OUTLINE and Off Course invite you to Thing Theories, a 3-day publishing intensive in which we will collectively compile, edit, and print a publication on-site. We’ll centre research, production, and exchange across a series of workshops, presentations and conversations among participants and with guest contributors.
The publishing intensive orbits two definitions of the artefact: as both an archeological term for a human-made object, and a term for a misleading error or confusing alteration in data-observation. We’ll explore artefact-objects and the stories and histories they carry, our relationship to objects and the power they hold over us, looking for parallels, and ways they relate through difference; to destabilise concepts of ownership and authorship, and to produce new modes of interpretation.
What does it mean to possess an artefact? How can we overlay histories and (un)bend narratives? And what happens when these objects are appropriated, described, juxtaposed, recontextualised, and finally published?
Each participant will be asked to bring in an artefact (or its representation): an object that carries a story, or a history, into the present. On day 1 & 2, we’ll explore methods of collective processing — annotating, archival activation, historicising, translating — through a series of exercises and workshops. Together we will look for ways to describe, contextualise, layer, version, mutate, contrast and arrange our artefact-objects into a composite curiosity cabinet, to finally converge in the publication we will print together on day 3.
To apply, read the full call (link in our bio) and send an email before Wednesday 20 May 2026!
Launch of
ELEMENTAL MAGIC: EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR
by Jae Pil Eun
with readings by Maria Barnas, Mia You, Cleo Tsw, Niam Madlani at 6.30pm
Pictured: Five glazed cups by Jae Pil Eun with ceramic artist Sunwoo Jung, to be used on the launch of ‘Elemental Magic: Earth, Water, Fire, Air’.
‘Elemental Magic: Earth, Water, Fire, Air’ is a tactile handbook, woven from the elemental forces that shape our world and inner selves. In tarot, these four elements are foundational energies that give life to each suit—Earth grounds us in the material, Water carries our emotional depths, Fire fuels passion and will, and Air clarifies thought and perception. Rather than offering escape, ‘magic’ is an invitation to foster a practice of attention and attunement to the sacred mundane.
Saturday, May 24, 6-8pm
Launch of
ELEMENTAL MAGIC: EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR
by Jae Pil Eun
with readings by Maria Barnas, Mia You, Cleo Tsw, Niam Madlani at 6.30pm
‘Elemental Magic: Earth, Water, Fire, Air’ is a tactile handbook, woven from the elemental forces that shape our world and inner selves. In tarot, these four elements are foundational energies that give life to each suit—Earth grounds us in the material, Water carries our emotional depths, Fire fuels passion and will, and Air clarifies thought and perception. Rather than offering escape, ‘magic’ is an invitation to foster a practice of attention and attunement to the sacred mundane.
Elemental Magic is designed by Cleo TSW and published by Off Course.
@off_course_imprint@jaepil_eun@cleotsw@quelpart@niamsyard
