The School of Commons (SoC) Assembly 2025 is a two-day facilitated space for gathering, exchange, and the reproduction and circulation of knowledge and experience that seeks to question, complicate, and contend with the question: 'How to assemble [in our current social, political, economic, ecological times]'. Find out more

The Learning Commons (in 3 parts) is a dedicated space to discuss, practice, and explore gathering and togetherness with a focus on relational aspects and care. Find out more

Workshop led by Koenraad Hinnekint, LUCA School of Arts Detailed information will be sent out after registration Find out more

We are inviting you to our upcoming workshop diving into the pervasive intersection of corporate technology and workplace surveillance! Find out more

You are invited to a public event of Encounters Find out more

Calling all SoC Alumn* Find out more

DEADLINE (extended): Thursday, 21 NOVEMBER 2024 Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

A session on Palestine with project in/visibility Find out more

Join us this Thursday for a talk with Maymana Arefin on their groundbreaking work and research into mycelium as a powerful metaphor for social change and activism. Find out more

Register by email shakingbarriers@gmail.com Find out more

Acting as the final instalment of a three-part investigation into temporality. Find out more

The application deadline is 23.59pm CET 01. Dec2024. Find out more

The online show centers on cultivating awareness of the body, inviting reflection on the joy of being alive, having a body, and the privilege of moving among other forms of life. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

A Ways and Working Experiment facilitated by Chantelle Lue Find out more

Reiki and Collective Writing Workshop facilitated by Chantelle Lue Find out more

Public Meeting and Commoning Lab Napoli presentation at Studio Alter’azioni Firenze. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Curated by Lena Pozdnyakova In collaboration with SoC Alum* Network Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Reflecting on the SoC Gathering this past week at Zurich University of the Arts. Find out more

The workshop will be taught by Annie Levy, an American living in Wales UK, who is a curious and inventive cook, activist and a teacher of foodways. Through experimentation and knowledge of many years, she explores tasty and nourishing ways with seasonal gluts and foraged finds. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Join us for a guest lecture featuring a discussion on the digital commons. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Kitchen Sessions are informal online gatherings hosted on Thursday’s between May and November, hosted by School of Commons Find out more

Participatory brainstorming workshop to develop our network and explore collaborative support methods in a playful and engaging manner. The workshop is followed by a community dinner where all ingredients are provided, focusing on strengthening connections within the SoC community. Find out more

We invite the School of Commons Alumn* based in the Netherlands to gather in Amsterdam to exchange knowledge and work created during and after their participation in the SoC 10 month peer learning program. Find out more

We are excited to invite you to join us in April 2024 for a special event focused on community, collaboration, and shared growth. Find out more

We're thrilled to extend a warm welcome to all members of the SoC 2024 Cohort. Find out more

We look forward to hearing from our new Cohort Find out more

A night of getting to know Potpuri with readings, discussion, performances and food Find out more

Explore memes as an engaging medium to communicate imbalances of power within data & AI practices. Find out more

With Paloma Ayala, Nikita Yingqian Cai, Kyungrim Lim Jang & Hannah Sakai, Tina Omayemi Reden, Salma Shaka, Kanako Tada, Sophie Utikal, VOLUMES Archive, and diverse publishing practices⁠. Find out more

Betül Aksu’s first solo exhibition titled hold, place, transfer ​​↵ repeat opens at Material in Zürich between February 29 – March 6, 2024. Curated by Marea Hildebrand from The School of Commons, the exhibition brings together two series of works on paper accompanied by an installation that displays the artist’s printmaking materials. Find out more

Walkthrough of exhibition by Richard Welch, supported by Pule kaJanolintji Find out more

Oyoun team will briefly present our recent/ongoing curatorial projects. Find out more

Freedom Studies (Letitia, Rose and Ella) will be hosting a participatory workshop which aims to learn with Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to explore questions around access, disability justice, and interdependent ways of living and being together. Find out more

