Hi everybody--Ju-Pong here. (:
I just came across these websites and just need to share them with you. Exchange Values is a fascinating social sculpture project in which Shelly Sacks stitched together banana "skins", traced the skins back to the farmers who grew the bananas and recorded their voices.
From that website, under links you can find a link to social-sculpture.org (or you can just go to social-sculpture.org/), which is the website for a program at Oxford Brookes.
Following this thread of Beuys' idea of social sculpture, I found this site: Center for Social Sculpture, The tree planting link tells the story of Beuys' 7000 Oaks project begun at Documenta 7.
Peace,
Ju-Pong
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Art and Community, Update, by Laura
Greetings all!
My original post on this blog was about my thoughts on art and community, especially relating to this semester's events of CCT's production of "The Music Man" and the community farmer's market. Well, I wrote those thoughts up into an essay as part of packet 1. After some thought, I made another copy and gave it to one of the laides who runs the farmer's market (she is also a hat artist) and asked her to share it with the others. She came to the farmer's market last weekend and said that she'd finally had a chance to read the piece herself and really appreciated it and the thoughts I posed.
This comes at a time when the farmer's market is having to deal with some touchy state regulations on who can sell processed foods. Periodically, the managers threaten to discontinue the market because they don't want to deal with these politics. My hope is that the hopeful reinforcement of "yes, what we do here is important to the community" that is the core of the essay will help them look beyond the beurocratic politics and keep this important community gathering alive. We all need that kind of positive reinforcement now and then, right?
I'll be at the farmer's market Saturday!
Laura
My original post on this blog was about my thoughts on art and community, especially relating to this semester's events of CCT's production of "The Music Man" and the community farmer's market. Well, I wrote those thoughts up into an essay as part of packet 1. After some thought, I made another copy and gave it to one of the laides who runs the farmer's market (she is also a hat artist) and asked her to share it with the others. She came to the farmer's market last weekend and said that she'd finally had a chance to read the piece herself and really appreciated it and the thoughts I posed.
This comes at a time when the farmer's market is having to deal with some touchy state regulations on who can sell processed foods. Periodically, the managers threaten to discontinue the market because they don't want to deal with these politics. My hope is that the hopeful reinforcement of "yes, what we do here is important to the community" that is the core of the essay will help them look beyond the beurocratic politics and keep this important community gathering alive. We all need that kind of positive reinforcement now and then, right?
I'll be at the farmer's market Saturday!
Laura
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Posting a website: Nancy
I wanted to give everyone the link to this website I just found in starting my research for packet 3. I have not read any of the articles, but felt the impulse to post. I hope it is of use to everyone in some form.
Peace,
nancy
http://www.communityarts.net/
Excessiveness and Deficiencies, by Nancy
Excessiveness and Deficiencies
Social Acupuncture
O' Donnell's description of the social body is fascinating. He parallels the physical body and the social body has having excesses and deficiencies. This is the same scientific and spiritual philosophy behind the ancient art of acupuncture. "The amount of resources plugged into the media spectacle, with its endless parade of entertainments, is an excess dialectically related to a deficient and apathetic, politically alienated public." ( O'Donnell, Darren, Social Acupuncture, Pg, 47). " In the physical body, a chronic holding pattern may develop due to tension in a given set of muscles: the shoulders creep up or the butt is clenched and the excess of nerve impulses in the areas-the excess of energy-creates a tension that restricts the flow of blood and nutrients." (O'Donnell, Pg, 47.) One hand washes the other; excess leads to deficiency and deficiency leads to excess. Could this be the basic dance or movement between the opposite energies that affect all of us physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally? How do we balance and how can we feel comfortable with being out of balance in a society where equality has many different meanings?
"In the social body, and excess of power or opportunity held by one group-white people, for example-is contingent on a deficiency in other parts of the social body, and again we have pain, restricted mobility and worse. Classism, racism and sexisms can all be read this way." (O' Donnell, Pg, 47.)
I think that The Talking Creature is a brilliant idea and revealed so many levels in explaining how we separate ourselves in any given situation. The SARS scar in Toronto left the city very quiet. It seemed that during this summer of civic isolation, anyone with enough wealth did their best to get out of town, leaving us poor people behind, creating an opportunity to establish connections and foster networks among those stuck in the city." (O' Donnell, Pg, 52.) O' Donnell created a space and opportunity for people to get together and talk even when there was a threat to one's personal health. O' Donnell's thoughts intrigue me: The art of conversing with strangers can be a fundamental experience to freedom. I had to think about this for a while especially because people could have or probably were exposed to SARS. But was it SARS or the manipulation of people’s emotions that brought on fear. There was tension, fear, and trust issues that were most likely going through the participants that took a risk and engaged in The Talking Creature. As I read, The Talking Creature, it seemed as though people were committed even if they were unconsciously riding the wave of tension and being uncomfortable. Bravo!
Donnell says…the conversation sparkled, almost manic in its urgency. The catalyst was the act of risk-taking; the energy invested in approaching strangers, or in turn, trusting the stranger who had approached you, provided the forceful dividend of a surprising ease. The shared experience of talking to a stranger was the starting point, but that point was, more often than not, left far behind. (O' Donnell, Pg, 54).
The Talking Creature seems to be a practical formula for balancing the unbalances of excess and deficiencies. The participants took risks, made a commitment (investing time and energy), and trusted the process. Could this be an elixir for creative problem solving, connecting, inspiring, finding the equality in the inequality, and life experience?
I also liked the project that O' Donnell did call Beachballs41+All. This piece shows how excessiveness can work in a positive way to break though stereotypes, preconceived thoughts about abundance thus making the impossible possible. The objective of O' Donnell's project was to introduce the sensation of abundance by changing the way toys were given out to the kids at a community pool. The kids could take as many toys as they wanted. "In its excessiveness, the event began to bear the weight of metaphor, artistic intention and intervention-but an intervention where the artist is barely noticed, and instead of being a creator, is a conduit for already existing energies and resources, redirecting and tweaking them." (O' Donnell, Pg, 83).
I think that Darren O' Donnell's is bold, heart warming, controversial, and transforms the barriers the separate art and life.
I made my acupuncture appointment for this Friday.
Social Acupuncture and Triada Samaras
Hello!
I am enjoying this book. O'Donnell's writing style is easy for me to relate to as he rants a bit at times, wanders a bit at others. No doubt, I do too, sometimes. SO without further ado: I will do the same here:
I would like to talk about page: 39. O'Donnell says, "In all artistic practice-even that of civic engagement-a by-product is social capital-fame. At bottom, the desire for fame is the desire to be loved unconditionally by a lot of people, most of whom you don't know. It's the desire to be able to be yourself wherever you are and have that expression respected and supported. Fame offers a bit of that. It's social capital-the ability to tap the resources of a wider community simply because you are known. And as such, fame shouldn't be underestimated as a potentially progressive social force and political tool." (O'Donell, p. 39). Yes, true, I agree with O'Donnell. But this doesn't even begin to describe the various dilemmas and contradictions I am facing as an artist trying to exhibit the "Democracy Wall" and the ideas behind it in Brooklyn at two locations this month. (www.brooklynutopias.com)
As this art work does, truly represent a community that includes myself, it is difficult to decide how to format and present this art work in "art" and "formal exhibition" terms. As the story of the wall is a long one, where, as an artist, do I begin to tell the story and how? Visually? Aurally? Kinesthetically? Is my art work more "art" or more "documentary"? Has my recent small bit of "fame" altered my perception of this work and what it means to me as an artist personally? Who is my primary audience: the people in my neighborhood or the people beyond, or the art world?
I am encountering question after question as I put this work together for public viewing, and I realize that even though I am a perfectionist in my solo art and poetry practices, perfectionism as a stance does not suit at all my current process of getting this work together and ready. The process most suitable involves flexibity and getting feedback from multiple sources. But this is confusing at times because an an artist I must make firm and final decisions too. "Trust the process", I hear myself repeating to myself.
This leads me to the next question which is the "why"? Why should I show this work in public? To engage the public artistically or to teach them to be activists too? Or, both? So many questions. To be an artist means to encounter so many questions and so much self-doubt that must work itself through and out of me in order for me to find a resolution.
The fame thing is a problem in this type of work, in a sense. I can sense the political and social utility of what I am trying to do: I can 'smell it'. But it the word "responsibilty" comes to mind, as does the fear of making a "mistake". If it is "just art" it does not carry this weight in my mind, but if is "more", then.............? But I am trying daily to solve the various problems of exhibiting the work, and the important ideas behind the work, and this is how my process goes.
What I am doing to relax and keep my immune system up? Yes, acupuncture, which naturally gets me back to O'Donnel. I am really enjoying his exploration of acupuncture and how it relates to my practice. I want to say that I am attending, weekly, what I call the "group prick", meaning more affordable acupuncture in a room with others! I also say the "group prick" because as I try to heal, so do they, and our "group" energy affects us all.
It's an interesting thing to lie there and try and concnetrate on my own problems: (my asthma/allergies) while someone else is clearling have breathing trouble right next to me. Clearly being "ill" is a universal experience as is "healing". when I am in there the ideas come to me eventually for my art. Chi flowing more freely indeed enhances one's creativity and ultimately one's social, political, and artistic utility. I could go on and on here, but time to get back to my questions and solving them.....triada
I am enjoying this book. O'Donnell's writing style is easy for me to relate to as he rants a bit at times, wanders a bit at others. No doubt, I do too, sometimes. SO without further ado: I will do the same here:
I would like to talk about page: 39. O'Donnell says, "In all artistic practice-even that of civic engagement-a by-product is social capital-fame. At bottom, the desire for fame is the desire to be loved unconditionally by a lot of people, most of whom you don't know. It's the desire to be able to be yourself wherever you are and have that expression respected and supported. Fame offers a bit of that. It's social capital-the ability to tap the resources of a wider community simply because you are known. And as such, fame shouldn't be underestimated as a potentially progressive social force and political tool." (O'Donell, p. 39). Yes, true, I agree with O'Donnell. But this doesn't even begin to describe the various dilemmas and contradictions I am facing as an artist trying to exhibit the "Democracy Wall" and the ideas behind it in Brooklyn at two locations this month. (www.brooklynutopias.com)
As this art work does, truly represent a community that includes myself, it is difficult to decide how to format and present this art work in "art" and "formal exhibition" terms. As the story of the wall is a long one, where, as an artist, do I begin to tell the story and how? Visually? Aurally? Kinesthetically? Is my art work more "art" or more "documentary"? Has my recent small bit of "fame" altered my perception of this work and what it means to me as an artist personally? Who is my primary audience: the people in my neighborhood or the people beyond, or the art world?
