Creative workshop for the Velvet Carnival

Display Schedule

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
202KSP credit 3 2 workshop hours (45 min) of instruction per week, 57 to 72 hours of self-study English, Czech winter

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Olga Věra CIESLAROVÁ

Department

The subject provides Department of Authorial Creativity and Pedagogy

Contents

Content

Let's create a group for the Velvet Carnival - Sametové posvícení this year!

This allegorical parade (with a thirteen-year tradition) was born at KATaP DAMU and every year it deals with current topics with exaggeration in the form of an artistic and performative parade. www.velvetcarnival.cz

Students, artists and people from non-profits collaborate on the preparations, and on November 17 it parades through Prague, seen by many thousands of spectators.

Participation in the workshop will take the following form:

  1. Together we will search for a topic that we consider important and pressing in contemporary society.
  2. We will discuss and look for how to portray and perform this theme with humour, exaggeration and satire.
  3. In the Velvet Carnival workshops we will make masks, costumes, an illuminated construction, and we will devise and write a pamphlet. We will be working on the artwork together with an artist from Velvet Carnival.
  4. We will materialize the theme we have kneaded so far in the streets of Prague in a parade and accompanied by music.
  5. Reflection - two meetings after the Velvet Carnival

The workshop will take place

  1. First four meetings: the initial phase (introducing the event, searching for a theme) will happen during first two weeks of semester. On 15th October the topic would be presented at Degustation - Evening of Velvet Carnival in Kampus Hybernská.
  2. Creative phase: will take part in workshop-blocks during working days, sometimes evenings and weekends in ateliers of Velvet Carnival at Gorazdova 14.
  3. Participation on Velvet Carnival: Saturday 16th November - 18-22:00 in Charivari - walking in groups and masks throughout the Old Town. Velvet Carnival Parade takes part on 17th November 15:00-20:00 in the City Centre, ending with afterparty at Kampus Hybernská.

In the summer semester, this seminar will be followed by the seminar Contemporary Public Festivities.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the workshop is both to realistically prepare a performance for Velvet Carnival and to reflect on this festival in the streets as a whole. We will both create and theorize on the theme of symbolic action in public space, the role of public rituals and how artistic disciplines can contribute to their creation.

By actually participating in the workshop and going through the whole process, including participation in the parade, participants will develop the ability to critique symbolic action, i.e. the ability to recognize and clearly name where a given symbolic action works and where it does not, learn to actively create and work with symbols, knowing all the advantages and disadvantages of symbolic communication, and thus gain the ability to dramaturgise for groups in future years.

Prerequisites and other requirements

Students of all disciplines are welcome. Participation in the seminar is time consuming (especially in the creative part) and is therefore assessed with 3 credits. It is also possible to join the performance without getting credits (come to make a mask and participate in the parade, for this please contact olga.cieslarova@ff.cuni.cz).

Literature

Symbolic Nodes and Performative Modes of the „Velvet Revolution“ Celebrations, (17 November 1989) in Contemporary Czechia Evaluation methods and criteria (will be sent to all participants per Email)

Evaluation methods and criteria

  1. for completing all the main activities of the seminar (two absences are allowed, but only for one of the continuous activities, i.e. not e.g. at the final class or at the parade itself, at least one session of searching for a topic must be attended).
  2. for the written reflection of this year's parade (by 25.11.).

Note

Please note - The first meeting was already on Tuesday, Oct. 1. There we arranged meetings: Monday 7th at 18:30 at KATaP in R312, Friday 11th at 15:00 at Atelier Gorazdova 14, Tuesday 15th at 17:00 at Kampus Hybernská, followed by Degustation Velvet Carnival at 19.00. Other times of meetings will be specified. For students who would attend later, please contact: olga.cieslarova@ff.cuni.cz to be involved in our discussions.

Further information

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for winter semester 2024/2025:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2024/2025:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans