Journal Entry #1
Closed Society and Democratic Inexperience
By Paulo Freire
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Why does a Country face a split?
A country faces a split when people are not unified. What I mean by that is there are two groups for the most part- the powerful and the powerless. One group is marginalized often economically where they are stuck in a system they cannot rise above because it was built against them.
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Having a space where everyone can speak in an open dialogue and be listened to is absolutely important. As Paulo talked about- on a plantation there was no room for open area dialogue because the power dynamic of slave and slave-master doesn't exactly leave room for respect. There needs to be an open area where no one has power over another person.
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A small version within my own life where I felt like I had gained an "open area" was just growing up and becoming an adult. Once I left my parents house, the way we interacted with each other became much more about respect and listening. Before it was clear they had power over any and all decisions because I lived under their roof and they had the control. I had a great childhood but parents are parents and they usually tell you what you can and cannot do. So I experienced a feeling of freedom and mutual respect when I gained my open area.
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Art is possible the clearest way to express yourself and your human experience. I think that has always been the best part about it. We all want respect and inclusion and to have a voice about what our life is like. Art, at it's best can be a way for those who are not in our shoes normally, can see life through another perspective and gain empathy towards another persons struggle and hardship. It is about creating that safe space for people to share their art and feel welcome to have a voice.
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"...societies which are denied dialogue in favor of decrees become predominately "silent" (It should be noted that silence does not signify an absence of response, but rather a response which lacks critical quality)."
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This makes me think a lot about what has been going on in our country not only now but since the day it was created. From the Native/ American Indians, to all African Americans, to every Person of Color that lives in America. We need them and we can not let them be silenced. The horror of the last quote sent shivers down my spine. We can not afford any group to become "predominately silent" -- They matter.
Practices of Looking
Chapter One
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Upon reading the chapter Practices of Looking: Images, Power, and Politics I was reminded of the sheer importance of visual representation. What I found most striking overall in this article was really the power behind a wordless image. It has been used for hundreds of years to give the viewer something to really see and sometimes feel. As the reading discusses, a visual representation can evoke just about every range of emotion as well as a sense of time and history.
People have used imagery through painting or photography to place a time stamp on history and daily life. Many align photography with an element of truth although this was debated upon because it lacks a human’s viewpoint. But still there are different levels of truth and although it may not be a truth for everyone, photography captures the truth of what is in the lens- however that is perceived. There was a powerful section in the reading that discussed connotative and denotative meanings of imagery and how it relates to truth. Denotative meanings provide us with a precise, illustrative meaning of an image and what it is telling us. Connotative depends on what is going on at the time of the photo to give us more meaning, culturally or historically. These both can tell us a lot about the image and are important when deciphering the purpose of the image. The author discussed that we expect different truths based on the nature of the photography, if it is a cultural piece or a newspaper, implying that we hold certain vessels of photography to different standards of truth.
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Another powerful section that deserves to be discussed was the idea of imagery to serve a purpose. We see this in ideologies and sometimes in a controlling way via propaganda. As the author brought up, we are consuming and digesting images how they are presented to us. We do this unknowingly and good photographers understand this. As the example with O.J. Simpson’s mug shot was edited to be darker in order to evoke a dark feeling and put on every cover of Newsweek, this is a clear message. The image is dark and implying evil, therefore he must be guilty. Doing this, and not to mention adding his inmate serial number on the page, was to send a message to the public even before the trial began. Photography is powerful.
Interpretation of an image is a large part of the importance the visual can hold. Expanding on denotation and connotation there are two more terms that help inform the image: signifier and signified. We see an image, sound or word and understand that as the signifier, the meaning it holds is what is signified, and together that creates a sign that we understand. Our interpretation and understandings come from the signs we see all over in our daily life. We create value of imagery from the interpretation and context (geographical, social, political, economic, etc.). These contexts and interpretation are constantly shaping the world we live in today.
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. 2018. Practices of Looking : An Introduction to Visual Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
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This is an image from 1963, where a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist Monk Thich Quang Duc burned himself to death in protest of the Vietnam War. Looking at this image it is clear that the signifier would be the Monk and the signified would be the act of protest. This is clearly in the middle of a public space and he is sitting there, in a meditative position. It is most likely the calm demeanor contrasting the act of being burned alive that tells me this was for a purpose. Not to mention he is a monk in Saigon during the Vietnam war- that gave me context. Around the world people saw the importance and weight this image carried and still carries today.
After researching this image I came across his last words that helped me to further understand this images purpose.
“Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”
“The Burning Monk, 1963.” 2017. Rare Historical Photos. October 17, 2017. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/the-burning-monk-1963/.
