Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out: A Program for Pause
Hannah Spector, born from mirrors, 2024. Video still. Courtesy of the artist.
In collaboration with local artists and purveyors, Austin-based artist Emmy Laursen presents Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out, a free, open-to-the-public post-Election Day program focused on rest, recreation, and reflection at the COMMONS at the VAC. Elizabeth Hess will offer guests Gongfu cha tea service, Rebeca Proctor will lead a pinched teacup workshop wherein guests can create ceramic cups that can be picked up at a later date, Andrea Cortez will lead a sound healing experience, and artist Hannah Spector will present a new video work in the COMMONS gallery.
Emmy Laursen writes:
There’s a moment between input and output, between receiving stimulus and expression, and I wonder if we can make space for that moment, that pause, and spend a whole day in that place of processing to respond with conscious presence.
“Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” is a famous phrase coined by Timothy Leary in 1967. He recited it at the Human Be-In in San Francisco, a massive countercultural gathering organized by artists. Borrowing the mantra feels appropriate amidst continued bipartisanship, global authoritarianism, and climate change.
As an artist and arts programmer, I don’t take the availability of free and open space for granted. I think artists must have access to space and opportunity to make worlds that reflect their practice/internal world. This is an offering for others that I need for myself: a day of reflective community activities.
Turn On, Tune in, Drop Out will take place in COMMONS at the VAC between 12–5 pm with a sound bath with Andrea Cortez from 1:30–2:15 pm.
Tea service with Elizabeth Hess, sponsored by West China Tea. Pinched teacups workshop with Rebeca Proctor, sponsored by East Side Pot Shop. Andrea Cortez presents the sound healing experience. Cinépoème is courtesy of Hannah Spector.
Guests who create teacups during the workshop can pick up their works at the Visual Arts Center on Tuesday, December 3, from 12–4:30 pm.
Emmy Laursen, a born 'n raised Texan, is an artist, therapist, and curator living in Austin, TX. Previously the Associate Director & Curator at Pump Project, she now serves as the Curator of Programs & Engagement at The Contemporary Austin. Since receiving her BFA in Studio Art at The University of Texas at Austin in 2015, she has served the Austin art community through exhibition curation, event organizing, and artist engagement at organizations including Landmarks, Pump Project, Art Alliance Austin, Print Austin, George Washington Carver Museum, Prizer Arts & Letters, grayDUCK Gallery, and Elisabet Ney Museum. She currently serves on the board for DORF. Her experience has reinforced her commitment to advocating for programs and space at the intersection of people and community. She recently received her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and runs a private therapy practice serving adults in Texas.
Elizabeth Hess is an herbalist and tea server local to Austin, specializing in Chinese tea, gong cha. She offers sit down experiences fusing her passion for plant medicine and community.
Rebeca Proctor is a Texas native, currently living and working in Elgin, TX. She is a sculptor primarily working in ceramics. Rebeca is co-owner of East Side Pot Shop ceramics studio in East Austin where she teaches handbuilding courses. She is co-founder of Nom Ceramics, a line of functional ceramics that she shares with her husband. Rebeca received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018 where her main focus was bronze casting and mixed media sculpture.
Andrea Cortez, MM, MT–BC, is a board certified music therapist who uses the power of music to create positive change in the listener. Her work focuses on how rhythm, harmony, and other elements of sound can help improve the health of our mind and body. Andrea is a harpist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound meditation teacher. In addition to working individually with people, her work explores the relationship between the elements of music and the natural world. She incorporates playing music with both animals and plants demonstrating the presence of music as a fundamental structure found in nature. She is owner of Mind Body Music Center, a sound therapy studio, where she is based in Austin, TX.
Hannah Spector is an interdisciplinary visual artist and poet working out of Austin, TX. Spector thinks of language as a solid object—a concrete and spatial expression that can overturn limiting perceptions of the everyday. Spector graduated from UT Austin with an MFA in Printmaking & Transmedia. Spector has shown their work nationally at Transformer Gallery (DC), The CAM Perennial (TX), Stoveworks (TN), Flatbed Press (ATX), The Katzen (DC), and Women and Their Work (ATX). Spector has completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MASS Gallery, The Museum of Human Achievement, and Pyramid Atlantic. Spector’s short films have won prizes at The DUMBO Film Festival, Berlin Shorts Festival, and Bodega Film Festival. They are an Assistant Professor of Practice of Time & Technology at UT Austin.