Post-Apocalyptic Arts & Crafts Survival Skills Workshop No. 4: “Twisted Diorama Making”

A green art workshop with artist and Hollow Earth Society co-founder Ethan Gould
Date: Sunday, June 26
Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Admission: $15
Presented by the Hollow Earth Society
Part four of a four-part series

Post-apocalyptic arts & crafts survival skills workshops, you say!?  That’s right:  Creative-making for the improvisational, post-industrial future (and present).  When the apocalypse comes, these definitely won’t be the first things you’ll need to know… but they’ll be on the list! In this workshop series, learn how to make beautiful objects you’ll actually use out of materials that would otherwise go to waste.

Everyone fondly remembers making dioramas in elementary school.  OR DO THEY.  The urge to create small parallel worlds goes back many centuries in human history, and the fruits of this urge have always been incredibly strange.

In this class, a quick history of the diorama and its contemporary incarnations will be entertainingly thrown at you before getting down to the fun of building your own twisted miniature dreamworld.

Topics of focus will include box building, eco-friendly art practices, scenic design, lighting, background techniques, environmental design, and sculpting/bricolage methods.

Ethan Gould is an artist and props/puppet builder who has assembled/performed for Dixon Place, Imnotlost, Waterwell, the McCarter Theater, In Extremis, The Ontological Hysteric Theater, The Assembly, and ABC’s Wife Swap.  He is a member of Observatory and 3rd Ward as well as the co-founder of the Hollow Earth Society, and has been building theatrically entertaining stuff out of less entertaining stuff for years.

Materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your salvaged stuff!  Feel free to bring boxes of any kind, cardboard, paper, ink, knicknacks, bric-a-brac, cloth, felt, dolls, old game pieces, wire, and the like.

Bring an apron or smock if you are concerned about getting glue on your clothing.  Gloves will be provided for those who need them.

RSVP to karen@hollowearthsociety.com.

This workshop is one part one of the Hollow Earth Society’s Spring 2011 Para-Academic Colloquium on Education for Sustainable Public Esthetics Through Enviro-nomadic Rigor (SPACE SPECTER). SPACE SPECTER is made possible by a generous grant from the Hollow Earth Society’s Department of Perpendicular Ecology—and the ongoing support of people like you!  Please note that the following SPACE SPECTER workshops are at full enrollment and no longer accepting RSVPs at this time:

• Beetle-Cloak Weaving & Improvised Food-Blankets
  
• Swords > Plowshares? Letter Openers > Spearheads: The Nomadic Post-Future of Weaponry
  
• Microwave As Forge: PLASTICS
• Treehouse Triage: Saving a Limb (Human/Arboreal)