installations. Sickler is Gallery and Collections Manager for 601Artspace and the New York correspondent for the Swiss art magazine Kunst Bulletin.
In exchange for:
A Future History of Education
Wednesday February 3
Taught by Cassie Thornton and Christopher Kennedy
A Future History of Education
Presented by organizers of Demonstration District
School is the joke everyone gets. Explore your future history of education by reflecting on your past experience as defined by the American school system. The workshop will perform a timeline of American education and create opportunities for participants to understand the makeup and history of the NYC public school system. We will develop props that will ceremoniously turn back time to connect students to the past and the future, while always on spring break.
About Demonstration District
In the current art movement of education, Demonstration District (DD) is a new rubric to organize an idealistic school district made of artist run schools. The District’s goal is to organize an autonomous response to a recent boom of artist run schools that demand structure and legitimization as an art form. The Demonstration District is currently working on its first project, The School of the Future, an artist run school for teaching artists.
www.schoolofthefuture.org/demonstrationdistrict
Demonstration District Content Specialists:
Cassie Thornton
Christopher Kennedy
In exchange for:
Write and stage a play NOW
Friday February 5
Taught by Aimee Lutkin
Come write, edit, costume and stage an entire play in an hour and a half. Bring stuff from home to make into props/costumes that would be going into the trash, and a pen. We’ll be doing some light stretching and warm up exercises.
Aimee Lutkin is a performance artist and children’s theater teacher for The Wooster Group. She recently had a performance residency at Chashama 217.
In exchange for:
Feltmaking for Nomads
Saturday February 6
Taught by Hope Ginsburg
THIS JUST IN…
Dear feltmakers/friends,
I’m afraid the nomad moniker for our class is proving all too prescient. With weather this extreme, I’m thwarted by the distance that stands between us. And so, “Feltmaking for Nomads” is postponed until we can convene again. Your Trade School principal Caroline and I will persist until we’ve determined an alternate time and place for coming together in the name of making felt. Until further notice, I bid you happy learning, making and doing.
With that, I’m battening down the hatches. Stay warm, dry and covered,
Hope
Sponge generates experimental approaches to learning and teaching. Attached to a public university the way a sea sponge affixes to a marine reef, Sponge provides open waters for the conspicuous mixing of disciplines. In the evolving ecosystem of Sponge workshops, events, and classes, participants take in information, digest the experience and complete the cycle by teaching something to each other. This porous project, which began at MIT in 2006 and now flourishes at VCU, can attach to a variety of hosts. Inspired by the unlimited reproductive potential of its namesake, Sponge offers itself for free and infinite replication.
Description:
Your teacher Hope is spongy about making felt. What are you spongy about? Learn to make felt in exchange for knowledge of your own. In three hours, we will cover the basics of the material’s history, properties and possibilities. You will make a piece of felt from start to finish, inlaid design and all. You will get clean making felt so be sure to wear clothes that can withstand soap and water.
NOTE ON BARTER ITEMS (see them if you JOIN)
[I can offer…] My knowledge in [x]. I will bring information on my topic in one of the formats (see when you JOIN). I agree to introduce my topic and material to the rest of my classmates in the form of spongy show-and-tell. I understand that my material will become part of the Sponge collection and that, if willing, I may be contacted for future consulting on my topic, just as I may contact Hope for future guidance about making and dying wool felt. By participating in Feltmaking for Nomads, I become part of a growing network of Sponge makers, thinkers, teachers, learners and doers.
In exchange for:
Swing Dance Lesson
Saturday February 6
Taught by Eve Polich
Learn to swing dance! Developed in Harlem in the 1920’s and 30’s, swing dance is part of the USA’s great jazz dance and music heritage. Come learn the basic steps before the Cangelosi Cards play some beautiful traditional jazz for you.
Please bring a partner if you can.
In exchange for:
Live Dixieland Blues and Swing Dancing
Saturday February 6
Taught by The Cangelosi Cards
Dance to live music from a great Dixieland Blues band.
In exchange for:
Collaborate! Start your own writing workshop/reading series
Sunday February 7
Taught by Mary Speaker
I’ll offer some suggestions on how to build a literary community and make it grow without money! Would also like to use the time to provide space for a group discussion on how to foment collaboration between visual artists & poets & fiction writers.
In exchange for:
Eating Class: Polenta. The Gesture. The Ways Slow Goes.
Sunday February 7
Taught by Athena Kokoronis
Eating Class is about our appetite. In a group effort, we will meditate what our appetites have to do with everything else. Every lesson is within a meal, and our appetites will move this class to action. Eating Class will take place every Sunday at 6 through February. Eating Class is for barter. Each class is worth a physical gestures and/or pieces of movement that will be recorded and later researched into a recipe for a dance piece. A gesture is a piece of a movement, much like a word is part of a sentence. I am asking for one piece of a sentence. For example, a jump, or two hands moving in the air, sticking out your tongue…..
In exchange for:
BAUDRILLARD CAMP: Theory of the Hyperreal
Monday February 8
Taught by Naxal Belt/Andrea Liu
Misunderstood as a “cynic” advocating moral relativism and apathy, Baudrillard is actually an exemplar of a melancholic postmodernism lamenting the evacuation of “authenticity,” “agency,” and political autonomy in a hyper-mediated world where the virtual has overtaken the actual, simulation has usurped the role of representation, and the destruction of the reality principle leaves us floundering in a Truman Show-like vertigo of bloated floating signifiers with no referents. Far from advocating complicity with the conditions he portends, Baudrillard’s excoriating critique is a form of political resistance against an ineluctable condition.
