Delavnica Svetovi drugih na Mladih rimah

Zadnja delavnica v seriji mnogih, ki so od leta 2007 potekale pod naslovom Svetovi drugih - v angleščini In Other Wor(l)ds - je potekala 27. junija 2013 v okviru Mladih rim - 6. festivala mlade neuveljavljene poezije ter ostalih ustvarjalnosti s podnaslovom Nobenih problemov, samo običajno jebanje. Mlade rime šest in nočem domov.

Vabilo na delavnico je na dnu objave, najprej pa edina za splet prepisana zgodba izpred Menze. Avtoric ne navajam na njihovo željo.

Ljubljana 4000
Ljubljana 4000, poletno popoldne. Poskusi spreminjanja podnebja v tem mestu niso uspeli. Tako kot v 21. stoletju so bili dnevi oblačni, soparni in zadušljivi. Še govoreči kip na medplanetarni transportni postaji se je znojil.

Mašenka Tereškova je prispela s teletransportno kabino št. 5/208. Pot je bila kratka, a vseeno je bila utrujena. Od nenadnega premika iz Moskve v Ljubljano je imela pritisk v ušesih. Pogledala je skozi okno postaje in zagledala sivo bitje, ki je v pozi sključenega misleca negibno klečalo na nizkem podstavku z napisom »Vprašaj me karkoli«.

Mašenka je šla h kipu in rekla: »Lačna sem. Kje v tem mestu imajo najboljše piroške?«

Kip je komaj opazno premaknil svoje kamnite ustnice. Zaslišal se je votel glas: »Ljubljana 4000, tukaj ni pirošk, že zdavnaj so jih umaknili s tržišča. Poskusite hamburger. Konec.«

Mašenka se je namrdnila. »Prekleta globalizacija. Se res ne da nikjer več kupiti nečesa, kar ne bi bilo ameriško?«

»Ljubljana 4000, vse je ameriško, samo Rusija še vztraja pri nacionalni hrani,« je kip odvrnil z istim brezizraznim tonom. »Toda Lord Americco bo uredil tudi ta problem. Konec.«

»Ne bo mu uspelo,« je bojevito rekla Mašenka. »Lord Russo je morda manj mogočen od Americca, toda za svojo državo se bo podal v vojno, če bo treba. Ne bomo se amerikanizirali.«

Kip je to preprosto preslišal. »Ljubljana 4000, bi morda raje obiskali novo plažo? Konec.«

»Plaža sredi Ljubljane?« se je začudila Mašenka.

»O ja, po ukazu Lorda Americca so prejšnji teden postavili novo plažo z umetnim morjem. Cene zelo ugodne. Konec.«

»Se na umetni plaži lahko tudi najém?«

»Počakajte. Procesiram. Konec.«

Mašenka je zamahnila z roko in se razgledala po okolici. Kentucky Fried GMO-Chicken, McDonalds' Galatic … še zanikrni kiosk na njeni levi se je kitil z ameriško zastavico, na kateri je bilo od leta 3528 dalje 250 zvezdic, torej vsa pomembnejša mesta v osončju.

Mašenka se je zasmejala, se potrkala po svojem neprebojnem jopiču in se odpravila h kiosku. Imenoval se je Ajda. Edina jed na meniju je bil pomfri iz orjaškega sladkega krompirja. Krompirčki so v dolžino merili do 40 centimetrov. Ogledni izvod na pultu je spominjal na šop velikanski slamic za koktejle. Paličaste krompirčke je obkrožala solata v mavričnih odtenkih.

»Dan,« je Maša pozdravila prodajalko na rolerjih. »En pomfri, prosim. Brez solate.«

Prodajalka jo je začudeno pogledala. Njene oči so se zavrtele nazaj in Mašenki se je za hip zdelo, da je v njih videla dolarski znak.

»Ne bo šlo, solata je obvezna, izbrati morate vsaj eno.«

»Pa kaj še!«

»Žal, takšni so predpisi.«

Mašenka je tiho zaklela in naročila vijolično solato.

»Odlična izbira,« je zaklicala prodajalka, »vijola vas bo pomladila!«

»Še tega se mi manjka,« je prhnila Mašenka.

Plačala je čisto preveč denarja in na hitro zbasala vase ogabno ameriško hrano. Ni se več spomnila, zakaj je sploh prišla v Ljubljano. Stožilo se ji je po ruski svobodi.

