WHISTLEBLOWING RESIDENCY/

MOON ARKESTRA

22nd April 2022 – 30th June 2022

We’re delighted to invite you to the University of the Undergrounds upcoming residency programme in collaboration with Tour de Moon!

9 lucky UK based musicians have been selected to join us on the 100% fully electric Moon Convoy crew and tour with us around England as a part of this once in a lifetime mobile educational and learning residency. For 22 days they’ll join the Moon Arkestra as it moves around the UK. This programme is led by Tour de Moon, a new free nationwide festival in collaboration with our friends at the free, pluralistic and transnational charity University of the Underground.

They’ll be giving classes but also taking part in tutorials with an international teaching team of unconventional thinkers, activists, artists, dreamers of the day and nightlife artists. The programme will be both virtual and physical.

 

 

The programme starts: April 22nd 2022 with Symposium Day

 

DETAILS ON THE RESIDENCY:

This two-month programme is calling for an investigation into whistleblowing as a political action but also an instrument and language. As a part of this practice-based residency, we will unravel the relationships between nation-states, music, political action and displacement. We are seeking unique multidisciplinary UK based musicians to join the electric-powered parade of Moon Convoy and tour with us around England, in May and June 2022, as a part of this once in a lifetime mobile educative and learning residency. 

As Moon Arkestra members, you will put together a series of experiences, and creative interventions involving political theory and musical practice (Afrobeat, Rai,  jazz, funk, and all genres are welcome). Ideally, you will know how to play the flute and wind instruments but also others.

Together we will explore: How can whistleblowing (revealing secret information as a part of public institutions) be considered a creative practice and outlet to rethink our world being political, economic and sociological- within and outside of institutions? 

 

 

WHO TO LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING?

UK based musicians, independent learners, artists, ​recent graduates ​and other young creative minds who are able to handle research whilst still being able to create and produce. Our participants have a strong creative direction, have an independent working attitude, self-motivation, self-determination to learn, lots of ideas with a very open mind, the ability to learn from their peers and a willingness to venture into new territories. They have a proven track record of being involved with organising communities but also practice-based research. This is a fast pace and intense learning creative programme so we welcome participants who will have a creative approach to working and can create out of their comfort zone. Our musicians will have a variety of skills:

– can work with the public playing our interactive sports games

– DJing

– can do workshops with the public

– don’t mind joining a debate and organizing it

– teaching 

– have a technical or productions background who know sound, video or maybe lights 

– want to be part of a team and something bigger

– live and breathe Tour de Moon with 18 other people, you need to love people, be extremely creative and want to learn

 

TEACHING:

The programme will involve giving classes in towns and cities across the UK  but also partaking in tutorials with Head of Programme Dr. Aditi Jaganathan with support from Dr Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stepanian (chairwoman of the University of the Underground charity) along with a team of international tutors who are some of the best teachers, unconventional thinkers, dreamers of the day and nightlife makers in the world today. They will be teaching and guiding moon Arkestra members to develop strategies and inquisitions to build meaningful experiences and how to practically apply them within the context of an institution of their choosing.

 

What our selected Moon arkestra participants can look forward to:

Expenses provided, travel and accommodation paid for.

£100 a day fee, for 22 days, plus £25 expenses per diem. We provide hotels and travel. Total £2,750 for each member.

As a part of the Moon Arkestra residency you will also join the Tour de Moon Convoy Crew for:

– 22 event days across 13 cities from May 11th until 16th June 2022

– 10 days of events are evenings only 18:00-23:00

– 12 of the events are full-day events from 10:00-23:00

Please note that there will be some travel time required around these 22 show days.

 

KEY DATES:

 

The programme starts: April 22nd 2022 with Symposium Day

Programme week 1 25th – 29th April 

Programme week 2 2nd – 6th May 

Start of the convoy: 10th May 

Interim presentations: 1st June 

End of Convoy: 16th June

Final deadline for creative projects: June 30th

 

 

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COLLABORATORS:

Tour de Moon Ltd.

Tour de Moon is a cosmic adventure, a large-scale public festival of immersive experiences and live events developed in collaboration with our “universal satellite”: the Moon, seen as a character, a landscape and a prompt for radical imagination. The festival, composed of 8 programming strands, aims to reach millions of visitors across the UK and the world in 2022, through live and virtual experiences, supporting youth, nightlife creators, scientists and digital creators through cooperation. With Tour de Moon, we seek new beginnings, to empower others to create, to initiate, to innovate with new thinking and pluralistic practices so that history does not repeat itself on and beyond Earth.Tour de Moon is composed of more than 90 individuals as a part of its team, Youth Reporter Board and Advisory Board and further collaborative organisations, all working together to build a festival committed to plurality, decolonial practices, social and racial justice, solidarity and equity. Tour de Moon Ltd is led by he chairwoman and founder of University of the Underground Nelly Ben Hayoun- Stépanian Phd, together with board members Magid Magid of Union of Justice, and multiple former teachers and alumnis of the University of the Underground www.tourdemoon.com

The University of the Underground

The University of the Underground was founded in February 2017, as a charity with ANBI status (RSIN 8575.82.781). The University of the Underground is a free, pluralistic and transnational university based in the basement of nightclubs- with headquarters in Amsterdam and London- and actively working with both institutions and nightlife. As charity, the hope of the University of the Underground is to bring generations together to democratise access to public institutions and trigger changes and critical reflections through the use of creative and experiential practices. With an explicit focus on political theory and philosophy, design of experiences, music, theatrical practices, film, social actions, and social dreaming; it aims to provide toolkits for members of the public and students to actively participate in revealing power structures in institutions. The University of the Underground supports unconventional research, countercultures, and practices that apprehend and challenge the formulation of culture, the manufacture, and commodities of knowledge. For the University of the Underground, it is essential to rethink education beyond national borders, but also to build a federation of cooperative schools globally to support the development, identification and empowerment of countercultures in institutions. As a result, the University of the Underground has started to run educational programmes in the USA, starting in summer 2019, in collaboration with the Hannah Arendt Center of Bard College and the United Nations; but also with the American University in Cairo and online in collaboration with Bassiani, a nightclub in Tbilisi in Georgia; or with activists such as Magid Magid.

The University of the Underground has a board of international thinkers, philosophers, activists, academics, politicians, musicians, filmmakers, innovative entrepreneurs but also creatives and curators such as Prof. Noam Chomsky, Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, academic Prof. Arjun Appadurai, European MEPs Magid Magid, performers such as Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets and Shabazz Palaces and musicians Massive Attack, drag performer Peaches Christ, Ted Prize winner and SETI Institute scientist Dr. Jill Tarter, activist Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, author and McSweeney’s founder Dave Eggers, President of file transfer service WeTransfer Damian Bradfield, with MOMA curator Paola Antonelli amongst others multidisciplinary practitioners.