Workshop w/ MELT

The end of September was generous enough to let us meet Ren Loren Britton and Iz Paehr, working together as MELT. 

Art design duo came to Vilnius to share their practice surrounding trans* feminism and anti-ableism, and by presenting their project Rituals Against Barriers, they invited the participants to perform them and create their own ones by reflecting on the microaggressions and oppressions we encounter daily. Besides the latter, combined with the inevitable, attentively curated selection of readings, the AEPies had a chance to reflect on their own practices combined with the insights collected. By leaning on the metaphorical concept of wedges MELT is working with, each participant produced a wedge connected to their practice – may it be a letter frozen into a block of ice, a tense web made of fabric keeping the door open, or a intangible sonic wedge exploring the tangible places.

Ren and Iz said there were as many teachers in that room as there were people, which felt like an undeniable truth. Glad that MELT came to share their ideas with us and made room to exchange ours at the very right time. 

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MELT (Ren Loren Britton & Iz Paehr) study and experiment with shape-shifting processes as they meet technologies, sensory media and pedagogies in a warming world. MELT currently builds projects along four different research tracks: ACCESS SERVER, The Meltionary, Counting Feelings and Zeitgeber. Their arts-design research cooks up practices that generate material and infrastructional transformations that intersect Trans* feminism and Disability Justice.

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Text: Evita Mikalkėnaitė
Photos: Sunna Dagsdóttir