Presented as part of our 2026 rotating faculty series:
Improvising with our Ecosystems: a Laboratory and Introduction to Improvising with Movement, Sound, and Self-Audio Description with Shannon Brooks
About Shannon Brooks:
Shannon Brooks is a multisensory, multimedia artist grounded in iterative, time-based experimentation. Their practice engages with the full range of our senses and draws on ritual, material, and performance, to construct strange worlds between the physical and the ephemeral. Their practice researches the interconnected systems between ecology, decay, the body, disability, power, ghosts, geologic time, movement, textile, and memory.
Their practice decentralizes sight as the ultimate means of validating experience, creating cacophonies of textures and sounds to explore the dimensions of our senses. As a low-vision person, Shannon understands accessibility as an imperfect creative force that transforms time, space, and power structures.
About This Workshop Series:
A monthly ritual to connect with, stretch into and experiment with the glory of our senses.
We ground into our practice with guided imaginative eco-embodiments and learning different approaches to improvising with movement and sound. Then we will play with, touch, taste, listen, and smell materials found in our own everyday life to celebrate and map out the landscapes of our sensorial experiences. Our time will conclude by folding our somatic exploration into our improvisations, and developing imperfect audio descriptions reflecting on our practice together.
After each practice, participants will receive an overview of the improvisation techniques we explored, music selections, and an ever-evolving dictionary of terms specific to Shannon’s class series.
Workshop Dates and Details:
These workshops are set up to build on one another but can be taken separately.
They will be offered virtually on Zoom.
Each workshop is two hours long:
- Sunday, February 1, 2026 – Improvising with Our Ecosystems with Shannon Brooks, 2 PM to 4 PM (Eastern/New York Time)
- Sunday, March 1, 2026 – Improvising with Our Ecosystems with Shannon Brooks, 2 PM to 4 PM (Eastern/New York Time)
- Sunday, April 12, 2026 – Improvising with Our Ecosystems with Shannon Brooks, 2 PM to 4 PM (Eastern/New York Time)