The “Co/living: Points of Entry” project will do a short interactive presentation on the knowledges, perspectives and practices for shared living environments, which they gathered from conversations, workshops, and other experiences throughout their research in the 2023 School of Commons cohort. Find out more

We consolidate with our environment through walking and talking. Every spoken word, and conducted step, can be considered as an interaction with our immediate surroundings. Find out more

What’s the language of bodies? How do they listen, how do they speak? Find out more

Performance lecture by Andrea Liu Find out more

My main interest in practical/theoretical research is related to the body, the movements and the studies that deal with Choreographic Composition. Find out more

Performance by Pule kaJanolintji, Richard Welch, Elisa Lemma Find out more

The Short Big is a workshop and podcast series that aims to bridge the gap between urgent academic research through the collective exploration of language and terminology. Find out more

Talk/Discussion with Maxim Spivakov & Egor Rogalev (curated by Andrea Liu) Find out more

In our intense time as part of the SoC we saw our project go from “expectations” to “reality”. Find out more

By inviting you into the co-creation of a brave space and by activating tools to facilitate discussion, like mapping in space, and embodied tools – I propose a moment to make space for sharing our experiences, our questions, our strengths, our tools, our intuitions, our skills, our fears, our needs, our challenges. Find out more

The reading will be followed by a discussion with Jara, moderated by Amy Gowen. Find out more

Welcome by the SoC Team, followed by the Townhall where we’ll reflect on the 2023 Alumn* program, and map out our 2024 events and activities. Find out more

Exhibition, Performances, and Workshops by the School of Commons 2023 Cohort *All workshops and events are free of charge and open to everyone Find out more

During the SoC Assembly, Catwings will present a live radio show and share a few audio assemblages installed in a cozy corner in the exhibition space. Find out more

This remarkable installation represents a sensory experience resulting from the collaboration between the internationally renowned institutions MONOM Studio, Sentient, LIOS Labs, and Pietro Dossena, composer and professor at the Conservatorio L. Canepa of Sassari, under the curation of Riccardo Acciarino and Jasmine Alakari. Find out more

Contributions to the publication encapsulate, through text, audio, film, meme, or other alternative publishing means, the processes, outcomes, questions, and challenges each project has encountered during their time within the SoC programme. Find out more

The full programme will be announced in January 2024. All workshops and events are free of charge and open to everyone. Find out more

Assembling to Get There is an event currently being organized at Neuenachbarschaft Moabit as part of the “Extended Kitchen” event series. Lena Pozdnyakova, from the There, there working group, is organizing the evening, featuring performing artists Maddi Fuente Ubani and Cristina Leoni Osion. Find out more

During the workshop, participants will collectively engage with shared living situations and their interrelation with spectrums of migration, gender, ability, health, cultural background, and others, addressing the current housing crisis and its implications. Find out more

For the last three years, School of Commons has been an associated partner of FAST45 (Futures Art School Trends 2045). Together with 12 partner institutions, we created future scenarios for institutions of higher art education and drafted policies and roadmaps for futures of Arts Education. Find out more

School of Commons 2024: Call for projects application deadline has been extended to December 6th at 23.59 CET Find out more

Throughout the year, the “There, there” working group has embarked on a unique journey of collecting and reusing sounds – a process akin to upcycling and recycling. Find out more

This event will be moderated by María Angélica Madero and Santiago Pinyol, in collaboration with Laura Emsley. Intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs from nonverbal sign systems. Find out more

40+ Commoning as a daily practice, with Bianca Elzenbaumer What type of informal economies already exist within forms of learning? How do our interdependencies relate to accessible education? How do we make existing practices of care sustainable in (non-)institutional infrastructures? Find out more

The Digital Search Engine for Art Education brought together institutions and participants from the independent scene involved in art education and archiving. Find out more

By means of fragmentation, destruction and the reconstitution of well-known figures, themes and strategies of mass media, Bjørn Melhus not only creates possibilities of other interpretations and critical commentaries but also tries to redefine the relationship between mass media and spectators. Find out more

