Course Description:
In our understanding, the essence of art is to crisscross our habitual ways of perceiving life/reality. Art has the potential to bring frozen perceptions/pictures/conceptions back into motion. Art-making itself is an ongoing process of researching and questioning reality. Playing with reality and building bridges between seemingly disparate items. Art is an important tool to perceive and presence the multidimensional aspects of life on earth, in our cosmos. Through art, we can envision other, new, future possibilities, realities. Due to its inherent beauty and playfulness, art brings a crucial resource to cope with and change reality.
We set up a program, inviting you to experience this potential of art, inviting all of us to tune our instrument as witnessers and to experience witnessing processes.
We arranged a bouquet with different Arts, like drawing and visual art, somatic experiencing and poetry, photography, choreography, dancing, improvisation, film making, yoga, and music.
The link between these specific art practices is:
- their capacity to enlarge our awareness and perception, to enhance our relatedness,
- their invitation to see, feel, presence, play, love, imagine, and to dance together, with us, with life, with the reality we are living in and co-creating together.
This artistic program is embedded in daily meditation and witnessing practice. Global Social Witnessing is an art of itself, the art of co-creating a subtle “installation” of awareness in relation to individual and collective events. In this hour Participants are invited to turn their inner lens back on themselves to integrate and digest what is alive in/for them during the conference.
Leading Questions for this course:
Inner exploration:
- How do participants experience artistic exploration and newness with regard to their inner world space?
- What kind of new perspectives, expressions, and insights arise?
- How can it be expressed in word, sound, color, movement, etc?
- What touched you particularly and what did you learn about yourself that you did not know before?
Outer exploration:
- Do participants notice a new sense of empowerment to act or engage with self and others – family, friends, colleagues, community?
- Are there new ways to express yourself and be creative?
- Be concrete, describe possible next steps, scenarios.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course you should be able to:
“Art as Global Social Witnessing” provides a space where diverse perspectives/experiences from artists, scientists, spiritual practitioners, and political activists will inspire participants to better understand and embody GSW within their mind, heart, and body. Throughout the lab, we will co-create new ideas, strategies, tools, and energy to help us become mature global citizens in our times of disruption and transformation.
- Explore global social realities with international artists and scientists.
- Generate compassionate awareness and interconnectedness while deepening your felt sense as a global human.
- Stay in touch with a natural sense of possibility and vision to tune into the sweet spot between awareness, change, and activism.
- Hold the tension between reality and possibility to unfold your potential in the world.
- Witness that some possibilities may not be realized in one’s own lifetime to enable a deep trust and commitment regardless of outcomes.
- Lean into an embodied practice of compassionate global citizenship.
Faculty:
Various:
Scientists / Activists
- Week 1 – Orientation – Kazuma Matoba
- Week 2 – Thomas Hübl
- Week 3 – Kerstin Schubert and Philip Stoll
- Week 4 – Darius Matthies and Angela Von Rotz
- Week 5 – Daniel Auf Der Mauer
- Week 6 – Stephanie Miracle
- Week 7 – Ingrid Pickel
- Week 8 – Ayse Kalmaz
- Week 9 – Keval Kaur Khalsa
- Week 10 – Laura Beaubrun
- Week 11 – Qais Assali
- Week 12 – Rik Spann
- Week 13 – Social Presencing Theater
Course Modalities:
Non-Credit Options
Lite Level – This course is delivered on-demand with no faculty interaction and is perfect for lifelong learners who want to go at their own pace and who are not interested in academic credit but still want to experience the course.
Audit-No Credit – If you would like to participate when this course is offered in our Live Virtual Classroom mode, you may attend the live faculty webinars but will not be required to submit assignments for credit.
If you take a few courses and decide you want to officially enroll in a degree program, you can gain academic credit for Lite versions or Audit-No Credit versions by paying the difference between these course fees and a normal academic fee, successfully completing quizzes, submitting your reflection journals and delivering a Final Creative Assignment that will be graded.
For-Credit Options
Live Virtual Classroom: Study that takes place within Ubiquity University, in which Ubiquity academic coursework is accomplished through attendance in Live Webinars, with faculty and student interaction being a part of the Live Webinar content. To receive academic credit, you must not miss more than 3 live sessions, you must complete the quizzes and submit any other required assignments (if any), and a final creative assignment for grading at the degree level you are enrolled in.
Internal Online Independent Study: Study that takes place within Ubiquity University, in which Ubiquity academic online coursework is engaged in independently on one’s own and does not include faculty interaction. To receive academic credit, you must complete the quizzes and submit your reflection journals and final creative assignment for grading at the degree level you are enrolled in.
The rules guiding our assignment collection and grading process can be found here: Ubiquity University Grading Policy
Information about how we process refund or cancellation requests can be found here: Refund and Cancellation Policy.
Our shopping cart is simple and easy to understand. If you do not have a user account, you will be able to create one upon purchase. Save your username and password as you will need it to login to access course materials later. For more detailed, step-by-step instructions you can review our tutorial How to Purchase a Course. Again, if you experience any issues, please email Veronica Saldias at registrar@ubiquityuniversity.org.
We allow students at all academic levels to participate in our online courses. However, those students who are enrolled in MA or PhD programs are expected to offer a more sophisticated analysis on reflection tasks, writing assignments, and in the final creative assignment. You will be graded commensurate with your degree level. Except for the Final Creative Assignment, word counts are offered as guidelines. If you need to exceed the word counts to submit an MA or PhD level response, you may feel free to do so as long as the word count expansion is reasonable and necessary.
Course Contact Information:
Live Virtual Classroom macrocourses are delivered by faculty in live Zoom sessions. You will have a course facilitator who is available to answer questions and offer additional assistance and that information will be provided to you upon registration. Please do not email faculty directly with any technology or registration issues.
For on-demand lite or Internal Online Independent Study versions, click the “Chat” button down on the left-hand side of the screen for any technical issues or questions you may have about the content.