Baudrillard Camp is a three-day workshop to review, clarify, and immerse ourselves in Baudrillard’s dystopian prognosis of the deterrence of the real by the virtual, information’s profound function of deception, and spectacle as the terminal condition of late capitalist society.
Session One: Theory of the Hyperreal
Bypassing the binary opposition of real/unreal, the “hyperreal” is that which no longer refers to an origin outside of itself but is its own simulacra. Neither true nor false, the hyperreal negates the reality principle altogether. We will review the first, second, third and fourth orders of simulacra, the affinities with Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, the roots of his theory in Saussure’s idea of the signified and the signifier, and Baudrillard’s rejection of Marx’s simplistic distinction of “false” and “true” consciousness.
Session Two: Baudrillard and War—Antonio Serna (2/15)
Baudrillard’s 1991 essay “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place” describes the immunization of traditional wartime conflict and adversarial confrontation with “clean war,” media spectacle rehearsed as an abstracted videogame with anti-septic “collateral damage”. We will look at the ramifications of the theory of simulacra for wartime conflict, as well as motifs of the hostage, the non-event, the non-war, and simulation’s role in Cold War deterrence. There will be a screening of Antonio Serna’s video “Appropriate War,” a series of strategic interventions into the simulacra.
Session Three: Media Theory vs. Literary Criticism (2/22)
How Baudrillard is used differs greatly, depending on the social sciences vs. the arts. Sociology and media theory recuperate him into a Marshall McLuhan-like empirical debate about the nature of media’s impact on society, whereas the visual arts react to his critique not so much as literal descriptions, but as a rhapsody of poetic incantation that is part of a larger postmodern assault on modernist assumptions of truth, falsity, self, and human agency.
Grand Finale: Baudrillard Bonfire
Bring your own notes, readings, passages, questions and presentations on Baudrillard to share. Has Baudrillard become so popularized as to become a Zizek-like digestible form of pop culture? Is Baudrillard a cynic advocating we smugly resign ourselves to these conditions or a romanticist trying to galvanize our resistance to them? Baudrillard Fun Packs will be distributed (Vocabulary Cards, quotes, and B-knick knacks).
Trade School is a month long experiment in pedagogy, collectivist organization, and alternative counter-economies with classes in ecological engineering, artists’ union organizing, and much more. With a non-hierarchical rhizomatic organizational structure, Trade School seeks to abolish the dollar system and operate solely on barter. Teachers are compensated in work space and students pay for class by bringing goods to trade.
NOTE: Sessions 1, 2, and 3 will be held at Trade School; the Baudrillard Bonfire will be held at the Naxal Belt. 175 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, NY.
In exchange for:
Public Relations! Q&A Round Table @ PR
Tuesday February 9
Taught by Anne Kristoff
You have PR questions and I have answers. Gather around the Trade School table for your chance to ask this PR gal all you need to know about: developing/honing your message, what tools you need to get your messages out there, how to develop target lists, how/when to use traditional vs. new media, how and when to pitch, when to give up, how to find your angles, etc. I will ask for a little background from each student (what are you looking to publicize, what has your experience been so far, what is your #1 Q about PR), also would love for everyone to bring one target publication so we can go thru and do a hands on analysis of various media (how to figure out who to pitch, what kinds of things do they cover, do I really fit in?).
In exchange for:
INTRO TO PRA (Participatory Learning & Action)
Tuesday February 9
Taught by Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins will explore some of the techniques he has encountered creating action- and collaboration- based works over the past ten years.
This workshop will focus on PRA techniques—also known as Participatory Rapid Appraisal / Participatory Learning & Action / Action Research—ways of exploring a community from the varied perspectives of the people in that community, without having to rely on the “Official” perspectives put forth by those who already have a voice.
Techniques we will cover include community mapping, transect walks, and other techniques for getting a foothold in new communities.
Bring Markers, Paper, and a digital camera if you got one…
In exchange for:
Big and Small Bookmaking
Wednesday February 10
Taught by Anne Callahan
Try your hand at making books, one Very Large and some Very Small. Bring inside pages and I will supply covers, binding supplies and guidance. For the Very Large Book, each person can contribute:
One page (or more) that is 2ft wide AND/OR 3ft tall. Bring a roll of paper, pages from a newspaper, road maps, posters or or even fabric!—any material that is as flexible as paper. The Very Large Book will serve as a record-keeping book for the Trade School. We’ll make Very Small Books from the Very Large Book scraps. Bring a sewing needle and an xacto knife if you’ve got them. For those who are interested in construction details: we’ll stab stitch the Very Large Book and pamphlet stitch the Very Small Book (from Very Small Signatures, but with normal-sized needles and thread).
In exchange for:
A strategy in No sense and the Masochist
Thursday February 11
Taught by Cara Siik Benedetto
This class seeks to engage nonsense through exercises that have less to do with therapy or coping mechanisms and more to do with a position or strategy. Through reading, drawing and writing we will take what is terrifying and instead of seeking control, we will use it as a way to get in as well as out. We will look at a range of writings and artworks that have focused on dissonance, the death drive, the masochist, as well as works that have used nonsense as a poetic, political and social strategy including works by ancient greek playwrights , The Marquis De Sade, Kathy Acker, The Dadaists, Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous.
In exchange for:
Making websites with WordPress
Friday February 12
Taught by Dan Phiffer
WordPress is a cheap and easy blogging platform that you can use to:
1. Make a new website
2. Update and maintain it yourself
3. Find help from a large developer community when things break
In this introductory session I’ll go over how to set things up, how to keep a site going in the long haul and how to find designers and developers who can help you out on a small (or nonexistent) budget. Learn how to find the right web hosting, how to register a domain (e.g., platypus.net), how to find & customize a theme, what to do if your site gets hacked and a bunch of other topics.