This text by Paul Preciado was undertranslated by the second year students of deFine Art department from the Willem de Kooning Academy as part of a theory class. Find out more

This text by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui was undertranslated by the third year students of the Critical Studies minor from the Willem de Kooning Academy. Find out more

Tune in to access time-space zones from both near and far and hear the hottest takes on the presents, pasts, and futures of arts education… Find out more

This is a hybrid peer-learning seed project that reimagines Southern African natural heritage sites as venues for the sharing of artistic research and practice in virtual and physical spaces. Find out more

Consensual Questioning and Collective Implementation is a lecture and workshop event, during which Pendar Nabipour, a visual artist, independent curator and art educated based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands will introduce possible answers to these questions in relation to his research project Open Source Governance. Find out more

We followed an intuition. Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui uses this word called abigarramiento. It is untranslatable to english. The word indicates shelter, rooting, but also swallowing, seizing… we looked for where that word appears, in which text. We found nothing, but we found something else. Find out more

This year’s Learning Commons conversation, hosted by SoC alumni* Betül Aksu, invites artist and activist Zeyno Pekünlü and the SoC community to discuss self-organised learning spaces and the knowledge created within. Find out more

Hosted by Eleonora and Muj Please register via their DM @imujabd and @eleonoratoniolo. Find out more

Experience a journey into relaxation and communal care in ‘A Spoonful of Rest.’ Through the harmonious fusion of poetry, culinary delights, and music, we explore the art of rest and its transformation into a shared practice of nurturing. Find out more

Over the past months, the SoC 2023 cohort has been working in four focus groups, on topics ranging from arts and technology to innovative forms of education. As part of our Autumn programming, the participants will share their findings, ways and workings with the wider public. Find out more

In engaging with the world around us to lay the foundations for learning together and co-creating spaces, networks, and communities of belonging and support–the SoC programme aims to promote a broad, integrative understanding of knowledge, heavily defined by our community. Find out more

During the intensive weekend of School of Commons, decolonial (re)mediators will perform a collective “undertranslation” of Barranquilla 2132 by José Antonio Osorio Lizarazo, a colombian science fiction book first published in 1932. Find out more

Wie kann man Zusammenarbeit, Zusammenleben, Zusammensein anders denken? Glitter, die erste queere deutschsprachige Find out more

An introduction, by Dagmara Wyskiel, to the International Biennial of Contemporary Art, SACO, followed by an in-conversation with Marea Hildebrand, Founder of SoC. Find out more

A healing letter-writing practice brought to Berlin by the Open Sourcing Love with the support of the There, there working group aims to express solidarity and ponder the notions of love and its manifestations around us. Find out more

We are thrilled to host the #SoC2023 Cohort in Zurich this week, for our very first in-person gathering! Find out more

Sound installation with recordings from Almaty, Berlin, Bogota, Kampala, Paris, Venice and more Find out more

“Sonic Scavenging: Hidden Music In The Wild” is a workshop organized by Lena Pozdnyakova and Eldar Tagi (of There, there working group). It is designed to open up the world of sound to children, offering them a unique opportunity to engage with their environment through auditory exploration. Find out more

We are taking a break for the Summer and will be back on August 28. Find out more

We are taking a break for the Summer and will be back on August 28. Please note any emails for hello@schoolofcommons.com will be picked up then, follow us at @schoolofcommons for further updates. Find out more

This event, organized by the Distributed Design Platform, aims to foster the development of the emerging sector of Distributed Design in the European and International discourse while supporting the environment in which emerging talent thrives. Find out more

Can design education ever be truly accessible and inclusive? Find out more

Politics of (dis)assembling on 19.06.2023 with T.J. Demos, Marwa Arsanios, ON/OFF Collective, Patu Politics of (dis)assembling on 29.06.2023 with Jennifer Ponce de Léon, STOP DEPORTATION CENTER BER!, ON/OFF Collective with Zoë Ritts, Patu Find out more

