Workshop Week!

WORKSHOP WEEK: WEEK OF APRIL 16, 2018
Every spring semester the students, faculty, and staff of Paris College of Art take a break from the regular schedule of classes and engage in a variety of exciting and challenging workshops. This is an opportunity for all to step away from the intensity of the academic year and breathe fresh air into their pursuits and develop new ideas.
Mandatory for all PCA degree students.
Workshops are open to all PCA students, faculty, and staff.
If you have questions about a specific workshop, contact the organizer listed.
Dance & Tech
Contact: Klaus Fruchtnis
Maximum 15 participants
During this workshop, students will learn how to use dance and movement as manipulation tools to develop human driven technology. They will experiment how to use their own perception while in movement in order to identify useful information for the development of technological objects. The workshop will include traditional dance improv warm up, small groups dance improv + technological objects interactions and sharing information and experience as a group. Open to all students – NO NEED TO BE A DANCER
Medium Format Camera Techniques
Contact: Tara Bogart
Maximum 12 participants
The Medium Format Photography workshop is devoted to both the technical and creative use of the view camera. Throughout the 2-day workshop students will work in the studio and field to develop a personal project and perfect technical skills. I will be inviting the students to discover how the view camera is key to contemporary photographic practice by exploring books and exhibitions. The will complete a short elegant and cohesive project.
The World is Made of Stories - An Exhibition
Contact: Chloe Briggs
Maximum 20 participants
This five-day intensive workshop is devoted to the creation of a work of art and/or design for the end of year exhibition on Thursday 18th May.
Working with the title, ‘The World is Made of Stories’ and with inspiration from the recent exhibition with the same name at the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (Astrup Fearnely Museet) students will be guided through a series of exercises designed to: spark imagination, encourage wide-ranging and thorough investigation, inspire ambition and teach presentation skills. The aim of the workshop is to support students through: peer-reviews, presentations of artists and designers work relevant to the theme, and one-to-one tutorials in the development of a personal work that will be professionally exhibited.
Students will be expected to draw and build upon the technical skills, methods and approaches that they have learned on Foundation and/or other courses in order to realize an accomplished and ambitious work to be shown to the public. The choice of materials and application of technical skills to realize the work will be driven by the student’s idea: the tools, equipment and general resources available to the student will be clearly allocated, and time to source extra things built into the structure of the workshop.
A catalogue will be designed and produced by the group for the exhibition and will require collaboration.
Sherlock Holmes and the Internet of Things
Contact: Klaus Fruchtnis
Maximum 15 participants
The purpose of this course is to give students a chance to explore innovative forms of storytelling by reimagining the world of Sherlock Holmes.
Morning: Students will run Sherlock Holmes and the Internet of Things, a collaborative storytelling prototype developed by Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab. They will create crime scenes, invent connected objects, explore the Sherlock Holmes storyworld, and solve mysteries together. More information about the project here.
Afternoon: Using the framework of the morning’s experience, students will delve deeper into their explorations. They will evolve their object prototypes using tools ranging from paper prototypes to augmented reality tools, and they will contribute to the evolution of this collective project.
What You Hear is What You do. Workshop with the Sound of its Own Making.
Contact: Véronique Devoldere
Maximum 10 participants
Robert Morris recalls a visit of John Cage at his show in NY in 1963: “When Cage came, I turned it on… and he wouldn’t listen to me. He sat and listened to it for three hours and that was really impressive to me. He just sat there.” Taking time was already in the 60s a rare good. We will discuss Robert Morris’ “Box with the Sound of its Own Making” which provides a lot of questions which in fact concern all types of artistic work – not only conceptual or minimal artworks
The role of the (visual) object for artistic expression, the many ways of production, the relation of output and process, form and content, our perception of the object in a certain space and time.
The center of the workshop is your practice. You can continue a current piece or start a new one. We will also look at your existing works as recordings—and we will record and listen to new works. Accompanied by exercises you will be introduced to audio recording to follow your artistic process.
There are no special skills needed and the workshop is open to all students who are curious to discover the mysteries of making art.
NORMAL: Streaming the Future = Design Fiction Workshop
Contact: Linda Jarvin
Maximum 15 participants
French design fiction group N O R M A L S proposes an immersive speculative design workshop aimed at exploring the future of design practices, and the role of specialists in an increasingly automated society based on ever more intelligent algorithms — how generative design leads to new aesthetics of downgraded imagery, fastness and post-amateurism.
Working in groups, participants act as design studios within a future society ruled by viewing metrics and reputation. The process is widely and wildly collaborative – punctuated by role-playing, creative writing and prototyping exercises — with competitive aspects, as participants are required to setup live video broadcast channels, and material restrictions unlock past certain audience thresholds. Project success is measured through channel metrics, with as a purpose to spark the ideation of new aggressive communication strategies and original art direction, both online and offline.
Participants should bring: Tools (knives, scissors, cutting mats, glue, tape, glue gun); One bag of (clean) found objects per participant; personal computer and good quality camera for documentation purposes
Working in France
Contact: Yoshiko Shimada
Maximum 20 participants
This workshop is aimed for students who want to pursue a professional career in France, but have little knowledge of the French job market.
The workshop will cover: « Career Planning » checklist; Contracts: Different types; Visa; Interview culture; Followup; Salary; Basic do’s and don’ts interacting with colleagues; French language: work French vs. colloquial French – starting and ending emails, vocabulary to connect ideas, different ways to politely disagree, different ways to agree, basic office vocab etc.