I teach courses about the web at City College of New York in the Electronic Design & Multimedia department and freelance on an long-term basis with The Museum of Modern Art. I’ve become kind of WordPress-obsessed since helping MoMA launch its blog Inside/Out (http://moma.org/explore/inside_out) and have experience making themes & plugins for a few other sites. Come on out and get yourself on the interwebs!
In exchange for:
Grant Writing
Saturday February 13
Taught by Caroline Woolard
For this class, I’ll talk about my approach to grant writing and make available the paperwork from the grants/residencies that I’ve received from The Field, Ox-Bow, Watermill, MacDowell, and iLAND. I’ll also bring in rejection letters and discuss waiting lists I’ve been on. If you have them, please bring your own rejection letters AND any recently accepted applications to share with the group.
In exchange for:
Fabric Making Workshop: Weaving
Saturday February 13
Taught by Huong Ngo
Weaving is the ultimate sport.
In this workshop, we will work together to re-imagine how fabric can be constructed to be more sustainable, more textured, more versatile, more expressive, more colorful, and definitely more fun.
Lead learner Huong Ngo will demonstrate how to make a simple stretcher bar loom and basic weaving techniques, and we will all practice weaving and share stories of our hobbies, pets, and lost loves.
In exchange for:
Round and Round and Round We Sing
Saturday February 13
Taught by Laura Harris
In round and round and round we sing we’ll learn about the basics of harmony, and sing some rounds together for some learning through doing. No prior knowledge of music theory is needed, and spirit is more important than talent - so come ready to sing!
In exchange for:
Composting 3- Everything You Want to Know
Sunday February 14
Taught by Amanda Matles
Master Composter, Amanda Matles, will show and tell all about human accelerated decomposition and how you can get in on all the action. We’ll cover how decomposition works in nature and how you can speed up the process, how to do outdoor composting in the city and how to start indoor vermi-composting (with worms in a closed bin) in your apartment. We’ll cover all the great reasons for composting This class is offered 3 times. Handouts and info sheets will be given.
Amanda Matles is an artist whose practice is at the core an ongoing fascination with the expressions of interrelation with the natural environment. Her work explores the social, political, religious, mythological, and economic impulses and conditions that have shaped our understanding, or lack thereof, of natural systems. Matles has exhibited her artwork and executed ecologically driven projects in the U.S. and Europe. She is currently working on a Certificate in Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, is a Master Composter, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
In exchange for:
Eating Class: Candy Experimentation, Food for the Heart
Sunday February 14
Taught by Athena Kokoronis
Eating Class is about our appetite. In a group effort, we will meditate what our appetites have to do with everything else. Every lesson is within a meal, and our appetites will move this class to action. Eating Class will take place every Sunday at 6 through February. Eating Class is for barter. Each class is worth a physical gestures and/or pieces of movement that will be recorded and later researched into a recipe for a dance piece.
In exchange for:
BAUDRILLARD CAMP: Baudrillard and War—Antonio Serna
Monday February 15
Taught by Andrea Liu and Antonio Serna
Session Two: Baudrillard and War—Antonio Serna
Baudrillard’s 1991 essay “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place” describes the immunization of traditional wartime conflict and adversarial confrontation with “clean war,” media spectacle rehearsed as an abstracted videogame with anti-septic “collateral damage”. We will look at the ramifications of the theory of simulacra for wartime conflict, as well as motifs of the hostage, the non-event, the non-war, and simulation’s role in Cold War deterrence. There will be a screening of Antonio Serna’s video “Appropriate War,” a series of strategic interventions into the simulacra.
In exchange for:
Scrabble Strategy for Beginners
Monday February 15
Taught by Justin Kazmark
In this class we’ll review *basic* strategy for word game enthusiasts looking to enter the world of competitive Scrabble. We will explore word lists, common bingo stems, anagram tactics and get a chance to play a few games. (This class is not intended for competitive Scrabble players, just beginners who want some tips to take their game to the next level.)
In exchange for:
Grant Writing
Tuesday February 16
Taught by Caroline Woolard
For this class, I’ll talk about my approach to grant writing and make available the paperwork from the grants/residencies that I’ve received from The Field, Ox-Bow, Watermill, MacDowell, and iLAND. I’ll also bring in rejection letters and discuss waiting lists I’ve been on. If you have them, please bring your own rejection letters AND any recently accepted applications to share with the group.
In exchange for:
Idea Party
Tuesday February 16
Taught by Erin Marie Sickler
An Idea Party works like this:
Up to 10 participants will present their ideas in the following fashion:
“This is what I want to do:_________; here is my obstacle:_________.”
Everyone will get a total of 10 minutes to present ideas and get feedback. This event is not limited to artists, curators, or arts administrators. Others are especially welcome.
Who?
Have you ever had an idea? Good, you are eligible.
How?
Enrollment is limited to 10 participants with a proposal, 15 total. To attend please email me at erinmariesickler@gmail.com, subject: Trade School Idea Party. Please indicate if you would like to present a problem in need of solving.
Erin Sickler is an independent curator and writer based in New York City. Previously, she has held positions at institutions including the Queens Museum of Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include: Queens International 4 (Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY 2009), Hanging Out at No Rio (ABC No Rio and Cuchifritos Gallery, New York, NY, 2009), Touching Feeling (Culturehall.com, 2010) and Apologies and Further Concessions (BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2010). Her current project, Think Tank, is a roving curatorial initiative that expands the art of social practice in the service of creating sustainable and ethical solutions to pressing social, economic, and aesthetic problems. Beginning in January 2010, Think Tank will run out of Trade School (Grand Opening, NY, NY, 2010), partnering with the the Amsterdam-based design collective Droog to design a series of art and food-related events, interventions and public installations. Sickler is Gallery and Collections Manager for 601Artspace and the New York correspondent for the Swiss art magazine Kunst Bulletin.
