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TLO - The Language of Objects
The TLO workshop is based on a structured checklist of questions and impulses designed to sensitise humans to the presences, agencies and affordances of objects. Initially a personal creation method, it encompasses many aspects of Benjamin's choreographic and performance philosophy. Rooted in Graham Harman's Object-Oriented-Ontology, J.J. Gibsons Theory of Affordances, and Benjamin's researches into the Bauhaus and post-modernism, TLO enables others to not only develop their own object-oriented sensitivity, but to understand more about their own creative processes.
As well as using the method in his own creations, Benjamin has taught TLO to BA, MA and PHD students at the Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH), at the Ècole Supérieur des Arts du Cirque (ESAC), as well as at other performing arts universities and institutions and in independent workshops all over Europe. The method can be taught in a studio or remotely via video conference.
TLO has left a strong trace in the circus world, with it now being commonplace for artists to regard their objects as more equal partners and to give space to their inherent values, meanings and presences. Benjamin sees this to be a valuable development towards a more sustainable relationship with objects and materials in the performing arts and the world in general.