workshop | micha cárdenas

Workshop at Transmediale 13 – Building Local Autonomy Networks

The website says that it’s already sold out, but just in case, I’m posting it here so people know it’s going on! Also, don’t miss Sandy Stone’s Keynote in the Desire track!

Autonets: We Already Know and We Don’t Yet Know, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics VIII Encuentro, São Paulo, Brazil, January 2013, with Micha Cárdenas, Alessandra Renzi, Frantz Jerome, Benjamin Lundberg, Lily Mengesha, Aisha Jordan, Joana Fittipaldi and Tomaz Capobanco, photos by Macarena Gomez-Barris

Building Local Autonomy Networks

Workshop

Desire

THU 31.01.2013 – 15:00

HKW K2

Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) is an artivist project focused on creating networks of communication to increase community autonomy and reduce violence against women, LGBTQI people (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Intersex), people of color and other groups who continue to survive violence on a daily basis. The networks are both on- and offline, including handmade wearable electronic fashion and face-to-face agreements between people. The networks are being established through a series of workshops, performances, presentations and discussions at art, activist and academic venues in the Americas and Europe. The project was initiated by Micha Cárdenas and is rapidly expanding into an ecology of networks involving many artists, hackers and activists.
Participants learn the basics of wearable electronics with Arduino, an open-source, single-board microcontroller and how to make their own sensors out of conductive thread and fabric. Additionally, participants are briefly introduced to the ways that Xbee transmitters can be used to make mesh networks. These technologies are the basis of Autonets.
More info: www.autonets.org

Participation with pre-registration only.

This Workshop is full!

Autonets Performance and Workshop at HTMlles 10 in Montreal!

I’ll be performing Wednesday in Montreal at HTMlles in collaboration with Life After Life and the 2110 Center for Gender Advocacy at Concordia. Join us!

PERFORMANCE
Open process
co-hosted by PIXEL LIBRE
November 14, 20h
Eastern Bloc, 7240, Clark (metro de Castelnau)
Regular Price $10, Reduced Price $5

Nancy Mauro-Flude (AU), Micha Cárdenas (US), Jim Bell (CA), Anne Goldenberg (CA)
The theme of “Open Process” unites four artists, local and international, who will share their creative processes, which is both risky and full of possibilities – “by sharing our creative process with others, we demystify the technology and create a larger community to help each other, and to innovate.

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Come to my workshops tomorrow in Montreal to be in the performance! The first part of this workshop will focus on using theater of the oppressed, dance and performance techniques to think differently about different kinds of violence we face in our communities and how we can respond collectively, using technology or not. We’ll develop together a performance to present at HTMlles. So the participants in the workshop will be asked to join me in the performance, but of course it won’t be required. I’m hoping to get at least 10 people to join the performance though.

Also, the second part of the workshop will be “pay what you can” and focus on an introduction to wearable electronics using conductive thread and fabric to develop handmade sensors such as pressure sensors and flex sensors.

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Inscription / Registration: risque@htmlles.net

Partie 1: Free ! / Gratuite! | CENTRE 2110 FOR GENDER ADVOCACY
Partie 2: 20 – 30$ sliding scale / Tarif régulier: 30$ ; Tarif réduit: 20$ | EASTERN BLOC
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:::::::::::::::::: ENGLISH ::::::::::::::::::::

WORKSHOP PART 1, 1pm-4pm, 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, 1500 de Maisonneuve
Free !

Workshop Part I – Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) is a line of mesh networked electronic clothing with the goal of building autonomous local networks that don’t rely on corporate infrastructure to function, inspired by community-based, anti-racist, prison abolitionist responses to gendered violence. Autonets seeks to respond to the daily risk of violence that continues to increase as capital becomes less stable.
The Autonets workshop engages participants in a discussion, using Theatre of the Oppressed and performance exercises, of how we can form local networks of autonomy and solidarity in order to create community-based responses to violences which are personal, gendered or state sponsored.
Co-presented by Life After Life, a working group of QPIRG McGill and QPIRG Concordia and an action group of the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy.