In exchange for:
Death to Auto: Maximize The Manual Mode on your SLR
Wednesday February 17
Taught by Alex Mallis
Bring in your digital or film camera and learn what all those buttons and knobs are for. We’ll cover photo basics such as aperture, shutter speed, film speed (ISO/ASA), and focusing. Come see how these variable settings interact with each other to produce different kinds of photographs.
In exchange for:
Business School for Artists: The Banking Crisis
Wednesday February 17
Taught by Amy Whitaker
Business School for Artists is a class on economic and financial theory—capitalism not as a value system but as a way the world works. The teacher started the lectures while getting an MFA in painting at the Slade in London, after already having an MBA in economics from Yale.
This class is open to anyone, including people who attended the lecture Jan 25. This class will include an overview (which will serve as a recap for people who have gone before). We will also spend most of the time exploring the subprime lending and banking crisis as a “case study” for delving into concepts in more detail. This will help us all understand things we as taxpayers spend billions of dollars on, and consider these questions as the creative design problems they are.
In exchange for:
A strategy in No sense and the Masochist 2
Thursday February 18
Taught by Cara Siik Benedetto
This class seeks to engage nonsense through exercises that have less to do with therapy or coping mechanisms and more to do with a position or strategy. Through reading, drawing and writing we will take what is terrifying and instead of seeking control, we will use it as a way to get in as well as out. We will look at a range of writings and artworks that have focused on dissonance, the death drive, the masochist, as well as works that have used nonsense as a poetic, political and social strategy including works by ancient greek playwrights , The Marquis De Sade, Kathy Acker, The Dadaists, Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous.
In exchange for:
Chinatown Collaborative Food Tour (the meat lovers version)
Friday February 19
Taught by Christine Wang
Everyone has a favorite place to get something in Chinatown. A special hole-in-the-wall, cheap groceries, ice cream. Share where/what you like and the whole class then walk around and eat then make a map!. It will be the week after Chinese New Years so expect confetti and parades in the street. Meat lovers class and a more produce-heavy vegetarian class. We will meet promptly at 2pm at Trade School to venture out- please don’t be late!
In exchange for:
Portrait Photography
Friday February 19
Taught by Martyna Szczesna
Martyna took portraits for the opening party… she’ll show you how it’s done.
In exchange for:
CAVIAR: Demystified
Friday February 19
Taught by Elizabeth Jones
Learn about eating fish and our hurdles around farming fish and healthy oceans. Elizabeth Jones shares her experience on a sturgeon farm and the story of how caviar, once a peasant snack, became scarce in the US only to be enjoyed by mafioso and the cultural elite. Elizabeth explores the relationship between sustainability and luxury through the eyes of the great white sturgeon.
15 people limit - caviar and smoked fish tastes to go around.
Bring your favorite family recipe or ITunes playlist and the names of two people that you think would be interested in this class
In exchange for:
Portrait Drawing Exchange Round Robin
Saturday February 20
Taught by Peter Walsh
What do you really look like? Join artist Peter Walsh in a portrait drawing workshop where you will be both drawer and model in a series of short timed sessions. Together with the other participants you will construct a wall sized portrait “matrix” of all the completed drawings, allowing you to “read” the portraits of each individual. Does a likeness of an individual emerge in a series of portraits by many hands? Is one drawing better than another or do they work best as a group? How is the drawing exchange different than the system of one artist drawing one model?
You will take away from the workshop a collection of drawings of yourself.
Peter Walsh is an artist and critic living in New York City.
In exchange for:
Fabric Making Workshop: Crocheting
Saturday February 20
Taught by Huong Ngo
Pronounced with a “sh” sound. Mallet is optional.
In this workshop, we will explore knitting’s oft neglected and mispronounced kid sister, crochet. We will use this incredibly versatile method to explore ways in which fabric can be made with unlikely materials and few or no tools.
Bring in a fabric/string/yarn-like material to trade and to add to a monster collaborative crochet. Lead learner Huong Ngo will teach basic to semi-fancy methods of crocheting that evoke shells, lace, hammocks, and spiderwebs.
We will snack and gossip while thinking about big math equations.
In exchange for:
Daydreaming Workshop
Saturday February 20
Taught by Maude Standish
This class will be a philosophical inquiry into the nature and importance of daydreaming. For the first half of the workshop we will talk about the chemistry and neurology behind daydreaming, the role it plays in our actions, life, and decisions. We will discuss how various writers, philosophers, and artists have thought about and approached daydreaming. We will explore what daydreaming in the modern era has come to mean and if we think that the discourse around it has shifted or the actual action has mutated.
The second half of the workshop will be dedicated to daydreaming exercises focused on ways in which you can encourage and utilize your daydreams. There will be three exercises: one involving writing, one working with images, and one with song.
For this class I ask that you bring three found images, a slip of paper with a daydream you most frequently have written on it, and song lyrics you get stuck in your head.
In exchange for:
Collecting amidst disaster
Saturday February 20
Taught by Ye Qin Zhu
In a disaster order is lost and there is failure in the peoples and objects that once followed that order. What is left are the materials and memories of their original significances. These free floating things, when we pick them up, take on indefinite currencies.