I started to think more about Gaze and the imagery that immediately popped into my mind were these pin-up girl posters I bought from a thrift store. I just thought they were super cool and interesting to look at but haven't found a good use for them. I thought about who these women were because on the back of each of them they have a little blurb about the artist and who they were but never the women pictured. I think that's bizarre and started to imagine the roles reversed. If a man was in the kitchen with tights and just an apron on cooking something and then I only talked about myself on the back. Gaze has been for the most part in the males point of view and I just wanted to switch it up because in my visual culture I like to see every norm I think is real questioned.
Studying Visual Culture
Introduction to Social Research
-For the most part I have conducted qualitative research in order to find out how well something went by measuring variables and seeking our patterns or relationships between how it went and existing theories. I connect this to research I conducted during student teaching to explain what was working and what was not working in order to evaluate what I learned.
-I would tend to lean towards the field research since I was observing the students and utilizing ethnography to study their cultures. It was important to keep the factors of each participant or student in my classroom in mind because it could have been a reason as to why something worked or did not work.
-I believe I would have applied the Critical Paradigm because the students being researched had a background that would connect with different schools of thought and so I had to look at them individually and make observations for what was happening and if there was a theory as to why.
-I would use participant/nonparticipant observation along with a visual ethnography style of research. It was important to keep both in mind while I was researching. It was important for me to look at both because I could see whom I called on to answer questions combined with notes about their culture/ background. This was to be sure to be inclusive of all students and make sure there weren’t students falling behind. It was hard to know if some were just more extroverted and some were not, but with the back grounds and culture listed there was more insight as to what was happening and possibly why.
-I have been mulling this over and I think researching between my two concentrations it makes sense to conduct research in the form of arts-based methods. I feel as though I will be able to connect and discuss both art-making/creativity/openness, that we get from nontraditional education, to the structure and limitations that public art education schools have. I believe I could do this with poetic inquiry, painting, and collage. I know it will need some form of written word but with a visual component I feel it will demonstrate it holistically. I am not totally set on it but I am leaning towards this option.
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Seven Principles: For Visual Culture Art Education
-I decided to recall a print I made in my undergrad titled:
Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied.
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Arts Based Research Reading
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I am looking at art practice as research because I could really explore how the artwork would turn out based on the structures or lack of structure I give myself. I really just want to know if my creativity is hindered in any way by giving structure to my work or rules at all or if the lack of structure/ rules makes it feel ambiguous and if I get artist block. I aligned with this form of research because of the theory and what possible discussions this could lead to in terms of education. Is our creativity stifled?
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Strength through art projects. I remember trying to communicate injustice and awareness of ethics/ social justice. As I had shared in my previous post, the Dakota Access Pipeline was something that really bothered me and took over in my art throughout multiple classes. It was just unstoppable and everything I made related to it in one way or another because everyday that's what I was consuming from the local news. I have always felt less skilled in ceramics (although I have improved!!!) and struggled with conceptualizing something with clay that didn't have an element of personification. So I was creating a hand-built piece because I needed a break from that god forsaken throwing wheel. Before I knew it I was building pipes that were sticking out of the vase and I started to think about the social/human rights issues at hand and I felt like America thought it was some sort of game... The way we treat Native/American Indians still to this day is wrong and we're cheating them. I started creating a checkerboard pattern on the vase and between that and the pipes I felt like I had put some of my anger out onto the art. It wasn't a particularly beautiful piece, but it held meaning to me. I made that because I was feeling angry.
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Research Methods:
Quantitative needs surveys, questionnaires, and structured interviews
Using data to determine various patterns or relevant issues that connect artworks via geographically or timeline/ policies
Survey... Why do you want a survey? What are you asking, what kind of survey? Who are you targeting and how many respondents are necessary? Numbers matter because we can generalize the results. If we have smaller respondents we do not have an unbiased result we may only have a small groups opinion.
Qualitative needs field research, investigative and reactive observations. We have an abstract view of research because everyone may have different experiences. May come in the form of in-depth interviews, ethnography/auto-ethnography (scientific research of individuals and cultures... may be in the form of participatory action research or action research.
Ethnography utilizes interviews asking how people feel about a particular artwork etc.
The interview may not be one-on-one can be a series of questions you have prepared or they come up on the spot. Focus group interview can be used for specific groups that are more connected to the artwork, or a large group for those that are generally around the location or near the topic of study.
How do London people feel about Banksy street art?
How to Paris, LA, or Barcelona?
Since we could ask about their feelings and it is one question that is a single case study.
