Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin
Past, Present & Future is continuous: Decentralising systems of power
Block seminar, English, 3 SWS, 2 ECTS
9 hybrid sessions on Wednesdays 16-17:30 h + 2 weekend blocks:
Wed, 19.4.2023 (Online)
Wed, 3.5.2023 (hybrid, Einsteinufer 43, room 203)
Wed, 17.5. & 31.5. (online)
Wed, 7.6. (hybrid, Einsteinufer 43, room 203)
Wed, 14.6. (online)
Weekend 24.6./ 25.6., 10-17 h “starting point Hardenbergstrasse”. (class touring Berlin, cooking & sharing food)
Wed, 28.6. & 5.7. & 12.7. (Einsteinufer 43, room 203)
Weekend, 15.7./ 16.7., 10-17 h “starting point Hardenbergstrasse”. (class touring, cooking & sharing food)

Registration on Moodle starts on the 17th of April / Anmeldung auf Moodle beginnt am 17.4.2023: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=1875
Moodle Enrollment Key / Einschreibeschlüssel: stole

This current class by Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin started as “You Stole The Objects: The Past, Present and Future is Continuous'' for three semesters and crystallised into “You Stole The Objects! The Past, Present & Future is Continuous: The Algorithm of Being “Difference” in Space. This class is an experiment, a way to redistribute power within and outside the classroom between students and professor or tutor. We create our curriculum as we go, our questions and curiosity guide the material we end up studying. In my fifth semester of teaching I would love to settle the class in what I feel the last four semesters have revolved around which is finding alternate systems outside and within the ones we find ourselves as individuals and as a collective. This will be my last semester teaching, guiding, mediating and creating space for probing and tinkering as a research fellow of the UDK. This semester the goal is as always, to create a space where students can tinker, query, rest, push or resist as they see fit. We would still be looking at restitution through a multilayered conversation, beyond the current focus on restitution of museum holdings.

A key part of my life practice is being an educator, now I get to use myself as the example of how a practitioner can impact academia in all forms traditional and non-traditional. In the classroom, I introduce students to new ways of navigating the classroom and conversations that present various perspectives, subverting the power dynamics between the lecturer and students, thereby attempting to create a circular power flow. Learning becomes circular instead of unidirectional. In my practice, I avoid being in a position to only teach as I see knowledge production or transfer as an exchange. It is about allowing our curiosities to lead the way; it is a dance together, and I have witnessed students let go of the usual classroom methods and become great dance partners as we attempt decentralisation.

Class open to: is a class open to Bachelor, MA and postgraduate to students from UDK, students from other universities and non the general public.
Requirements for the ungraded Studium Generale credits: Regular participation and active contribution to seminar activities.

First things first, Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin na the pikin of Victoria Elomese Omonhinmin and Cosmos Ijogbe Omonhinmin, E family big well well and e believe say all these things na very important reason wey make am the person wey e be today, because of the type of pikin wey e be to e mama and papa, the type of brother wey e be to e siblings and the nephew, cousin and uncle wey e be to e extender family and the different communities wey e don stay, all join to make am the very person wey dey do the type of work wey e dey do and difference nor dey between e work and daily life, all of dem joining together as storyteller and spacemaker. Na for Benin City, for Nigeria 1985 naim dem born Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin. Omonblanks na interdisciplinary creative producer or “ambassador of entanglement” wey dey use everything e fit use take make things happen, like form or position wey e need take do e project. Na so e done take do everything like festival curating & producing, creative direction, film, music, art practice, sharing food, conversations and more. With critical discourse E dey rearrange intersections with all d plenty conceptual tools like research-based methods inside oral-storytelling, biographical conversation documentation, archiving, design and collaboration. As a storyteller, spacemaker, he feel say practitioners, especially the ones with Black and African heritage, deserve the chance to do anything them want just like their academic colleagues and get the same respect and regard, because na ontop the work wey practitioners dey do, naim we take dey test theories. He start ‘The Art Concept’, a documentation and archive-focused platform with eye for African and Black societies from individual, community, city, country and continent perspectives, as way to take back power to determine our center and talk our narratives. As E life-Practice sitdon ontop participatory and social-practice, E believe say our body na memory collector and everything we do takes on a life of its own, so through the relationship wey e get with people, stories, space, spices, cooking, sharing collected memories and food all na major part of e handwork/practice. Omonblanks’s past and present works na projects wey dey always touch social engagement. Omonblanks na d architect of The Art Concept Project, wey dey forge new ground in the documentation and archiving of narratives of people of Black and African heritage and those within the many intersections. E be fellow and lecturer for University of Art, Berlin (Oct. 2021-23).

(Regional dialect; English biography see: https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/research/graduate-school/fellows/future-fellows/okhiogbe-omonhinmin/)