Facilitator: Casey Reas
Meeting Location: UCLA Broad Art Center and Zoom
Meeting Schedule: Alternating Thursdays 12–2pm, April 2nd to June 11th 2026 (See details below)
Optional Units for UCLA Students: 3.0 (Letter grading or S/U)

Software is culture, software is art, and software is social. As our lives become increasingly automated, the term software can be used to think beyond code alone to describe any program, system, or tool that structures, mediates, or intervenes in the world around us. These systems shape how we relate to one another, how communities form, and how actions become possible—or impossible—within everyday life.

Over the course of ten weeks, you will work through a project development cycle to create a Score for Social Software of your own invention. We understand a score as a way of choreographing events in time through text, diagrams, or other forms of instruction. We understand social software as any system that organizes behavior, coordinates people, or structures interaction. You are encouraged to push against, stretch, or reinterpret these definitions in ways that feel meaningful to your own practice.

Scores for Social Software builds on the tradition of Fluxus scores, books like Notations (eds. John Cage and Allison Knowles) and the do it anthologies (ed. Hans Ulrich Obrist). We’ll explore the research of the recent The Scores Project (eds. Gallope, Harren, Hicks). Our aim is not only to learn from these histories, but to extend them—testing what a score can be in the context of contemporary technological, social, and institutional systems.

In addition to individual works produced during Cycle 2, we will collectively produce a small publication that gathers contributions from each participant, documenting the range of approaches developed over the cycle.

For more context, please visit sosoft.arts.ucla.edu

SCHEDULE

02 March — Proposal deadline
09 March — Confirmation of participation
02 April — Session #1: UCLA Broad Art Center (noon – 2pm)
16 April — Session #2: Zoom (noon – 2pm)
30 April — Session #3: UCLA Broad Art Center (noon – 2pm)
14 May — Session #4: Zoom (noon – 2pm)
28 May — Session #5: UCLA Broad Art Center (noon – 2pm)
11 June — Final Event: Location TBD (noon – 2pm)

L.A.-BASED ARTISTS

This is a project-based working group, facilitated by Casey Reas. The group meetings will include time for prototype testing, peer review, and discussion. Members must commit to attending all of the meetings, most will take place at UCLA Broad Art Center from 12–2pm. Please email Casey (reas@ucla.edu) if you have questions. 

UCLA STUDENTS

This can be a project-based independent study course, structured as a working group, facilitated by Professor Reas. Participants will register for DESMA596 (MFA) or DESMA199 (BA) for 3.0 units, equivalent to 6 hours of work/week. The group meetings will include time for prototype testing, peer review, and discussion. Members must commit to attending all of the meetings. 

If you would like to participate, complete this form by March 2nd. Proposals can be expressed in any way you like but should be a single PDF and address the following questions:

1. What is the Score for Social Software you’d like to develop over the course of this cycle? 

2. Who is the intended user, audience, or community of this score?

3. Why are you interested in developing this project in the context of this cycle?

4. Describe your practice (briefly). If you are a student, please specify your academic program and year.

You are welcome to include sketches, diagrams, images, or other media within the file to convey your ideas.

You’ll receive a response to your proposal by March 9th. In order to keep the cycle focused and give adequate time to each member, we may not be able to accept all applicants. We plan to hold future cycles that will offer new opportunities for participation.

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