The School for Designing a Society, established in 1991, is a project of teachers, performers, artists, and activists. It is an ongoing experiment in making temporary living environments where the question “What would I consider a desirable society?” is given serious playful thoughtful discussion, and taken as an input to creative projects. Rather than orienting participants to find a comfy spot in the current social system, this School offers tools, time, ambiance and company in which people can imagine and design a system they would prefer.
We offer regular classes in concepts drawn from music composition, systems theory, critical theory, and epic theater that we have found helpful in taking a design approach to social problems. SDAS sessions usually include design groups in which participants formulate desires in the form of false statements, under the title “My Desires: Right or Wrong”. The design groups discuss, combine, and revise these statements and take them as points of departure for creative group projects.
Guest presenters offer classes, talks, and guided field trips in various subject areas connected to the current projects. Often there is a large-scale project involving the entire school. Such projects have included performance tours, house theater, street theater, forest theater, children’s theater, public painting studio, hospital clowning, excursions to conferences, hosting our own conference, collaborative writing, creative demonstrations, urban permaculture.
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