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Telling myself what to do feels foreign And bends itself into what will turn into the first escape of many It takes a careful tread and a dissonant listening in order to achieve the uncut smile that spreads across my face So I scan wildly Wanting no one's eye but my own Desperation and wanton for a hazy comfort that's flits, floats, and spreads to the edges that become unseeable I am comfy rolling in the masses comfy to await

We were led into a cobblestone courtyard after a short trek through the layer cake city of Belgrade. The old and the new built alongside and on top of each other. All stonework and stairways in and around the ancient walkways of the city. They took us up away from the river, past stately parks and brutalist buildings, up a hill through old world neighborhoods to the Center for Cultural Decontamination. Greying plaster walls with red tile roofs. Slightly crumbling

The need for a wow is paramount. There is no situation where a wow can not shake the habitual, move you in to the very heart of the mundane, and re-fascinate your existence. From day to day, we move about in a world that we know very little about. I do not know how electricity works, how leaves grows on a tree or how a touch screen knows my finger. Most of the time, I think no more of it.

What is the body's relationship to furniture, to structure, to the design we inhabit but rarely have an opportunity to adapt? How can design be appropriated to be more collaborative in creation and destruction, shaped by our social norms and urban conditions? Can design be improvisational, performative even? What happens when humans are no longer the subject and objects embody new life? How can our bodies respond to architectural cues and prototype new designs? Jeremy Edwards came to CounterPulse with

Because San Francisco industries are hemorrhaging artists, and CounterPulse safeguards resources for YOUR artistic community. Because you know that things can just be so much better than what they are. Because all your most brilliant friends will be there. Because we’re going ALL OUT with the Innerspace theme and transforming our building into a queer starship. (You like toasting and dancing under beautiful intergalactic starry skies, right?) Because silvery, futurist, industrial-ish, fantasy FASHION LOOKS. Because CounterPulse has one of the

A wise woman drums to the four directions of the earth Tum, tum, tum, tum, tum She calls the ancestral spirits of the land, water, air, fire And begins to teach me the way to journey   There I am, as ancient as her Yet, afraid of my power Alchemy comes to my aid And I jump into Pegasus, my Power Animal Flying to Marcahuasi The sacred Peruvian mountain of my youth   I travel to the mountaintop Passing ethereal

A Reflection from CounterPulse’s former Development & Engagement Fellow   Leaving the academic world can be jarring for most people. It’s incredibly easy to feel aimless and misdirected without an imposed colonized structure thrust upon you for the first time ever. As a recent college graduate from a “socially conscious” Jesuit university, I’m lucky to have had a smooth transition from a very privileged, borderline sheltered environment to the real world in San Francisco. My immersive fellowship at CounterPulse is

 Journey for Wisdom and Empowerment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N697jVEqyiM&feature=youtu.be A key part of my artistic process for "Metamorphosis" is to connect with nature and my indigenous Peruvian roots through shamanic dance to invoke healing and strength. Shot by Life Escobar. Directed and performed by Mabel Valdiviezo Una parte clave de mi proceso artístico para "Metamorfosis" es conectarme con la naturaleza y mis raíces indígenas peruanas a través de la danza chamánica para invocar la sanación y el poder interno.   The path unfolds

#NotABugSplat A little girl’s face stares towards the clouds in a meadow, a place where drones fly as often as the birds. Her face covers a massive portrait printed by a group of artist-activists as part of an installation titled #NotABugSplat. Since 2004, drone strikes in Pakistan have killed over 3,000 people, including a large number of civilians, 160 of which were children. Drone operators describe deadly casualties as bug splats. Viewing the body through a grainy video projection, the

Mugwumpin Company Member Ray Oppenheimer on the development of The Looking Glass Self One of the things that I am interested in is the democratization of technology, lowering the barrier for the creation of high quality digital falsehood. As a tool to explore this loss of autonomy and ease of creation we decided to experiment with creating digital puppets from 3d scans.  To do this we used: Hardware       Xbox 360 Kinect       An adaptor cable

Mark your calendars, CounterPulse is moving full throttle in a relentlessly risk-taking performance line-up this Fall. See our Fall 2019 performance schedule and get tickets below! Combustible Residency 2019 Mugwumpin: The Looking Glass Self Mabel Valdiviezo with Travis Bennett: Metamorphosis: Phase 1 Sept 12-14 & 19-21, Thu-Sat, 7:30pm & 8:15pm Pay-what-you-can Thursdays   CounterPulse is back with year three of Combustible, our highly-acclaimed dance/technology residency that carves a place to experiment on the edge of what is known. This year