Gather Kollektiv / Marieke Helmke & Lisa Simpson
Forms of resistance: Electronics and feminisms
Block seminar, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS, 15 places
Please register here until latest 20.05.2024: gather_ @udk-berlin.de

Wednesday, 5.6.2024, 6pm - 8pm, @ Udk, room tba
Building sessions: 2 Saturdays: 8.6. & 15.6.2024, 11am - 5pm, @ Agente Costura Studio (Neukölln)
Artist workshop: Wednesday, 12.6.2024, 5pm @ Agente Costura Studio (Neukölln)
Closing/ presentation session: tba (to be discussed on intro session)

The praxis-focused seminar will combine hands-on instrument building techniques based on analog electronic circuitry with collective learning and artistic exchange: How can we challenge (binary) systems by experimenting with amplifiers, oscillators, feedback and circuit bending?

We will explore binary logic circuits through a practical introduction to handmade electronics from feminist perspectives, to build our own DIY instruments. After one introduction meeting we will meet for two sessions to build electro-acoustic instruments with an introduction to electronic components, reading schematics, prototyping and soldering at Agente Costura Studio (Neukölln). 

Part of the seminar is also a workshop led by Falyakon, a multi-instrumentalist and DJ based between Palestine and Berlin. Falyakon breaks the rules of mixing in multi-layered, genre-defying, erratic sets that express what being free truly means. She is controlling time and distorting structure by warping rhythms and morphing tones in a journey filled with distant memories, interruptions, and projections of what is to come. We will end the seminar with a session of artistic, theoretical or practical input from our time together.                                                

We are open to participants from all disciplines and we will work together in German and/or English, depending on the group. If you have any concerns, needs or requests regarding accommodation and accessibility for participation, please feel free to email us in advance.

Leistungsanforderungen: Participation in the session, input in the final session.

The seminar is part of the gather collective (formerly FEM*_MUSIC*_): A participatory and low-hierarchy project which started in 2016 to discuss intersectional and queerfeminist perspectives on contemporary art and music production. It is supported by the Berlin Program for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities in Research and Teaching (BCP), the AG Frauenfördergelder of the UdK Berlin and by the Women's and Equality Representative of the UdK Berlin. gather-berlin.de/en

Marieke Helmke (she/they) is an artist, musician, organizer and social worker currently based in Berlin. In her artistic work she is exploring queer perspectives on care work, listening and perceptions of the bodymind within
sound/music, collective projects, installations and painting. She studied Fine Arts at the UdK Berlin with a minor in Political Science at the FU Berlin after being active in environmental education. Since September 2020 she has been a coordinating member of gather (https://gather-berlin.de/en), a participatory project with a shared interest in art and music from intersectional perspectives and collective non-hierarchical learning. Some of the venues she performed at are ACUD and Prince Charles in Berlin, Titanic-galeria in Turku/Finland and Ground Floor Art Space in Vancouver/ Canada. Moreover she has shown her visual work in one solo and several group exhibitions in Vancouver and Berlin.

Lisa Simpson (she/they) is an artist, performer, craftivist, seamstress, teacher, instrument builder and noise enthusiast. Her performance project Agente Costura, led by a singing sewing machine, is a continuous building site for self playing, oscillating, blinking, touch sensitive, light sensitive, talking, soft, found, stitched, glitched, and hacked instruments, acting and reacting in an ever fluctuating state of chaos. Lisa has a Bachelor degree in Visual Arts from Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, a Master of Applied Arts degree from Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and is a graduate of the Institute for Art in Context at Universität der Künste Berlin. She has performed extensively on an international level, including Goethe Institut Jakarta, Schneidertempel Istanbul, Akademie der Künste, HKW, The Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum der Fünf Kontinente Munich, the Bimhuis Amsterdam, Curitiba Fashion Week, among others. Lisa currently lives and works in Berlin, and is involved in a range of different projects in collaboration with artists, musicians, and interested audiences.