The School of Radical Attention will be IN RESIDENCY at the National Academy of Design from March 31st to April 25th, offering a slate of public programs on the study and practice of radical attention. In this series of hour-long workshops each inspired by a prominent pedagogical thinker, we bring their vision of FUTURE SCHOOLS to life through somatic practice and guided discussion.
Black Mountain College was an experimental institution that lasted from 1933-1957, emerging from a desire for alternate, progressive education amidst a period of economic crisis and a shifting cultural landscape. With teachers such as Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, the arts were at the core of its pedagogy, along with the values of interdisciplinarity, experimentation, and the idea that living and learning were intertwined. In this workshop, we will draw on these pedagogical approaches to explore the relationship between the practice of art and the practice of life, and ask: how might experimenting with our attention transform our understanding of the world in the times that we are in?
In our attention practice sessions, we use artifacts from the work of visionary thinkers and educators as an occasion for collective experiences of attention. No prior knowledge of Black Mountain College is necessary; all are welcome!