In fitness training, effective programs work with muscle confusion; a strategy in which the same muscles are exposed to a variety of different exercises. It is used to prevent the body from adapting muscle memory, a state in which muscles get used to certain movements and stop developing. The more change and surprise the body experiences during exercise, the more it improves. The same is true of critical thinking. If the mind isn’t provoked enough, habit and routine will thrive, limiting individuals from questioning their current situations and achieving progress. Therefore, to improve the thought production, the mind should be confused.

This workshop brings attention to the unreasonable expectations of the fast-paced, competitive Western society, in which many individuals endure conditions similar to those expected of athletes during high-performance training. Training is a process of education for the body, which prepares it to cope with the exceptional demands of performing to a high degree of physical output. This type of training does not exist for artists, academics and students, who must meet and cope with equally demanding (mental) outputs beyond reasonable circumstances for a healthy limit of knowledge production. Ideogging is a tool for ‘mental athletes’ to challenge the expectations and pressures they are under by (in)effectively achieving a high-performance knowledge output by means of an un-disciplined, collaborative, absurd training regime. It critiques what success should be, and challenges how one can get there.

The workshop includes:

• Warm-up stretch, using notepads as weights with brief introduction
• Small obstacle course for individual training of hand-eye-body-mind coordination, including how to fall and how to avoid bumping into other people/objects
• a 20 minute ideogging jog together in Park am Gleisdreieck
• sharing the ideas/experiences with the rest of the group afterward

Vanessa meets you on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 am at the Infopoint in the Main Hall.