What if…maybe you would like to take my weird little class?
Live ✨ Laugh ✨ Launch the most unhinged project you can dream up!
Hi!
Going to keep this as straightforward as possible because 1. I hate doing self-promo, 2. I’ve been struggling with aphasia, which makes writing extra challenging, and 3. I need to go consume more Scandoval content while working on my little Regency-era needle crafts.
But basically…
The Launch — the course/workshop/experiment I lead at Index — is back for another season!
You can click here for the syllabus, more info, and/or to register!
You can click here if you are uninterested in The Launch and just want to watch the “number one guy(s) in this group” gab about cheating as if it were a trip to the DMV, circa 2018. If you choose this option, thanks for being here, and see you next time! <3
Alright, here comes the FAQ:
What is Index?
Their IG bio says they are “a platform for peer-led programming and the generous exchange of knowledge and ideas.” Poke around their programming. It’s great! If you live in NYC, I’m jealous (for maybe the first time ever) because they’re also building a physical space there.
Is this class online only? When?
Mmhmm, but it’ll be a lot of activity-based learning and active making vs. sitting and watching me talk. It’s six Wednesdays, from April 12 - May 17, 4-7pm (PST) / 6-9pm (CT) / 7-10pm (EST).
What are people “launching?”
Everyone will make something small and strange in every class, and everyone will also launch a low-stakes, high-joy project to the audience of their choosing at the end. Here are some examples of projects people launched last time:
A crocheted outfit for a kitten.
A Spotify-wrapped-style mobile experience based on a year's worth of Fitbit sleep data.
The first in a seven-part dinner party series where guests eat and wear only one color.
A zine about sex positivity inspired by a tweenage fascination with the Nars Orgasm collection.
A microblog of useless car facts.
A pop-up restaurant menu based on ingredients from the course’s collective pantry.
A Matisse-ification tool for redesigning iconic visual artifacts of the 21st century inspired by the print that is in seemingly every StreetEasy staging photo.
The common theme here is limited commercial value, big “lol why not” value!
But what if I’m not an artist or someone who makes stuff?
Every person who took this last time was stuck (myself included)! And they all made stuff anyway! That is the entire point. The bar is very low — you can call yourself whatever you want and fuck around in the medium of your choosing.
How do I get my employer to pay for this?
If you have an educational stipend, I will personally help you make that happen! Respond to this with any details you need. But here are some things that you will learn in my silly little anti-capitalist creative project class that an employer may be pleased by: collaboration, cross-discipline thinking, cross-discipline partnership, generative feedback (giving and taking), organization and workflow, alternative modes of design thinking, storytelling and presentation skills, audience planning, helping others get unstuck, goal-setting and structure, etc.
What if I don’t have an employer-sponsored educational stipend?
There are scholarships!!!!! The form is very short and last time no one applied. So please do if you are interested and not comfortable covering the cost. The deadline to apply is April 2.
I have a different question…
Respond to this! I shall do my best to answer it.
This newsletter brought to you by:
Starting Real Housewives of Miami while eating a Zebra Cake in New Orleans with a bestie the other day. Impeccable energy I need to channel more often.
Procrastinating on an actual writing assignment I need to complete but feel too mentally soupy to handle.
The fact that we finally have dining chairs, 14 months after moving to LA! They will soon go to the reupholster and we will again not have dining chairs, but today I choose to accept this gift to my spinal column.