Experiments in Collective Joy

Catalog description

We make art to communicate, to have an impact, to connect or facilitate connection. We can use art as an "emotion machine" that takes people in, does something to them, and they leave having changed. What strategies, structures, and techniques can we use so that our work has more of an intended impact? To answer these questions, our class looks to immersive theater, LARPs and D&D, improv comedy, cult initiation rituals, game shows, livestreams, raves — anything that involves participant agency and collaborative world-building. We also study nature, politics and activism, religion, sports, food, childhood and families; there are endless examples of group emotion augmentation, an evolutionary strategy underpinning the survival and success of our species for tens of thousands of years. This hands-on project studio course is about creating interactive experiences where participants are the medium, and the art created exists inside and between them. We will explore community and its connection to transformational, radical joy — not complacent happiness, but a joy that is the feeling of power, agency, and capacity growing within us and within the people around us as we share sorrow and cooperate to overcome challenges. Which systems and forms of art, play, and expression foster that kind of joy? This course is heavy on imagination, vulnerability, reading, discussion, experimentation, playtesting, and interactive group activities. Each week explores the relationship of the individual to the group under various lenses and spheres of life (i.e. politics, religion, activism, evolutionary biology, sociology, pleasure, the universe, sports, games, childhood, etc.). Then together, we break down the relationships, dynamics, and effects those systems have, and create interactive exercises, games, and performance experiments inspired by these themes and ideas. The early assignments…