November 2 “STORYTELLING IN/OF COMPLEX ECOSYSTEMS” (Key word: RESPONSIBILITY)
Teaching Team: F. BENOZZO, E. LAMBERTI
Focus on:
Some environments seduce us in subliminal and overwhelming ways, creating the reassuring illusion that we inhabit spaces enhancing our conscious free will when, in fact, they do not. In our technologically interconnected world, our individual and collective actions are often conditioned by more or less sophisticated forms of persuasions that create mainstream narratives that are not easily noticed. Because of that, we need to gain a more conscious, ecological vision of the ways in which we experience our actuality and nowness, even within our democratic, diverse and inclusive societies. Traditionally, the term ecology implies a respectful relation between all living organisms and their natural environment; yet, today the very idea of ‘natural environment’ is inscribed into a more complex dimension, as the biosphere constantly juxtaposes to the infosphere. The interplay of human and artificial conditions is therefore complicated, with inevitable but not always visible consequences on our cognitive and emotional consciousness, both as individuals and as groups.
The session on STORYTELLING IN/OF COMPLEX ECOSYSTEMS navigates the complex ecosystems of today, following the idea that media are no longer simply the extensions of the human body and mind; instead, they are our environment. Inevitably, being an environment, media are no longer unbiased. Against such a context, we will try to understand if free will is still an option and how it could develop into responsible dissent, meaning here the capability that we have to acknowledge and express one’s own individual thinking, as well as constructive and effective differences (of opinion, language, gender, sexual orientation, etc.).
November 9: “DISSENT AND POLITICS: ACTIVISM, INFORMATION AND CRITICAL STORYTELLING” (Key word: DISSENT)
Teaching Team: L. CONTADINI, M.PETRELLI
Focus on:
This session will explore the concept of dissent in our everyday life. Starting from everyday conflict scenarios we will consider how dissent fosters creativity, and how it can turn into the art of dissent on stage. We will present different forms of engaged theater to analyze the different ways artists sought to use their art for constructing critical thinking among spectators. The use of the stage as a platform for political analysis or advocacy has a long tradition; a typical example is, for instance, the influence of Bertolt Brecht’s theatrical techniques in the first decades of the 20th century, or Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed in the 1970s.
Following a theoretical introduction, participants will be encouraged to explore dissent in their own realities, investigating different alternatives of dissent.
November 16 “GENDER, LANGUAGE, DISSENT” (Key word: VULNERABILITY)
Teaching Team: J. AUSTRAISKIENE, P. RONDELLI, J. URBONAITE, F. VITUCCI
Focus on:
This session aims to investigate the linguistic discrimination of gender and sexual orientation through expressions of dissent and vilnerability. We will reflect on the metaphoric language that is used in different forms of communication, both traditional and multimedia, to express the normalness of linguistic diversity. We will also investigate how this language mirrors and forges individual and collective awareness; in particular, we will focus on how it leads to building a negative attitude towards a specific community. Dissent towards linguistic normativity, therefore, becomes an act of civic awareness, a form of activism to assess social vulnerability. We will analyze specific examples of interlinguistic communication that affect the construction of a shared background, also on a subliminal level. In particular, we will focus on gender complexity in the translation of audiovisual and multimedia discourse, which is increasingly widespread in transversal and transnational communities.
