The Groundcourse is a two year foundation led by Roy Ascott at Ealing (1961-64), Ipswich School of Art (1964-67) and currently at Beijing DeTao Masters Academy in Shanghai.

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Groundcourse is a seminal educational experiment that is a key influence on Shift/Work. Prof Ascott will discuss Groundcourse before running a short exercise from it. This is a unique opportunity to experience the legandary Groundcourse at first hand.

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Schedule:

 

1. Discussion of full Groundcourse programme, the theory behind it, and plenty examples of participant outputs, both way back in Ealing/Ipswich and currently at De Tao.

 

Then comes the practice:

 

 

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2. Each participant will design and construct a machine that can calibrate changes in one’s individual environment and in one’s behaviour, producing for each user a severely limited repertoire of actions.

 

3. Organisms are identified, each consisting of five “calibrated” participants, recognising their mutual dependancy in enabling the organism’s ability to produce  thought and action.

 

4. Each organism then to design and build an environmentally-situated  performative game.

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5. Presentation: enactment of each organism’s game.

 

6. Participants discuss their critical reflection of the process.