I am encountering question after question as I put this work together for public viewing, and I realize that even though I am a perfectionist in my solo art and poetry practices, perfectionism as a stance does not suit at all my current process of getting this work together and ready. The process most suitable involves flexibity and getting feedback from multiple sources. But this is confusing at times because an an artist I must make firm and final decisions too. "Trust the process", I hear myself repeating to myself.
This leads me to the next question which is the "why"? Why should I show this work in public? To engage the public artistically or to teach them to be activists too? Or, both? So many questions. To be an artist means to encounter so many questions and so much self-doubt that must work itself through and out of me in order for me to find a resolution.
The fame thing is a problem in this type of work, in a sense. I can sense the political and social utility of what I am trying to do: I can 'smell it'. But it the word "responsibilty" comes to mind, as does the fear of making a "mistake". If it is "just art" it does not carry this weight in my mind, but if is "more", then.............? But I am trying daily to solve the various problems of exhibiting the work, and the important ideas behind the work, and this is how my process goes.
What I am doing to relax and keep my immune system up? Yes, acupuncture, which naturally gets me back to O'Donnel. I am really enjoying his exploration of acupuncture and how it relates to my practice. I want to say that I am attending, weekly, what I call the "group prick", meaning more affordable acupuncture in a room with others! I also say the "group prick" because as I try to heal, so do they, and our "group" energy affects us all.
It's an interesting thing to lie there and try and concnetrate on my own problems: (my asthma/allergies) while someone else is clearling have breathing trouble right next to me. Clearly being "ill" is a universal experience as is "healing". when I am in there the ideas come to me eventually for my art. Chi flowing more freely indeed enhances one's creativity and ultimately one's social, political, and artistic utility. I could go on and on here, but time to get back to my questions and solving them.....triada
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
New Opportunity with New Creative Community
Tammy Parks writing some last responses before moving into Social Acupuncture...
I begin this writing with an unexpected opportunity. Each winter, I take my Art League students downtown to paint the windows on Main Street for Christmas. The town sponsors this project by purchasing all the necessary paints and brushes and providing lunch for the participants. The assistant to the town manager, Barbara Tate, organizes the logistics of scheduling the date and providing us with the lunch and our transportation. She and I have become closer over the past three years as we have talked about projects that can help beautify and develop our economically and aesthetically depressed downtown area. Barbara called me two weeks ago to finalize our painting plans for this semester. Last semester, my students also completed a huge mural sponsored by the town with some money from a rural renewal grant. I enjoyed facilitating the project and enjoyed working on the site. I casually mentioned to her my interest in developing a community-based art program here.
Currently, we have and support, on a minimum funding level at least, the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley which provides art exhibitions every few months, limited art classes and a fundraising event of wine tasting and a craft show at the lake each summer. Their main focus for the last three years has been to raise money to move from their current location on Main Street to a larger building donated by a deceased citizen. The “new building,” built in the 1940’s, will require a great deal of money and energy to renovate. Many of the wives of our most wealthy citizens, at least in terms of paying yearly dues, are members of the Center’s Board. I was once a member of the Center and as the educational committee chairperson I attempted to broaden the program by encouraging scholarships for students, scheduling a variety of classes offered to adults and children, making contacts with local artists and developing some community projects. I quickly lost patience with the director who is wary and defensive of anyone who offers change of any sort. The majority of the members and volunteers are middle-aged or older and regard the Center like their little fiefdom or personal property. After two years of watching little progress in any direction, I resigned. I decided that my energy was being wasted and my stress level was way too high to remain there.
To my great surprise, Barbara called me two days after our short conversation and asked if I would be interested in meeting with her and the town manager to discuss my ideas further. Enter the unexpected opportunity. She scheduled a meeting for last week, I made some notes and the three of us had a great session of throwing around ideas for an hour and a half. John Holly, the town manager, has observed how the Center has provided a service for only a select population in the community and he was very interested in supporting a program that involves a diverse group of participants from a wider range of ages, races and economic situations.
Our meeting ended with the understanding that I will work on creating a name for the potential program and its mission statement. John will contact a local businessman who owns many empty buildings in the area to see about a potential location that could be written as a tax write-off for the owner. Barbara will tentatively work on the basic grant writing. I was delighted to hear that she is the official grant writer for the town as well, which she refers to as one of the many “duties as assigned” described in her contract. As I read Arlene Goldbard’s New Creative Community, I found myself reflecting on how I could apply her thoughts and definitions to this potential new project of mine.
Why do we need a community-based arts organization here in my town? I think there are a few theoretical underpinnings to build upon. Community members and students I encounter connect art with urban areas. Art is something we need to travel to a city to see. Goldbard feels that CCD programs can provide a “critique of the urban domination of art-making and a parallel of the validity of rural forms, themes and styles.” (114) We have so many talented and creative people in my community who have no outlets for their gifts and who feel that there is little recognition of their vocation in particular and of art in general. Hopefully, a community-based arts organization would help correct this.
Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator, believes this type of collective engagement can move from “magic thinking (seeing reality as the product of baffling and hidden processes beyond one’s control) to critical consciousness (being able to comprehend and enter into the process of shaping reality)” (118) Some scholars name acquiring this critical consciousness as liberation education or critical pedagogy. I do feel believe that community-based art projects can mobilize the participants to resist values that are imposed on them by the corporate world. Individuals gain the ability to participate in democratic discourse as they interact socially and participate in dialogue rather than in the isolated and passive routines involving phones, computers and televisions. There are very few occasions in Pulaski where people in the community come together outside of scheduled church or sports events. Our town is run by middle-aged white men who are very isolated in their speech and interaction. Some speak about wanting change here but seem frozen in inaction. They feel hesitant and unqualified to speak out on or to attend meetings about matters related to anything, especially in art.
I am interested in approaching this community-based program as an asset-based community development venture focusing more on the “communities’ tangible and intangible assets than on their deficits and problems.” (138) The natural beauty of our location with its lakes, valleys and mountains is one of our strongest assets. I would include our ability to speak with warmth to neighbors and strangers. We still refer to this as southern hospitality. However one evaluates the adjective “southern”, there is a hospitable element in the cultural climate here.
Goldbard believes that the armatures of CCD programs should include an exploration into the themes important to the well-being of its participants. To identify these themes the participants start by learning more about their community, acquiring information through what she calls action research or learning by doing. Goldbard refers to this process as building a thick description of the cultural conditions and challenges. Participants start gathering census data, historical accounts, maps and, finally, personal interviews with residents of the community.
The group is supposed to compile the data in order to identify what themes need to be addressed in the sponsored projects. Goldbard says that the CCD participants can “use the wisdom of heritage to inform choices about how to move forward.” (71) This seems to be a very demanding and difficult process that requires much time and attention. Students and adults who have lived their whole lives in this town know little to nothing about the history and heritage of this area.
The past can be a guide, however, but not a dictator. In our conference call this past week, Laura mentioned Mordechai Kaplon’s conviction that “the past has a vote, not a veto.” (152) I have followed this tenet throughout my life. But if the past is going to be a resource for us, if we are going to be receptive to what it might say and reveal to us, then we don’t get a veto on the past either.
I believe that our lack of historical knowledge goes even deeper than our ignorance of it. The events of 9-11 and the consequences that followed were an expression of the deep fear that permeates our culture. Americans are afraid of anything that could disrupt their comfort, whether physical or ideological. Goldbard quotes John Berger’s “fear of the present leads to a mystification of the past.” (67) When we create cults of the past with monuments, mysteries, symbols and icons, the past is dead and embalmed and cannot be a resource to enlighten or enliven. I see this fear and its enforcement of ignorance of the past in many of my students.
After the data has been compiled, a database of contacts, images and stories, Goldbard suggests that the organizers need to be prepared to offer a real range of possible projects. These projects need to be open-ended so as to leave the content and focus to be determined by the participants. Once the participants decide upon the project, the organizers need to have “structures in place ready to start” (91) and organizers should be observant to ensure the equality of participation and collective expression. Goldbard asserts that a true CCD program should be a journey of “discovery, connection and co-creation.” (60) She also advocates that the projects chosen through this thorough oral and written research may be temporal in exhibition but should result in some type of permanent record that can add to the thick description of the community.
(I pause here having considered Goldbard’s detailed description and explanation of what is involved in organizing a CCD program to ask a few questions that relate to the focus of this Insider/Outsider seminar. Could such a project be undertaken by a real “outsider”? Does the process itself help turn an outsider into an insider? I optimistically think that if an artist in residence or organizer from the “outside” were to diligently follow Goldbard’s process to gather a thick description of the community they have chosen to work within, their efforts would bring them closer to that community and allow them insight that leads him or her to the inside.)
I was most interested in Goldbard’s inclusion of rural aesthetics in the conversation. I can see the application of “Appalachia is Beautiful” as a way of “using aesthetic standards to acknowledge the oppression and overturn it.” (114) The real evil that permeates my community is this sense of shame that hangs over us. My students are ashamed that the area is depressed economically, ashamed that is rural with little modern entertainment and ashamed that they are not living someplace else, and they plan overtly or covertly to leave with a vengeance when they can. They are ashamed of their accents when they venture outside the community. They see their lives as one long nonachievement and they want to distance themselves from the area they feel is responsible for that nonachievement.
Goldbard says that community can be brought together by a common threat as a way of defining or redefining a CCD project. Thinking about this in context of my locality I can identify four significant threats to the life and culture of my community.
If I were attempting to identify a common threat or enemy in my community, I would first mention the threat of OxyContin. Goldbard makes reference to Appalachia having the highest abuse rate of OxyContin in the US. OxyContin addiction is responsible for a huge increase in neighborhood and interfamilial robberies in our area to gain money to purchase these pills or simply to steal them from those who are on them legally. My own father, who has a liver disease which causes an overproduction of iron in his blood, only responds to this type of man-made pain medication. He has kept this a secret from everyone because he is truly afraid that he would be a target if someone knew he had OxyContin in his home.
Secondly I see globalization as a threat in my community. “Globalization excludes the poor and powerless.” (40) Other than providing my community with a plethora of cell phones and computers that they can’t afford, I don’t see how globalization is impacting my community positively. The local mills and furniture plants have all closed and replaced by mills and plants in other parts of the world in order to save money and pay the workers there inhumane wages. Globalization to this town means moving your jobs to the other side of the globe…globalmobilization I call it. “It is the lack of pleasure in daily work which has made our towns and habitations sordid and hideous.” (103) With few jobs to chose from, people in my community are starved for satisfying work, for work that is fulfilling, challenging and engaging.
Needless to say poverty is the third threat I find in Appalachia. Of the 250 poorest counties in the US, 244 are rural. Rural school spending is 25% less per pupil as compared to urban areas, and 40% of rural populations have no access to public transportation.
