NSISIM

NSISIM Studio is a slow burn practice of ecological embodiment


Vol. 1: Courses


Open Call



@nsisim.studio
Substack
 nsisimstudio[at]gmail


Manifesto



NSISIM... (nuh-sih-sim) means ‘spirit’ in Bulu: a language spoken in the Southeastern region of Cameroon. 

this space is for:

  • 🌀 the curious who wants to bridge the gap between their values and embodying them


  • 🐚 the researcher interested in land, nature, memory, patterns, images, time, poetry, liberation


  • 🫀 the empathetic critic who observes, questions, re-envisions, and puts back together


  • 💌 the compassionate collaborator who respects, adds to, and co-imagines solutions & visions


  • 👽 the visionary worldbuilder who dreams, plans, visualizes, organizes, and.or strategizes


  • 🌿 the creative &/or thinker who makes, draws, weaves, tells, dances, plays, plans, studies, works, moves, connects, sings, paints, writes, builds, imagines who values her/their/his community/ies.

You


** a project by Ingrid Raphaël. 乁༼☯‿☯✿༽ㄏ

NSISIM Studio wants to personally thank the planet for all that it is, Sasha Kelley for the consultation of distribution strategies of course offerings– endlessly grateful for your piscean dreamer and capricorn rootedness and Iris E. Fernández Valdés who is our creative practice and emotional excavation life coach who has been accompanying us through parks, emotional underworld, creative laboratory, and inner child to unearth dormant corporal and poetic connections presented as NSISIM.\

Directed by NSISIM Studio, Composed and Arranged by Sophie Lee and Mastered by Micah Baptiste

Research and Inspiration

.

the Web



What does the ephemera of the web(s) teach us?

What autonomous modes of internet-living can we imagine, exist, and build?

What can we learn from plant technologies that we can weave into the internet and digital spaces?

Could we weave our visions of the future into the interwebs?


In this course, we’ll:


  1. explore the history of the internet, soft v. hard ware & their gendered implications
  2. unpack published cyborg, internet, and tech + art manifestos 
  3. attempt to mend our frustrations & criticisms of social media, internet, surveillance
  4. dream our visions of a free-er internet, cyberfeminism, and data ownership
  5. learn from plant interwebs


1/1


✿Registrations Closed - Class Underway


Research Methods for Artists



Have a project, offering, artwork in mind but don’t know where to get started?

Do you need a way to organize your thoughts, research and documentation?

Are you desiring a way to alchemize research into an offering, artwork, organizing effort?

Are you looking for online and in-person resources support in the planning stages of your ideas?


In this course, we’ll:


  1. pool from an extensive list of research tools & weave them into our artistic practice (or idea of choice)
  2.  learn from artist collectives’ research methods & ways of organizing information, dreams, & visions 
  3. develop our own methodologies suited to our practice, ways of being, thinking, seeing, and relating  
  4. dive into best practices for research, archiving, cataloguing, sources for digital and in-person research
1/1



✿Intensive went well! Thank you for an amazing cohort of singers, filmmakers, bodyworkers, archivists, and artists. 


We offer courses once to twice a year. 

This cohort met during the month of September 2025. 

Nature



What do plants, animals, rivers, trees, understories, and more have to embody and learn from?

What herbs and plants have been used for liberatory struggles? What can we learn from them?

What processes of grief, acceptance, love, clearing, regeneration does nature embody that we could learn from?

How have creatives, writers, farmers, and cultures personified and transformed plants to dream and create new visions of realities?

In this course, we’ll:


  1. observe the nature around us and listen to the lessons embodied in its landscape
  2. carve out our inner landscapes and get curious about what they hold, share, and are saying
  3. study the elements: air, water, fire, earth & the ways they have been written and personified 
  4. develop a poetic & political language and orientation of a personalized ecology
  5. explore medicinal properties of herbs for grief, love, soothing and more... 

1/1


✿Class Went Well! Thank you to our Participants, you were stellar!


We offer courses once to twice a year. 

This cohort met during the month of April 2025. 

Time


How can non-linear or alternative forms of time mirror our personal experiences?

What forms of time-keeping support an imaginative way of honoring our experiences of time?

How can we notice & observe time to map from and embody its lessons?

In this course, we’ll:


  1. understand the ways time is structured to work against us & for us
  2. unlearn aspects of ownership and illusions of predictability (security) of time
  3. explore & learn to build constellations of time that defy ownership
  4. read time through afro-futurism, speculative fiction, music sheets, commutes, carbon dating etc…
  5. create personalized calendars & systems of time that support and align with your experiences and needs

1/1



✿Class Went Well! Thank you to our Participants, you were stellar!


We offer courses once to twice a year. 

This cohort met during the month of March 2025. 

Weaving


What do weaving languages & technologies offer to make sense of the self and others?

What have weaving practices & fractal technology offered us insight on?

