In this course we will unpack the word “composition” as a guide for authoring, and we will work in groups to create a performance. Starting with co or com as in “with,” every act of creation is in some way collaborative or relational. We will borrow the notion of “program” from architecture as the coordination of all the constraints and agendas of a project into a transparent structure everyone can work with. Then reading posit as “to place” as well as “to assume as true,” we will think about the composition of one’s own subjectivity as a source of structuring ordering forces, and how assuming one’s own limits as situated in a particular perspective allows for grounding assumptions to be oriented in relation to one another (com-position). Finally, defining tion as that which gives the composite duration, we will investigate different methods in processes of composition.

(March 22, 29, 30, April 5)