3: Narrative Inquiry

Read more...

2: Arts-based Action Research

What is evident these days is whenever art occurs it nudges aside assumed conventions, upsets past complacencies and opens up new criticalities--Graeme Sullivan

To make one’s mark in the world.
To make seen the unseen.
To bear witness to the past and envision what is beyond.

Around the world, arts-imagination and arts-embodiment are seen in community art programs that provide a space, a place, a canvas for the stories of the oppressed and afflicted.

Walls of Hope is “an international art and human rights project of art, education, conflict resolution, crime prevention, diplomacy building, community development and preservation of historic memory." It grew from the work of Claudia Bernardi in Perquin, El Salvador, but the model has been replicated in Canada, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, Columbia, and other locations. The project acknowledges the trauma, the violence, the sorted histories, and allows participants to “produce a visual testimony that represents their recent history” and, through collaboration, “expands from creativity towards diplomacy, judicial concerns, and the demand for the respect for social and human rights.” These participatory works embody the collective knowledge of the community, making visible the past and disrupting stories of prejudice, hate, and violence.

At the same time, many of the murals go beyond telling to understanding for oneself and problem-solving for the future. Bernardi writes of her experience taking Walls of Hope to the Guatemala in the essay “Art Recuperates Memory as a Demand of Justice.” The team, through open-ended questions, facilitated locals in selecting their story, designing the composition, and executing the work. The participants were keen on a composition that broke the work into five segments, each representing one of the five communities from which they came, until one man brought forth a different way of seeing. Don Luis, from Chajul, spoke up:

Brothers and Sisters, until now I have believed that what happened to us in our community of Chajul was tragic. I also thought that had not happened elsewhere. To my horror I see now, that what happened in Chajul happened also in your lands. We have the same memories. We have lost families, our homes and our children. For this, I propose that we will paint a mural not divided in five parts for our stories are the same.

And with that, the composition was switched to three areas: the left representing the past, the center as the present, and the right envisioning a future.

For these locals, artmaking was a way to understand their past, understand each other, and create a new future story together. They were no longer victims of a story but critical participants empowered to change the ending. Similar to the audience in Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed, the mural creators imagined change through “dialogue and mutual learning” (Keifer-Boyd 11).

MTV EXIT also used a collaborative mural approach in their Roadshow campaign in Mae Sot, Thailand. A blending place of Thai locals and Burmese refugees, MTV EXIT brought together artists from both communities “to create a mural that reflected how they could positively coexist.” The mural juxtaposes Thai and Burmese symbolism with a handshake superimposed over the composition and a line of figures uniting the sides. Other aspects of the campaign include participant-created dramas, radio theatres, local cultural performances, and celebrity musicians, all to bring awareness to trafficking and the exploitation of the vulnerable along the border. Art brought youth from the diverse groups “together to learn creative ways to raise awareness about human trafficking in their community and demonstrate the similarities between their cultures.” Art-making exposed commonalities, critiqued the discourses of discrimination and division, and made visual a larger understanding of the self and other.

I spent about ten days in the Philippines, thinking about these issues.  Wanting to sit and sketch, web, plan it out.  Put on paper what was processing inside.  The pencil in the hand--it helps me process.  My brain would think but only come up with more questions.  I hoped it might suddenly crystallize, spontaneously come together, be it while underwater on a dive or when sleeping in a hut on an isolated beach.  It didn't.

So I came back to a land of electricity and toilets that flush with a button (instead of bucket-flush), grabbed my portable whiteboard, and started marking marks on it.  I'd been thinking about an image of a tree.  What are the roots for my kids?  It is not family.  It is not country.  How can we give them a support system so they can grow a strong trunk and then branch out, confidently, in fullness and freedom?  I used words and word combinations from Wordle explorations using the text from the Blessed Homes website and the tagline of Partners: Relief and Development (Full, Free Lives for the Children of Burma). 

There are many variables still.  Which kids?  Which site?  What time frame?  I'm drawn to the young ones, especially five little girls that live in Noh Bo, the home that will be my base.  At the same time, there's something inside me that says I should work with the teens.  Then I question individual or collaborative.  Perhaps a mixture.

I've been taking my elective classes in TESOL; I made that choice based on my current teaching situation, with over 70% non-native speakers.  But in this transition, I hear it over and over again.  Teach us English.  Teach them English.  You can help by teaching English.  English is viewed as currency, as increased chance of success in future endeavors.  Simply bringing my native language to the border will empower these children for their next steps.

