GLAMorous Sound

Guide: Natou Fall
Duration: Starting August 1st | Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-12pm | 5 Weeks
Format: Online and In-Person at Memoryhaus 555, Historic South Central, Los Angeles, CA 90007
Cost: $500.00

An abridged run of SCI-Arc liberal arts course “GLAM: LA, Glamour, and All The Jazz”:

Jazz, an American music style that originated from the African American communities of New Orleans in the 19th and early 20th centuries, will serve as the essence or the influence for this course. Music as a form of expression and liberation has been a large part of African and African American culture, and Jazz was a glamorous moment. The Jazz Scene here in Los Angeles was isolated to Central Avenue, known back then as “The Avenue.” A site of forward-thinking musicianship, the Avenue is where we begin our exploration of “glamour” as a material effect and aesthetic category. The goal of the course is not to reimagine the history of the Jazz movement and analyze the moments in contemporary culture it has inspired. We will move through history, locations, and culture in propulsive syncopated rhythms, with moments of improvisation, using film, fashion, and sound to create our ensemble. This course will ask of you to breathe new life into history with feeling. How do certain sounds, materials, and colors evoke a sensation? How can we capture and define a vibe? When and where is improvisation necessary, and to what degree? What does it mean to recreate history? All of these are questions we will investigate together.

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Natou Fall is a Senegalese-American visual artist working across film, make-up artistry, and sculpture. Born in Paris, raised in Ft. Lauderdale FL their creative practice is heavily inspired by their multicultural upbringing. Fall’s storytelling is concerned with nostalgia, trans-nationalism, the black femme experience, sensuality, and the supernatural. Their practice embraces notions of multiplicity, glamour, and the self to embolden radical self acceptance, and challenge classical notions of beauty rooted in whiteness and heteronormativity. Trained as an architect, Fall’s developed procedural techniques of layering, casting, assemblage, and collage. Their material palette includes plaster, silicone, cosmetic products, molded and printed plastics, fabric, high density foam, and various papers and paints. After receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Interior Architecture and Design from the George Washington University, they went on to study at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture). In September of 2019 they received the Frank and Bertha Gehry Prize for their graduate thesis installation Shaping Face. Fall’s work has been exhibited in galleries Band of Vices, Maple St. Construct and Transformative Arts. They have been commissioned by brands like Sonos and Ami Colé, and worked on productions for performing artists Janelle Monae, and D’Smoke. They are currently design studio faculty at SCI-Arc, and working on projects in Los Angeles.