This class is about collecting objects that are the rubble of disasters - disasters of differing magnitudes. Things replaced, corpses, emptied myths, refuse, as well as new things that tell of coming disasters. We will talk about Walter Benjamin’s writing on book collecting (please read Unpacking My Library, http://www.scribd.com/doc/26682825/cruft ). The text will help us frame what it means to be a collector of this sort. ¿What do we do with a collection of rubble? What are the different kinds of collections? How do we collect from disasters and how do we cause disasters?
Please bring in as many objects as you can from your collection(s) especially those that are salvages. We will have a conversation with them. The objects will talk amongst themselves. By things we will talk. And by the slippage of language, each of us will have a singular coherent conversation with our things.
Later On: Celeste Pfau and I will conduct a collaborative conversation between peoples and objects using what the class brought in and objects already in the room. It is without spoken words. We are to reflect on our things for the things we surround ourselves with are reflections of us.
At the end of class, we can trade from our collections.
In exchange for:
Business for Artists: Social Entrepeneurship
Sunday February 21
Taught by Amy Whitaker
Business School for Artists is a class on economic and financial theory—capitalism not as a value system but as a way the world works. Amy started the lectures while getting an MFA in painting at the Slade in London, after already having an MBA in economics from Yale. This class is open to anyone, including people who attended the lecture Jan 25 or Feb 17, or anyone new. This class will include an overview (which will serve as a recap for people who have gone before). In this final section, we will focus on Social Entrepeneurship—using tools of the market to get your ideas and values out into the world in organizational form.
In exchange for:
How To Make Irrational Decisions
Sunday February 21
Taught by Kyle Cameron Studstill
This class will be an exploration in the paradoxical nature of human decision-making. We’ll touch first on the basic neuropsychological functions and structures involved, as a foundation for a discussion on various ways to model the relationship between choice and happiness. We’ll explore why everything we intuitively believe about decision-making and rationality is wrong, covering relevant research along the way.
For this class I ask for you to bring one item that represents the best decision you’ve made in the last two weeks, and one item that represents the best decision you’ve made in the last five years.
Kyle Cameron Studstill deals in cultural insight at the strategic trends consultancy PSFK. His background is in the analysis of human behavior, in realms ranging from consumer research and cultural ethnography to military intelligence analysis. Currently working with trends in technological and artistic innovation, he extracts the drivers that reflect fundamental human motivations and the implications that reflect fundamental human hopes.
In exchange for:
A Timeline of Taste: A Brief Overview of the Last 200 Years
Sunday February 21
Taught by Sarah Lohman
Our idea of what “tastes good” is constantly changing. In this class, we will take a look at the constant flux of America’s culinary preferences, from the publication of the first American cookbook in 1796 to the swell of convenience food in the 1940s and 50s. To inspire our discussion, we will be sampling four different cakes from four different eras, and will make one of these desserts in the class. And with your help, we’ll bring our exploration to the present day with a selection of contemporary dishes.
The class will be led by historic gastronomist Sarah Lohman, author of the blog Four Pounds Flour (www.fourpoundsflour.com)
In exchange for:
Eating Class: MFK Fisher: The Women She Tasted
Sunday February 21
Taught by Athena Kokoronis with special key speaker, Helen C Costa RN
Eating Class is about our appetite. In a group effort, we will meditate what our appetites have to do with everything else. Every lesson is within a meal, and our appetites will move this class to action. Eating Class will take place every Sunday at 6 through February. Eating Class is for barter. Each class is worth a physical gestures and/or pieces of movement that will be recorded and later researched into a recipe for a dance piece.
This class is with special key speaker, Helen C Costa RN.
More information.
In exchange for:
Accidental Pornographies: Developing Underground Health Magazines and Stealth Distribution Models
Sunday February 21
Taught by Mary Walling Blackburn
We will be generating new illustrations and texts for underground health magazines. By underground, I mean self-published and stealth distributed.
In exchange for:
BAUDRILLARD CAMP: Media Theory vs. Literary Criticism
Monday February 22
Taught by Andrea Liu
Session Three: Media Theory vs. Literary Criticism
How Baudrillard is used differs greatly, depending on the social sciences vs. the arts. Sociology and media theory recuperate him into a Marshall McLuhan-like empirical debate about the nature of media’s impact on society, whereas the visual arts react to his critique not so much as literal descriptions, but as a rhapsody of poetic incantation that is part of a larger postmodern assault on modernist assumptions of truth, falsity, self, and human agency.
Grand Finale: Baudrillard Bonfire (2/26, 5pm)
Bring your own notes, readings, passages, questions and presentations on Baudrillard to share. Has Baudrillard become so popularized as to become a Zizek-like digestible form of pop culture? Is Baudrillard a cynic advocating we smugly resign ourselves to these conditions or a romanticist trying to galvanize our resistance to them? Baudrillard Fun Packs will be distributed (Vocabulary Cards, quotes, and B-knick knacks).
NOTE: Sessions 1, 2, and 3 will be held at Trade School; the Baudrillard Bonfire will be held at the Naxal Belt. 175 Jefferson Street, Bushwick, NY.
In exchange for:
Mutant Student Groups (Filling in the Empty Spaces in Your School) YOU MUST HAVE A VALID STUDENT ID
Monday February 22
Taught by Nsumi Collective
This workshop is about starting experimental mutant student groups. “Mutant” in the sense of groups that are different, catalytic, innovative, creative—-and run by students. Mutant student groups combine the recursiveness of ordinary student organizations with the joy and exhilaration of collective art experiments. Traditionally, student groups, also known as student societies or student organizations, encompass a wide variety of extra-curricular activities at colleges, universities and high schools. Model UN, debate club, fraternities and student newspapers being popular examples.
