In June, an artist and researcher Eiko Soga will be our guest for a 2-day bloc seminar “Art, Research, and Ecology” at KUM. The seminar will introduce an idea of animistic gestures as ecological practices. Soga will first introduce her findings through ethnographic art projects engaging with an indigenous community in Hokkaido, Japan called the Ainu. The students will be invited to sow seeds together and explore different ways of understanding what it is like to be a seed and a plant to develop different perspectives. This exercise aims to experiment with thinking through performative action that leads to new way of making art. In doing so, we will explore the idea of art as an ecologicalinvestigation and discuss questions:

A How does a piece of art help/allow us to relate to ways of living, gestures, and rituals that are different from ours?
B Often, theory can help us to explain artworks. It provides us with language to explain our work and ideas. But could the making of art become a form of theory?

As a result of the seminar, students will create their own theoretical or practical work based on their research and experience.

Date: June 6-7th, 2022
10.30 am - 16.30 pm plus individual tutorials
Place: GRU 129 and garden

The seminar is open to all students of KUM, and other art departments of the UDK

Language: English

Max. 15 participants

Please register in advance: 
eiko.soga(at)sjc.ox.ac.uk

Eiko Soga lives and works in UK and Japan. She is currently reading for PhD in Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Art. Through ethnography-led art practices, she explores the interrelationships within historical, cultural, emotional, and natural landscapes and how art can embody felt knowledge of more than the human world. In doing so, Soga participates in conversations about decolonization, and non-humancentric values.

Eiko Soga presented her movies in 2020 at the class Experimental Film and Media Art. See podcast:

current-situation.medienhaus.udk-berlin.de/oxford-udk-berlinpartnership-in-arts-and-humanities/

www.eikosoga.com