Workshop CREATIVE STRATEGIES: The Art of Talking by Dr. An Paenhuysen
General Course Description
Tristan Tzara
In this workshop we focus on speech acts and forms of discourse as tools to make art. The talking can happen in many ways, during a studio visit, in an interview, an artist talk, a performance lecture. It can be as simple as the art of conversation. “Working definition of a conversion,” critic Monika Szewczyk says, “is that a conversation produces something that is creative.” According to philosopher Arthur Koestler, the gradual construction of thought happens during speech: “Ideas come while talking.” And then there is the collaborative talking, for instance, with Paul McCartney and John Lennon writing songs together: “Jojo left his home in…” “Hey John, is Tucson in Arizona?” “Not sure. I think so.” “Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona…”.
Inspired by case-studies of talkers such as Anne Carson, bell hooks, Robert Filliou, Laurie Anderson, we explore creative ways of talking and its potential to make thinking move between people in a room. From an intimate coffee talk to a public speech, from writing texts to be read out loud to spontaneous and improvised talking.
Duration: June 03 – 04, 2025
Hours: Each day from 10 AM – 12:30 PM
Seats: Max. 20 | Language: English
Fees: The participation fee is €90 per person including material (without accommodation).
The fee is VAT-exempt by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery Higher Education and Research pursuant to Paragraph 4 No. (21) (a)(bb) UStG (German Value Added Tax Act).
Learning outcomes
Learning creative ways of using speech in your art making, improving your presentation skills, gaining confidence in talking about art.
Program Structure with Daily Lesson Plan
Day 1
During the first part of the workshop we focus on more intimate forms of speech, such as the art of conversation. We find various playful ways to get started with talking.
10.00 – 10.20 am
We start with an introduction to a short history of talking as an art form.
10.20 – 10.40 am
We study some examples of the use of speech in art.
10.40 am – 11.30 pm
Warm-up exercises: we try out some ways of talking, starting with intimate and ad hoc formats.
11.30 – 12.10
How do we preserve fleeting moments of talking? How can we document them?
12.10 – 12.30 pm
At the end of the first day, we will look at our experiments with talking and see what the creative output can be.
Day 2
During this second part of the workshop, we will focus on the creation of a text to be read out loud and we will come up with a few collaborative ways to do so.
10.00 – 10.30 am
We have a look at performance lectures for inspiration. How does it break the conventions of talking for an audience?
10.30 – 11.15 am
We gather ideas to write a short talk. How to write a text that is to be read out loud? We try them out.
11.15 am – 12.10 pm
How to prepare for public speaking? Do we memorise, or read our text out loud?
12.10 – 12.30 pm
Group discussion of the results and discussion about the insights gained in the workshop.
Your Workshop Instructor
An Paenhuysen is an independent curator, writer and art critic based in Berlin. From 2019 to 2022 she was the director of ‘The House of The Deadly Doris’, where she organised events to activate its 1980s punk archive. Recently, An curated ‘Hotel Belgrade’, the main venue for Belgrade Art Week 2021 and in 2022 ‘Sign and Arts. Deaf Culture / Hearing Culture’ at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art. An wrote her PhD about the cultural criticism of the Belgian artistic avant-garde. She was a post-doc researcher at UC Berkeley, Columbia University New York and Humboldt University Berlin. An has published her writing in Spike Magazine, Contemporary And, Sotheby’s, Berlin Art Link, etc. She also writes poetry: Silly Poems (Arthur Cravan Foundation) and Island Life (Quince Ediciones). In 2020 she founded the publishing project AAAAA PPPPP Publishing for short format art writing.
More information on the An Paenhuysen Website.