+ free
+ wheelchair accessible
+ traduction chuchotée
+ childcare available with 48 hours advance notice /
+ light snacks provided
+ supported by 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy and QPIRG-McGill

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WORKSHOP PART II, 6pm-9pm, Eastern Bloc, 7240 Clark
20 – 30$ sliding scale
Payment at the door

Workshop Part II – Building Local Autonomy Networks – Interested participants can take part in the second workshop on building mesh networked wearable electronic fashion.

+ childcare available with 48 hours advance notice /

:::::::::::::::::: FRANÇAIS ::::::::::::::::::::

ATELIER PARTIE 1, 13h-16h, 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, 1500, rue de Maisonneuve
GRATUIT!

Atelier Partie I – Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) est une ligne de vêtements électroniques en réseau maillé dont le but est de former des réseaux autonomes locaux qui ne dépendent pas des infrastructures commerciales pour fonctionner et qui sont en complémentarité avec les stratégies communautaires contre le racisme et le complexe carcéral. Autonets vise à combattre le risque quotidien de la violence qui ne fait qu’augmenter à mesure que le capital devient de plus en plus instable.
L’atelier sur les Autonets convie les participant-e-s à une discussion sur les manières de créer des réseaux locaux autonomes de solidarité. Utilisant des exercices de performance et le Théâtre de l’opprimé, cet atelier vise à construire des stratégies issues de la communauté pour faire face aux formes de violence personnelle, basée sur le genre et étatique.
Coprésenté par Life After Life (2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy, QPIRG McGill, QPIRG Concordial).

+ gratuit
+ accessible aux chaises roulantes
+ traduction chuchotée
+ gardiennage disponible avec 48 heures de pré-avis
+ avec collations
+ supported by 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy and QPIRG-McGill

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ATELIER PARTIE II, 18h-21h, Eastern Bloc, 7240, rue Clark
Tarif régulier: 30$ ; Tarif réduit: 20$
Paiement à la porte

Atelier Partie II – Building Local Autonomy Networks – Un second atelier pratique porte sur la fabrication de vêtements électroniques en réseau maillé.
Paiement à la porte

Gardiennage disponible avec 48 heures de pré-avis

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Presented as part of The HTMlles 10: Feminist Festival of Media Arts + Digital Culture, November 10 – 18, 2012, produced by Studio XX.

Présenté pas Les HTMlles 10: Festival féministe d’arts médiatiques + culture numérique, 10 au 18 novembre 2012, produit par le Studio XX.

www.htmlles.net
www.studioxx.org

For more information / Pour plus d’info: (514) 845-7934

Call for Participants for Zero1 Biennial Workshop and Performance

Micha Cárdenas, Allison Wyper, Karen Anzoategui and Bianca Molina are looking for 10-20 people to come to a free workshop in San Jose on September 14, 2012 that culminates in a performance at the ZERO1 San Jose Biennial. The workshop will be from 3:00-6:00 and the performance will begin at 7:30pm. The Autonets movement based performance will be created by the group on the day of the performance using and building on the concepts Autonets addresses: networks, autonomy, safety, anti-violence, resistance.

Please sign up by Sept 7 by emailing mmcarden 4t usc d0t edu with your contact information, a brief description of your background (activist, performance, art practice, community based art, etc.), a link to your website (if applicable, not required), and why you are interested in participating. Some performance experience is recommended, but not required.

If you can’t make it please help us spread the word!

More information about the ZERO1 event:

http://www.zero1.org/blog/emerge-zero1-street-festival

More about Autonets:

Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) is an artivist project started by Micha Cárdenas focused on creating networks of communication to increase community autonomy and reduce violence against women, LGBTQI people, people of color and other groups who continue to survive violence on a daily basis. The networks will be both online and offline, including handmade wearable electronic fashion and face to face agreements between people. The networks will be established through a series of workshops, performances, presentations and discussions at art, activist and academic venues across the Americas between June 2012 and January 2013.

Autonets includes a line of mesh networked electronic clothing with the goal of building autonomous local networks that don’t rely on corporate infrastructure to function, inspired by community based, anti-racist, prison abolitionist responses to gendered violence. The Autonets garments, when activated, will alert everyone in range of the the local mesh network who is wearing another autonet garment that someone needs help and will indicate that person’s direction and distance.

More at: http://autonets.org

About Us:

Micha Cárdenas is an artist/theorist who works in performance, wearable electronics, hacktivism and critical gender studies. She is a PhD student in Media Arts and Practice (iMAP) at University of Southern California and a member of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from UCSD, an MA in Communication from the European Graduate School and a BS in Computer Science from Florida International University. Her book The Transreal: Political Aesthetics of Crossing Realities, published by Atropos Press in 2012, discusses art that uses augmented, mixed and alternate reality, and the intersection of those strategies with the politics of gender, in a transnational context. She blogs at transreal.org and tweets at @michacardenas. Micha’s recent publications include Trans Desire/Affective Cyborgs, with Barbara Fornssler, from Atropos Press, “I am Transreal”, inGender Outlaws: The Next Generation from Seal Press and “Becoming Dragon: A Transversal Technology Study” in Code Drift from CTheory. She was previously the Interim Associate Director of Art and Technology for UCSD’s Sixth College. She has been a lecturer in the Visual Arts department and Critical Gender Studies program at UCSD and an artist/researcher with the b.a.n.g. lab at Calit2, the UCSD School of Medicine and CRCA. Her collaboration with Electronic Disturbance Theater, the Transborder Immigrant Tool, was the subject of widespread media coverage. She has exhibited and performed in biennials, museums and galleries in places around the world including Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana, New York, San Francisco, Montreal, Colombia, Egypt, Ecuador, Spain, Switzerland and Ireland. Her work has been written about in publications including Art21, the Associated Press, the LA Times, CNN, BBC World, Wired and Rolling Stone Italy.

Allison Wyper makes live performance that destabilizes the familiar from a feminist, activist perspective to reveal uncomfortable truths about our everyday lives. Bridging contemporary practices including performance art, theatre, dance and conceptual art she generates a dynamic hybrid genre that vitalizes the performance space as a site of critical investigation, with focus on collaboration, intimacy, endurance and sustainability within extreme body-based performance practices. Allison has performed, taught and collaborated with artists from around the world, including Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes, Violeta Luna, Sara Shelton Mann, Guillermo Galindo, Tim Miller, Hydra Poesis, Marcos Najera, Micha Cárdenas, Prumsodun Ok, Hancock & Kelly Live, Maria Gillespie, Michael Sakamoto, Kinodance Company, and Katsura Kan, among others. She has been an Associate Artist of the international performance company La Pocha Nostra since 2004. Her work has been seen in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Berlin and Perth, Western Australia. Allison holds an MFA from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, and a BA in Theatre Studies with concentrations in Directing and Visual Art from Emerson College.

Karen Anzoategui is a queer writer/performer and activist who sees her art and activism as an intersection of social change. She received her B.A. in theatre from Loyola Marymount University. Most known for her solo show Ser: L.A. vs. B.A., a Queer transnational tale, originally inspired by immigration legislation HR4437 and social manifestations in Argentina, was recently selected as a finalist for the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival in New York City. Karen has also presented her solo work as a keynote performer at Arizona State University’s Local to Global Justice Conference, MALCS conference, at the City of West hollywood PRIDE Festival, Macha Theatre, Hollywood Fringe Festival directed by Che’Rae Adams, to standing ovation crowds. Excerpts of her solo has been presented at: REDCAT, Casa 0101, Nate Holden Center with Teada and L.A.C.E. directed by Dino Dinco. You have seen Karen in ProClitvities directed by Virginia Grise at Highways Theatre , Henry V & The Changeling with Independent Shakespeare Co, Sissy by Ricardo Brach. She just closed the hit, Broadway Bound play Evangeline the Queen of Make Believe written by Louie Perez of Los Lobos, Rose Portillo and Theresa Chavez of About Productions. Her recent solo show, Catholic School Daze, presented at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, set the stage for her experience at Catholic highschool where she was bullied by the administrators for being “gay” before she even knew she was queer.

Autonets Workshop at Ladyfest Inland Empire

This weekend, Saturday August 11th, I’ll be doing a one hour workshop about Autonets in Riverside from 3:30-4:30pm. The workshop will use Theater of the Oppressed to develop community based responses to violence. I’m so happy to be invited, this is going to be an amazing event!

Ladyfest IE

Ladyfest is a globally celebrated festival and was brought to the Inland Empire in 2009. Ladyfest IE is a grassroot, D.I.Y, feminist festival. It consists or workshops, music, vendors, speakers, poetry, art & the participation of the community. Ladyfest’s goal is to inspire women & to bring awareness on local and global struggles.

