SD Arts – The Art of Self-Discovery: A Practice for System Change
Gain insight into how restoring the communal self and art are a contribution to the necessary global system change. For 12 days we’ll practice how to increase a field of trust through artistic self-discovery (SD), and train the transformation from a separated self towards a communitarian self as a part of sacred activism.
Overview
We invite you to a creative and experimental space, where we’ll use artistic tools to explore inner transformations and their relationship to global system change. We want to recognize how our daily struggles are intimately connected to one another and to the world situation, and become empowered through art, stepping toward collective liberation. We will consciously use the art of expression, play, “gestalting” and performance to confront the existing systems within and outside of us to step out of daily normality, to experience the trust-building power of community, and to awaken the consciousness of a global self.
What is SD Arts?
SD Arts is the art of self-discovery (SD), self-revelation and transformation as a political practice toward system change. SD Arts empowers people to consciously liberate and transform suppressed life energies through artistic, creative and vital forms of expression. SD Arts is a practice of sacred activism that proactively aims to reveal and dismantle deep-rooted systemic conditioning and bring people closer to the unfolding and integration of life energies that live within them.
SD Arts moves with research questions like:
- How can we be with collapse, uncertainty and impermanence in ways that increase connection and vitality, rather than fear and powerlessness?
- How can the conscious expression of suppressed life energies through art, play and “gestalting” be a contribution to the necessary global system change?
- How can we discover a self that has access to the inherent intelligence of life and that lies beyond our social conditioning and anthropocentrism?
- What are the principles of community that empower us to face the individual and collective crisis?
Who is the course for?
- peace workers
- community builders
- activists
- artists
- group facilitators
- researchers of inner and outer system change
What you’ll learn
- Stepping Out of Normality
We want to collectively step out of our usual thinking patterns and habitual ways of speaking and acting. This venture requires the willingness of each participant to step beyond their “personal identity” and “comfort zone” and step into a conscious space of observation and chaos to allow new insights to enter – as individuals and as a group. We’ll face varying forms of resistance stemming from our isolated fearful ego and our embodied conditioning. We’ll open training spaces that will help us to express ourselves beyond these conditionings and the limitations of polite conversation that we’re usually confined by. For this we’ll use tools of theater – improvisation, creating characters, humor, exaggeration, play – to bring consciousness to serious issues that need transformation and healing. - The Power of Community
SD Arts does not center individual healing. It addresses different aspects of humanity that are represented through individuals. By discovering and revealing them in a communitarian setting, we create the potential and possibility of a collective transformation process. The foundation for this collective transformation process is actively creating a communitarian body that aims to be free of judgment and is based on transparency and trust. One of the practices to open these spaces will be SD Forum. - The Global Self
Extreme individualism, disconnectedness and separation of the self are key conditionings of modernity and patriarchy. This internalized limitation of ourselves gives capitalism and other interlocking systems of oppression the possibility that patterns of competition, destruction and violence become a “normal” part of ourselves and of society. We want to open spaces where we experience a wider sense of the self. We’ll practice forms of bioenergetic liberation of our bodies, minds and hearts in order to experience universal forms of existence that brings us in touch with our senses, our potential and touches a self that deeply cares for the well-being of all of life on Earth.
Course content
- Lectures with Q&A and conversations
- Theater exercises (background in “physical theater”)
- Experiential spaces for perception beyond the verbal and visual
- Experiential spaces to step out of usual habits and to step into conscious “chaos”
- SD Forum
Info
Research area: Community building
Type of learning: Learn skills
Location: In Tamera
Language: English
Pre-requisites
Having participated in one of Tamera’s on-site deepening courses (e.g. Community Course, Love School, etc.) or having been part of our long-term community service programs and having experienced our Forum practice.
Application
Please send your application at your nearest convenience. We’ll get back to you by July 15th.
Cost
Sliding scale from €970 to €1540 (including seminar fee, board & accommodation).
You find the cost too high? Explore our Solidarity Fund.
Willing to support others? Consider contributing to the Solidarity Fund.
Why are we using a sliding scale?
Our invitation to Portuguese nationals.
Payment Policy
Once you have filled out the registration form, we will send you an email with instructions on how to pay.
Please note that in order to confirm your registration, you must pay a non-refundable registration fee of €150.
Accommodation
Shared dormitories/group tents, own tent, own van, or Guest House at an additional cost (depending on availability).
Food
Vegan full board.
Arrival and Departure
Please arrive the day before the program begins and depart the day after the program finishes.
Children
We regret that children cannot be accommodated in this course.
Pets
We regret that pets cannot be accommodated in this course.
Teachers
Rico Portilho is a theater educator with an emphasis on physical theater. He joined Tamera in 1999 and loves to work with children and adults alike. His main passion is to approach the visionary, intellectual thoughts of Tamera through theater and make them an integrated part of everyday life. Over time he developed a form of theater with the focus on SD Arts as a transformative healing power. His main motivation to work with adults is to heal societal conditioning in them in order to not pass it on to the next generations. He’s the father of two boys.
Jessica Bomball studied theater in Leipzig and worked as a professional actress for many years. She loves to act, perform and improvise, and in these artistic expressions finds a powerful channel for her creative energies. She joined Tamera in 2017, where she finds a place to perform and live these life energies not only “on stage” but in real life. She’s a community builder and socially supports adults, youth and children.
Andy Wolfrum is a researcher in peace work. One of his main motivations is to find out what it means to be a true pacifist, getting to know and liberate all life energies within him and bring them into contact with his surroundings. Creating community is an essential political task for him to face the challenges of our times. He joined Tamera in 2012, and is engaged in Tamera’s education center. He’s educated in communication and media and joined various non-professional theater projects throughout his life. He’s the father of a 13-year-old that was raised in Tamera.
Vera Kleinhammes was born and raised in this artistic, radical and creative project when it was still located in Germany. She moved to Tamera at the age of 14. Since then she’s taken different roles within the community, with a passion for creating global alliances with other inspiring frontline projects, especially in the Geopolitical South. She’s the mother of three kids. Art and SD have always been a passion of hers.
Criteria for participation
- Openness to enter an experimental space, to transform yourself (mind, body, heart) and the group through embodied playful, artistic expression.
- Willingness to step out of your comfort zone into to your learning zone, confront inner resistance and hold discomfort.
- Readiness to bear witness to the challenges of our world.
- Allowing the purpose of this course, your own intention and your learning goals (that you’ll formulate in the beginning of the course) to be your guide.
- Practice transparency, radical acceptance, inclusion and mutual support.
- Practice consent culture – awareness, acceptance and accountability with physical, emotional and energetic boundaries.
- Sharing responsibility for the quality of our common spaces.
- Committing to self-responsible participation before, during and after the course.
Testimonials
“Thank you for creating something epic, for having me on the course, for creating a space that changed so much in me and all of us, that I saw. Unforgettable. I could do this for many weeks more and would love to return again. I felt your heart so full in it and I was honored to be part of such a passionate project.”
— Georgie
“I enjoyed this course so much because it was a completely new way of trying to participate in the system change. It combined the inner process and revealing deep wounds of humans with fun, creativity and games. It helped transform the participants to create a communal self which felt strong and healthy.”
— Elisa