Mutant student groups are different. They are untethered to the curriculum and the school—-yet effective. Mutant student groups are independent, inventive and free spirited. They are driven by student concerns and responsive to the dreamworlds—-the imaginative conceptual spaces—-of students. Mutant student groups incubate new creative options, addressing unmet needs—-the “empty spaces”—-within high schools, colleges and universities. Mutant student groups can be understood as community experiments in alternative leadership, peer-to-peer learning, and social invention. Possible group types could include: artistic incubators, experimental research centers, shadow student governments, think tanks, peer-support networks, and Dadaist dreaming machines. Mutant groups may take the form of sub-groups, temporary groups, or parasitic offshoot groups. They may be situated on school grounds, in cafes, in homes, in the backrooms of retail shops, or public spaces.
On Monday February 22nd, 8 to 10pm, you will learn how to launch a mutant student group in your school. Following a 30-minute presentation, workshop participants (restricted to students) will dream up ideas for new mutant groups in a supportive environment. A separate workshop will be announced for teachers and administrators. To participate, please bring an amazing story to share about your school.
In exchange for:
How to Make Herbal Concentrates
Tuesday February 23
Taught by Stephen Switzer
Herbal medicine is the medicine of the people. It is cheap, easy, effective and safe. You will learn how to make tinctures, syrups and salves. Bring a few small (<8oz) jars and some alcohol (100 proof or greater) to make your own tincture to take home.
In exchange for:
Drawing for Pleasure and Relaxation
Tuesday February 23
Taught by Ellie Irons
If you find drawing frustrating and think it has no place in your life, come to this class! Leaving erasers and technical shading (and hopefully frustration) behind, we’ll unwind into an hour or so of drawing for pleasure and relaxation. We’ll explore techniques for connecting the mind, eye, and hand in ways that are soothing and enjoyable. While we may cover some traditional drawing methods (gesture, contour) our emphasis will be on physicality, movement and connectivity between the senses, rather than on a final product. We’ll probably be getting a bit messy with graphite and charcoal, so don’t come in your finest!
In exchange for:
How to raise $ for your creative projects on Kickstarter
Wednesday February 24
Taught by Perry Chen
Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects, helping thousands of people raise millions of dollars. The key to successfully funding projects on Kickstarter is a combination of presentation, marketing and creative rewards. Perry will discuss how to increase your chances for funding by better understanding these concepts.
In exchange for:
PLAY: Improv for Ideation
Wednesday February 24
Taught by MakerHappener
MakerHappener is the design studio of Andrew DeRosa and Jullia Kim. They specialize in strategic branding work for clients alongside process-driven, self-directed inquires they call ‘play’. Join them in a series of interactive ideation and process exercises aimed at informing and enhancing your creative practice. Open to everyone. People from a variety of backgrounds are encouraged to participate.
In exchange for:
Art Work: A Discussion about Art, Labor, and Economics
Thursday February 25
Taught by Caroline Woolard, Cassie Thornton, Christopher Kennedy
Let’s discuss art, labor and economics. Read the Art Work newspaper organized by Temporary Services online or at the storefront. We can see how the collapse of the economy is affecting everyone. Something must be done. Let’s talk. No, it can’t wait. Things are bad. We have to work things out. We can only do it together. What do we know? What have others tried? What is possible? How do we talk about it? What are the wildest possibilities? What are the pragmatic steps? What can you do? What can we do?
In exchange for:
¡Si Se Puede! Grassroots Community Organizing Basics
Friday February 26
Taught by Matthew Noah Smith
¡Si Se Puede! Grassroots Community Organizing Basics: This 2-hour, very participatory course presents the very basics on building power through grassroots organizing. Sometimes, we want to build some kind of direct action organization or stable basis of organizational power so that we can take regular action on either important, pressing issues or our deeper political commitments. This is nothing new: changes big and small - from the 8-hour workday to stocking of recyclable containers in grocery stores - have been won through regular folks from all walks of life organizing for those changes. But, how do we do that in a way that is effective, democratic and sustainable? This workshop will present some of the basics in community organizing, including how to identify actionable issues, how to reach out to people, what kind of organization to build and how to build it and direct action tactics!
Matthew worked for about 10 years as a community and labor organizer - working primarily in Salinas, CA for the United Farm Workers, in North Carolina organizing public service workers for UE Local 150, and in the Jewish community doing anti-occupation organizing - before going into the academy full time.
In exchange for:
How to Make Butter
Friday February 26
Taught by Monique Bourgea
Butter! Explore the delights that the magical world of butter has to offer! As a group, we will make our own butter from raw milk . Once the hard work is done, sit back and learn to make of few of the many delicious butter based sauces. The class will of coarse conclude with heavy sampling of our efforts.
In exchange for:
Piano and Songwriting for Beginners
Friday February 26
Taught by Deidre Rodman Struck
I’ve taught piano and songwriting for 15+ years. I’ve performed with folks such as Elvis Costello, Natalie Merchant and Debbie Harry (even taught her a few piano lessons).
A class for people interested in furthering their playing and writing relationship with the piano/keyboard. Ever wanted to play the piano but never acted on it? Or wish you had continued lessons? Or are you a professional seeking additional solace at the piano? Do you get nervous when you sit down to play? Or are you a budding songwriter with a keyboard and a dream? Then welcome to this safe place of exploration! Together we will work on evolving our skills of songwriting, improvisation, performance and sightreading. I will tailor the class to the needs of those attending and will bring a keyboard for demonstration. My hope is that we will all come away with new ideas to share, renewed passion for piano, and most of all, a sense of fun that will carry us throughout our musical lives.
