how to think

how to think is a project co-led by artist, rajni shah with Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca comprising the how to think podcast series and the symposium Radio Silence - which took place in the form of a community radio broadcast and 2 in-person events held in parallel at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London and DAS Graduate School in Amsterdam on November 27, 2021.

The symposium was collaboratively curated by rajni shah, Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca, and Astrid Korporaal as part of the Frames of Representation film festival, which aims to champion independent, socially engaged and experimental forms of filmmaking.

Radio Silence brought together intimate and informal contributions from artists, thinkers, activists and healers through a film screening and listening event that was all about slowing down and being-with.

Audiences watched Tío Yim (2019) by Zapotec director Luna Marán before listening to the broadcast which included contributions from DAS Graduate School Masters’ participants and alumni alongside other international artists: Alexa Mardon, Alexandrina Hemsley & Seke Chimutengwende, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Fili 周 Gibbons, Khairani Barokka, Nahuel Cano, Omikemi, Paula Montecinos, rajni shah, Reza Mirabi, Sheila Ghelani, Raju Rage, and Venuri Perera.

The broadcast included writing, music, found sound, and personal reflections, meandering through stories of family, grief, hedges, water, snakes, protest, futures, ghosts, and other worlds.

Radio Silence was produced in partnership with rajni shah, and with Fili Gibbons as part of the Performance Philosophy and Animals project. The Amsterdam gathering was produced by Marilixe Beernink and Laura Cull Maoilearca, hosted by Paula Montecinos. The London gathering was produced by Astrid Korporaal and co-hosted by Sheila Ghelani.

More about how to think

Whilst the Fellowship is particularly focussed on equality in terms of the relationship between performance, philosophy and non-human animals, how to think seeks to address the notion of ‘radical equality’ in a wider sense – exploring the deep entanglement of contemporary oppressions including racism, sexism and speciesism, and creating an interstitial space to cultivate thinking together: to share in a diverse range of experimental practices asking whether it is possible to ‘undo’ systemic inequality and how we might present more ethical alternatives to the paradigm of mastery in research through the invention of new modes of thought and relationality. 

A key concern is the form of gathering itself and the question of how thinking happens. Rather than repeating the hierarchical models of conventional academic events, the symposium will take on a form that is as slow, careful, and as inclusive as possible. A central theme will be that of ‘listening’, a way to think about attention, presence and healing, both individually and collectively. We aim to question the forms of hospitality and care that can take place in academic and artistic institutions, considering access as a central premise.

Read an interview with rajni shah here