This is a session on creative kissing, and it's equally sexy counterpoint: procedural writing. The goal is to bring our playfulness and giggle-ability to the act of creating clear and accessible step-by-step guides to kissing with precision and joy. This exploration is for an illustrated book and writing series I'm working on about site-specific kissing in National Parks and other site-specific locations. It involves some pretty classic kisses, but also some "challenge kisses." We'll be experimenting with how these challenge kisses feel to embody, write out, draw, and diagram, all of which are available modes of exploration in this workshop. And before you say anything, I just want you to know that I know that mouth diagrams is a deranged topic for an art conference, but I also think "challenge kisses" are a thing the public is going to be into, so either my game designer "constraints make for fun!" brain has mega glitched, or we'll laugh ourselves stupid. That said, I could not be more excited to explore this usually very private love language in such a semi-public, wholly joyful way!
From the Artist
Jessica is a theatrical and Immersive Experience designer and head of IKantKoan Play/s Game and Production Studio. She believes the things we take most seriously in life are the things we ought to be most playful about; a task she pursues with an ironic focus. She is a 2022 Arctic Circle Artist-in-Residence, published 7 tabletop games based on different philosophical thought experiments, and recently served as Writer and Chief of Play for the development of a large scale Immersive Experience spanning a 90,000 square foot warehouse in the UK. Her work has been presented by ArsNova, HERE Arts, Fastaval, SXSW, Tanween Creativity Festival, Amos Eno Gallery, and La Jolla Playhouse. Jessica has spoken at The World Economic Forum DQ Symposium on Xr+ (NYC), Next Stage Immersive Summit (L.A.), GDC (San Fransisco), Beyond Opera (Helsinki), TEDx, and Games for Change (NYC), and been featured by The New Times, Imaginary Worlds, and on KQED San Fransisco, among others. As an artist/climate activist, she has worked in partnership with The National Parks Service, with Princeton's High Meadows Institute, and as a contributing author to The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World. She serves on the Board of Directors for Pig Iron Theater Company and holds an MFA in Devised, Physical, Ensemble Theater from the company’s conservatory.
Credits
Collaborator: Benjamin Camp
Collaborator: Benjamin Camp
Content Warning
This workshop is come as you are! There will be talk of kissing and lip-based intimacy but you do not have to participate in kissing to participate in this workshop! There may opportunities to kiss others (if they consent!), yourself, or you can BYOK (Bring Your Own Kissee/s). There may also be a take-home version of this material that you can bring to the kissee/s of your choice back home and report back to me later, and there will be a variety of creative non-kissing participation throughout the workshop.
This workshop is come as you are! There will be talk of kissing and lip-based intimacy but you do not have to participate in kissing to participate in this workshop! There may opportunities to kiss others (if they consent!), yourself, or you can BYOK (Bring Your Own Kissee/s). There may also be a take-home version of this material that you can bring to the kissee/s of your choice back home and report back to me later, and there will be a variety of creative non-kissing participation throughout the workshop.
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