More info about all the amazing workshops and performances is on their Tumblr.

Autonets Workshop at Hot & Bothered in Los Angeles

Hot & Bothered: A Celebration of Sexual Healing
July 21, Saturday at 12:00pm at Chuco’s Justice Center.
1137 e. redondo blvd., Los Angeles, California 90302

Organized by CUCCI LA!

This autonets workshop will focus on physical activities for building networks of safety, based on Theater of the Oppressed, the Pocha Method and dance methods, facilitated by myself and Allison Wyper!

SCHEDULE

12:00-1pm: registration & food

Room 1: all ages & childcare space
→1-2pm Hooping workshop with Ginger

→2-4pm Discussing sex as a family with Ticicalli Yahualli
Conversation that will focus on the autonomy of children’s bodies,& how its important for them to hold autonomy of their body to bring sexual health and safe exploration. This conversation will explore how we as adults/parents may help children set boundaries for their bodies, reinforce it and model it.
(all ages, all genders welcome)

→4-5pm UndocuQueer with Immigration Youth Coalition Los Angeles (IYC-LA)
Undocu-Queer is both a political statement and a statement about sexuality. Together the terms carry a heavy history of oppression but also a beautiful history of resistance. The focus of the workshop is to contexualize the history of queer and immigrant experience in which both histories intertwine in the undocu-queer experience. Creating an identity of intersection between sexuality and political resistance. (all ages, all genders welcome; we would like to attract Undocumented Queer folks and allies to this workshop)

→5-6pm Know Your Body & Body Autonomy with Ticicalli Yahualli
Exploring female reproductive anatomy, menstruation rituals, eco-friendly reusable alternatives, self-love body autonomy.
(for teen girls/womyn ages 11-17, all ages welcome)

Room 2: ages 18+
→1-2pm Shodhini Institute: Embodying Empowerment, An Intro to Radical Health
The Shodhini Institute is a radical international movement comprised of individuals that are questioning and re-envisioning the way we understand our bodies, health, and how we interact with the world within the framework of self-help. We teach people the basics of how to create space for the ritual of self-examination using a speculum, flashlight and mirror. Together we redefine our “reproductive” anatomy looking at ourselves as part of spectrum versus a male-female duality. We share about our experiences to learn from each other and we teach about how to use two orgasmic yoga practices to forge a connection between their heart and genitals. (18+, all genders welcome)

→2-4pm Building Local Autonomy Networks for Safety with Micha Cardenas and Allison Wyper
Local Autonomy Networks (Autonets) is an artivist project started by Micha Cárdenas focused on creating networks of communication to increase community autonomy and reduce violence against women, LGBTQI people, people of color and other groups who continue to survive violence on a daily basis. The networks will be both online and offline, including handmade wearable electronic fashion and face to face agreements between people. Autonets includes a line of mesh networked electronic clothing with the goal of building autonomous local networks that don’t rely on corporate infrastructure to function, inspired by community based, anti-racist, prison abolitionist responses to gendered violence. The Autonets garments, when activated, will alert everyone in range of the the local mesh network who is wearing another autonet garment that someone needs help and will indicate that person’s direction and distance.
(18+, all genders welcome)

→4-5pm BDSM for Queer People of Color with Masociclistas
Politics of bikes, kink, and BDSM for Queer People of Color. Discussion about sexy things you can do that are bike related. Boundaries and Intensity of Play. Hands-on demonstrations about Flogging, Tube Tying. These demonstrations can be done on others, yourself or you can simply watch, whatever your level of comfort is. (18+, all genders welcome; facilitated by and for Queer People of Color. People of Color who are not Queer but are in solidarity with QPOC are also welcomed. Open to single, coupled or poly arranged people)

→5-6pm Have Your Cake and Eat It Too with Kayla
This is an interactive workshops where you will learn the in’s and out’s of using food in the bedroom. From do’s and don’ts to when’s and where’s. You’ll get to know the dirty details on how to make your sexual foodie experiences more kinky. You’ll also get to pick a partner (or bring your own) and try out these delicious and indulging treats in ways you never thought possible. This workshop will crave your sweet tooth and rock your world all at the same time. (18+, all genders, queer and trans* folk of color, open to couples and/or those who aren’t afraid to couple up for some fun)