At the same time, I would never be content going through an English grammar textbook.  I want to connect at a deeper level.  I envision combining art and English with explorations of big ideas (dreams, hopes, risk, creation, adaptation, belonging), giving them a space and a place to find their voice.  A blank canvas.  The whiteboard where they can write and rewrite. 

So I've started to write and rewrite on my whiteboard.  Please help clarify the [undefined areas] of the problem statement.

Side note:  I've never understood the semantics arguments over labels.  The blind student.  The deaf child.  The kid with cerebral palsy.  (Dis)abled.  Differently-abled.  Until now.  I don't want my kids to be defined by their status as an orphan.  I don't want them to be defined as an (illegal) refugee.  They are my kids.  They are people.  Children.  I don't want them labeled as victims, shackled to an identity of abandoned, disadvantaged, and without people or place.  Have you seen them laugh?  Have you seen them smile?  They have the same needs, the same desires, and I want them empowered to dream.  Confident to take risks, knowing that we'll catch them.  I want to slowly remove the support from the training wheels, watch them pedal down the street, and then, when they fall and skin their knees, run to help them back up and on the bike again.  Do they really have to be burdened with the label of orphan?  From the very first introduction, a term of pity.  Not a sister, daughter, mother, lover, student, teacher, doctor, or friend.  An orphan.  So I'm open to suggestions here as well.  Is there a better phrasing, terminology, wording for my problem statement?  So far I have "refugee children who have been orphaned due to the ongoing conflict in Burma."  Ideally, they'd be children first, with any other characteristics coming after...


References:
https://elearning.psu.edu/courses/aed815/sites/edu.courses.aed815/files/content/graeme_arts-based_research.pdf
http://wallsofhope.org/about/
http://www.scu.edu/cas/jai/upload/The-brush-is-like-a-Candel-copy.pdf
Keifer-Boyd, K. (2011). Arts-based research as social justice activism: Insight, inquiry, imagination, embodiment, relationality. International Review of Qualitative Research, 5(1), 3-19.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JinMSLWyCOw
http://mtvexit.org/blog/mae-sot-roadshow/

Read more...

1: Critical Action Research

Action Research—the thing all my coworkers did at the end of their masters program through IWU.

I’m a little late to this masters thing. Or really, I’m just doing a different program. I started one semester later. And I didn’t go to Beijing for three weeks each summer for two consecutive summers to knock out 12 credits. So while many of my friends did their action research in Spring 2012, I’m only taking this class now. And my actual action research project, that will be Spring 2015.

My understanding of action research involves problematizing, researching, implementing something, recording results, and analyzing. A reflective process. If I am honest, it seems silly to make it a thing. Shouldn’t all teaching be like this? We look critically to identify needs, we investigate solutions, we make changes, and we reflect on if it helped. Then we start the cycle again. But life gets in the way and the best intentions aren’t always enough and focused attention and set-aside time can work wonders. Plus, it is helpful to expand my ideas about types of data and how to use them. Formalize what might be natural. Approach areas of weakness with strategic, intentional plans.

How about you? What is something that stands out from your past teaching that would have benefited from an action-research approach?

My other questions for you are—who are you? And where are you? Do we have an intro assignment anywhere?

I haven’t been in the MPS classes since Fall 2012 so maybe you were together in some classes in 2013. Or maybe you were in AED 811 or AED 812 with me. This is me. And this is me. Mostly. Except for the part where I say I'm not anxious to leave anytime soon. Because I am! I am so incredibly anxious. Because this is me.

On a related note, this statement scares the pants off of me.

Action research often involves artmaking, which can surface deeply held emotional associations to traumatic experiences. For socially responsible ethical action consider what is necessary to reveal about the focus of the study and to whom.

In this next phase of my life, I will be working with some of the most vulnerable. Orphaned (illegal) refugees. My love is huge but my training is limited. Proceed with caution.

___

The white board. I uploaded this screenshot of my object because it is already plastered around pinterest (though never trending or incredibly popular) and yet I can upload it freely because it is my writing and my shading on my (classroom) whiteboard.