Finally, I identify the dominating force of the media, especially television, as a fourth threat to Appalachia. Goldbard thinks television is “eschewing the flesh-and-blood contact of social intercourse and direct participation in community life.” (45) Once again I stress the power of embodied participation in life’s events rather than our passive reception to the spectacle provided by mass marketing. Goldbard calls it a “media induced trance.” (48) There is something about directly working on-site and with your hands that helps you feel the passing of time and the energy of the space with your body. I am interested in on-site projects where people interact with the materials and with each other physically in the process.
As an example, I was the recipient of a few dozen used heads from a cosmetology class. Many of them have been shaved. They now sit in a huge trashcan in my art room waiting for a project. What if we initiated a Heads Above the Rest project where local artists, students, business owners and social organizations decorated each head? The project could bring attention to the skills of local artists, make connections to the natural assets of the area, and bring people face to face with art on the street.
I think it is important to remember, though, that the participants need to work together on something positive, not simply forming a group of angry dissidents interested in focusing on problems rather than possible solutions. The author warns us to avoid superficial unity in either a positive or negative focus.
The greatest impediment to establishing a community-based program where I live is that it will be “perceived as a threat to maintaining the arts as a special preserve of privilege and will dilute funds reserved for more established programs.” (165) That program, of course, will be the Fine Arts Center in my town. Goldbard recommends hybridity in the development of programs, “forming coalitions of existing organizations and networks.” (211) I am pretty certain that the Center will not be interested in any type of coalition with a CCD, at least not in the beginning. I will not, however, share these doubts aloud in the community but send out only optimistic overtures to the community. I do have the support of many members of the town council and school board. I have close contacts also with the Jackson Center of the Arts and the Chestnut Creek School, two community-based art programs directly to the southwest and southeast of here.
I realize this is a long-winded response to the book, but I really felt a connection with hte material and my real work. Bless your little hearts if you made it through my entire response to New Creative Community. I would be interested to hear how any of you are developing any programs in your commnunity.
I begin this writing with an unexpected opportunity. Each winter, I take my Art League students downtown to paint the windows on Main Street for Christmas. The town sponsors this project by purchasing all the necessary paints and brushes and providing lunch for the participants. The assistant to the town manager, Barbara Tate, organizes the logistics of scheduling the date and providing us with the lunch and our transportation. She and I have become closer over the past three years as we have talked about projects that can help beautify and develop our economically and aesthetically depressed downtown area. Barbara called me two weeks ago to finalize our painting plans for this semester. Last semester, my students also completed a huge mural sponsored by the town with some money from a rural renewal grant. I enjoyed facilitating the project and enjoyed working on the site. I casually mentioned to her my interest in developing a community-based art program here.
Currently, we have and support, on a minimum funding level at least, the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley which provides art exhibitions every few months, limited art classes and a fundraising event of wine tasting and a craft show at the lake each summer. Their main focus for the last three years has been to raise money to move from their current location on Main Street to a larger building donated by a deceased citizen. The “new building,” built in the 1940’s, will require a great deal of money and energy to renovate. Many of the wives of our most wealthy citizens, at least in terms of paying yearly dues, are members of the Center’s Board. I was once a member of the Center and as the educational committee chairperson I attempted to broaden the program by encouraging scholarships for students, scheduling a variety of classes offered to adults and children, making contacts with local artists and developing some community projects. I quickly lost patience with the director who is wary and defensive of anyone who offers change of any sort. The majority of the members and volunteers are middle-aged or older and regard the Center like their little fiefdom or personal property. After two years of watching little progress in any direction, I resigned. I decided that my energy was being wasted and my stress level was way too high to remain there.
To my great surprise, Barbara called me two days after our short conversation and asked if I would be interested in meeting with her and the town manager to discuss my ideas further. Enter the unexpected opportunity. She scheduled a meeting for last week, I made some notes and the three of us had a great session of throwing around ideas for an hour and a half. John Holly, the town manager, has observed how the Center has provided a service for only a select population in the community and he was very interested in supporting a program that involves a diverse group of participants from a wider range of ages, races and economic situations.
Our meeting ended with the understanding that I will work on creating a name for the potential program and its mission statement. John will contact a local businessman who owns many empty buildings in the area to see about a potential location that could be written as a tax write-off for the owner. Barbara will tentatively work on the basic grant writing. I was delighted to hear that she is the official grant writer for the town as well, which she refers to as one of the many “duties as assigned” described in her contract. As I read Arlene Goldbard’s New Creative Community, I found myself reflecting on how I could apply her thoughts and definitions to this potential new project of mine.
Why do we need a community-based arts organization here in my town? I think there are a few theoretical underpinnings to build upon. Community members and students I encounter connect art with urban areas. Art is something we need to travel to a city to see. Goldbard feels that CCD programs can provide a “critique of the urban domination of art-making and a parallel of the validity of rural forms, themes and styles.” (114) We have so many talented and creative people in my community who have no outlets for their gifts and who feel that there is little recognition of their vocation in particular and of art in general. Hopefully, a community-based arts organization would help correct this.
Paolo Freire, a Brazilian educator, believes this type of collective engagement can move from “magic thinking (seeing reality as the product of baffling and hidden processes beyond one’s control) to critical consciousness (being able to comprehend and enter into the process of shaping reality)” (118) Some scholars name acquiring this critical consciousness as liberation education or critical pedagogy. I do feel believe that community-based art projects can mobilize the participants to resist values that are imposed on them by the corporate world. Individuals gain the ability to participate in democratic discourse as they interact socially and participate in dialogue rather than in the isolated and passive routines involving phones, computers and televisions. There are very few occasions in Pulaski where people in the community come together outside of scheduled church or sports events. Our town is run by middle-aged white men who are very isolated in their speech and interaction. Some speak about wanting change here but seem frozen in inaction. They feel hesitant and unqualified to speak out on or to attend meetings about matters related to anything, especially in art.
I am interested in approaching this community-based program as an asset-based community development venture focusing more on the “communities’ tangible and intangible assets than on their deficits and problems.” (138) The natural beauty of our location with its lakes, valleys and mountains is one of our strongest assets. I would include our ability to speak with warmth to neighbors and strangers. We still refer to this as southern hospitality. However one evaluates the adjective “southern”, there is a hospitable element in the cultural climate here.
Goldbard believes that the armatures of CCD programs should include an exploration into the themes important to the well-being of its participants. To identify these themes the participants start by learning more about their community, acquiring information through what she calls action research or learning by doing. Goldbard refers to this process as building a thick description of the cultural conditions and challenges. Participants start gathering census data, historical accounts, maps and, finally, personal interviews with residents of the community.
The group is supposed to compile the data in order to identify what themes need to be addressed in the sponsored projects. Goldbard says that the CCD participants can “use the wisdom of heritage to inform choices about how to move forward.” (71) This seems to be a very demanding and difficult process that requires much time and attention. Students and adults who have lived their whole lives in this town know little to nothing about the history and heritage of this area.
The past can be a guide, however, but not a dictator. In our conference call this past week, Laura mentioned Mordechai Kaplon’s conviction that “the past has a vote, not a veto.” (152) I have followed this tenet throughout my life. But if the past is going to be a resource for us, if we are going to be receptive to what it might say and reveal to us, then we don’t get a veto on the past either.
I believe that our lack of historical knowledge goes even deeper than our ignorance of it. The events of 9-11 and the consequences that followed were an expression of the deep fear that permeates our culture. Americans are afraid of anything that could disrupt their comfort, whether physical or ideological. Goldbard quotes John Berger’s “fear of the present leads to a mystification of the past.” (67) When we create cults of the past with monuments, mysteries, symbols and icons, the past is dead and embalmed and cannot be a resource to enlighten or enliven. I see this fear and its enforcement of ignorance of the past in many of my students.
After the data has been compiled, a database of contacts, images and stories, Goldbard suggests that the organizers need to be prepared to offer a real range of possible projects. These projects need to be open-ended so as to leave the content and focus to be determined by the participants. Once the participants decide upon the project, the organizers need to have “structures in place ready to start” (91) and organizers should be observant to ensure the equality of participation and collective expression. Goldbard asserts that a true CCD program should be a journey of “discovery, connection and co-creation.” (60) She also advocates that the projects chosen through this thorough oral and written research may be temporal in exhibition but should result in some type of permanent record that can add to the thick description of the community.
(I pause here having considered Goldbard’s detailed description and explanation of what is involved in organizing a CCD program to ask a few questions that relate to the focus of this Insider/Outsider seminar. Could such a project be undertaken by a real “outsider”? Does the process itself help turn an outsider into an insider? I optimistically think that if an artist in residence or organizer from the “outside” were to diligently follow Goldbard’s process to gather a thick description of the community they have chosen to work within, their efforts would bring them closer to that community and allow them insight that leads him or her to the inside.)
I was most interested in Goldbard’s inclusion of rural aesthetics in the conversation. I can see the application of “Appalachia is Beautiful” as a way of “using aesthetic standards to acknowledge the oppression and overturn it.” (114) The real evil that permeates my community is this sense of shame that hangs over us. My students are ashamed that the area is depressed economically, ashamed that is rural with little modern entertainment and ashamed that they are not living someplace else, and they plan overtly or covertly to leave with a vengeance when they can. They are ashamed of their accents when they venture outside the community. They see their lives as one long nonachievement and they want to distance themselves from the area they feel is responsible for that nonachievement.
Goldbard says that community can be brought together by a common threat as a way of defining or redefining a CCD project. Thinking about this in context of my locality I can identify four significant threats to the life and culture of my community.
If I were attempting to identify a common threat or enemy in my community, I would first mention the threat of OxyContin. Goldbard makes reference to Appalachia having the highest abuse rate of OxyContin in the US. OxyContin addiction is responsible for a huge increase in neighborhood and interfamilial robberies in our area to gain money to purchase these pills or simply to steal them from those who are on them legally. My own father, who has a liver disease which causes an overproduction of iron in his blood, only responds to this type of man-made pain medication. He has kept this a secret from everyone because he is truly afraid that he would be a target if someone knew he had OxyContin in his home.
Secondly I see globalization as a threat in my community. “Globalization excludes the poor and powerless.” (40) Other than providing my community with a plethora of cell phones and computers that they can’t afford, I don’t see how globalization is impacting my community positively. The local mills and furniture plants have all closed and replaced by mills and plants in other parts of the world in order to save money and pay the workers there inhumane wages. Globalization to this town means moving your jobs to the other side of the globe…globalmobilization I call it. “It is the lack of pleasure in daily work which has made our towns and habitations sordid and hideous.” (103) With few jobs to chose from, people in my community are starved for satisfying work, for work that is fulfilling, challenging and engaging.
Needless to say poverty is the third threat I find in Appalachia. Of the 250 poorest counties in the US, 244 are rural. Rural school spending is 25% less per pupil as compared to urban areas, and 40% of rural populations have no access to public transportation.