Room 3 (age-restricted)
→1-2pm Decolonizing Love with Nube f. Cruz
An accountability skillshare, and discussion on healthy love and relationships and what does that particularity mean to QTPOC.
(18+, all genders welcome, queer & trans people of color only)

→2-3:30pm Knowing Our Queer Contradictions: Anti-violence Practices Around Jealousy, Envy and Sharing Community Space with Beautiful Struggle
This workshop will explore the ways in which non-monogamy and polyamory can offer healing and counter hegemonic practices for queer and transgender people of color’s relationships to ourselves, our communities, dominant norms and systems of power. Our aim is to creatively explore the ways in which our lives have been shaped by a hetero-normative, monogamous, capitalist, racist, and colonizing frameworks while unpacking the ways these deficient and toxic models have become naturalized to us. We will look at the contradictions and conditions of living within a white supremacist nation, asking each other what impacts this has on our relations to spaces like: family/community, religion/spirituality, educational institutions, and media/culture. We believe that each of these entities have greatly influenced our thinking and practices of intimacy, communication, insecurities/jealousy, self-love, self-care as well as our understanding of community. (18+, all genders welcome. People of color, and queer & trans people of color centered)

→3:30pm-5pm queer.fat.disability with Katherine
Discussing sex with a disability, sex toy use with partners, and safe sex after sexual trauma. (16+, all genders)

→5-6pm Not Too Afraid: A caucus for trans feminine PoC in Academia– CAUCUS with Sottolin Weng
(18+, for non-operative, post-operative, or semi-operative trans women and other gender non-normative folks starting from a male body who identify as people of color and currently in a college or university setting)

Big Room (all ages)
(vendors + performers + food + Handz ON interactive stations)
→1:30-3pm Letter writing to CeCe with Treva
→3pm Performance with Vassy
→3-4pm Twerkshop with Three Olivas-Breazell
A music mash-up of sexy, booty bouncing’, tip drippin’, ass clappin’, body rollin’, hair flippin slut-ness. I will lead the group through your basic strip tease moves, ass shaking moves, body rolling, sensual teasing and sexy stage presence. The end result will be a learned sexy simple dance tease routine that can be taken back home, to your bedroom, to the club or to the stage. The purpose of this all is to get in touch with one’s inner diva and sexy. Everyone has it and this is the twerkshop to let that inner-slut out
→3-4:30pm Kissing Booth with Ezak & Jovan
& PhotoBooth with Fly Earth Photography
→4:30pm Pasties, tassles and assles making station with Vassy

Notes on accessibility: we will have a disabled access porta potty in the main room, and there are additional all-gender restrooms upstairs. Chuco’s main entrance (where workshops, food, vendors & childcare will be held) is wheelchair accessible. Parking is free & abundant in the lot across the street from the space, and there is limited street parking available.

BUS INFO: crenshaw bus 710 or 210 (stops approx 3 blocks from the space), or florence bus 111/311 (stops approx 3 blocks from the space)

Sliding scale entrance fee: $3-10
(no one will be turned away for lack of funds)

To register to attend in advance, visit:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JKPZSCL

If you are interested in vending at this event please contact Brenda at b.alvar3z at gmail or Zumi at izo.mizu at gmail for more info.

To make a donation (includes your entrance fee for the day) to support this grassroots event, use Cucci’s PayPal link at:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3YLNSP7KRPLZU

Please spread the word, and we’ll see you there!

Youth Workshop at Femina Potens

I’m so happy to be facilitating a workshop on Political Systems, via Theater of the Oppressed, performance and poetry, at Femina Potens next week in their series of workshops for LGBTQ youth. Here’s their announcement about the series that my workshop will be a part of.

Femina Potens is thrilled to announce that our FP Family & Youth Program will be pairing up with queer youth organization LYRIC to teach art, film, and writing courses every monday starting October 17th – May 2012. Our course will consist of 7 queer youth ages 17 – 19 and will conclude with a screening of a documentary on the program, a gallery exhibit, and written works created by the youth during the program. We will be updating you monthly on our youth’s progress. For more information on LYRIC visit LYRIC.org