WORKSHOPS

Please contact me at sharmi@sharmi.info for any questions or requests about workshops!

CURRENT

Sound & Liberation

Sound is often an expression of our psycho-somatic makeup. We are constantly making sounds, whether or not we are consciously doing so. Our bodies act as active transducers, transforming electric energy into physical energy and vice versa. 

This workshop tests the theory that we can find ways to heal and understand ourselves by using sound as an active processor of our individual and collective struggles and experiences. As sound, art, music, and creativity are the processes of turning the context of our lives, skills, and experiences into something new and external to our individual selves, this process of making art and sound is ideal for healing and restoring presence. Sound, as both a material and immaterial object, is in a unique position to help us move through the most difficult experiences. 

In this workshop, we learn about the basics of sound and use a number of improvisational scores and exercises as a mode of self-investigation. From the toolkit used in MARA Performance Collective, this workshop is performance-based and for all folks looking to use performance as a mode of self-healing. Among other things, we will create collective scores, have small group discussions, and play with found instruments.

***No Instruments or Musical Experience Necessary!”””

PAST

2013-2019

Decolonizing Sound

In this workshop, we attempt to teach mindfulness, listening, and improvisation as tools to be used for resistance and resilience in a "post-colonial" world. In this workshop we will introduce new ways of listening and playing with each other both in organizing settings and in performance settings. Most importantly, we will shed light on ways in which improvisation and playing music can help marginalized people reclaim and create new identities and languages despite the distortion of and violence upon our cultures, work, and genders that have historically oppressed us. Decolonizing sound can mean decolonizing our given languages into ones we create for ourselves. The workshop will also emphasize the importance of shared politics within musical communities and, further, the importance of solidarity through material resistance. What are the ways sound can be used to challenge capitalism, the police state, heteronormativity, racism, and gendered violence?

2013-2016

Introduction to Live Sound

Sound is where immateriality and materiality meet! Learn all about the magic of transducers, sound pressure waves, and equalizers with live sound, through the perspective of healing. The emphasis here will be on basic live mixers, PAs, and microphones as well as deep listening.