WHEN: March 22nd-May 31st, every other Tuesday from 7-8:30pm CST

WHERE: Zoom!

COST: $65 General Admission ($50 Students and Recent Graduates within one year of graduating)

INSTRUCTOR: Kean O’Brien

Where do grief, death, and trauma live in our bodies and our art? Approaching this question from an intersectional lens, this group will read essays and texts from Eve Sedgwick, Lynda Hart, Sigmund Freud, Leo Bersani, Gayatri Gopinath, Margaret Iverson, and more to try to find the answer. Participants will look at photography as an index for trauma and the ways we can relate this to our bodies.

Trauma has been associated with photography since the medium’s inception. Photography, Trace, and Trauma by Margaret Iversen writes that “photography as a medium is often associated with the psychic effects of trauma. The automaticity of the process, the wide-open camera lens, and the light sensitivity of film all lend themselves to this association.”

In this class, there will be weekly discussions about the readings and pieces of photography that are connected to the discussion. Students are invited to make work alongside the readings if they so choose. There will be two days of critique for anybody who wants to share work with the group.

*Important things to note*

• This class will be discussing trauma in ways that it connects to ourselves, our work, our and our bodies. This can be a difficult topic. It is important that everybody who is in this class has support outside to help with anything that comes up during the class. 

• The texts we will be reading are academically challenging. Here are two examples of readings for the class. I urge you to review these texts to make sure this kind of reading is something you want to engage with.

VanderKolk_RunningForYourLife_chptr4.pdf

Iverson_PhotoTraceTraumaChptr1_exposure.pdf

Course Objectives And Learning Outcomes

• Apply pedagogical ideas to ones’ art practice

• Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts, methods, and artistic practices at the intersection of disability studies and visual culture

• Develop the ability to critically and creatively extend, challenge, and revise concepts of ones’ art practice

• Relate ones’ embodied position to a collective understanding of grief, death and trauma

Accessibility Tools that are available if needed:

• Live transcription

• ASL interpretation

• Transcript of each class sent after

• Access to large font texts

• Image descriptions

The class is capped at 12 participants and will be held every other Tuesday night over Zoom from 7pm-8:30pm CST from March 22nd- May 31st. This class will be recorded and distributed to participants in the days following the class. Students will have the option to attend the zoom sessions or participate in the class asynchronously.

Please Note: LATITUDE never wants finances to stand in the way of participation in our programs. Please reach out to us to discuss financial assistance.

Refund Policy: For all LATITUDE courses, full payment is required to reserve your spot in the class. If you need to cancel your reservation for any reason, LATITUDE can provide a 100% credit towards future online classes. No refunds for Online classes can be provided at this time.

Promo Image Credit: Amy Parrish Check the Mail for Her Letter, Amy Parrish