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Training
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
January – April 2019
At the workshop, the participants are familiarized with the theory and practice of documentary and original authorial photography. They gain an understanding of the communicative power of photography, the power of story in photography, and the narrative potential of the visual medium. They are familiarized with the ethics and regulations in the field of photography.
The main portion of the workshops is dedicated to practical work, which includes learning about technical settings of the camera and their manual manipulation. Next come the basics of artistic theory (getting to know visual elements, composition etc.). Being that photography is based on light, participants are also taught about lighting techniques. Theoretical lessons are accompanied by a considerable amount of practical exercises.
A part of the workshops is dedicated to postproduction, presenting photography manipulation software such as Lightroom and Photoshop.
In the course of their training, participants develop their personal projects. The practical portion is aimed at producing a photo series. The participants are attended by individual supervisors from the project outline stage, through exercises and practical assignments, to the final selection of photographs to be included in the series.
The end results of the workshop will be a completed photo series and exhibition.
Simultaneously, additional supervisory sessions are held for individuals with special needs (disabled persons, immigrants with lesser command of the language, and others); these are led by supervisory assistant Nino Bektashashvili, who is herself also a member of a vulnerable target group (Georgian photographer living in Slovenia).
VIDEO and AUDIO PRODUCTION WORKSHOP
May – September 2019
The video production and mobile video production workshop attends to both theory and practice, guiding participants through all stages of the project from inception to the end result. Participants are familiarized with the communicative power of the medium and provided with all the knowledge required to complete short films and video productions.
This model of workshops has been successfully implemented numerous times in the past, both in Slovenia and abroad. Apis Institute developed the workshops based on considerable experience in socially engaged video production. Previous video and photo training sessions have been acknowledged as examples of good practice at the level of European Erasmus+ projects.
The workshop includes theoretical understanding and practical exercises in all key phases of video production:
- Preproduction (project outline, script development, plan of filming, framing, editing consideration, preparation for filming, and directing approach);
- production (directing, familiarity with equipment, recording sound and image, light and lighting in video production, filming execution);
- postproduction (capturing, editing, and post-production of image and sound, adding graphics; we will be working with Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects editing software).
The workshop design envisages that participants develop their projects autonomously.
The workshop includes training in the field of mobile videography, i.e. filming and editing video using mobile phones.
The video workshop is complemented by the audio design and basics of audio production workshop.
Participants will learn the basics of audio production, such as using different types of audio recording equipment and types of microphones along with main audio production software. With the supervisor’s guidance they will conduct practical exercises in sound recording across all the phases of sound design in video production.
The workshop includes:
1) The theory of sound and digital sound;
2) sound processing;
3) familiarization with the established MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) protocol;
4) musical arrangement;
5) recording;
6) sound design;
7) mixing and mastering.
The produced short films will be presented to the general public at a public screening.
Simultaneously, additional supervision sessions are held for individuals with special needs (disabled persons, immigrants with lesser command of the language, and others); these are led by supervisory assistants (Ukrainian video artist, creator from Syria).
MOVEMENT DANCE WORKSHOP WITH DANCE THERAPY
September – November 2019
The workshop is based on group dynamics, utilising informal methods and practical exercises to achieve the release of negative emotional patterns and abandonment of mental notions about the body such as e.g. guilt tied to perceiving the body as improper, either due to disability or different religion, etc.
The participants are familiarized with different uses of dance and dance techniques, experimental dance forms, and with the therapeutic use of dance and movement.
Dance/movement activities utilises movement, dance, and performance techniques alongside other informal methods and advances positive change in all developmental areas: social, emotional, motor, cognitive, and communicative. The various methods and techniques in use will be adapted to individuals.
The workshop guides the participants through a series of exercises, which facilitate their understanding of the link between the body and the psyche, and liberate both the mind and body irrelevant of physical limitations.
The group work will be conducted safely, intimately, and intensely.
The workshop will effect greater body awareness in individuals and positive changes in all fields of development: social, emotional, motor, cognitive, and communicative. At the workshop, the participants will improve their self-image. Furthermore, they will connect with other participants forming or enlarging their social network. Indirectly, the workshops improve employability in the field of culture by connecting the participants with representative creators in the field.
The dance and dance/movement activities workshops are conducted by two experienced dance and dance/movement activities mentors. Irina Stanković is highly experienced in using dance as a tool for better health working with people with disabilities and some ethnic minorities. She has a master’s degree in assistance through art and heads a dance school. Samar Zughool Križanič provides complementary knowledge in the field of dance/movement activities, which, in addition to the target group of the persons with disability, also incorporates minorities and other ethnic communities. Both supervisors include a vast range of dancers in their dance productions; they enrich the programme with elements from other cultural environments and/or use innovative methods to include the sensory handicapped and those who are different.
The workshop presents dance and dance/movement activities as a tool of socially engaged art while simultaneously leading the participants through personal experience of dance as an art form, irrelevant of physical impediment or dissimilarity.
The workshops aim to choreograph a multimedia theatre performance. The choreography will be created based on the work with the participants from vulnerable groups and in collaboration between the supervisors and an expert co-worker.
THEATRE WORKSHOP AND THEATRE OF OPPRESSED
October – December 2019
The workshop presents the potential of theatre through the optics of socially engaged approach to art.
The participants will become familiarized with theoretical knowledge about theatre, the history of theatre, and types of theatre: street theatre, improvisation, and classical theatre. They will also learn about the history and effects of the theatre of the oppressed.
A large part of the workshops is dedicated to practice or theatrical performance.
The theatre of the oppressed workshop is led by Samar Zughool Križanič, an experienced moderator of the theatre of the oppressed. The workshop utilises artistic expression to enable self-learning or in depth understanding of oneself and thereby empowers members of vulnerable target groups. All participants, irrelevant of the level of their previous experience are given a chance to use theatre techniques as a medium of expression and of uncovering their potential as well as illuminating various themes, and constructively confronting views and opinions about individual topics in question. At the same time, they are learning about themselves and their inner world while enlarging their social network through contact with other participants.
The central practical part of the workshops is intended for the preparation of a multimedia theatre performance, which will tie all efforts of training or individual workshops together. The work is conducted with expert support of an expert project collaborator, director Ivana Djilas.
The performance treats the patterns of stigmatisation due to dissimilarity (culture, disability, loss of home and acquisition of refugee status, migration …) and associated victimisation; it explores the possibilities of using artistic form as an instrument of empowerment, mobilisation, motivation, and inducing proactive activity of vulnerable groups.