Ulice so bile prazne. Očitno so se res vsi odpravili na novo plažo. Lord Americco je znal pritegniti ljudi. Z vsemi njegovimi pogruntavščinami sploh ni bilo čudno, da je postal tako vpliven. Toda Mašenka je dobro vedela, da se bo njihov vladar temu uprl. In na klic iz vojske je bila pripravljena. Borila se bo za svojo državo, do zmage.

V teletransportni kabini, ki jo je pripeljala nazaj v Moskvo, se je odločila. V peti svetovni vojni bo zmagala Rusija. Izdelki po svetu ne bodo več ameriški. Ruski bodo.

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Delavnica skupinskega pisanja zgodb
Svetovi drugih 

Če misliš, da »ne znaš pisati«, »nimaš inspiracije« ali »zadostnih izkušenj«, te na delavnici čaka presenečenje: nadrealistična igra za skupinsko pisanje zgodb slastno trupelce bo pokopala vse tvoje zadržke. Kramp in lopato bo priskrbela Tea Hvala.

Vsakdo bo začel pisati svojo zgodbo in jo čez čas podal drugemu udeležencu. Ta jo bo prebral in nadaljeval po lastnem okusu. Zgodbe bodo krožile, dokler ne bomo vsi prispevali svoje pisave k vsem zgodbam. Če nas bo (na primer) šest, bo tako sočasno nastalo šest zgodb.

Delavnica se imenuje Svetovi drugih, ker je za skupinsko pisanje bolj kot tvoja nadarjenost ali izvirnost pomembno sodelovanje z ljudi, ki čutijo, razmišljajo in živijo drugače od tebe.

Udeležba brezplačna. Predhodne prijave sprejemamo na: mlada.menza@gmail.com [predmet: Svetovi drugih]
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Četrtek, 27. junij, od 16:00 do 19:00, Menza pri koritu, Ljubljana

Tea Hvala piše kratke zgodbe in eseje, bere feministično znanstveno fantastiko in v Ljubljani soorganizira festival Rdeče zore. Delavnice Svetovi drugih organizira od leta 2008.

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Organizacija: Kud Mreža in Menza pri koritu.

Workshop in Collective Writing of Independent Porn at Queeristan in Amsterdam

A Workshop in Collective Writing of Independent Porn
by Tea Hvala and Bibliotheque Erotique
at Queeristan Festival in Amsterdam
http://queeristan.org/2013/05/21/workshop-erotic-writing/

Time: Saturday, June 1st from 12:00 to 16:00
Location: Op De Valreep


At the workshop, we are going to play with the rigid conventions of genre and gender and experiment with producing (semi)pornographic writing that turn us on. We are going to rely on our imagination, our individual erotic fantasies and collective writing techniques in which strange, sometimes humorous, sometimes poetic, and sometimes scary conjunctions arise from, so it seems, pure chance.

We won’t wait for inspiration. We won’t worry about controlling the narrative either. We are going to put aside individual artistic value and try out several collective approaches that can teach us to let go, trust our co-writers as well as our imagination – and our ability as writers.

The workshop is going to start with a short discussion on how we can reclaim the right to sexual pleasure as we like it, and the beauty of bodies like yours and mine. We will talk about mutual consent and ethics, and the reasons why our fantasies can never be politically correct, even if our porn is – from a feminist point of view – politically correct simply because queer people with queer bodies are in it having queer sex.

We will continue by playing several short Surrealist games in order to relax and prepare for the climax: the collective writing of gender- and genre-fucking stories of our own.

Language: English
Open to all genders, no previous knowledge necessary
You can register for the workshop at the info booth during the festival. Max. 15 people

Tea Hvala is a sociologist, writer, translator, editor, organiser and feminist science fiction fan with a MA in Gender Studies. She lives and works in Ljubljana where she co-hosts a monthly radio show Sektor Z, co-organises the International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns and participates in Red Dawn’s theatre performance group. Since 2008, she has been facilitating workshops in collaborative writing of feminist-queer science fiction In Other Wor(l)ds in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Germany, United Kingdom, and The Netherlands. Her recently edited books include Svetovi drugih (KUD Anarhiv, 2010) and Rdecke razsajajo! (KUD Mreza, 2011).

Bibliothèque érotique is a literary performance group that entices its listeners to think, fantasize and talk about sex and sexuality. We do this by mixing fashion, performance art and erotic literature.

The World SF Blog: Reflection on In Other Wor(l)ds workshops

The "ideologically suspect" World SF Blog, dedicated to new science fiction, fantasy, horror and comics from around the world is edited by Lavie Tidhar. On March 14th, the blog featured my article on In Other Wor(l)ds workshop series where I explain how and why it all started four or five years ago ... The article can be read here or below.

In Other Wor(l)ds: Workshops in Collective Writing of Feminist-Queer Science Fiction 
As a feminist activist, passionate reader of utopian fiction and hesitant writer, I often wondered why nobody in Slovenia seemed to be interested in literary games, for example in collective explorations of unthinkable ideas and unheard-of styles. My question and a possible answer might have something to do with the fact that I am relatively young yet older than my country.

Let me explain. I come from a twenty-year old country whose official language, Slovene, is spoken by two million people. In 1991, Slovene literature was appropriated for nation-building goals as it neatly legitimized the claim for Slovene independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – even though this political demand had little to do with art and a lot to do with the rise of ethnocentrism in the region. This (and the war that soon spread to Croatia and most fatally wounded Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina) has profoundly influenced the “serious” status of literature in Slovenia.

As an art form of national importance, literature has been serving the interests of established authors and theorists who continue to prescribe aesthetic norms that discourage innovation and guarantee that marginal authors and genres are going to stay in that position. Of course, an alternative writing scene does exists but genres such as science fiction, fantasy or horror are barely present. And since the literary market is so small (the usual print run for works released by small publishers is 800-1000 copies for fiction and 500 copies for poetry), genre authors can forget about either commercial or critical success. I was never sure whether this was a blessing or a curse.

With the help of my friends, many of whom are musicians, comics artists and zine writers, I was able to think of it as a blessing. They often organised music and comics jam sessions where strange, sometimes humorous, sometimes poetic, sometimes scary conjunctions arose from, so it seemed, pure chance. I enjoyed these encounters very much and in 2007, I decided to invite other amateur writers to jam with me and make writing a less solitary experience. So we sat around a table and started playing the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse. Since we were less interested in automatic writing than in the points of interaction, we adjusted the technique to our needs. We decided upon a character, a setting or a plot twist and began to write. When our aching fingers forced us to stop, we assembled the pieces into a messy monster-piece, read it out loud and almost died laughing. The synchronicities were fantastic and frightening, as if our unconscious cared little for our elimination of the game’s automatic aspect. It seemed that our “emphatic repudiation of individualistic artistic value”, as Mel Gooding puts it in The Book of Surrealist Games (1993), really resulted in a “collective revelation” – one that taught us to trust our imagination and our abilities as writers.

The first public workshop took place in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) at the feminist-queer festival Ladyfest in 2008. The title In Other Wor(l)ds seemed most fitting for the occasion. It paid homage to Gayatri C. Spivak’s book In Other Worlds (1987) in which she tried to develop a methodology that would allow for non-patronising representations of “Third World women” in (Western) theory and fiction. It referred to another author whose view on the distance between – or rather, proximity of – fiction and fact is exciting for feminists and other intuitive visionaries. In the context of science fiction, Wittgenstein’s famous statement that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world” seemed to suggest that it is possible to write about Others, those metaphorical aliens, in ways that change my own (position in the) world in the process. In short, science fiction seemed to be the perfect genre for people who think about otherness in practical details, rather than abstract concepts.

At the workshop, I invited the participants to write stories that relate or transform gender variant human characters to aliens, fremdsprachenmonstermavens, kiggies, dodots, levitating broomsticks and other queer creatures. We discussed examples of feminist Sci-Fi to see what has been done, what hasn’t been done and why it might be still hard to do it. For example, we asked why does the critique of Cartesian dualism in Ursula K. Le Guin’s ground-breaking novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) not automatically extend to the critique of homophobia. And why does the Other, the radically different, the hardly imaginable, often seem so monstrous? We also talked about the ways to queer the rigid conventions of gender and genre. Since ideas in Sci-Fi are often disguised as characters, we figured they are inevitably gendered, thus it must be possible to genderfuck with them in all sorts of ways. So we tried out the recipe.