Finally, I identify the dominating force of the media, especially television, as a fourth threat to Appalachia. Goldbard thinks television is “eschewing the flesh-and-blood contact of social intercourse and direct participation in community life.” (45) Once again I stress the power of embodied participation in life’s events rather than our passive reception to the spectacle provided by mass marketing. Goldbard calls it a “media induced trance.” (48) There is something about directly working on-site and with your hands that helps you feel the passing of time and the energy of the space with your body. I am interested in on-site projects where people interact with the materials and with each other physically in the process.
As an example, I was the recipient of a few dozen used heads from a cosmetology class. Many of them have been shaved. They now sit in a huge trashcan in my art room waiting for a project. What if we initiated a Heads Above the Rest project where local artists, students, business owners and social organizations decorated each head? The project could bring attention to the skills of local artists, make connections to the natural assets of the area, and bring people face to face with art on the street.
I think it is important to remember, though, that the participants need to work together on something positive, not simply forming a group of angry dissidents interested in focusing on problems rather than possible solutions. The author warns us to avoid superficial unity in either a positive or negative focus.
The greatest impediment to establishing a community-based program where I live is that it will be “perceived as a threat to maintaining the arts as a special preserve of privilege and will dilute funds reserved for more established programs.” (165) That program, of course, will be the Fine Arts Center in my town. Goldbard recommends hybridity in the development of programs, “forming coalitions of existing organizations and networks.” (211) I am pretty certain that the Center will not be interested in any type of coalition with a CCD, at least not in the beginning. I will not, however, share these doubts aloud in the community but send out only optimistic overtures to the community. I do have the support of many members of the town council and school board. I have close contacts also with the Jackson Center of the Arts and the Chestnut Creek School, two community-based art programs directly to the southwest and southeast of here.
I realize this is a long-winded response to the book, but I really felt a connection with hte material and my real work. Bless your little hearts if you made it through my entire response to New Creative Community. I would be interested to hear how any of you are developing any programs in your commnunity.
Sorry I missed Sunday's call!
Hello!
My sincere apologies to the group!
I thought our Social Acupuncture call was this coming week not two nights ago, so I missed it while writing my Packet Number Two at home. (duh)
Triada Samaras
My sincere apologies to the group!
I thought our Social Acupuncture call was this coming week not two nights ago, so I missed it while writing my Packet Number Two at home. (duh)
Triada Samaras
post-modernism and what is real!
Hi Everyone (Britta here),
I just had another thought that I wanted to share. The other evening on the call, Laura asked about or made reference to post-modernism. I loved Ju-Pong's response that it is something that is very difficult to grasp and understand and cannot be easily summarized. Yes.
Then, I think it was also Laura who made note of O'Donnell's use of Wikipedia as a reference. If my memory serves me, Laura, I think you were not impressed by this and made a comment to indicate that. Correct me if I have it wrong, please...
But, this is what I was thinking. And, I wanted to say a small bit about post-modernism in this regard. From what I understand (and remember, because I haven't read about it for about 10 years now...) but, from what I understand, post-modernism is the big way of describing what has happened to the world since (about) 1968 or so. Things became faster, more random, less linear, more democratic (with a small 'd'), more relativistic, people began to embrace irony and the idea that the world is "socially constructed," secularism became a more widely practiced belief system. People didn't like or trust old structures of authority.
So, to make this brief, I think Wikipedia is a very post-modern form of knowledge. And, to embrace it, as a legitimate reference source is also very pomo. If one believes that the world is "socially constructed" then Wikipedia is a perfect place to tap into that construction of the world.
Just a note about my own beliefs, as I tend to be a bit agnostic on the whole matter. I can see that post-modernism is, in fact, here. out my window and in my head. But I am not sure if I like it. On the other hand, I don't know if I really liked what happened before or what might happen next.
all the best to all of you!
Britta
I just had another thought that I wanted to share. The other evening on the call, Laura asked about or made reference to post-modernism. I loved Ju-Pong's response that it is something that is very difficult to grasp and understand and cannot be easily summarized. Yes.
Then, I think it was also Laura who made note of O'Donnell's use of Wikipedia as a reference. If my memory serves me, Laura, I think you were not impressed by this and made a comment to indicate that. Correct me if I have it wrong, please...
But, this is what I was thinking. And, I wanted to say a small bit about post-modernism in this regard. From what I understand (and remember, because I haven't read about it for about 10 years now...) but, from what I understand, post-modernism is the big way of describing what has happened to the world since (about) 1968 or so. Things became faster, more random, less linear, more democratic (with a small 'd'), more relativistic, people began to embrace irony and the idea that the world is "socially constructed," secularism became a more widely practiced belief system. People didn't like or trust old structures of authority.
So, to make this brief, I think Wikipedia is a very post-modern form of knowledge. And, to embrace it, as a legitimate reference source is also very pomo. If one believes that the world is "socially constructed" then Wikipedia is a perfect place to tap into that construction of the world.
Just a note about my own beliefs, as I tend to be a bit agnostic on the whole matter. I can see that post-modernism is, in fact, here. out my window and in my head. But I am not sure if I like it. On the other hand, I don't know if I really liked what happened before or what might happen next.
all the best to all of you!
Britta
Monday, September 21, 2009
Clarification by Susan
Dear Peer Group,
I would like to clarify my statement last evening during our conference call concerning Newburgh and my desire to create a community cultural development atmosphere in the city. First of all no one can do this by themselves. It takes a team...it takes a community but one must start somewhere.
I've been working in Newburgh for almost ten years. Since the 1950's the history and politics of this community has been absolutely destructive. Newburgh's own county ostracizes them. The city is treated as the black sheep of Orange County. The reaction of the residents has been to isolate and expect nothing from anyone. The Insider/Outsider mentality is alive and well in this city and in the county. There are actually residents in Newburgh who have named their community "Jungle for Life".
For years I have stay cleared of Newburgh politics and provided art services that were requested and funded by local government departments. I have also located funding for projects and the projects have been approved by the local government. A year ago Newburgh created a new department and hired a Director of Human Services, Yaniyah Pearson. Yaniyah, has been meeting with me for the past 12 months discussing sustainability. She understands the mission of the organization I began in 2001, The Arts Alliance, and that both the organization and I only go where we are invited. Her response was to increased the budget for The Arts Alliance by 100% and has recently created a new art position for me.
Since the Goddard residency this summer, I have spoken to her about community cultural development (now I know the correct terminology). Yaniyah understands that I refuse to tell the residents what they should do or be or think. I just want to offer art opportunities for ..... expressing thoughts/feelings, learning, discussions, recreation,and resolutions to issues. Of course, this can only be offered if residents ask and projects can only happen if there is community involvement. In the pass The Arts Alliance team who that has worked on Newburgh projects has been small and dependable because I was fearful of failure. The grandparents project is the first time I was prepared for whatever happened. I purposely did not accept funding for this project to lighten the pressure of accountability. Amateurs were my team partners. I put an idea out to see if it would take root or fail.
Please note the statements I am going to now make are broad. The reasons for creating gentle kind projects are:
very little civility in Newburgh.
very little gentleness.
very little kindness.
Ver little thought to the hatred that is spread by the adults and its affect on the young.
Constant bickering.
So much sadness.
Disappointment over and over and over again.
An Abundance of poverty.
Wastage of money by the government.
Powerful community women are at the forefront of this negative energy. They are not a team and are fighting for their own issues. Fortunately, I know these women and have worked with each one of them at their invitation.
The goal of these gentle worded projects I am now working on, ie. "Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me" and "Imagine," is to literally make them stop in their tracks and question the simplicity of the message. What can the powerful residents find wrong in Imagining? What can the residents on the streets find wrong in Imagining? What can those in poverty find wrong in Imagining. I am not telling them what to Imagine, just imagine. One can choose to imagine beauty or imagine more negativity. Just Imagine.
I realize this all sounds so Polly Anna. A privileged white middle-aged gray hair woman rushing in to ....help.... but that is really what I'm attempting to doing? How can anyone really help a person to look at a glass as half full instead of half empty? My background includes poverty, abuse, lack of support, homelessness, and bigotry. I know the harsh facts yet I am empowered me by the path I have forged from experience, to education, to implementation of projects. Having said all of this, it's time for me to implement projects based on Kindness, Sweetness, Gentleness. So yes, I ask you who are educated and know the words of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Song Imagine to boil the words to their homeopathic essence, simply Imagine.
Susan
I would like to clarify my statement last evening during our conference call concerning Newburgh and my desire to create a community cultural development atmosphere in the city. First of all no one can do this by themselves. It takes a team...it takes a community but one must start somewhere.
I've been working in Newburgh for almost ten years. Since the 1950's the history and politics of this community has been absolutely destructive. Newburgh's own county ostracizes them. The city is treated as the black sheep of Orange County. The reaction of the residents has been to isolate and expect nothing from anyone. The Insider/Outsider mentality is alive and well in this city and in the county. There are actually residents in Newburgh who have named their community "Jungle for Life".
For years I have stay cleared of Newburgh politics and provided art services that were requested and funded by local government departments. I have also located funding for projects and the projects have been approved by the local government. A year ago Newburgh created a new department and hired a Director of Human Services, Yaniyah Pearson. Yaniyah, has been meeting with me for the past 12 months discussing sustainability. She understands the mission of the organization I began in 2001, The Arts Alliance, and that both the organization and I only go where we are invited. Her response was to increased the budget for The Arts Alliance by 100% and has recently created a new art position for me.
Since the Goddard residency this summer, I have spoken to her about community cultural development (now I know the correct terminology). Yaniyah understands that I refuse to tell the residents what they should do or be or think. I just want to offer art opportunities for ..... expressing thoughts/feelings, learning, discussions, recreation,and resolutions to issues. Of course, this can only be offered if residents ask and projects can only happen if there is community involvement. In the pass The Arts Alliance team who that has worked on Newburgh projects has been small and dependable because I was fearful of failure. The grandparents project is the first time I was prepared for whatever happened. I purposely did not accept funding for this project to lighten the pressure of accountability. Amateurs were my team partners. I put an idea out to see if it would take root or fail.
Please note the statements I am going to now make are broad. The reasons for creating gentle kind projects are:
very little civility in Newburgh.
very little gentleness.
very little kindness.
Ver little thought to the hatred that is spread by the adults and its affect on the young.
Constant bickering.
So much sadness.
Disappointment over and over and over again.
An Abundance of poverty.
Wastage of money by the government.
Powerful community women are at the forefront of this negative energy. They are not a team and are fighting for their own issues. Fortunately, I know these women and have worked with each one of them at their invitation.
The goal of these gentle worded projects I am now working on, ie. "Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me" and "Imagine," is to literally make them stop in their tracks and question the simplicity of the message. What can the powerful residents find wrong in Imagining? What can the residents on the streets find wrong in Imagining? What can those in poverty find wrong in Imagining. I am not telling them what to Imagine, just imagine. One can choose to imagine beauty or imagine more negativity. Just Imagine.
