School
for
Poetic
Computation
Scripting is Scrying challenges how western and capitalist hegemonies have shaped technology to serve systems of oppression and extraction. In this class, we will instead draw from mystical practices of the global majority to speculate ways of building harmonious relationships between machines, humans and non-humans. We will look at both ancient and historical precedents as well as contemporary artists to explore ways technological artifacts carry sacred value particularly in non-western and post-colonial contexts, and furthermore, how rituals themselves can be seen as forms of computation in their ability to transmit information and create and/or maintain networks. Participants will synthesize class discussions to then design their own oracles, thinking critically about intention, interpretation, and interaction. We will be using generative techniques and tools such as Markov Chains, ml5.js, and randomness to develop browser-based (p5.js) scrying tools. No prior programming knowledge or experience required. Openness to playing with code is encouraged.
At the end of this class, students will:
This class may be for you if:
This class may NOT be for you if:
Aarati Akkapeddi is a cross-disciplinary artist, coder, and educator based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). They often use personal and institutional archival materials, combining computational and analog techniques like machine learning & printmaking to create artwork that investigates overlooked relationships and histories. Their creative work has been supported by institutions such as The Photographers' Gallery, ETOPIA Center for Art & Technology, and LES Printshop. They work at The Experimental Humanities Collaborative Network, creating digital spaces and tools.
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Erica Kermani (b. 1983, Los Angeles) is a Brooklyn-based transdisciplinary artist dedicated to movement building and collective liberation through art and media, technological sovereignty, and Iranian, Jewish, and queer mysticism. Her artwork utilizes scholarship, memory and archive to produce video, installation, and speculative fiction that interrogate and unsettle dominant narratives, towards healing of self, community, and Earth. Erica has presented her work nationally and internationally, at Mona Bismarck American Center (Paris), the Science Gallery Dublin, Musée des Arts Decoratif, the International Center of Photography Museum, and Frameline San Francisco.
Erica serves as technologist and educator for Community Tech New York and as adjunct faculty at Parsons The New School where she teaches about ancestral and emerging technologies. Erica is a worker-owner of the QTBIPOC- and immigrant-led cooperative Shadow Work Media focused on transformative storytelling. Previously she organized the festival Radical Networks (2015-2019) which she co-founded. Erica has developed curriculum, public programs and published research at organizations including Digital Equity Lab, Data & Society, and Eyebeam (as Director of Community Engagement). She is a member of the Raha Iranian Feminist Collective and Feminists4Jina NYC. She holds a BA in Visual Arts (Media/Computing) and Political Science at the University of California, San Diego and an MFA in Design and Technology from the Parsons School for Design (NYC/Paris).
she/her
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Zainab "Zai'' Aliyu is a Nigerian-American artist and cultural worker living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). Her work contextualizes the cybernetic and temporal entanglement embedded within societal dynamics to understand how all socio-technological systems of control are interconnected, and how we are all materially implicated through time. She draws upon her body as a corporeal archive and site of ancestral memory to craft counter-narratives through sculpture, video, installation, built virtual environments, printed matter, archives, and community-participatory (un)learning. Zai is currently a co-director of the School for Poetic Computation, design director for the African Film Festival at the Film at Lincoln Center in NYC and a 2023-24 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow. Her work has been shown at Film at Lincoln Center (NYC), Museum of Modern Art Library (NYC), Miller ICA (Pittsburgh), the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Hong Kong), Casa do Povo (São Paulo, Brazil), Aktuelle Architektur der Kulturimages (Murcia, Spain), Pocoapoco (Oaxaca, Mexico) among others.
she/her
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CY X is an erotic writer, performance artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. They work to uncover the way that the erotic and space co-construct each other and utilize a perverted design philosophy that exposes structures of power while also identifying new opportunities for being a body amongst other human and other-than-human bodies in this world. They are grounded in: queer mysticism, BDSM, sex magic, queer theory, design thinking, embodied research, and more-than-human collaboration.
they/we
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· instagram
Applications open until Applications closed on August 4, 2024.
You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on . Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.
For 10 classes, it costs $1200 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule weekly or monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.
SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.
For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.
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