The title and the approach to show (in the art practice or living as an artist and cultural worker under the conditions of capitalism to sustain a livelihood, hunting for projects, hustling with ideas, and other things) refers to numerous levels of existence in the world. Find out more

We regret to inform you that the SoC Instagram account has been hacked, and the hacker is now sending messages alleging copyright violations (refer to image). Find out more

During the Ultrahospitality weekend we will perform a collective “ultratranslation” of “La cocina situada” (The situated kitchen), a book by our dear friend Marina Monsonís. Her book is a small “illustrated dictionary for food sovereignty”. Find out more

The workshop “Institutional Possibility: Protocols for Caring Institutions” invites Caroline Woolard, an artist, educator, and the Chief Culture Officer at Open Collective, to facilitate a series of exercises that develop awareness about the potential of communication, cooperation, and reflection within institutional frameworks. Find out more

Call for projects! School of Commons (SoC) is looking for groups and individuals who would like to conduct their research and practice as a part of the SoC community and informal study programme from May 2023 – February 2024. Find out more

Event series and poetic interventions are organized and run by Anna Kücking, a member of the SoC 2023 Cohort and of the “There, there” working group, who works at the intersection of social work, performance, journalism, and literature. Find out more

On alternative environments for learning Exhibition, Workshops, Performances and Podium Unveiling the works in progress of the hybrid, multidisciplinary research of SoC’s 2022 fellows and beyond Find out more

We invite you to join us for this podium conversation, bringing together a number of current and former participants of the School of Commons. Find out more

What do we hear when we listen to classical music? What happens to our attention during the (usually long) time it takes to get to the end of a piece? Find out more

El próximo sábado 26 de noviembre a las 7 p.m. llega la sesión IX del canto rodado. Esta vez se presentará el colectivo Just Listening con una exploración sonora en vivo, o ejercicio de escucha colectiva, que involucra grabaciones de campo, instrumentos y lectura de poesía. Find out more

Footnotes is a Summer School for academics, professionals, students and curious people organised by School of Commons. It will take place from 29 August to 1 September 2022, on the campus of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Find out more

This workshop is part of the Weizenbaum Conference) Kit Kuksenok, Christel De Maeyer, and Minha Lee. It incorporates the activities, prompts, and methods under investigation in the Safety in Numbers project. Find out more

The No Way Experience has the not at all modest aim of creating a musical dimension that does not exist. A musical dimension that is first of all a crossroads. Find out more

Collective Worlding Game (audio-only) by Carina Erdmann and Nick Koppenhagen Find out more

Marea Hildebrand will speak on the concept of School of Commons, the future of learning and international peer-to-peer learning from her experience as the founder of School of Commons. Find out more

We are very pleased to invite you to this transgenerational dialogue which will bring together the experiences and knowledge of women who live in distant territories. Find out more

What is your relationship to the unknown? What can you learn from connecting to your unconscious? Find out more

Eligibility Criteria (and beyond) is running a collective writing workshop called Open Open Call. In this workshop, we will collectively write a call for participation with one criterion in mind: anyone can apply. Find out more

Fire is Scary (FiS) will present an exhibition titled so you should play on a swing at Bradwolff Projects in Amsterdam from December 5th to 19th. The exhibition will be led by FiS member, Sol Enae Lee and will feature sculpture, drawing, and video works. Find out more

This event will present the findings and paths opened during the realization of the study group, NOT KNOWING, [part of the SLOW BLUR GENTLE], which proposed an approach towards blurriness and indefiniteness. Find out more

Have you ever asked yourself/Are you also asking yourself where and how participatory practices happens and you want to dive into them with us? Find out more

With Paula Baeza Pailamilla, Aldir Polymeris, Willimann/Arai, Sarina Scheidegger, Dominik Zietlow and Paloma Ayala. Find out more

We invite you to a workshop that will explore conversation scores and silences as tools for shaping group interactions. Find out more

We are looking for groups, duos and individuals that want to collaboratively and actively shape the programme and content of the SoC year 2022. Find out more

