FORUM: Altered States | Close Encounters

Due to Coronavirus restrictions the FORUM: Altered States will now take place only on Saturday, 11 December. The KEYNOTE program will now be live-streamed via our Website, Youtube, and Facebook. Previously booked tickets will be refunded.

The FORUM: ‘Altered States’ coincides with the launch of Ignota Books' new poetry anthology of the same name which asks the timely question; can altered states produce altered worlds? Contributors include Anne Boyer, Khairani Barokka, Clay AD, Kaoutar Gadir, Ignota (Sarah Shin and Ben Vickers), Huw Lemmey, Lena Longefay & Alejandra López, Nisha Ramayya & MJ Harding, Cora Schmeiser, Lisa Tan and Mia You.

The FORUM opens a space of inquiry into what it means to inhabit what Anne Boyer calls the ‘information-damaged sensorium’ of late capitalist modern consciousness – and what altered states of consciousness might offer in the way of remedy. According to anti-psychiatrist R.D. Laing, the modern view of psychiatry came into being “when the demonological point of view gave way 300 years ago to the clinical viewpoint”. Now, in the midst of the psychedelic turn in clinical research, what can altered states – from visionary experiences to voice-hearing, and from dreaming to daily caffeination – show us about being otherwise as a means for personal and societal transformation?

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

‘Close Encounters’ stages a dynamic program of talks, guided meditation, body workshops, image lecture, and infused foods throughout the ongoing exhibition 84 STEPS.

Registration will enable viewers to attend two of four simultaneous presentations. Refreshments will be provided by Artists Lena Longefay & Alejandra López, drawing from the Physica of Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen.

Limited places are available for each session. Social distancing and mask-wearing protocols will be in place. Online viewers can attend sessions by Khairani Barokka and Huw Lemmey. English-language closed captioning will be available.

Please register for max 2 workshops, one at 11 am and one at 12:30 pm. Registration includes entrance to the exhibitions.

KHAIRANI BAROKKA ‘THE LIE DOWN’

The Lie Down is an invitation to take a socially distanced guided journey in a state of physical relaxation, through emotions surrounding safety, access, and the body from an anti-colonial perspective—specifically with regards to how history has shaped the present in the Indonesian archipelago, the Netherlands, and across time-space.

LIVE (on-site, max 8 people)

Register 11:00 am
Register 12:30 pm

ONLINE (VIA ZOOM)

Register 11:00 am

HUW LEMMEY ‘WASHING CHIRST’S NAPPIES’

In the work and ideas of the medieval mystics Hildegard of Bingen and Margery Kempe we find transformative ways to look again at the world. In this presentation, author Huw Lemmey will look at how pilgrimage, cities, and bodies were represented in their mystical writings, and compare their worldview to our modern digital lens. This investigation goes together with an interest in the early medieval relation of altered states or visions and the geopolitical impacts of invasion and plague.

LIVE (on-site, max 8 people)

Register 11:00 am
Register 12:30 pm (SOLD OUT)

ONLINE (VIA ZOOM)

Register 12:30 pm

NISHA RAMAYYA & M.J. HARDING ‘TREBLE HEAVEN’

Treble Heaven is a workshop between poetry and music by poet Nisha Ramayya and sonic dramaturg MJ Harding, exploring three ways of singing to heaven and three different types of longing. Treble Heaven is a ritual treating the damage of European and colonial cosmology and an experiment in collective gathering and releasing.

LIVE (on-site, max 8 people)

Register 11:00 am (SOLD OUT)
Register 12:30 pm

KAOUTAR GADIR & CLAY AD IN DIALOGUE WITH ROMILY ALICE WALDEN

A two-part program will delve into the threads and resonance of Romily Alice Walden’s new 84 STEPS commission ẍây ithřa: a pledge, with Rotterdam-based art director and singer-songwriter Kaoutar Gadir and interdisciplinary artist, writer, and somatic bodyworker Clay AD. Kaoutar Gadir will take you with her into a musical experience with the language of Romily Alice Walden. Gadir will give a performance that contains a diverse collection of mantras and invites you to sing with her. Gadir will end this session by asking you what you would want to spiritually let go of and collectively do so with her. Part two will feature a guided audio meditation by Clay AD. You will listen to their voice and find peace in the space of Romily Alice Walden. The meditation also contains a drawing exercise.

LIVE (on-site, max 8 people)

Register 11:00 am
Register 12:30 pm