This event will take place in person at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

This class is co-presented by Pioneer Works and the New York Public Library, and is part of a series of classes and tutorials offered in conjunction with NYPL’s Tech Kits for Performing Artists program.

Through this workshop, participants will bring a family heirloom or personal object (which can include small scale 3D objects, collectables, and/or photographs) to create a collective archive together. At the end of the workshop, participants will re-interpret their own personal object through the lens of technology and sound using QR codes and audio samples to explore what an archive is and how it can be a tool for collective imagination.

Using the work of new media artist Umber Majeed as inspiration, the participants will explore memories in various modes of writing styles, tones, and voice(s) through performance, stock sound or recordings from our immediate surroundings. The workshop teaches how to use web applications such as Garageband and the Library for the Performing Arts Tech Kits’ microphone and headphones to recreate a narrative around the object.

Date: This in-person workshop is scheduled on Fridays, August 5, 12, and 19 from 4:30-5:30pm at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Cafe. Registration is required for each workshop.

Audience: Open to all Tech Kit users.

Price: Free

Materials: Tech Kit (limited number of tech kits available to check out onsite)

Umber Majeed is a multidisciplinary visual artist. Her writing, performance, and animation work engage with familial archives to explore Pakistani state, urban, and digital infrastructure through a feminist lens. Majeed has shown in venues across Pakistan, North America, and Europe. Recent group exhibitions include Promises to Keep, apexart, New York (2017); Witness – Karachi Biennale, Pakistan (2017); and Volumes – Queens International, Queens Museum (2018). She is the recipient of fellowships including the HWP Fellowship, Ashkal Alwan, Lebanon (2017), Refiguring Feminist Futures – Web Residency, Akademie Schloss Solitude & ZKM, Germany (2018), and The Digital Earth, Hivos, the Netherlands (2018-19). Majeed lives and works in New York, USA and Lahore, Pakistan.

Tech Kits for Performing Artists programming has been made possible by The Ford Foundation.

Tech Kits for Performing Artists is made possible by generous grants from The NYC COVID-19 Response and Impact Fund in The New York Community Trust, the Ford Foundation, and the Tiger Baron Foundation.

Tech Programs at Pioneer Works are supported in part by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.