Feel free to bring an instrument if you play one, questions, and /or song ideas.
In exchange for:
Foundations of Ghost Hunting
Friday February 26
Taught by Laurence Hewitt, ACME Paranormal
What are ghosts? Why are there ghosts? And most importantly, WHO are the ghosts? The Foundations of Ghost Hunting class will help set you on the path toward answering these questions. The class will cover the following:
Theories of consciousness& incarnate personalities
Historical research resources and pre-investigation fact-finding strategies
Ghost hunting tools& evidence gathering techniques
Evidence analysis tools& techniques
Case findings organization& presentation
This class will be part lecture and part hands-on training with the basic equipment that every ghost hunter needs to capture and analyze evidence of paranormal activity.
In exchange for this class, I ask that each participant bring one package of two 9 volt batteries or one package of two AAA batteries.
In exchange for:
Make a Meteorite from the Museum of Natural History
Saturday February 27
Taught by Hannah Rawe
Wednesday’s Wondrous World of Manmade Wrocks
Learn how to make rock, meteorite, and other natural surfaces! Come discover the secretly simple methods used by preparators at the Museum of Natural History.
In exchange for:
Chinatown Collaborative Food Tour (the veggie lovers version)
Saturday February 27
Taught by Christine Wang
Everyone has a favorite place to get something in Chinatown. A special hole-in-the-wall, cheap groceries, ice cream. Share where/what you like and the whole class then walk around and eat then make a map!. It will be the week after Chinese New Years so expect confetti and parades in the street. Meat lovers class and a more produce-heavy vegetarian class. We will meet promptly at 2pm at Trade School to venture out- please don’t be late!
In exchange for:
Pilates in a Chair
Saturday February 27
Taught by Anna Larson
Use your body in a healthy way in your chair. You’ll be given homework for sitting, standing, and lying down that will make your being happy. Anna’s a certified Pilates instructor so you won’t get hurt. Pilates is (according to Pilates Academy International):
* A non-impact system of exercise that focuses on the deep muscles of the abdomen and spine
* Strengthens and tightens the abdominal muscles while protecting your lower back, aiding in injury prevention and spinal health.
* Lengthens muscles as they are strengthened, resulting in long, lean STRONG but FLEXIBLE muscles without the bulk
* Improves alignment without gravity, thus balancing muscles and improving posture
* The fluid movements coupled with the breath are designed to reduce stress and tension, leaving you refreshed and not exhausted.
* The custom-designed workouts are safe, versatile and effective for all ages and fitness levels.
In exchange for:
The Education of Men and Women: A Spanish Intensive
Saturday February 27
Taught by Rocio Rodriguez Salceda
What did our parents meant with: “ La ropa está tendida” (the clothes are hung out)?
What´s “estraperlo” and how did this became an essential factor in the post war economy?
Why a female teacher wasn´t allowed to “walk around the ice cream stores downtown”?
What was for a woman “ un ramito de perejil “ (a bunch of parsley) important for?
And for a man “ ajo y agua” ( garlic and water )?
Does “zorro”, “fulano” or “ un cualquiera” mean the same as “zorra”, “fulana” or “una cualquiera”?
Together we will return to Spanish in a one session course where the subjects won´t be the average classroom pleasantries ( ie :“ Tengo dos hermanas” ,“ Soy Americano” ) . This course is dedicated to reveal some of the most interesting moments in Spanish history framed by the use of language in each particular time. We will focus our attention in the way people lived and communicated during Spain´s hectic 20th century history. The Government vs the family. The Church vs the schools. Government and Church vs women. All documented with auxiliary material: home films, certificates of pregnancy, audio recordings, YouTube clips, family portraits, postcards etc…
Students are expected to have at least a basic level of Spanish.
Biography: Rocio Rodriguez Salceda was born in Madrid, Spain in 1977. She received a BFA from Complutense University in Madrid, specializing in Photography and Film. After graduating in 2001, Rocio moved to Barcelona where she taught Photography at the University of Barcelona until the summer of 2006. Rocio received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Spring 2008. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn and is preparing a solo show at Tina Kim Gallery in Chelsea.
Statement: “I grew up in 1980s Spain, a time of optimism undercut by fears lingering from 40 years of dictatorship - when women needed passes to travel alone, when ethnic immigration was illegal, when breaking a repressive silence could lead to jail or worse. As a new and recently legalized immigrant in N.Y.C. who was born into the tail-end of Spanish fascism, I work in the tensions between inner subjectivity and external roles. My art evokes an anxious, struggling humanity where tactile and intimate stories startle the present.”
In exchange for:
Singing is about (out and about)
Saturday February 27
Taught by Julia Rich
Singing and locating one point inside my head, what is this singing next to? Walking down the street and humming, how near are you to me? How near am I to this sound that is coming. Songs are about, near to, next to, some space (within me, out from me). Considering songs and how singing is bridges. From me out to you, out to the sidewalk, the bath water, the woman passing by. (Is you, is the sidewalk, the bath water, the woman passing by?). Occurring alongside so many things (standing, thinking, looking to your left etc.). Considering songs and singing. I will share a yoga mudra, some songs of my own, some songs of artists who I’ve been listening to lately. Folding paper and peeling fruit might occur. I think we will go for a walk at the end of the evening. Bring something to write with. Barter will be introduced when together
In exchange for:
Web Design: An Introduction and Theory
Sunday February 28
Taught by Louise Ma
The thought of building an online presence or business may intimidate some, but it is a medium that has been evolving for nearly twenty years. How far have we come, what can we learn about web pages in the past, and how do we go about building one now?