As I visualized, it wasn’t hard. What is harder is to keep my mind here. I was immediately taken back to the jungles in the hill country on the Thai-Burma border. I know the place. I was there four weeks ago. My feet still bear the marks from fire ant bites. We sit on the floor and color with crayons. We sit around the table and make designs with my multicolor pen. And there’s this new space, where the flooded river knocked down a few walls last rainy season. That terrace. I want to transform the space. To make it an outdoor classroom. And I want a whiteboard.

The whiteboard. It is me. Apart from my pasty white skin, separating me from their rich brown tones, I want them to draw all over me. With excitement. And then erase. Draw some more. And with different colors. Stick things up with magnets. Rearrange. Wash, clean, repeat. And as they work, I want them to catch their reflection in the shiny white surface. Get glimpses of themselves as we interact. Over time, I’ll get scratched. Dirty. Not everything will wash off. I might even get dented. But I’ll be well-loved, and it will be about the process, not an end product. The day to day and the participation where they are free to explore, not handicapped by permanency. Where they can dare to dream big and erase as needed.

I love my girls. I know they’ve seen a lot. Am I ready to see it with them? To hold up a mirror, to allow them to peek into their past? This home, this Blessed Home, is a haven. We can run around and smile and giggle as if nothing existed before and nothing exists beyond. Frolic through the field, jump into the river, and pretend that war is not ravaging their homeland on the other side. But to really love them, I must allow them to process, and even give them opportunities, encourage them to reflect. It will come out in their artwork. At least, it usually does. So as the whiteboard catches the sun and shines in their eyes, it can be a little painful. What will it illumine? Am I prepared to go there with them? My heart breaks. They shouldn’t have to know this. But they do. So we will have joy in the art and we’ll embrace tears as they come and we’ll go deeper than we thought only to reveal a new layer later in the journey but we’ll walk through it together.

With a little action research guiding our way, at least next spring.

Read more...

Spectatorship

Low cut pants, if any at all.
High cut shorts, exposing butt cheeks.
Prominent breasts on stick thin, decapitated women.


You’d think I was paging through a men’s magazine or website. No, these soft-core porn images litter the pages of Pinterest, a social media image bookmarking site dominated by women.

The images certainly hail the heterosexual man, but how do they gain such notoriety within the world of Pinterest? These images are part of the visual culture phenomena known as


THINspo.
Thin and inspirational.

According to Glamour online, several social media sites like Pinterest and Tumblr are banning these “scary pro-anorexia images,” but its cousin, FITspo, is still going strong. As a few are fighting against such depictions of women in the media, others are choosing to collect images, sometimes for the image, sometimes for the linked website, on boards such as “Health & Fitness,” “Not Gunna Quit Til I’m Fit,” and “Working on my Fitness.” How do these images affect the women who are repining them each day?

FITspo images vary in attempts to show athletic, healthy women. Like the Reebok ad in Practices of Looking, some “are resistant to the traditional power dynamic of the gaze.” They may show a woman lifting weights, sweaty (with perfect hair), or running along the waterfront. Other images are ridiculously skinny objectified women with unnatural breasts. Were an average woman to lose weight and gain a similar body, the results would not be lingerie model breasts. Yet this “ideal” body calls to women, young and old, begging them to find their value in a sexualized, gendered caricature of themselves. To add insult to injury, we add captions to these objects of the gaze:

Daily ABspiration: Hot Chicks with Hot Abs—This woman on the left is anonymous; she covers one side of her face with the camera and the other with her hair. She is backed against the wall, but willingly? She seems to be turning herself into the object of a gaze by holding up a camera within her domestic domain.

30 Day Challenge—Presumably, the woman on the right is a link to a fitness article with a 30 day exercise challenge. Contrary to some FITspo images, she is wearing athletic clothes, has athletic equipment, and we can see her face. Still, the image relies on her barely clothed torso and emphasizes her breasts.

Proponents of FITspo argue that it is motivation to be active and healthy. In contrast, Cynthia Bulik, Ph. D., director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program, notes that most images are impossible to achieve, and the addition of slogans (such as “my weakness becomes my pain, and my pain my pleasure”) are shaming, “promoting the same obsessive tendencies and impossible appearance ideals” as those associated with eating disorders.

Along with inspirational phrases, before and after pictures are common in FITspo.



Some of the FITspo images are rooted in years of athletics marketing. FitSugar collected 20 of those images for an article entitled “Good Advertising Works: 20 Motivational Ads that get us to the Gym.”



These two images were particularly telling.

