Exquisite Broken Circle: Suddenly a Chora
2013

 Summer Workshop II

 “Some things we plan / We sit and we invent and we plot and cook up / Others are works of inspiration, of poetry” –  Nick Cave

Arts Letters & Numbers’ second summer workshop (June 15th – August 10th, 2013) emerged from the perfect combination of planning and poetry. Building on the experiences of our first summer workshop, and incorporating discoveries found through our recent work, we developed this summer’s workshop, titled ‘Exquisite Broken Circle: Suddenly a Chora’. Structured around six disciplines: architecture, drawing, film, writing, theatre, and music, the workshop was conceived of as a disciplinary ‘exquisite corpse’. Each of these disciplines worked in close proximity, directly interacting through a framework of shared questions and actions. During the eight week intensive workshop, we sought to build a bridge: a bridge that was a stage, a drawing board, a film screen, a story, a place to act—a bridge between disciplines. This bridge was co-constructed, as each step in its construction was developed as a series of shared questions across all of the disciplines. As we excavated the site, we asked: What is excavation in drawing, in film, in writing, in theatre, in music? As we poured the foundations, we asked: What are foundations in drawing, in film, in writing, in theatre, in music? As we raised the structure, we asked: What is structure in drawing, in film, in writing, in theatre, in music? As we raised a new horizon, we asked: what is horizon in drawing, in film, in writing, in theatre, in music? Week by week as we moved through the shared questions we co-constructed a work; an emergent space between the disciplines. This workshop was directed by David Gersten, cotaught with Arts Letters & Numbers Fellows and Visiting Artists