TWA (Trans World Airlines) Passenger Ticket, 1970
Dear everyone,
Happy spring!
I’m currently typing from the lobby of David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. It’s a great place to hang out before a concert, opera, or ballet. You can charge your phone, use your laptop, have a glass of water or wine, and generally feel elegant yet everyday. Today it’s raining outside, so it’s especially cozy… I’m listening to Debussy’s Children’s Corner…
Previously last winter, I mentioned I’d be launching some new classes. Now, I’m excited to announce these!
In this letter:
Sharing Screen
Ultralight School is born ✨💫🌟
TWA
1 of 3.
Sharing Screen
Before getting into it, I’d like to invite you to my “Internet Home Tour” on May 26 at noon EST, put on by the Living Web Institute —
I’m the first in a series of three — the amazing Jisu Lee and then Chia Amisola continue the series — and if you’d like, you can purchase a “season pass” to all three…
Thanks to Kristoffer Tjalve and Matt Preberg for organizing and hosting!
2 of 3.
Ultralight School
What is Ultralight School?
Ultralight School (ultralight.school) is beginning this summer 2025. It’s a new educational umbrella project.
To begin, we have three unique classes, whose applications are now open. (Applications are due on Friday, May 30 — in eight days — for first two classes.)
The classes are: 1) TWA: Total Work of Art (about shapeshifting one concept into digital, physical, and temporal forms), 2) Sense to Sense (about multisensorial translation and publishing), and 3) Walking the Internet (walking tours of NYC's internet infrastructure).
Why did you start it?
I believe learning is what keeps us young and alive. It also connects us to others meaningfully. It’s especially needed now in the United States in a grassroots fashion, as education budgets for institutions are being cut. Additionally, today people generally need more surfaces to meet each other in wholesome, recurring, and in-person ways. I’ve been teaching for over 12 years, and I’ve developed a rich network of amazing people I’d like to work with, so naturally it was time to start my own school.
Who or what inspired you?
Some of the most pivotal moments of my life happened because… I gather around something I enjoy / am curious about… not alone but with others who feel similarly… in an intentional, thoughtfully designed, recurring setting…
First of all, Ultralight School (2025) is a natural evolution of my previous Fruitful School (2020-24). Second, I’m inspired by the interdisciplinary and visionary Black Mountain College, The Bauhaus, Montessori methodology, and Ivan Illich’s idea of Learning Webs. And today, I’m inspired by Jisu Lee’s Birdcall, a research center in Seoul which feels effortless…
What are Ultralight School’s offerings?
Ultralight School is beginning by offering three distinct classes for summer 2025, each co-taught with different people:
TWA: Total Work of Art (Class 1)
In this 7 week class, meeting on Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons in June, July, and part of August, participants come in with one core concept (“point of departure”) and shapeshift it through multiple modalities: 1) digital, 2) physical, and 3) temporal. Inspired by wide-ranging examples of design as world-building — think Bauhaus, Beyoncé, Bernadette Corporation — this class responds to how culture is experienced today, inviting participants to develop across multiple forms, points, and moments of access. This class is taught by Bryant Wells, Stephen Kwok, and Laurel Schwulst and hosted at telos.haus in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here is more info and the link to apply (by May 30).
Sense to Sense (Class 2)
In this 5 week class, meeting on Sunday evenings and Monday evenings in June and July, participants explore translation and the senses through writing exercises and a final group publication. We’ll also engage in readings and discussion about the five senses and what it means to carry sensations over into written form. How can a fragrance become a poem? What are the different ways to write an image, or to document a sound? This class is taught by Meg Miller and Laurel Schwulst and hosted in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. Here is more info and the link to apply (by May 30).
Walking the Internet (Class 3)
In this 3 week class, we will meet three consecutive Saturday afternoons in July to explore physical and cultural infrastructure in New York City. How does one “see” the internet, anyway? Through walking plus some supplemental readings and dialogue, we will explore how the internet is not some ethereal, untouchable thing, but physically rooted — connected by underwater submarine cables and served from data centers containing many literal computers worldwide. And, how can exploring the internet as we might the physical world — meandering, drifting, maybe losing sense of direction — inspired by the dérive — bring new life into it and vice versa? This class is taught by Alex Wolfe and Laurel Schwulst and begins in different places in Manhattan each week. Here is more info and the link to apply (by June 20).
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Beyond these three classes, other things might spring up, so feel free to follow along, subscribe, etc., if you will… Here is our mailing list, calendar, Are.na, IG, and website…
Why is it called Ultralight School, anyway?
As you may know, Ultralight School is rooted in my research around the word “ultralight.” You can read more here!
3 of 3.
TWA — 1) Total Work of Art, 2) Thinking with Air, 3) Three Worlds Aligned
The TWA “Total Work of Art” class has been especially fun and meaningful to create with my collaborators Stephen Kwok and Bryant Wells. We’ve been talking for over a year about it. It began through Stephen sharing the ideal class he’d teach during a university semester. I encourage you to look through and read the TWA class page. I’m quite happy with our concept and find it grounds my own work, too…
Special thanks to my collaborators, mentors, and friends for ongoing exchange about ultralight and forming a school. See my note for full list. Thank you!