In Amsterdam, we defined the characters and a plot feature. We wrote about Bo, the human, and Vlar (or Vlarrr), the non-human character. We said we’ll let them choose the setting as long as they accept to meet and run away from – or towards – something together. The stories were written by Brigitte, Anne, Sara, Diny, Caroline, Nina, Anouk and yours sincerely. The second workshop happened in Salzburg (Austria) at a conference about innovations in open-access media. Since we wrote with pens on paper, we focused on the social innovation of a very old medium indeed: language. We decided to split in a German-speaking and an English-speaking group because these were our only common languages: the group consisted of eleven people whose mother tongues were Portugese, English, Slovak, French, German and Slovene. We managed to hold hostage individual authorship for three hours and wrote about three characters – Kim, V, and 0/1 – whose gender and character were subject to rapid change. The stories took place in Salzburg in the year 2050 and were written by Cristiane, Debi, Red, Dušan, Paul, Sarah, Christian, Nikoletta, Jenny and Imre. Later, I self-published the English stories from both workshops in a zine called – you guessed it – In Other Wor(l)ds.

Since then, the concept has been used for brainstorming purposes at other independent feminist-queer events in Belgium and Great Britain to promote zine-making and self-publishing. A participant from Amsterdam, an architect, told me she and her colleagues found it useful in their profession. As for me, I finally held some workshops in my home-town, Ljubljana, in 2010. We were hosted by a radical library, an arts association and twice by a feminist-lesbian collective. The characters varied from Rx Vulgaris (a symbiotic mechanoplant), Vanja (a transgender cyborg), The Decoratives (gay activists) and female anthropomorphic cats fighting gentrification to local politicians and self-appointed intellectuals – suggesting we disguised political satire as Sci-Fi. The combination certainly worked! In addition, the hosts liked us enough to help us scrape together funds for the release of a book entitled Svetovi drugih (KUD Anarhiv, 2010).

The most recent workshop happened on February 19^th 2011 at the winter edition of Lad.i.y.fest in Berlin. We played several Surrealist writing games in Sci-Fi settings with feminist-queer aspirations. For example, we collectively (de)constructed sentences like “The sexy robot slapped a strong community.” Later, we wrote several short stories, based on our favourite Exquisite Corpse sentences.

I no longer have to wonder where are all the people interested in literary games. I found them and learned that, locally speaking, “serious” literature and its inevitable identity crisis, is none of my concern. The fact that I am older than my country is an absolute advantage: I don’t even have to take myself seriously!

In Other Wor(l)ds workshop at Lad.i.y.fest Berlin

My next writing workshop is going to take place at the 2011 winter edition of Lad.i.y.fest on Saturday, February 19th from 12.00 to 15.00 at the f.a.q. Laden in Jonasstrasse 40 in Neukölln, Berlin. 

In Other Wor(l)ds: Collective Writing of Feminist-Queer Science Fiction

At the workshop, we are going to hold hostage individual authorship. We won’t wait for inspiration and we won’t worry about controlling the narrative either. Instead, we are going to play with the rigid conventions of genre and gender by disguising feminist-queer ideas as utopian characters of our choice.

The roboladies of Hermannstrasse.

The workshop will start with a short discussion about feminist-queer science fiction and the ideas or characters we would like to explore in an utopian setting. We will continue by playing several Surrealist games in “automatic writing” in order to relax and prepare for the climax: the collective writing of gender-fucking and mind-bending speculative stories. To amuse ourselves, we are going to conclude the workshop with a reading of our mistress-pieces.

We are going to play the following games: Definitions (or Question and Answer), Conditionals and two versions of Exquisite Corpse. The game descriptions below are taken from Mel Gooding's A Book of Surrealist Games (Shambhala Redstone Editions, Boston, 1993). In Gooding's words, these games can be played by anyone. The strange conjunctions, humorous or poetic, that they generate give them their point since the exploration of chance with automatic techniques is central to these and many other Surrealist games. 

The two faces of Ardra (from the Star Trek series).

 

Definitions (or Question and Answer): the game is played in pairs. A question is written down, the paper folded to conceal it from the next player, who writes an answer. Remarkable facts emerge. 

Conditionals: for two or more players. The same procedure as before, but in this case the first player must write a hypotetical sentence beginning with ‘If’ or ‘When’, then conceal it. The second player writes a sentence in the conditional or future tense. 

Exquisite Corpse: for a minimum of three players. Each writes on a sheet of paper a definite (‘The’) or indefinite (‘A’) article and an adjective. The sheet is folded so as to conceal the words, and passed round to the next player. Each player than writes a noun, conceals it, and the process is repeated with a verb, another definite or indefinite article and adjective, and finally another noun. The paper is unfolded and the sentences read out. Players may agree on small changes to ensure grammatical consistency. The game acquired its name from the first sentence obtained in that way: “The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.”

 

Konrad Potthoff's Wilhelmine meets Rosie (from The Jetsons).