A ceremony about holding your universe in your palm and turning it around twice clockwise. There will be drinks, music and the possibility to visit Other Than Human Entity’s mushroom lab. Find out more

Eligibility Criteria (and beyond) lab presents Bureau of Commons, a self-declared territory for authorisation. The Bureau issues random authorisation for people who have the permission to circulate in the Bureau territory. Find out more

"Everything not saved will be lost" — Nintendo / The End Games Find out more

Have you ever worked with participatory practices, or do you want to learn more about them? Find out more

Our Band of Burnouts lab is hosting a garden screening of the new documentary The Wisdom of Trauma (2021) featuring Dr Gabor Maté. Find out more

Fire is Scary will present an in-progress session from their research project Fire is Scary: Translations of Sound and Image on July 20th from 18.00-20.00, with guest speaker Rory Pilgrim. Find out more

As part of our research into the body as a producer of knowledge and asemic writing as a potential conveyor of experience in relation to burnout, the Band of Burnouts lab is stoked to be joining Naïma Ben Ayed’s summer school Let Letters Speak at le Signe in Chaumont, France. Find out more

Band of Burnouts is stoked to present a collaboration with the experimental theory band We Are Not Sick at the 2021 edition of contemporary music festival Lange Nacht Zürich. Find out more

From 28th June – 4th July, we will be gathering with our scholarship receivers for a week of somatic writing workshops, beginning with the Home School’s REGENERATION: (Soma)tic Poetry Rituals for New Growth with CA Conrad. Find out more

Band of Burnouts is thrilled to announce that we are offering two scholarships for writers who have experience with burnout and would like to work with the topic in their practice. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Band of Burnouts is excited to announce our first call for contributions to an experimental print publication sharing experiences of burnout. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Informal gathering hosted online, open to the public. Find out more

Mark your calendars! *A conversation about sensorial economies of touch and haptic labour* Find out more

Come and make yourself comfortable, read together with others. Each session of Read & Repair is looking at a different text, sometimes guided by a guest. Our last editions have been taking place online, and so does this one. Find out more

Dharmendra and Tara have developed a workshop on how to do nothing in collaboration with Do Nothing Curating. The participants will experiment with doing nothing, toiling, and waiting – a continuation in practices of locality that lay ground to Dharmendra’s artistic work. Find out more

School of Commons is excited to announce an Open Call for all three of our labs: LEARN, READ, and MAPP. We are offering 16 places, available to individuals and collectives, with project budgets available. All positions are temporary and run for the duration of 10 months, from April 1st 2021 to Jan 31st 2022. Find out more

This window screening will premiere the video footage of her recent performance, together with previous videos: Wüfko (2019), Que no nos quiten la voz (2018) and Mongeley Taiñ Dungun (2018). Find out more

A School of Commons (SOC) work session by the MAPP: “A dialogue must take place, precisely because we don’t speak the same language.” Find out more

The Mapuche artist Paula Baeza Pailamilla (*1988, lives and works in Santiago, CL) centers her practice in the recuperation of ancestral knowledge. In performances, workshops, and videos she enganges the audience with Mapuche culture as a means to contrast the social and ecological modern condition. Find out more

While we are all apart, we wonder: How does our collective isolation affect our capacity for learning? Learning in Island Ecologies seeks to answer. Find out more

But in actuality, whenever our experimenters are out and about and remember to record conversation between two people who are hopefully strangers to each other. Find out more

R/R invites the SOC community for a workshop/game that aims to investigate and discuss these polemical ideas in practice. Find out more

We will first meet on zoom and then go on an exploration together on island forge. ~Please download the game and java player beforehand and create your avatar. Looking forward to island hopping with u! Find out more

We might engage in telling experiences, finding examples, reflecting on concepts and expressions, and considering the functional and the dysfunctional.  Find out more

A public conference about land and soil with artists, gardeners, architects and historians. Find out more

With a discussion with artist Monica Ursina Jäger. Find out more