I realize this all sounds so Polly Anna. A privileged white middle-aged gray hair woman rushing in to ....help.... but that is really what I'm attempting to doing? How can anyone really help a person to look at a glass as half full instead of half empty? My background includes poverty, abuse, lack of support, homelessness, and bigotry. I know the harsh facts yet I am empowered me by the path I have forged from experience, to education, to implementation of projects. Having said all of this, it's time for me to implement projects based on Kindness, Sweetness, Gentleness. So yes, I ask you who are educated and know the words of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Song Imagine to boil the words to their homeopathic essence, simply Imagine.
Susan
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Participation Dimension by Susan
19th century, education has been categorized and taught as if there were no connecting threads leading from one subject to another. The knowledge of how to weave information together has been relegated to the storage unit. Unfortunately, society continues to function in isolation by separating knowledge. Since the 1960’s artists have been attempting to bridge this gap artistically. In the book Participation Claire bishop investigates the missing dimension of social participation and the value of socially collaborative art. The participation of community members contributing their broad spectrum of knowledge to community art projects for the benefit of their place demonstrates the power of the arts as a tool for dialogue.
To work as a socially responsible community artist, one must try to be open, and trust being open. Trust that the work will be received from multiple points of view and understand that the diverse reception of art is uncontrollable and is an opportunity for conversation. This concept of openness began in earnest at the turn of the 20th century. Being open leaves one exposed, even vulnerable, to the unlimited perspectives that an audience receive when experiencing art. Who were the early innovators that worked in this manner?
One has to look or rather listen no further than to Igor Stravinsky’s composition Rite of Spring first performed in 1910. The audience’s reception of this work was passionately violent in a period were passion was frowned upon. From this point of view alone, the musical composition was successful. The theorist Umberto Eco wrote, “this form of art gains its aesthetic validity precisely in proportion to the number of different perspectives from which it can be viewed and understood.”(Bishop, 28) The literary work of James Joyce also falls into this category of openness. His book Finnegans Wake is based on the Surrealist concept of stream of consciousness. “Like Einstein’s world, Joyce’s world is always changing as it is perceived by different observers and by them at different times.” (Bishop, 28) This book is circular with no beginning and no end. Both Stravinsky and Joyce opened the way for perception to change each time the works were received by society. The contemporary artist Maya Lin uses the same thought process in the sculpture, Map of the World. The focal point of world maps changes in relation to the county that is using the map. If one lives in India then the center of the map is India. The artwork is a horizontally stacked puzzle where the pieces can be moved from one end of the stack to the other to change the viewers perspective. This art is still relegated to cultural institutions for those privileged to have access to them.
We move a step closer to today’s challenge in the art world of using the arts as a tool for social responsibility when we read Roland Barthes’ essay The Death of the Author. Barthes believed that “a work’s meaning is not dependent on authorial intention but on the individual point of active reception.”(Bishop, 40) Barthes understood that once art left the hands of the creator it would take on a life of its own. The reception of the audience could not be controlled nor could their reaction be controlled. In fact, it is THE reception that is important, not the intention.
Jean-Luc Nancy’s thoughts on community hinged on diversity of thought not on pre-planned
definitions of communal thought. Pre-planned communal thought is based on purity of thought, which is based on being in or out. Being in or out can lead to violence, and the destruction of community. Socially responsible artists are interested in being “with” the community. When you are with a community there is an effort to bridge the gap. The gap represents communication and communication represents touch. Jean-Luc Nancy would not be surprised at the conditions of inner-city communities in the 21st century because overall purity of thought is being use to make group decisions for the betterment of all. The voice of the individual and the voice of diversity are not being seriously considered.
Jean-Luc Nancy proposed that artists were to create with communities and that artists were to encourage the diverse voices to actively participant in the creation process in community art projects. The fear for the politicians is that these projects are based on community issues and once a community works with each other their voice is empowered and amplifies the messages. Amplified messages can instill fear into the hearts of government officials, businesses, and property owners. Today’s artists need to be savvy on how to work within the system to change the system and know how to employ the press to speed up the system.
It is safe to say that Joseph Beuys would not have agreed with the conservative tone of working within the system. In his 1973 essay I Am Searching for Field Character he begins by stating, “Only on condition of a radical widening of definition will it be possible for art and activities related to art to provide evidence that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is Capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART.”(Bishop, 125) The passion of Joseph Beuys’ words pulsate off the page and reverberate in the soul of committed 21st century socially motivated and socially responsible community artists. The clarity of his statement of problem and of his vision is put forth with openness and trust.
From a spiritual point of view the Creator who created this planet and the universe was the first artist. All life lives on and in the greatest work of art, Planet Earth and the Universe. Is it a stretch to consider that within all humans DNA are the seeds of creativity? And if all humans have this creativity DNA than, as Joseph Beuys has said, “EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST.” Another way to consider Joseph Beuys statement is that all thought is creative thought. Living itself is creative. Definition four in The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary defines artist as “one who follows any pursuit or employment in which skill or proficiency is attainable by study or practice; hence a skilled performer, a proficient, a connoisseur, a practical man.” If we follow Beuys’ trend of thought, then anyone who is proficient in something is an artist and if all artist become active Social Sculptures for just a day then transformation is possible. With the verbalization of thought there is the potential for change.
In 1972 Joseph Beuys and Dirk Shwaize’s produced the Happening Report on a Day’s Proceedings at the Bureau for Direct Democracy. For one hundred days Beuys lived the life of a Social Sculpture. Each day he reported to work at his street level office and debated with visitors. The topic was direct democracy. His props were a desk, a chair, a crystal vase with a fresh long stem rose replaced daily. His costume was a fishing vest and a felt hat. Felt, a material that is composed of animal fat, plant fiber and animal hair. Felt, the material that retains memory. Felt, the material with a Nazi history that runs deep and is horrifying. Felt, human fat, hair, and plant fiber. Joseph Beuys sat at his desk with his symbolic felt hat on his head and debated with the participants the possibilities of realization, the possibilities of a civilization deeply invested in its people.
In 2009 world societies are struggling to continue functioning in isolation. Artists have been in the forefront preparing for this time of change. Who better to carry the mantle of possibilities than socially responsible artists working with participating community members.
To work as a socially responsible community artist, one must try to be open, and trust being open. Trust that the work will be received from multiple points of view and understand that the diverse reception of art is uncontrollable and is an opportunity for conversation. This concept of openness began in earnest at the turn of the 20th century. Being open leaves one exposed, even vulnerable, to the unlimited perspectives that an audience receive when experiencing art. Who were the early innovators that worked in this manner?
One has to look or rather listen no further than to Igor Stravinsky’s composition Rite of Spring first performed in 1910. The audience’s reception of this work was passionately violent in a period were passion was frowned upon. From this point of view alone, the musical composition was successful. The theorist Umberto Eco wrote, “this form of art gains its aesthetic validity precisely in proportion to the number of different perspectives from which it can be viewed and understood.”(Bishop, 28) The literary work of James Joyce also falls into this category of openness. His book Finnegans Wake is based on the Surrealist concept of stream of consciousness. “Like Einstein’s world, Joyce’s world is always changing as it is perceived by different observers and by them at different times.” (Bishop, 28) This book is circular with no beginning and no end. Both Stravinsky and Joyce opened the way for perception to change each time the works were received by society. The contemporary artist Maya Lin uses the same thought process in the sculpture, Map of the World. The focal point of world maps changes in relation to the county that is using the map. If one lives in India then the center of the map is India. The artwork is a horizontally stacked puzzle where the pieces can be moved from one end of the stack to the other to change the viewers perspective. This art is still relegated to cultural institutions for those privileged to have access to them.
We move a step closer to today’s challenge in the art world of using the arts as a tool for social responsibility when we read Roland Barthes’ essay The Death of the Author. Barthes believed that “a work’s meaning is not dependent on authorial intention but on the individual point of active reception.”(Bishop, 40) Barthes understood that once art left the hands of the creator it would take on a life of its own. The reception of the audience could not be controlled nor could their reaction be controlled. In fact, it is THE reception that is important, not the intention.
Jean-Luc Nancy’s thoughts on community hinged on diversity of thought not on pre-planned
definitions of communal thought. Pre-planned communal thought is based on purity of thought, which is based on being in or out. Being in or out can lead to violence, and the destruction of community. Socially responsible artists are interested in being “with” the community. When you are with a community there is an effort to bridge the gap. The gap represents communication and communication represents touch. Jean-Luc Nancy would not be surprised at the conditions of inner-city communities in the 21st century because overall purity of thought is being use to make group decisions for the betterment of all. The voice of the individual and the voice of diversity are not being seriously considered.
Jean-Luc Nancy proposed that artists were to create with communities and that artists were to encourage the diverse voices to actively participant in the creation process in community art projects. The fear for the politicians is that these projects are based on community issues and once a community works with each other their voice is empowered and amplifies the messages. Amplified messages can instill fear into the hearts of government officials, businesses, and property owners. Today’s artists need to be savvy on how to work within the system to change the system and know how to employ the press to speed up the system.
It is safe to say that Joseph Beuys would not have agreed with the conservative tone of working within the system. In his 1973 essay I Am Searching for Field Character he begins by stating, “Only on condition of a radical widening of definition will it be possible for art and activities related to art to provide evidence that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is Capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in order to build A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART.”(Bishop, 125) The passion of Joseph Beuys’ words pulsate off the page and reverberate in the soul of committed 21st century socially motivated and socially responsible community artists. The clarity of his statement of problem and of his vision is put forth with openness and trust.
From a spiritual point of view the Creator who created this planet and the universe was the first artist. All life lives on and in the greatest work of art, Planet Earth and the Universe. Is it a stretch to consider that within all humans DNA are the seeds of creativity? And if all humans have this creativity DNA than, as Joseph Beuys has said, “EVERY HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST.” Another way to consider Joseph Beuys statement is that all thought is creative thought. Living itself is creative. Definition four in The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary defines artist as “one who follows any pursuit or employment in which skill or proficiency is attainable by study or practice; hence a skilled performer, a proficient, a connoisseur, a practical man.” If we follow Beuys’ trend of thought, then anyone who is proficient in something is an artist and if all artist become active Social Sculptures for just a day then transformation is possible. With the verbalization of thought there is the potential for change.
In 1972 Joseph Beuys and Dirk Shwaize’s produced the Happening Report on a Day’s Proceedings at the Bureau for Direct Democracy. For one hundred days Beuys lived the life of a Social Sculpture. Each day he reported to work at his street level office and debated with visitors. The topic was direct democracy. His props were a desk, a chair, a crystal vase with a fresh long stem rose replaced daily. His costume was a fishing vest and a felt hat. Felt, a material that is composed of animal fat, plant fiber and animal hair. Felt, the material that retains memory. Felt, the material with a Nazi history that runs deep and is horrifying. Felt, human fat, hair, and plant fiber. Joseph Beuys sat at his desk with his symbolic felt hat on his head and debated with the participants the possibilities of realization, the possibilities of a civilization deeply invested in its people.