If we ask about more than that by bringing up questions on policy, diversity, or who supports his art this would be a multiple case study. This is because we are using cross country/ cultural comparison
My question is... How/ where can we find reliable groups of people from different cities or countries to ask these questions and ensure we have enough respondents?
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Action-Based Data Collection
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This article titled: Action- Based Data Collection was about researching while observing. The article dealt with this wide topic by providing a comprehensive map listing: Space, Actor, Activity, Object, Act, Event, Time, Goal, and Feeling as the nine dimensions of any social situation. Within these dimensions, the author provides a possible creation of a matrix to understand it. This could look like: Activity x Activity, Activity x Goal, Act x Space, Event x Time, Time x Event, and Objects x Acts. Asking questions like: What are the ways we use space organized by the act etc. This may look like a concert having the need to be put in a large open space to be sure to hold the act of the concert.
The definition of action-based data collection from this author is described as data that focuses on what “research participants do in their day-to-day activities” (Olson, pg. 2). It could also be described as a system of observations and documentations of various situations.
The author provides a formula of sorts where you utilize symbols to give the research clear and efficient data that can pertain to the research. For example if you wanted to study cats and dogs you would have the symbol C for cat and D for dog. If the dog or can went to the bathroom you could use the / symbol and if it sniffed something you could use a ? symbol. As long as you were researching something about how cats and dogs acted within a similar situation that information would be a fast way to tell you what they did during the observation. For the most part you want to have symbols and clear questions that you can record answers to. The author talks about interviewing someone and to be sure to ask non-leading questions. If you are studying their actions, simply asking: What are you doing? Why? These questions are not providing the participant with any sort of answer and the researcher is sure to get an unbiased response. A huge reason why this is an important form of research is because it helps you uncover authentic on-the-spot data.
I think this would be helpful for my inquiry on creativity and if it flourishes more in a structured or unstructured setting. I could inquire to the participants about why they were doing what they were doing and ask them how it was going. Simply gauging their feelings while it is happening so I can get a better idea of how it really is going.
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Mills, A. J., Durepos, G., & Wiebe, E. (2010). Encyclopedia of case study research Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. Doi: 10.4135/9781412957397
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Auto-ethnography
1. Find an important personal story/history/event that you can share with us
Sadly I think something that really stuck out to me from a personal standpoint was my father passing. Obviously this was an important event that happened to become a part of my early adulthood story. Basically it was a head-on collision from a police officer that ran a red light while he was on a mission. This was also on New Years Eve when I was out with friends that I received the call. That night was very difficult for me and I was out of town so I had a lot of questions and confusion surrounding the whole thing. It has affected my life greatly but like most hard things you grow.
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2. What "snapshots" can you find to describe this personal story/history/event? (Please find images to support this story or sketch them)
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3. What "artifacts" can you find to fill out the gaps left by the snapshots in this personal story/history/event? (Please find images to support this story or sketch them)
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4. How would you associate this personal story/history/event with other people or even society/culture?
In a strange way, I think about the “defund the police” movement that is happening. I am a white woman and have never had to face the racism, discrimination, and prejudice that most if not all Black, Indigenous, Person of Color has. But... I have experienced a trauma where someone in my family was killed by a police officer and the next day (and still today) he went back to work like it was nothing. I believe in justice and I think that is part of the frustration behind this movement is a lack of accountability for those that have permanently damaged your life and are there to ‘serve and protect’ us. So although my story does not fall under any sort of BLM movement or anything like that, I do agree with the defunding of police as a relevant change that needs to happen in our society and culture.
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Visual Poem ^
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-Upon reading this it became clear to me off the bat that this image is aligned clearly with power. As Duncan described “power is exercised as a struggled to control and oppose, influence and resist.” This image is split literally in half between controlling and resisting. I wanted it to be this way because of what was happening at the time felt very much about power and control- marginalizing. I made this when the Dakota Access Pipeline was being protested and there were so many people fighting this. As someone from the Dakota’s I felt so consumed by this need to stop this. As Duncan describes, purposefully making an image so that the viewer is forced to be influenced. I didn’t want someone to look at this and not understand what it was saying. They may not agree with it but at least it was not ambiguous.
I think I would be using a visual genre of mixed media and multiple art forms. Since I am leaving the concept pretty open ended I want to have an open option for medium because that is kind of the point of this. If I can choose anything what would I make and if I was given a structured purposeful work what would I make and how had my creativity changed. This means I may use multiple mediums
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Questions
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-Does anyone feel as though they left out an art form and if so what is it?
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-With arts based research is there usually a written or spoken word from it or can it speak for itself?
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-Does it work if we combine a few of these approaches or are they meant to be kept separate?
