THE
PUBLIC
SCHOOL
TELIC ARTS EXCHANGE

Describe plausible short term models of global climate change and the impact on human society.

Discuss possible methods to prepare, and what locations on Earth might be optimal for long term survival.

We would discuss the contents and history of the Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch is a collection of five books. Popular in biblical antiquity and referenced in the New Testament, it was thought to be written around 200BC.

Although not included in the Old Testament Bible, it was included as part of the Ethiopean Christian Biblical Cannon and was "discovered" in the late 1800's be an English scholar.

Enoch is described in the Bible as the Seventh son of Adam and the great-grandfather of Noah. Enoch is the only person, in the Bible, besides Elijah and Jesus, to have ascended into heaven [on a cloud]. In Antiquity, much learning and knowledge of the Mystical Arts was believed to have originated with Enoch.

There is some identification of Enoch with the legendary seventh king of Sumeria, who had similar attributes and his great grandson who was the tenth king of Sumeria and survived the deluge in an Ark.

We would sit around a circle and play percussion istruments.

We could have a brief introduction, where each person describes their story of why they drum and what they like to play.

We could have a brief "history" of the practice of druming and introduce a few basic patterns

We could talk about the practice and ethics of drumming and drum circle "etiquette"

And then we could just drum and relax and have a fun time for a couple hours.

People would be free to attend class to watch, or dance, or participate in some other creative way also.

Explores techniques, methods, and objectives of drawing that are contrary to, or just different than, common art school drawing techniques. Asks the question, "What IS a drawing?" and, "How do we know?"

Is a drawing something more than just lines on a paper?

What constitutes an intellectually interesting, or artistically valid, or socially admirable, drawing?

This would be a lab class where the participants would experiment themselves.

Often, socialists eschew any responsibility for confronting questions of revolutionary transformation and the workings of a socialist society on the pretext that we should not be concerned with utopian blueprints.  I am proposing a class/series of classes that would address such questions.  I propose starting with Lenin's discussion of building socialism in State and Revolution: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/  I would propose reading and discussing chapter 5, and I could give an introductory talk on Lenin.  The idea here is to first discuss a traditional Marxist theoretical orientation toward these problems.  If there is interest in this topic, however, this text would only be a starting point, and we could go on to read other Marxist or non-Marxist (such as Michael Albert's Parecon) writings that discuss the possible workings of a post-capitalist society in more detail, with others possibly volunteering to give presentations.

Anybody interested in reading and discussing a new book called "Communization and its Discontents," or selections from it?  The book is available online here: http://libcom.org/files/Communization-and-its-Discontents-Contestation-Critique-and-Contemporary-Struggles.pdf  

Here is a book description: "Can we find alternatives to the failed radical projects of the twentieth century? What are the possible forms of struggle today? How do we fight back against the misery of our crisis-ridden present?