The Evanston-based nonprofit Likhaya has launched a series of workshops titled “Likhaya Labs Sunday” at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. The workshops are free to attend and open to the public to join Likhaya members to create original works of art.
The series is centered on the attention economy, in which attention is monetized online, driving revenue by keeping people looking at screens.
In a video on their YouTube channel, co-founders Jeremy and Zarina Docken explain the purpose of Likhaya Labs and what their goals are through artistic exploration and collaboration.
“I think many of us have seen several studies about the negative effects of social media, not just to our personal relationships — to our own mental health — but to the greater society in general,” Zarina said.
“One of the intentions we have for Likhaya Labs is to create for our community a safe place,” Jeremy said. “A place where you can meet new people, that you can build new friendships, and you can work — either if you’re a professional artist or if you’re art curious and you are interested in exploring visual arts or the musical arts but don’t necessarily know how to get started.”
Likhaya’s Manifesto
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Likhaya’s culture
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By welcoming people of all experience levels regardless of their Likhaya membership, more people join in an effort to put away their technology for an afternoon and create something in a room of enthusiastic and fun people.
“We will use Likhaya Labs as a place to process and build a community of other people who also want to process the world through art,” Jeremy said.
The first workshop was held at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, which is where Likhaya is based. It was considered a prologue to the series titled “Portrait of the Everyday” that examines the lives around us and reflects how personal experiences are shaped by the system.
Likhaya co-founder Zarina Docken welcomes everyone to the first Likhaya Labs
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The workshop began with an introduction by Zarina stating the purpose of Likhaya Labs and sharing resources that inform their 2025 theme, including three books: Nexus — A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari, Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future by Maria Ressa. The books touch on the roles of technology in our lives, the fast-paced nature of capitalism and the rise of authoritarianism.
Attendees then were asked to reflect on the following questions:
- How am I feeling about the current state of society?
- How do the algorithms shaping my social media feed impact my emotions?
- What art or music am I instinctively seeking out to process my emotions?
From there, the workshop was split into two sections based on the theme “portrait of the everyday.” Zarina led a lesson on contour drawing, which involves drawing a subject’s outline and key shapes. Everyone picked a partner’s face to draw, focusing on staying present and slowing down to capture the details of their face, even if it meant uncomfortably staring at them.
Zarina Docken (left) demonstrates contour drawing with Evynne Stitely (right)
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contour drawings on display
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The second was a songwriting session led by Jackson Foellmer and Anne Marin, musicians at Likhaya. They shared their feelings on the attention economy and its impact on their art and personal lives.
“While I enjoy creating content for my social media, I find that scrolling through my feed causes anxiety,” Marin said. “I’m excited that Likhaya Labs is designed to help others who feel the same way learn how to write music that expresses how they feel, just like I do.”
“The attention economy that social media has created is draining us of our abilities to be social and interact with the world,” Foellmer said. “Through collaborative art we can connect with others in a real and meaningful way while also expressing ourselves in the physical world. Creativity and art are our way out of the dungeon.”
From left to right: Jackson Foellmer, Donovan Summers, Anne Marin and Ifeanyi Elswith brainstorm lyrics for an original song
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The collaborative portion of the workshop brought everyone together to write a song in real time. Musicians played their instruments and brainstormed lyrics on breaking free from the attention economy. Everyone was encouraged to shout out ideas for lyrics and then refine them to fit within the structure of the song. By doing so, everyone remained engaged as they put together the final version of an upbeat song with lyrics of despair and hope.
As Likhaya approaches its year anniversary as a nonprofit, they continue to think of ways to bring the community together through art and have their artists display their talents in Evanston.
The next workshop will take place on Sunday, June 1, and is called “Act 1: The Shifting Ground: Call & Hesitation.”