There is much talk about the “more than human,” “de-centering the human,” “multi-species world building,” and other related ideas. But what does this actually mean for creative practice? In this class, students will explore our place in a multi-species reality where each organism perceives and experiences the space we share from their unique sensory perspective (this can include entities like AI too). Grounded in biologist Jakob von Uexküll’s idea of an “umwelt” — the unique sensory world of a lifeform — the class will combine readings, guest talks, and a studio visit, with project work, to develop a series of props, costumes, movements, performances, sounds, language, imagery, and structures, for a fictional festival celebrating nonhuman worlds. Of course, an approach like this is full of contradictions. It is impossible to truly imagine what this would be like as we are limited by our human imagination and senses. But we can try. And in the process, shift perspective, embrace the paradoxical, exercise the imagination, and hopefully, begin to see ourselves differently in relation to other nonhuman worlds, and realities. A strong emphasis will be placed on thinking through making, where the “materials” can be words, images, speech, matter, textiles, code, pixels, sounds, gestures, movement. Please use this form if you would like to register for this course and include a brief outline of your motivation for taking the class, a PDF of project work, link to a portfolio website, or writing sample.