COHERENT HICCUPS: COLLABORATIVE AUTOBIOGRAPHIC LABORATORY — WITH JASMINA AL-QAISI — OPEN REGISTRATION
JULY 25, 2020
What is the first thing you would say about yourself to someone who does not know you? We intend to give a collective answer to this eternal difficulty: how do we speak about ourselves in writing, especially in 3rd person? Coherent Hiccups is about the small problems, the hiccups that are unleashed when we talk or write about ourselves for others. Through hiccups, sighing and blabbering together we have more chances of finding solutions. We often replicate already existing models to avoid the fear of being misunderstood. Creativity often stagnates when we try to grasp our personality in a CV, in long biographies, online bios, or in a few words for dating apps. In creating this image, we establish our history, without narratives or explanations, like a permanent quotation. We are our own historians for a long part of our life, or even forever.
Jasmina Al-Qaisi intends to open this secret cascade — assuming that it exists — of the unlimited resources we have when we describe ourselves. Questions such as: Where should I look to see myself? What could describe me better than my studies or workplaces? What would a fictional biography about myself sound like? How sincere is sincerity and what instruments do I need in order to put myself in a good light? These are just a few of the apparently absurd enigmas that the host has thought of when she proposed an online laboratory.
We invite you to take part in this meeting, whose result, apart from collective wisdom, will also be a podcast episode. The perspective of this laboratory is an artistic one, with the purpose of freeing ourselves from misconceptions regarding the shapes, but also the contents of what we would usually call a biography, a narrative CV or other hybrid formats of describing ourselves.
In order for the podcast to happen, we kindly ask you to agree to the entire session being recorded once we begin the discussion. Anyone, anyone and anyone is welcome to the genesis of our laboratory, as long as you do not promote hate speech or discrimination and as long as you intend to participate until the end.
Jasmina is the right host for this kind of experiment: in her literary, audio or performative works, she models her identity to explore herself in front of an audience. A selection of her works can be found on Soundcloud.
The session will take place on July 25, starting 3pm Romanian local time.
To register, please send us an e-mail at hello@quoteunquoteplatform.com.
To participate in this laboratory, no specific knowledge or skills are needed.
The laboratory will be bilingual (Romanian & English).
BIO
JASMINA AL-QAISI is a visual researcher, writer and archivist. She writes as she speaks in her own English, caught between sound and visual poetry. She investigates intersections between body politics, intimacy, digitally mediated relationships, homes and aways, often in close communication with her grandmother. She transfers poetry in performative acts and sound with gastronomy into radio formats, most frequently she conducts an on-going radio and culinary research titled Bites. She often makes waves on free, independent, temporary or mobile radios. In SAVVY Contemporary she is part of the team for the sound art and experimental music program ‘Untraining the Ear’, one of the archivists in SAVVY.doc and she supports the making of various exhibitions and provides gastronomical nurture. She joined the artistic research project Research and Waves, where she writes, thinks and researches on various themes. As an art writer, she employs poetic and alternative forms to critique and conceptualization. She publishes in Revista ARTA and often develops concepts for independent art and culture initiatives. She co-authors diverse audio actions with the artist Ralf Wendt.