In 2009 world societies are struggling to continue functioning in isolation. Artists have been in the forefront preparing for this time of change. Who better to carry the mantle of possibilities than socially responsible artists working with participating community members.
Thoughts on Connection of Books So Far and What is Art?
Nicolas Bourriaud states in his essay Relational Aesthetics that "Art is a state of encounter..." (Bishop, 162). Wether the artist has the audience as art in mind or not is more of a modern art question, he explains. Bourriaud first posits that the art lives in a realm of what he calls social interstice (a word borrowed from Marx). This social interstice is " a space in human relations which, although it fits more or less harmoniously and openly into the overall system, suggests possibilities for exchanges other that those that prevail within the system (Bishop pg 161). He then goes on to explain:
" An exhibition is a privileged place where instant communities like this can be established: depending on the degree of audience participation demanded by the artist, the nature of the works on show and the models of sociability that are represented or suggested, an exhibition can generate a particular ' domain of exchanges'' (Bishop, pg 162).
I think this is a very observant thought especially about art's and artists' role in Society. Exhibitions often do welcome the general public as well as art buyers. It does create a physical space for people to make connections between ideas in peoples consciousness through seeing art. These people can then connect with other people who are having a similar experience. Bouriaud cites many interactive modern artists in his essay that use mostly concept and social interaction in their pieces. One piece, by Gonzalez-Torres', where people can choose to take candy from a huge pile if they want to, examines notions of social etiquette and makes the audience an integral part of the piece. This relies on other people seeing audience members acting or not acting as focal points of the art.
Darren O'Donnell explains that Claire Bishop, as a critic of Bourriand, states that he "ignores the fact that a vibrant social sphere is one that can openly acknowledge and even generate antagonisms -that democracy is dependent on friction rather than feel-good" (O'Donnell, pg 31) and that gallery spaces do not usually create a cross cultural dialogue about politics or art. O'Donnell then details performances he has done to stretch the comfortably point of social interaction between people in public (and private). He held a variety of "performances" of people interviewing peers, of people being invited to make out with one an other, and of people commenting and gossiping on what they assume other people's lives are like.
Bourriand sees conscious incorporation of the audience in a social situation as a modern invention, it could be argued that it is the continuation of a folk art tradition where art and function are usually combined and art is seen as part of everyday life yet also as a decorated and intended action different from the mundane.
In New Creative Communities: The Art of Cultural Development, Arlene Goldbard quotes from William Morris in the chapter Historical and Theoretical Underpinnings:
" (T)he chief source of art is man's pleasure in his daily necessary work, which expresses itself and is embodied in that work itself; nothing else can make the common surroundings of life beautiful and whenever they are beautiful it is a sign that men's work has pleasure in it, however they may suffer otherwise. It is the task of this pleasure in daily work which has made our towns and habitations sordid and hideous, insults to the beauty of the earth which they disfigure" (from Commonweal, April 1885) (Goldbard, pg 103).
Goldbard explains that Morris was "associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement" (pg, 102) which was a response to Romanticism's notion of the artist as tragic, passionate, and god-like, above the common man and "apart from social convention and social concerns" (Goldbard, 103). Goldbard found that Morris's sentiment was echoed in modern day community arts activists. They saw art as something to be experienced in an everyday setting made by the participants living in that place.
It also seems to me that art has many functions and places in this Society and in others. I see art as an illumination of ideas. Even abstract art holds in its form the idea that not all is known; that things are subjective. An artist standing in the M.O.M.A. saying that the fire extinguisher is art (Halm, 1990) has just created with a few words that the ordinary can be beautiful or special. Although sometimes art shines a light more on emotions than ideas, as in my experience of most music. Sometimes art illuminates dynamics in space, form, color, or perspective for the eye or senses and is beyond the brain's analysis.
One wonderful use of art as explored in New Creative Communities by Goldbard is its use in building democracy. When artists gather members of a town, city, or culture together to have the participants create and problem solve together ideas and understanding is generated. Often the important issues of the group are articulated and presented in a larger context of action and empowerment. When many forces such as classism, racism, and sexism are working against people's voices being invoked and included, art can serve as that jump start. I hold space for all of these possibilities in art. I started wondering what other artists and non-artists around me thought of art.
I started video taping people's reaction to the question "What is Art" and I then invited them to pick up the receiver of a phone and have an imaginary phone conversation to a personified version of art named "Art". No voice, except one in their imagination was on the phone. Both of these responses were fascinating for me to do.
Outcome of Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me
Never before have I allowed myself to create a public project that was so one on one and intimate. Before I discuss the results of Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me, I would like you to understand my practice before this project.
Over the last nine years, I have been producing large scale projects and installations, on a small scale budget, that have been placed in forests preserves, museums, performance halls, women’s centers, community centers, lodges, theaters, on streets, and in schools. These projects are not about my personal visual art, although my artwork is often included. The originating idea flows from me with an outline of all the components. The next steps are researching funding sources then contacting potential collaborators. The collaborators have included environmental scientists, educators, educational and cultural institutions, governmental departments, and non-profit organizations. Once the funding source idea and collaborators are in place, I contact the artists and then apply for grants.
These projects are open to all art disciplines, for example: performance arts, literary art, technological arts, culinary arts, visual arts, etc. Spiritually is infused in all aspects of the project, yet the general community has never been included in the creative process. Possibly I have not trusted the general public in the creative process.
A sampling of the projects I have been a conduit for and implemented in this manner are: Women Artists of the Hudson Valley and Art About Water.
During the years 2002 through 2006 the Women Artists of the Hudson Valley programs were installed in a vacant home and gallery earmarked for destruction, a museum, a Quaker Meeting House, a women’s center, a school district conference hall, and a historical 1890 former hospital and former Elks hall. Yearly ninety to one hundred-four women exhibited their art, as well as presenting gender bending Shakespeare, a VDay production with twenty-six women who had never acted, lectures and television programming. The overall theme for all five years was the worth of women, which Orange County New York dedicated as the March 2006 theme for the region. This five year project came to me literally in a flash August of 2001.
For three weeks in the fall of 2006 and 2007 Art About Water was implemented. This was the first time a project was a 50/50 collaboration with the arts and environmental science. The concept was to educate the public on the function of watersheds. When I contacted an environmental scientist who had for years been saying he would like to work with me “someday”, he told me if I could convince the environmental musician Paul Winter to work on the project, he would jump in too. Over a two year period there were three installations: an international exhibit of 20 works from France, Holland, and states along the Eastern United States; nineteen temporary earth art installations in Black Rock Forest, and a exhibit of thirty environmental paintings and mixed media works in the Black Rock Forest Lodge. The heart of the project for both years was Wolf Cry Singers, a Native Drum and Chant Women’s Group, with members from Canada and Massachusetts. Pete Seeger approved use of his personal Hudson River Sloop the Woody Guthrie, there was an environmental film festival, a riverfront festival, forest hikes, watershed demonstrations, on-site bug lectures, and performances and hands-on art workshops in beautiful meadows and street corners. This project came to me in a dream, as well as meeting Wolf Cry Singers. A friend of a friend of a friend led me to these women.
The creative process for Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me is different for me. First, the project came to me in the light of day. The location of the project was important. Newburgh is a nationally recognized dysfunctional city. This city is a community that functions daily by stereotyping the residents and the residents stereotyping those who are from the inside and outside attempting to be of assistance. The fear and isolation that is generated has built a wall of anger. The problem is huge. I wanted to begin by focusing on the stories of the elders from the three ethnic communities in Newburgh and on the need of children to receive positive attention. Trust, passion, and collaboration are at the heart of the Please Read to Me project.
The city government was immediately on-board, even though the project was small in comparison to what I have presented in the past. This art was gentle, did not need nor want the press, did not involve a professional art team, did not openly scream education, and did not require funds, although funds would have been helpful. What was required was trust from all involved and courage for me to move forward on a project that was so small scale and so ….. sweet ….and appearingly so unimportant.
When putting together the four member creative team and readers, I gave much thought to whether or not I should be a member of the team or stay in the background as the art facilitator. In the end I decided I wanted and needed to share and read one of my seemingly happy childhood stories. A library staff member suggested the African American elder, Barbara Simon. I’ve worked with Barbara in the past so there was an immediate trust level in place. In addition to Barbara, Yaniyah Pearson, the Director of Human Services, wanted to be a reader. Barbara and I searched for the Latino member of our team. Locating this person was much more difficult than expected. We visited community centers and church leaders searching for this person, finally locating Jose Rodriguez at a retirement home. Jose is outgoing and happy to share his experiences. In fact, he was bubbling over with memories and in just a few weeks has become committed to the project.
What is surprising to me about this search for Jose is that I came face to face with problems I knew about but did not understand. First was the problem of illegal immigrants. In Newburgh the Latino community is comprised mainly of Mexicans, Peruvians, and Puerto Ricans. From the conversations I was involved in over the nine days while searching for our Latino team member, I became aware that there were many more illegal immigrants in the Mexican and Peruvian community than I have previously thought. They were afraid to bring attention to their family in anyway. Additionally, the women were much more quite than the men and felt they had no interesting stories to tell. Finally, even if a translator was at the readings, they told me they would not feel comfortable speaking in front of people. They felt their stories were unimportant.
Another problem that I was unaware of had to do with recreation facilities. When the city told me that the readings could not take place on the sidewalks but had to be located in parks and permits ha to be filed. I went in search of three recreational parks and one common meeting location. Understanding that there are no clear-cut lines between these communities, there are heavy saturations of populations in communities. In Newburgh there are many 21 parks. Most of the parks are for the African American community. Four are on the waterfront and are for tourist and upper class residents. There is only one small plot of land for the lower class Caucasian community and to the best of my knowledge no small parks in the Latino community. I did point this out to the Director of Human Services and she decided to drive throughout the city with me and find a location. We were unsuccessful.
At that point I decided to sit outside the library on a Saturday morning and take note of the patrons who entered the building: African American men, African American teens, African American mothers and children, Caucasian men and women, Caucasian mothers and children, and finally, Latino mothers and children. After speaking with Barbara, the decision was made to hold the third event at the library and cancel the full community location. The library would serve this dual purpose.
Our field trip to the Liberty View Apple Orchard was totally enjoyable. We picked organic apples and explored the entire farm. Our team did not appear to be nervous about the project. We did discuss apples and its many symbols: the apple core pentacle and all that it represents, the fruit of knowledge, the fruit of magic, the garden of Eden, and our contemporary symbol, which is the one we decided worked for our project, home and apple pie. I personally, am interested in Johnny Appleseed and his life long wanders planting the seeds for the symbol that now represents home.
