Additivism Workshop: Designing Post-Natural Futures (Athens, 10-11 Jun 2017)

12:00-18:00 - Diplareios School (Theatrou sq 3, Athens centre)This #additivism workshop led by Daniel Rourke and Geraldine Juárez invites us to an exploration of post-natural history, geo-history and Mediterranean world-ecologies, emphasizing critical perspectives driven from the intersection of art, design and activism. #Additivism, which takes 3D fabrication as its critical framework, is a portmanteau of additive and activism that exemplifies radical approaches to collective action, extending from the local through to geological timescales.In this two day workshop, we will identify and name the epistemic conditions under which “post-nature” emerges and thrives. We will take into account the additive logic of extractivism and its deep legacy in the form of techno-scientific projects such as bio- and geo-engineering. We will consider Mediterranean world-ecologies and imagine structures of knowledge and action able to exist outside or beyond “the Eurocene and Technocene initiated by Europeans.”What is Post-Nature and how does it relate to Earth’s deep geological time? In what ways could 3D fabrication affect tomorrow’s techno-natural environments? Can radical applications and speculations about its use assist in understanding the planet’s ongoing transformations?

3D Printing & Art Activism Workshop + Talk and Q&A, District, Berlin (22nd+23rd June, 2016)Two-day workshop and public talk with Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke on 22 and 23 June 2016 at District, Berlin.WED, 22 June, 10:30-17:00 Workshop Day 1THU, 23 June, 10:30-17:00 Workshop Day 2THU, 23 June, 19:00-20:30 Public TalkDESIGN BEYOND THE HUMAN: An Introduction to The 3D Additivist CookbookA talk and Q&A session by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke on the possibilities locked up in additivist technologies, with particular focus on the work of the critically renowned and emerging artists, makers, and theorists included in the forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook.In this talk the artist-activist Morehshin Allahyari and writer-artist Daniel Rourke will tackle the question of what it means to design beyond the human. Is it better to try to change the world or change ourselves, and what are the implications of taking a position in this debate?3D PRINTING & ART ACTIVISM WORKSHOP“Only self-contradictory practices are true in a deeper sense of the word. In our contemporary world, only art indicates the possibility of revolution as a radical change beyond the horizon of our present desires and expectations.” - On Art Activism - Boris GroysWe believe technology can open up new perspectives, providing people with the means to challenge the structures, ideas, and institutions that maintain the status quo. But technological change is - almost by definition - tied to the functions of capitalism: a system that profits the few, often at the expense of civil liberties or the environment.For this workshop, we call creators and thinkers to challenge and action around a technology filled with hope and promise: the 3D printer. After considering the metaphorical and practical implications of additive processes, and exploring the revolutionary spaces opened up by ‘Art Activism’, workshop participants will devise practical and conceptual 3D printable designs that have radical implications. We will then discuss and explore the potential of ‘Disobedient Objects’ and their influence on social and political movements. We will reconsider activism as a form of ‘change’ and question the notion of ‘problem solving’ using dystopia, horror, and weirding as methodologies.Some Questions to Consider:What does it mean to be ‘radical’ in our contemporary society?How can we use technologies as tools of resistance and collective action?What does Activism mean today?Participants will work on devising their own ‘radical’ ideas, and blueprints for a 3D printed design that has the potential as a tool for activism with particular emphasis on sparking creative and critical debate.Preparing for the Workshop:Watch The 3D Additivist ManifestoBrowse the extensive additivism.org archiveDownload The Additivism Reader: Browse the reader + Read what interests you + Make notesMaterials participants will need to bring:Laptop computer Pens, paper Participants are encouraged to look through the reader that we have provided prior to the workshop.The work produced in the workshop will be shared online as part of our additivism.org blog and diverse social network. We encourage participants to continue working on their ideas after the workshop for possible submission and inclusion in the forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook - to be published online and in print in late 2016.Workshop application:In order to participate in the workshop, please send Daniel and Morehshin a short email on why you want to take part: 3d@additivism.org