I modified the game Exquisite Corpse in order to use it for collective writing of stories at In Other Wor(l)ds workshops in the following way: for four or five players (or several groups of four or five). Each participant begins by writing her own story. Ten minutes later, he passes the piece to the next person. After reading it (or not), xe continues where the other person stopped. The workshop is finished when everyone has written a part of every story and they are read aloud to ourselves or to the audience that can endure it;) 

The workshop will be in English. Please, bring a pen and some paper! 

Open to all genders, no application necessary. 

Stories from previous workshops can be read here and here.

Dogodek je podprlo Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije. / Supported by the Slovene Ministry of Culture.

In Other Wor(l)ds workshop at The London Zine Symposium 2010

The London Zine Symposium is an annual event that was set up in 2005 in the Institute for Autonomy - a squatted social centre in central London - to bring together zinesters, radicals and comic creators to celebrate DIY culture. The idea is to build a stronger DIY network and community by having people meet up, chat, maybe participate in a workshop or two but definitely have a good time.

The 6th annual symposium is, among other workshops, hosting In Other Worl(d)s!

In Other Wor(l)ds
An exercise in collaborative writing of feminist-queer Sci-Fi
At the workshop, we are going to hold individual authorship hostage for two hours. We won’t wait for inspiration. We won’t worry about controlling the narrative either. Instead, we are going to try to queer the rigid conventions of genre and gender together. We are going to disguise ideas as characters and genderfuck with them by relating or transforming gender variant human characters to aliens, cyborgs, monsters, mechano-plants and other queer creatures.

In Other Wor(l)ds workshop is a variant of the Surrealist game Exquisite corpse. Each participant begins by writing her own story. Fifteen minutes later, he passes the piece to the next person. After reading it, xe continues where the other person stopped. The workshop is finished when everyone has written a part of every story and when they are read aloud to the amazed amusement of all.

Everyone is welcome! Please, bring a pen and some paper.

Stories from previous workshops: Civilmedia Salzburg (2009) and Ladyfest Amsterdam (2008).

Saturday, May 29th at 17.00
The Rag Factory, Heneage Street, London E1 5LJ (just off Brick Lane on Heneage Street, about 400m north of Rough Trade and the Truman Brewery.)

station: Liverpool Street Station
tube: Aldgate East
bus: 205, 25, 254, 67, 15

An Exercise in Collaborative Writing at Civil Media '09, Salzburg

In Other Wor(l)ds
An Exercise in Collaborative Writing
Friday, November 6th 2009, 10.00-12.00, JUFA Salzburg

At the workshop, we will discuss and practice collaborative writing in the genre of feminist-queer speculative fiction. We are going to hold individual authorship hostage for two hours. Because of time limits, we won’t wait for inspiration. Since we aren't professionals, we won’t worry about controlling the narrative either.

We’ll jam. Assuming there will be six of us, we’ll end up with six stories. Each of us is going to begin by writing his / her own story. Fifteen minutes later, you’ll pass the text to the next person. After reading it, she / he / xe will continue where you stopped. The workshop is over when everyone has written a part of every story. If there is time left, we can also mix, polish, dismember or assemble all of it.

If you can, bring your notebook. If we have six, we can make an online zine immediately after the workshop. If not, bring your old school pen!

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The workshop rests on the idea that while technological innovation, such as online open-access media, does influence socially innovative uses of that – and older – technologies (for example, zines), innovative articulations of ideas also change the use of existing technologies. As any science fiction reader will tell you, speculations about new technologies can suggest technological innovation. Feminist-queer sci-fi readers might add that social speculative fiction also suggests social change. For example, science fiction can turn ideas into characters. Since ideas disguised as people are inevitably gendered, we will genderfuck with character roles and try to embody some utopian ideas along the way. But first, we’ll make up the characters and discuss the rules.

This is what we did at the Ladyfest in Amsterdam last year.

Type: Workshop
Language: English
Suggested overall duration: 2 hours
Suggested number of participants: 6, no previous experience (or gender;) necessary

The Civilmedia09 "unconference" is going to take place at JUFA Salzburg. Address: JUFA Salzburg, Josef-Preis-Allee 18, 5020 Salzburg, +43(0)662/84 26 70 / Map

I will also participate in the panel on Participatory culture and technology in on- and offline networks on Saturday, Nov. 7th, at 10. 00. I'll speak in the name of feminist and queer festival Rdeče zore / Red Dawns from Ljubljana. Details.