SoC Alumn* Working Group / Floating Resources / INNER.VIEW
Sharing resources and highlighting your work!
Hello, y'all!
We hope this message finds you energized and inspired!
We are excited to send out our first summer newsletter because this is an introduction to a few (hopefully!) helpful resources that we hope to start sharing with you! And after this email, more will continue coming. But let’s go about it step by step.
First and foremost, we want to thank those who joined us for Spring Harvest in Amsterdam and Berlin! We are excited to share a few photos with you below.🧑🍳👩🌾👩🔬🧙♀️
During the Berlin event, we both vented our frustrations and shared ideas. An amazing part of the evening was the dinner with the Neue Nachbarschaft community – it was so great to meet new people <3
The event in the Netherlands was very cozy and warm, filled with games and getting to know each other better in a heartwarming atmosphere.
We promise that more events will come.
You will be the first to get invited!
SoC A* WORKING GROUP 👀
What became clear during those gatherings is that we want to find occasions to meet as a larger community again. With this intention in mind, we are coming to you with the idea of creating a “SoC A* WORKING GROUP” – a group that meets once every two weeks or once a month online to find ways to cultivate the community, discuss each other’s projects, collaborate, and catch up in good spirits.
We envision the group meetings with the focus on gatherings fluctuating between hang-out evenings, project feedback sessions, reading evenings, and collaboration-focused meet-ups.
The upcoming group meeting is preliminarily scheduled for Thursday, August 22, 2024, online, between 4 and 6 pm CET.
We will be sharing a reminder via WhatsApp groups closer to the date of this event and will keep you posted about further meetings.
FLOATING RESOURCES ✍️👨🏭👩💻
If you haven’t checked out our SoC Alumn* MIRO BOARD, we invite you to do so, as we want to move forward with the idea of sharing our resources. While we are slowly getting to it, the first thing we want to introduce is our expected-to-be-regular OPEN CALLS section on the MIRO Board that we have started adding.
We hope this tiny addition to our sharing of resources will encourage cooperation and collaboration with your fellow SoC’ers and the SoC Alumn* community. We wish you the best of luck in your applications. 😘 💫💫
SUPPORTING EACH OTHER, CONNECTING THE DOTS AND ADDING SPOTLIGHT TO OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS
We are just thrilled about this part of the newsletter! To shed light on your research, projects, and ideas, we hope to connect the dots between your contributions to ISSUES and/or your projects and/or research outside of SoC and the SoC Community at large. We have a few ideas in mind on how to do this, and below you’ll find a few of our test runs and trials.
SoC Alumn* Community x Studio106LA = a series of online shows
During the remainder of the year, we want to test out the idea of an online exhibition spotlighting SoC Alumn* work and research.
Why are we doing this?
We see this as a multifaceted contribution to sharing resources and an opportunity to showcase your work!
Therefore, this initiative aims to provide a platform for SoC Alumns to showcase work done outside of the SoC program that aligns with the interests explored during your SoC year. Additionally, online exhibitions have the potential to instantly reach a wide audience. We hope this approach enables you to connect with a broader viewership with just a click. Lastly, we believe that participating in a solo show with Studio106LA can enhance your creative portfolio when applying to other residencies and contribute to our community’s flourishing.
A little bit about Studio106LA: Studio106 is a spatial manifestation of the artistic alternative of West Los Angeles (US), operating between on-site and online space. Studio’s community space explores various forms of creative and community engagement run by a group of artists and social workers.
In the past, Studio106LA cooperated with the UCLA Department of Arts and Architecture and UCLA International Institute to create a series of online shows (commencing this activity during the COVID-19 time) focused on raising awareness. Check these shows out here: #TalkAboutBeirut, BeoAir, KoktemShaqyradi. Today, a large portion of community work is focused on working with children, and the online space is an open platform for cooperation and collaboration without borders.
MARIA AUS
Following the idea of giving space to people, the first spotlight highlights the work of Maria Aus, an artist from Kazakhstan, who, while being an active part of the SoC 2023 Cohort, hadn't had a chance to attend our gatherings in Zurich in person.
SALDO
In spring 2024, Maria’s piece “Saldo” was published as part of the ISSUES 2023 edition release. Interested in contemplative practices and forms of engagement with the surrounding environment where self, other, and surroundings merge into one unified world, Maria’s work depicts intricate fragments of human existence.
INNER.VIEW
Her art explores the frictions established by socially constructed reality, both tangible and intangible. She captures instances of architecture merging with nature, nature manifesting through its phenomena: man-made materials transforming into plants reminiscent of animals and people through her observational camera work.
DELVE INTO THE INNER.VIEW by MARIA AUS (click click)
The show uses photography to explore and express the intricate connections between personal experiences and universal truths, focusing on the interplay of polarities and the transformative processes that shape our lives and the world around us.
To us, it provided a long-awaited moment of rest and introspection.
WHAT’S COMING NEXT?
Finally, following Kit's tradition, we will be sharing long-read interviews with past SoC members. The first one, currently in the works, is with Lina Zeller, a dancer and performer from Brazil who currently resides in Zurich. We will dedicate the next newsletter to this format.
Stay tuned!
Okay! That’s it for now!
Warmly,
Lena