“Your Shiny Plastic Future Is a Load of Crap”: #Additivism interviewed for HyperallergicGretta Louw interviewed us for Hyperallergic:It was hugely important to us that the manifesto undermine the position from which it is situated. We tried to show the limits and contradictions in our own thinking. The manifesto performs a critique of itself through irony, contradiction, and self-ridicule. The language of the manifesto breaks down and degrades, just like any system accelerated to its limits. Andrea Young’s amazing sound design for the video was also paramount in performing that quality.But I’m going to try to answer your question from more of a perspective of personal experience. One of the things that I have thought about the most in the last couple of years is the new potentials of species-being that new technologies facilitate. As a woman from the Middle East, I interact with a heteropatriarchy, capitalist, colonialist world, and so much of that experience creates a certain kind of alienation that is unique to my very personal/political experience. I deeply connect with a sentence in the Xenofeminism Manifesto — “If nature is unjust; change nature” — and Donna Haraway’s command to “Make Kin Not Babies!” For me, these two are about many things from the past that I want to resist and rebuild. With #Additivism, we want to explore ways of turning alienation into expressions of power.↪ Read the full interview here

Sign up: Sonic Acts #Additivism Workshop (29 Feb - 1 Mar, 2016)

There are still places available for our #Additivism Workshop at Sonic Acts Academy, on the theme of ‘Post-Nature’. Sign up!Workshop The 2-day 3D Additivism workshop, which will take place immediately after the Sonic Acts Academy (29 February & 1 March), will be presented as an expanded lecture and as a workshop. During the workshop participants will be encouraged to reconsider the terms under which human-centric technologies affect the ongoing transformation of nature into ‘post-nature’, as well as the moral and philosophical implications of actively seeking to steer our technologies towards this end.  Participants will be guided through the processes of additive design with the aim of producing speculative ‘post-natural’ objects for possible inclusion in the forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook. Questions such as: “How do we imagine structures of knowledge and action that exist outside or beyond human beings and our technologies?” and: “Is it possible to ‘write’ into, to ‘design’ alternate futures, without limiting what they (and we) might become?” will form a red threat.   

Additivism Workshop @ Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (Feb/March 2016)We are excited to announce a 2 day #Additivism Workshop as part of Sonic Acts Academy, Feb/March 2016

The Sonic Acts Academy relates to topics that are connected to the ‘dark matter’ theme Sonic Acts is currently investigating with its projects such as Dark Ecology and The Geologic Imagination, informed by the realisation that we live in the Anthropocene, and questioning how this forces us to rethink concepts of nature, culture, technology, and ecology. The workshop is open to artists, theorists, designers, engineers, scientists, thinkers, doers and makers who are interested in alternative approaches to theory-led forms of practice. Participants are ideally filled with fears and enthusiasm for the future. To apply please send a short bio, a motivation why you would like to attend, and your expectations to masterclass[@]sonicacts[.]com.

From 23rd – 30th September Morehshin Allahyari and I will be artists in residence for 2015 VIA Festival, Pittsburgh, for the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University. During our residency will deliver a series of lectures, a day long workshop, and work on our forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook.

Artist Residency // Ongoing Allahyari and Rourke will be in residence in the STUDIO editing their forthcoming 3D Additivist Cookbook of blueprints, designs, 3D print templates, and essays on the topics raised by the 3D Additivist Manifesto. Artist Lecture // Thursday, September 24th, 5:00 p.m. A talk and Q&A session by Morehshin Allahyari and Daniel Rourke about The 3D Additivist Manifesto + forthcoming Cookbook in addition to the screening of The 3D Additivist Manifesto video. Artists will talk about their own research and practice in relationship to Additivism and 3D printing. 3D Additivist Workshop // Friday, September 25th 10am-6:00pm What is #Additivism: A Collaborative Workshop Investigate #Addivist ideas in your own work during a day-long workshop with the artists. Conceive, design, and prepare works for fabrication with potential for projects to be submitted to the Cookbook -> Click here to register for the workshop