We won’t be getting into the nitty-gritty’s of coding and development. We will, however, do the following:
Look at older (and perhaps more respected) mediums that inform the web design process:
Architecture
Books and print
Film and video
Games
Take a short tour through the brief history of design on the web (much poking fun occurs here):
How it was made then…
And how it is made now.
And spend the majority of class time exploring the fundamental elements of what makes a website useful and beautiful:
Narrative
Navigation
Speed (it’s fast)
Grids and other structuring systems
Typography and design basics
Content versus Presentation
Intro to various coding languages
Existing site building tools, and what is a CMS?!
Whether you’re a print designer shifting into web, an artist trying to set up your own site, or a small business owner planning to hire a designer, come join us and share your own experiences (and frustrations) with designing in pixel space.
Louise Ma is one of the co-organizers of Trade School and one of the designers for OurGoods. She has been making websites since 1997 and her first job out of art school was as a designer at NYTimes.com.
In exchange for:
Performance Workshop: thinking/making/voicing/being/communicating/collaborating
Sunday February 28
Taught by Sonia Finley and Christhian Diaz
An improvisational workshop for those who are interested in performance (moving, making noise, using their body, voice, speech, presence, etc). A performance-based practice can be difficult to build upon because there are ideas that cannot be voiced, written, discussed, or materially made manifest unless we inhabit them on a more visceral and/or experiential level. Together, we will attempt to form and develop other possible ways of thinking through ideas/impulses that cannot be thought through conventionally. How can we get inside these ideas and discuss them with others collaboratively by means beyond the daily habits of our practices? Can we make other ways of thinking and communicating? We will explore these questions within various boundaries and facilitated exercises and through processes of improvisational-being-together.
In exchange for:
Teach Ourselves How to Buy a Building In NYC
Sunday February 28
Taught by Christine Wang
How can we as artists co-own and cooperatively run an artists space? This is not for people looking for real estate portfolio development. This is for art workers who want to own the means of art production collectively. If you come please research a legal structure for ownership, whether it be LLC, Joint Tenancy, Co-Op Board and be prepared to share your research. Bring someone you trust. Bring a list of resources. Bring ideas about your dream space; would it be a storefront, an office, a studio, a home, a gallery? Hopefully we can begin to build the relationships that will result in the co-ownership of property.
In exchange for:
Composting 5- Everything You Want to Know
Sunday February 28
Taught by Amanda Matles
Master Composter, Amanda Matles, will show and tell all about human accelerated decomposition and how you can get in on all the action. We’ll cover how decomposition works in nature and how you can speed up the process, how to do outdoor composting in the city and how to start indoor vermi-composting (with worms in a closed bin) in your apartment. We’ll cover all the great reasons for composting This class is offered 3 times. Handouts and info sheets will be given.
Amanda Matles is an artist whose practice is at the core an ongoing fascination with the expressions of interrelation with the natural environment. Her work explores the social, political, religious, mythological, and economic impulses and conditions that have shaped our understanding, or lack thereof, of natural systems. Matles has exhibited her artwork and executed ecologically driven projects in the U.S. and Europe. She is currently working on a Certificate in Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, is a Master Composter, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
In exchange for:
Eating Class: Moving Appetites….
Sunday February 28
Taught by Athena Kokoronis
Eating Class is about our appetite. In a group effort, we will meditate what our appetites have to do with everything else. Every lesson is within a meal, and our appetites will move this class to action. Eating Class will take place every Sunday at 6 through February. Eating Class is for barter. Each class is worth a physical gestures and/or pieces of movement that will be recorded and later researched into a recipe for a dance piece.
In exchange for:
Pure Wine Appreciation
Sunday February 28
Taught by Pascaline Lepeltier
The subject of the class will be how to taste wines, and especially how to discover and enjoy the beauty and the taste in the natural wines. Nowadays, nobody knows exactly what one drinks when one opens a bottle of wine. Thousands of additives are authorized, and none of them is listed on the label. Except for a couple of them - “natural wine”, “biodynamic wine”, etc.
The subject of the class will be to discover these wines, and to understand why they are different, why they really embody the place, the landscape, the terroir, where they are born. Because they are not only an explosion of fruits but a multiplicity of unusual flavors and savors, one has to be introduced to them (how to enjoy bitterness, how to tame of bunch of delicate and very expressive aromas, etc…). In a word, how to rediscover wines made ONLY with fermented grapes juice.
In exchange for:
Trade School ENDS!? Where do we go from here? Sharing skills, spaces, and objects…
Monday March 1
Taught by OurGoods.org
Where do we go from here? Do we need a long term storefront? Artists, designers, and craftspeople find ways to make independent work no matter what. As people with creative projects, we understand the value of creative labor regardless of its market value. Why don’t we share our resources? What happens when we decide how much our work is worth to each other? Let’s trade our skills, spaces, and objects. The OurGoods network helps us honor each other and get independent work done with mutual respect instead of cash. Join the alpha group at ourgoods.org or email caroline@ourgoods.org for more information.
In exchange for:
Other places to learn:
-
The Public School
Borough Hall -
Brooklyn Brainery
Gowanus, $25 -
Brooklyn Skill Share
Gowanus -
Etsy Craft Night
Dumbo, Mondays 4-8pm -
NYC Resistor
BAM, electronics based -
Alpha One Labs
Bushwick, hackerspace -
#Class
Chelsea -
BHQFU
Tribeca, run by artists -
School of the Future
Bushwick, this summer -
Mildred's Lane
Beach Lake, PA, this summer -
Anhoek School
Nomadic
Suggested reading:
Trade School is run by Louise Ma, Rich Watts, and Caroline Woolard
and helped immensely by the OurGoods network.