The readers: Jose Rodriguez, Barbara Simon, Yaniyah Pearson, Susan Konvit
The stories: Little Jose's Homeland, Me and My Gran Hand and Hand, Memories of the Mango Tree
Evaluation of Reading 1: September 13, 2009 from 11am to 11:30am. September 13th is officially recognized in the United States as Grandparents Day. The original date was on the 12th but it rained. The 13th was a sunny Sunday. The Colonial Terrace housing district was selected due to its predominately Caucasian residents. The area was designed in the early 20th century as part of the Garden City Movement. Unfortunately, the district had seen better days. The small corner park that was selected for the reading has the feeling of a town green. There are large trees on the lot with a statue of New York States first Governor, George Clinton. Before beginning I asked our team to gather in a circle and hold hands. I share my gratefulness at their participation and the hope that this would be a small conduit of positive energy. Only one Caucasian parent attended with her two teenagers. It was interesting to note that they by-passed the Latino Elder to sit with the African American Elder. They then circulated to the Latino Elder. They never came over to me. Many cars slowed down to observe what was happening. There is one notorious townhouse in this community where an African American gang has moved and they have the residents in the grips of fear. I spoke to a few of the gang members this pass week to let them know about the readings. On Sunday morning they were out and about and I invited them again to attend. The men watched from afar.
Evaluation of Reading 2: September 13, 2009 from 12:30 to 1pm. The Washington Heights section of Newburgh is a sad community with many vacant houses, and streets with potholes. There has been some interest from carpetbaggers so a few of the streets have been repaved.
The park is located in the side yard of the community center. Vandals have damaged the plexi-glass windows with bleach, and they are a distorted milky white in color. There is no grass, no trees, and new playground equipment. An African American teenage girl with a young girl in a wheelchair and a two-year old baby were playing in the park. They were not interested in our stories. No one else entered the park. Fifteen minutes into the reading Barbara decided to leave, and I moved my chair outside the park’s high metal gate to the sidewalk. At that point, four African American men came out of their homes and stood on their porches to watch. A few of the men on the corner also watched Jose and me. A Latino man came over and stood next to me while I read. When I finished the story, I looked up at him, introduced myself, and shook his hand. He told me his name was Eduardo and he was interested in what we were doing. He also told me he was an artist. I asked if I could see his art after I had finished reading and he pointed out his apartment building. We spoke for a few more minutes, and I then went back to reading.
At 1pm Jose, his wife, and I went to Eduardo’s third floor walk-up. His apartment was in terrible condition. His young teenage daughter was washing the dishes. The walls of his home were covered in his paintings with a special wall for his four young daughters art works. When we entered the living room there on the main wall was a painting with an award hanging on the corner of the work. I recognized this piece. Recently I was one of three jurors for a community exhibit at the library. This particular painting was unanimously voted as best of the show. The work was obviously inspired by shamanism and the Aztecs, and contemporary life but the visual was absolutely unique. When I realized this was the artist, I thanked him for entering his work in the exhibit and shared the jurors’ comments. He told me he was just an uneducated Mexican who worked from the point of view of the animals. At that moment two birds flew from the street to the ledge of his open window. I turned to Eduardo and immediately asked if he would be interested in working with me in an afterschool program. He would have to be trained but I was willing to teach him. He would be paid. Hi bowed his head and said yes. As we left, Jose said he loved the Grandma! Grandpa! Please Read to Me project. I quietly laughed inside because no one had come to listen to our stories at this park yet it was successful from Jose’s point of view.
Evaluation of Reading 3: On September 16th the Times Herald Record published a press release announcing the project and location of the next reading. The City of Newburgh’s Mayor had received a positive verbal report from Yaniyah and the City Manager’s PR person wanted attention drawn to the project. Fortunately, the press release did not affect the turnout for the reading on September 19th.
This location proved to be closer to what I had originally envisioned, elders sitting in chairs on sidewalks reading their stories. Forty-one children and adults walked right past us. They would stare but did not stop. As the children passed, they would turn their heads. Only eight children and three adults sat down to listen to the stories. Of the three adults, only one would sign the consent form. In fact, one Latino mother left her three-year old daughter with me to go into the library to change her baby’s diaper. The mother did not speak English so Sara translated what she was saying to me. The little girl did speak perfect English and after hearing the stories she told me she did not like candy and had never eaten a mango.
During this session, Sara became quite courageous and stepped out of her role of being a quite observer and the wife of Jose Rodgriguez.. She is not a photographer but saw that I needed photographs. She learned how to work my camera and began taking pictures. At first she was nervous and would ask my permission for all the pictures. I encouraged her to have fun but to be sure to request signatures from the adults. Jose was so happy to see his wife participating and vowed to buy her a camera. It was all very sweet.
When our reading time was up, Barbara, Sara, and I held an impromptu meeting with a woman who had attended Jose’s performance. This woman was the Director of the Newburgh Children’s Center. For the next sixty minutes we brainstormed on how to bring this project in an extended format to her pre-school, as well as how we can work with the SUNY Orange Community College students who tutor the children. She told us the students enjoyed tutoring the children but were very fearful of the neighborhood. As a team, the readers and I will be meeting to discuss this project so that we are prepared to speak at the center on October 3rd. Our talk will cover how the project evolved and how we were attempting to break down the walls of stereotyping by reading each others stories as if they were our own stories. While this meeting was happening, Jose kept reading. To celebrate our accomplishment, I took our team out to lunch.
Next week I will apply for a New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Grant. Funding would make it possible to continue this project next summer.
social acupuncture and breaching experiments
Social Acupuncture and Breaching Experiments by Britta
The analogy of holistic healing and acupuncture to society and the social body is brilliant. I love O’Donnell’s humor, intelligence and critique of the powers that be and the ineffectual-isms that be. I also respect and identify with his notion of the “empire of cool” having been a “cool” kid in an uncool place, and then made conscious decisions to reject “cool” as I moved to very cool places. (I am reading a great book now about how to raise your kids to be geeks!) So all of this is relevant on a number of levels.
In my transformations of the last few weeks (as I mentioned in my last post) I am realizing that one’s community determines, in part, one’s audience. I do not consider myself a member of the “art world” in NYC, except perhaps on the fringe edge, and just as O’Donnell is critical of the reasons and practices of theater in its conventional sense, I am also critical of the art museum and gallery worlds, (though there is a place for these and they serve multiple functions that are not wholly wrong or useless.)
So, I completely identify with OD’s effort to render art/theater effective in altering consciousness, and I am inspired to attempt to insert newness/difference/discomfort in order to re-establish the social-chi flow. Making meaning, not profit, and making meaning and connection the goal, not the “bottom line.” My tendency to “hide” and be silent (as much as I am, which is not always) is a reaction to the ongoing commodification of everything, the ignorance of people to “get it,” “think,” and change. But not only the “commodification” but the “threat of being consumed” by the powers that be (and I am being consumed and so is my family, even more than before, simply because of new economic conditions that have increased our work hours, decreased our pay, making us pay for more childcare, be increasingly stressed out and have less time for each other, our art, and our communities).
Questions: How does an artistic intervention influence the president of a company to change *his* view that “everything is about the numbers” or the dean of such company/school to really act differently and lose the apolitical, sold-out, philosophically- minded vision he has of the world being “tragic and beautiful”? To me, those would be the people on the local level who could change things, but they are under pressure to meet the numbers handed down by the corporate machine, and also feel powerless. Ugh. If the guys in charge feel powerless, then the Machine really is in charge. We used to think it was “the Man,” but when the man made the corporation legally into an “individual” then the Machine took over.
O’Donnell stresses the importance of discomfort as part of the healing process. Being social creates discomfort (and will more and more as people become increasingly isolated through their interface with machinery) so strategies that actually get you to talk to each other, work well for creating discomfort. OD uses interviewing, and interaction. I do this in my classroom, especially in my sociology classes.
A mid-century sociologist, Harold Garfinkel, did a series of “breaching experiments” (you can find some on youtube, like the elevator experiment). His goal was to point out what the social rules are. He thought you could only see what they are when they are broken, because people will try to get things back to normal as soon as possible and you can witness what they do in order to render things normal again. Performance art, like O’Donnell’s work, is a type of breaching experiment. They can be really fun! People like to break rules, when it is safe to do so, and then we get to see the social norms at work and how our discomfort is alleviated. I can see why the wealthy folks felt threatened. To make a real intervention, I think you need to establish trust first.
Here is an example of something that happened this term in a sewing class that I am teaching: It is a small class of 4 students. The students are persons of color, mixed, Spanish, and black. I am the only white person in the room; we are all women. One of the girls is really angry. She is always saying how she hates this and that, the overlock machine, the project, this or that teacher etc. Two of the others just laugh at her and tell her she has an anger problem. I tell her she needs to be nice to the overlock machine because it will get back at her. This week she came in to class in good mood. She had a bit of money and had found a second hand store in the neighborhood where she bought a few things. She was inspired to show us her favorite item. It was a purple cloth shoulder bag with a big peace sign embroidered on it. I said that I thought it was perfect and that was exactly what she needed… to project more love and peace. They have given me a hard time, jokingly, about my interest in quilts and the fact that I got my tattoo the year some of them were they born in 1990. We have developed a rapport, and have gotten to know each other over the last 2 months. So the angry girl was happy for a while, then burst into anger again. We found out that she hadn’t slept in more than 24 hours and lived in a household with 11 siblings. I happened to have my new Iphone with me and decided to play some music with some speakers. I played a few things we all agreed on, and then by the end I decided to embrace the purple peace bag vibe and play Joni Mitchell songs. We all settled into a nice relaxed sewing flow. And by the end of the 4 hours, one of the girls said she thought my music had been good to establish that energy. This felt like a small triumph. We have one more week of class.
This is why I like teaching where I do. I often have real interactions with people I normally wouldn’t get to spend time with. I learn so much about their lives. I wish I could share it with others more. Since most of my students are people of color, I feel quite privileged. But, it is painful too, because our school is very expensive. It is an open-admissions school and I witness the kids getting consumed by it. By this, I mean that they are often not prepared to do the work and I am obligated to fail them if they do not do the work or do it well enough, they leave without a degree and deeply in debt. I see the cycles of poverty and the dreams they have, and again the rules of meritocracy that they are unable or unwilling to follow.
Here is something else that I did, not unlike O’Donnell’s interventions. I was invited to Santiago, Chile to take part in a performance art festival in 1996. I gave a talk on my Survey Fairy piece and led a performance workshop. For the workshop, I asked the participants what they wanted to do, what they felt was needed in Santiago at that time. Through a discussion process we decided, as a group, that we wanted to conduct some kissing experiments. All the group members were comfortable with it, except one woman. She was willing to go along but not kiss anyone. I invited her to go with me. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and we went out in pairs. We walked up to strangers and asked them if we could kiss them. Our group returned and reported back to the wider conference. We were all very elated! It felt so good to cross these boundaries and ask for human contact! I remember when I did ask people only one person said no and I just moved on. There was a lot of laughing and a lot of excitement. And, if I remember correctly, nothing felt creepy or inappropriate. Even the woman who was afraid felt comfortable enough at the end to ask someone to kiss them!
