Work Out / Tune-Up / Turn On ~ What's Next? Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art -
Celebrating you body participatory actions with author Linda Weintraub

Workshops Location: EDA, UCLA Broad Arts

Author and artist Linda Weintraub will lead a series of hands-on methods with visiting artists and scholars, faculty and students. In her approach, she re-establishes the physical organism as a tool for investigation and discovery, thus activating “sensory studies,” a growing field of academic inquiry, and “new materialism,” which is a current development in philosophy. The day will be divided into topics based on chapters in her recently published book, What’s Next?: Eco Materialism & Contemporary Art (Intellect). Together with guest participants, Weintraub invites her audience to consider the remarkable capacity of the human organism to discern, interpret, and apply evidence of the material and energetic environment.

Between 11 am and 5 pm, guest artists will be conducting a series of workshops that reflect the content of each of the book’s chapters. Please sign up for each module separately.

CHAPTER ONE: SECRETIONS
Time: 11am - 12pm
"ARTISTIC EXPRESSION VIA DNA"
PRESENTER: Wenda Gu.
Participants will paint with ink infused with DNA from human hair, a form of "Ink Alchemy" that embodies the rich symbolism of ancient China, and addresses contemporary conditions and considerations.

CHAPTER TWO: DIRT
Time: 12pm - 1pm
"TASTE of PLACE"
PRESENTER: Laura Parker.
Participants will experience the remarkable variability of soil and its influence on the taste of foods in which they grew.
"I BELIEVE SOIL IS... Mysterious, Commplace, Unclean, Beautiful..." Participants will interrogate their personal relationship to soil, prepared by Linda Weintraub.

CHAPTER THREE: UTILITY OF PEOPLE
Time: 1pm - 2pm
"UNSEEN: THE INVISIBLE MENACE"
PRESENTER: Jiayi Young.
Participants will come together to reconsider human agency for a more sustainable future of carbon neutral. Through building, seeing, playing and experiencing, UNSEEN visualizes one metric ton of CO2.

CHAPTER FOUR: FIRE
Time: 2pm - 3pm
"TOTALLY WARM: THE MATERIALITY OF HEAT"
PRESENTER: Iain Kerr.
Participants will discover the cosmic extremes of heat on planet Earth by foraging and preparing sweet drinks 'cooked' by sun, micro-organisms, rocks, and minerals.

CHAPTER FIVE: TECHNOLOGY
Time: 3pm - 4pm
"THE PHONE IN THE APPLE: MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY - DISSOLVING BODIES"
PRESENTER: Vera Wittkowsky.
Participants will explore their physical and emotional entanglements with their cell phones and related social / environmental issues.

CHAPTER SIX: WHAT'S NEXT?
Time: 4pm - 5pm
"WHAT'S NEXT? ECO MATERIALISM!"
PRESENTER: Terence Koh.
Participants will experience multi-sensory bee enchantments by visiting a 'bee chapel' replete with the aromas, tastes, sounds, sights, and feel of honey, comb, wax, propolis, etc.

RECEPTION

The workshops will be followed by a book-signing/reception at the Fowler Museum of Art at UCLA.
Map to Fowler Museum: https://goo.gl/maps/xK1SteHLKY22