How can/have they inform(ed) abolitionist
pasts, presents and futures?

How can weaving processes of making, undoing, sewing, knotting, tying, and undoing again teach us about the acts of (un)making the self?

    In this course, we’ll:


    1. play with weaving techniques such as fractal mapping, braiding simulators, and paper weaving 
    2. reflect on (inter)personal and cultural weaving practices (weaving needs, weaving clothes etc…)
    3. explore and learn through readings, objects, films, images, personal archives, films and history
    4. embody learnings, lessons, and orientations toward weaving as mending, as cultural memory, as language, as restorative justice and as a tool to meditate on the self, our community, and our environment

    1/1


    ✿Class Went Well! Thank you to our Participants, you were stellar!


    We offer courses once to twice a year. 

    This cohort met during the month of February 2025. 

    Ecology Reset ... 




    Open Call: NSISIM touring exhibits

    due Nov. 12 11:59p est - Submit Proposal (read in-full first)




    *Open for participants who enrolled in the courses
    TIME, WEB, WEAVING, NATURE and RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

    In 2026-2027, NSISIM Studio will dive into the immersive worldbuilding curating of multi-city exhibition experiences that embody the ecological poetic connections dived into each 2025 course.


    Open Call Criteria


    • Must be a current/previous participant of one (or more) of the NSISIM Courses
    • A proposal of an artwork or performance in line with curatorial direction (more below)
    • Proposed art may have already been created, or will be made specifically for show
    • Understanding that artwork selections will vary across group shows in different cities to accomodate submissions 
    • International (outside of U.S.) submissions’ artworks must be a reasonable dimension due to increasing tariffs on shipments/postage

    Curatorial Direction


    NSISIM Studio is a slow burn practice of ecological embodiment: drawing on the connections between technology, art, nature, and the self/community.

    For these exhibitions, artworks/performances/workshops will address/interpret ONE or MORE topic: TIME, WEB, WEAVING, NATURE and RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES through a poetic understanding that weaves/questions/critiques/uplifts/highlights technology/art/nature/self/community -- with any medium of your choosing .

    Examples:
    • a 2x3 ft wool and felting as embodiments of African braiding technologies
    • a video essay on the uses of internet within a cultural archival context
    • a song performance along with video projections of nature as symbols of healing lyrics
    • a series of paintings honoring indigenous technologies
    • a folklore project of oral stories from communities exploring non-linear storytelling
    • etc... 


    Proposals Must Include: Submit


    • Name/Pronouns/Artist Name
    • Location
    • Which topics artwork speaks to
    • How the artwork relates to topics
    • Medium
    • Artwork Description Dimensions
    • Materials/Supplies Needed
    • Up for Sale?* (see payments)
    • Intellectual Property Details

    *** in case of proposal misalignment

    In the case that your proposal is not selected for one exhibition, trust this may have to do with various factors: funding, location, shipment costs, production costs, of thematic misalignment. NSISIM Studio is a supporter of the intellect and artistic endeavor each participant has contributed to the courses. If a proposal is misaligned, artists will be provided an opportunity to make adjustments (to their consent) or place their proposal for future curatorial opportunities.  

    *** 



    Timeline


    This is a proposal intake form in which, once selected, you agree to include your name, artwork proposal and other needed information for the use of exhibition proposals crafted by NSISIM Studio with curators, galleries, museums, and community spaces.

    • Every submission will be acknowledged and followed up when considered for an exhibition!
    • The timeline to hear back on your selection will vary based on public Open Call deadlines and as opportunities to display artwork come up within a 2-year time frame. We ask that you are patient as it takes time, resources, and oftentimes rejection, to curate and organize quality exhibits. 
    • For any artworks that has yet to be created, artists will receive ample time ahead of exhibition date to prep.
    • Exhibitions are set to occur between Fall 2026-Fall 2028.


    Payment : Fees , Shipping, Materials


    It is the intention of NSISIM Studio to pay each artist for their participation & cover the shipment of artworks: exact fees will depend on funding with partner galleries & sponsors.

    • The payments will vary between exhibit show & based off funding.
    • The payment will become clearer once exhibit proposals are confirmed from partners & artists will be informed of their payments.
    • Materials support for artworks yet to be created may or may not be available. This is due to the nature of fluctuating funding: this will be communicated once exhibition spaces/funding is secured. 
    • International tarrifs will be considered for international artworks in proposed budgets. 

    NSISIM Studio is NOT a gallery, therefore will not handle the sale of artworks. Should artists request this, this will be taken in charge with collaborating galleries and exhibition spaces.

    Politics and Values


    NSISIM Studio will aim to collaborate with curators, galleries, and/or physical spaces that are aligned with the MANIFESTO.


    Ready? Submit a Proposal!



    If you know of spaces or curators/ programmers/ funding in your city that align with this, let’s connect!