One last note: if I show up with a strange haircut next residency, it may be because I allowed by 4 year old to do the job!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
community and art in America
Hi Everyone from Britta
(This is my post for the Goldbarb book, and a follow up from the call regarding the question Susan had about art in America.)
I have been silent here but processing so much after our last call! I was feeling very skeptical about the idea of "community" during our last call and raised the issue of whether the fact of a fully connected community was really possible. I also mentioned the alienated sense I have living where I do and in this type of "community" and wasn't sure if I liked it and could even call it a community. (I write this as I am sitting next to my window on the 4th floor looking down at rush-hour on 9th Avenue after the bars close in Midtown Manhattan! (FYI, I was not at the bars; I was asleep and am now awake for unknown reasons, perhaps just to write this...) For those of you who don't know, 9th Ave is a one-way street that is a main through street to get to the Lincoln Tunnel and to New Jersey and points West of NYC... I diverge...)
One thing I know about my process is that it is essential for me to speak and by doing so a transformation occurs. By my expressing my skepticism about the possibilities of community last call, I was actually able to highlight (in my own consciousness) the types of communities that I am involved in and that I am truly invested in, and therefore, going through my daily life I could encounter these community in a new way.
The communities of which I am a part are actually very real, very human, and possibly in need of artistic intervention. My communities include being a part of "the collective mommy"--this is my term for the community of mothers in and around my neighborhood. I coined it after my son was born 4 years ago and I was beginning to become part of the parenting and family aspect of my neighborhood. The Collective Mommy is everywhere! And, walking down the street, I know lots of parents and children, and so does my son.
I am also a member of our Community Garden. I have a sub-let this year after being on the waiting list for 7 years! This is a new level of engagement for me, though I have been going to the public section of the garden since I moved to this neighborhood.
I am a worker and a teacher and I teach Fashion Design and Sociology at an art school in downtown Manhattan. Now this is a for-profit corporation of an art school and I often have to remind myself that it is an art school and not just a "company." I have been there for 7 years and for the last 3 years I was the chapter leader of our teacher's union. When the economy was crashing last fall, we were in contract negotiations. There is much to say about this, but in brief, we didn't gain much and now we are working 20% more time for less pay. My workload is 5 classes each term; each class is 4 hours long; I teach 4 terms a year. I decided to become Chapter Leader three years ago because I felt I could make a difference, and I wanted to see some things change. I changed. I learned how institutions work and why things don't really change. But, I also got really close to a lot of people, which is what is great about community.
And now, Goddard. Thank you for Goddard. For my work, as I mentioned on the call, I am working on a memoir. Since last call, I have been able to process some intense family dynamics as one piece of the larger story. (again by speaking it, it got released and transformed. thank you.) But, what was also interesting was that I realized how I was not able to be *in* my own life because I was still holding on to another place and time, and people. So I am trying to make sense of it in a new way, both intellectually and creatively, leading me to take my work in a new direction as a result, which I am very excited about! more on this later.
In our last call, Susan asked about why art in America was so alienated and separated from the rest of society... or something like that, (please repeat the question if you remember it). Ju Pong answered that in part it was a result of the extreme emphasis on individuality in America. (Please forgive my paraphrasing). I used to teach a class called Art Worlds at NYU, where I did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Draper Program. In that class we traced the social relations of art in America. One of the books that was extremely interesting was a book by Neil Harris "The Artist in American Society: the formative years 1790-1860." In that book, Harris traces the development of art in America. Here is what I remember and can paraphrase now: Americans in general were rejecting the economic and social class structure of Europe. In Europe, art was/is revered and given high esteem, funded by monarchs in the past and governments in the present. In America, art was seen as a luxury. The Protestant Work Ethic (see Max Weber) in our subconscious and collective selves defines our lives around a basic fact: "waste of time is the deadliest sin." The Puritans who established the first colonies were really into this idea and wanted to stamp out of the "spontaneous enjoyment of life" instead channeling it all into a "calling" and making a profit/putting it back into good works/saving it, because, according to this belief system in a nutshell, this was the primary way to get to heaven.
(If you have never read Weber, it is difficult reading but well worth it. There is a nice excerpt in Andersen, Margaret; Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. 2005. Understanding Society)
So if you see my point, the American relationship to art and artist is complicated. If art was "useful" then it could be accepted more easily. And, because of the dominant American habit of not wanting to acknowledge and really address differences in social/economic class divisions, but rather lay blame with the individual for his/her lot in life, then the wealthy are in a double-bind (as well as the rest of us) because they are supposed to work really hard, but never enjoy life, and certainly never ever show their wealth. Some people of course, being Americans, rebel against this, but then we get dichotomous dynamics where no one is at ease with themselves, people are not living right-sized, and no one is really taken care of, and this is in the extreme and general sense of the society. (Though, yes, there are many many individuals and individual moments and families, and even communities, where people do care and are balanced. But it needs to be said, that this Protestant Work Ethic still informs and colors much of our collective consciousness. Look at the Obamas: Their personal stories are all about hard work, personal responsibility, denial of self, and meritocracy. The American Dream!)
Oh there is so much more to say. But, I hope you can see the set of dynamics I have tried to illustrate here. Art is often seen as luxury or idleness. Meaning cannot be quantified and is therefore not valued as real, but real art is interested in making meaning. Art, if it is not seen as a commodity, is not seen as valuable by the dominant forces that be. Here is my new slogan: Make Meaning, Not Profit!
(This is my post for the Goldbarb book, and a follow up from the call regarding the question Susan had about art in America.)
I have been silent here but processing so much after our last call! I was feeling very skeptical about the idea of "community" during our last call and raised the issue of whether the fact of a fully connected community was really possible. I also mentioned the alienated sense I have living where I do and in this type of "community" and wasn't sure if I liked it and could even call it a community. (I write this as I am sitting next to my window on the 4th floor looking down at rush-hour on 9th Avenue after the bars close in Midtown Manhattan! (FYI, I was not at the bars; I was asleep and am now awake for unknown reasons, perhaps just to write this...) For those of you who don't know, 9th Ave is a one-way street that is a main through street to get to the Lincoln Tunnel and to New Jersey and points West of NYC... I diverge...)
One thing I know about my process is that it is essential for me to speak and by doing so a transformation occurs. By my expressing my skepticism about the possibilities of community last call, I was actually able to highlight (in my own consciousness) the types of communities that I am involved in and that I am truly invested in, and therefore, going through my daily life I could encounter these community in a new way.
The communities of which I am a part are actually very real, very human, and possibly in need of artistic intervention. My communities include being a part of "the collective mommy"--this is my term for the community of mothers in and around my neighborhood. I coined it after my son was born 4 years ago and I was beginning to become part of the parenting and family aspect of my neighborhood. The Collective Mommy is everywhere! And, walking down the street, I know lots of parents and children, and so does my son.
I am also a member of our Community Garden. I have a sub-let this year after being on the waiting list for 7 years! This is a new level of engagement for me, though I have been going to the public section of the garden since I moved to this neighborhood.
I am a worker and a teacher and I teach Fashion Design and Sociology at an art school in downtown Manhattan. Now this is a for-profit corporation of an art school and I often have to remind myself that it is an art school and not just a "company." I have been there for 7 years and for the last 3 years I was the chapter leader of our teacher's union. When the economy was crashing last fall, we were in contract negotiations. There is much to say about this, but in brief, we didn't gain much and now we are working 20% more time for less pay. My workload is 5 classes each term; each class is 4 hours long; I teach 4 terms a year. I decided to become Chapter Leader three years ago because I felt I could make a difference, and I wanted to see some things change. I changed. I learned how institutions work and why things don't really change. But, I also got really close to a lot of people, which is what is great about community.
And now, Goddard. Thank you for Goddard. For my work, as I mentioned on the call, I am working on a memoir. Since last call, I have been able to process some intense family dynamics as one piece of the larger story. (again by speaking it, it got released and transformed. thank you.) But, what was also interesting was that I realized how I was not able to be *in* my own life because I was still holding on to another place and time, and people. So I am trying to make sense of it in a new way, both intellectually and creatively, leading me to take my work in a new direction as a result, which I am very excited about! more on this later.
In our last call, Susan asked about why art in America was so alienated and separated from the rest of society... or something like that, (please repeat the question if you remember it). Ju Pong answered that in part it was a result of the extreme emphasis on individuality in America. (Please forgive my paraphrasing). I used to teach a class called Art Worlds at NYU, where I did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Draper Program. In that class we traced the social relations of art in America. One of the books that was extremely interesting was a book by Neil Harris "The Artist in American Society: the formative years 1790-1860." In that book, Harris traces the development of art in America. Here is what I remember and can paraphrase now: Americans in general were rejecting the economic and social class structure of Europe. In Europe, art was/is revered and given high esteem, funded by monarchs in the past and governments in the present. In America, art was seen as a luxury. The Protestant Work Ethic (see Max Weber) in our subconscious and collective selves defines our lives around a basic fact: "waste of time is the deadliest sin." The Puritans who established the first colonies were really into this idea and wanted to stamp out of the "spontaneous enjoyment of life" instead channeling it all into a "calling" and making a profit/putting it back into good works/saving it, because, according to this belief system in a nutshell, this was the primary way to get to heaven.
(If you have never read Weber, it is difficult reading but well worth it. There is a nice excerpt in Andersen, Margaret; Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. 2005. Understanding Society)
So if you see my point, the American relationship to art and artist is complicated. If art was "useful" then it could be accepted more easily. And, because of the dominant American habit of not wanting to acknowledge and really address differences in social/economic class divisions, but rather lay blame with the individual for his/her lot in life, then the wealthy are in a double-bind (as well as the rest of us) because they are supposed to work really hard, but never enjoy life, and certainly never ever show their wealth. Some people of course, being Americans, rebel against this, but then we get dichotomous dynamics where no one is at ease with themselves, people are not living right-sized, and no one is really taken care of, and this is in the extreme and general sense of the society. (Though, yes, there are many many individuals and individual moments and families, and even communities, where people do care and are balanced. But it needs to be said, that this Protestant Work Ethic still informs and colors much of our collective consciousness. Look at the Obamas: Their personal stories are all about hard work, personal responsibility, denial of self, and meritocracy. The American Dream!)
Oh there is so much more to say. But, I hope you can see the set of dynamics I have tried to illustrate here. Art is often seen as luxury or idleness. Meaning cannot be quantified and is therefore not valued as real, but real art is interested in making meaning. Art, if it is not seen as a commodity, is not seen as valuable by the dominant forces that be. Here is my new slogan: Make Meaning, Not Profit!
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