Woman as work-out equipment. Who needs a bench when you can do your pushups on a woman?

Or the woman being chased by the man who can’t help but notice the rays of light molding her tush.

In these images--the THINspo, the FITspo, the actual advertisements--women are called to the image and asked if they meet the same standard of beauty as the (objectified) woman in the picture. The model’s only worth is found in her gendered and sexualized physical body. Even in the winter, it is important to have the perfect abs for underneath the oversized sweater that belongs to the male in your life (or those moments when you cover your face and expose your bellybutton and underwear to the world-wide web).



How do you compare?
Are you able to be
as sexual as this woman?



If not, look at her each day,
deny yourself food, and exercise more
until you earn the gaze of (wo)men.
Why? So stores always have your size…

Read more...

Viewers Make Meaning

I was sitting in a restaurant in Mongolia. There were nine of us, out for a late Friday night dinner to celebrate a birthday. As we chatted around the table, I started talking about Gangnam style. Why, you ask? Because that’s all I’ve been talking about since I began analyzing it for class. Another person had read an article about it and started to explain the meaning to our British friend who wasn’t familiar with the song. I thought a subtle hand motion, just a little part of the dance, might trigger his memory. Twenty minutes later, after we a rowdy round of singing happy birthday, a tabled yelled across the restaurant at us:

GANGNAM 
STYLE!

Did they overhear our previous conversation? Did they see my hands dance?
Why were these Mongolians yelling at us, asking us to join in the international dance craze?

Gangnam Style may be just one in a long list of internet viral sensations, but it distinguishes itself in that it does not originate in the states. Hailing from South Korea, Psy’s song, music video, and dance are now popular far outside the borders of the bottom half of the Korean peninsula.


But what does it mean?

          I interviewed three Western women (in China) to learn their interpretations.

Person 1: upper 20’s, single female. From the United States but a teacher at an international school in China for the past four years.

Person 2: upper 20’s, single female. From the United Kingdom. A midwife on holiday, visiting her brother who teaches at an international school in China.

Person 3: young 30’s, single female. From the United States but a teacher at an international school in China for the past three years.

Person 1 and 3 had heard of the song, heard the song, and seen at least part of the video already. For Person 2, this was a new aspect of visual culture; she knew nothing of the song or video. Person 1 knew Gangnan to be the name of a wealthy district in Seoul, and that the video was a parody of the affluence. Person 3 stated much more detail about the video. She mentioned having a discussion at school with her students about the song and that she believes it to be popular in the United States due to the pop sound. She recently read an article about the meaning and the concept of Ramen noodle culture—South Koreans who are not actually wealthy but maintain in the image by drinking a Starbucks in public and surviving on instant noodles at home. She recited facts from the article, such as the average Korean having 5 credit cards and being more in debt that the American people.

After watching the video, participants stated their first impressions. Person 2 answered in one word increments. eccentric, colorful, beat, a bit crazy. Person 3 mentioned that she doesn’t think of Korean visual culture as very sexy, but this video is much more. She feels it is not to the same extent as American visual culture, but she believes the creators worked hard to make it seem American, which is why it is so popular. Person 1 said she could not figure it out. She remarked on the quality of the production, calling it thought out and highlighting the depth.

Next, I asked them to describe the main character, the others in his life, and how he interacts with them. Finally, I asked them to explain the message they understand from the words, then the music, and finally the visual images in the video.

Person 2’s reading could be considered oppositional in her ignorance of the song, video, and dance. She was apathetic about all aspects of the video, though she called him an energetic middle aged man who likes his dancing. She noted that he seems to have lots of friends of all ages who are dressed super cool and funky. The only bits of the words she understood were “something like ‘sexy baby.’” The song was fast paced, busy, and repetitive. She didn’t know what the video meant but answered again in one word blips: horses, swimming, lifts.

Person 1 demonstrated a dominant-hegemonic reading, stating that Psy was trying to be “posh,” but also poking fun at the Gangnam culture. She discussed the disrespectful and satirical use of a variety of people and places. The people around him include lots of female (which he seems to like) and those who are rich and well off. “He’s an idiot around them.” Person 1 noted that she can only understand “hey sexy lady” and “gangnam style,” but when paired with the images from the video, this becomes more powerful. She would be interested in googling a translation of the lyrics. For now, she understands it to be lots of scenes, none of which are serious or respectful.

A negotiated reading is the best way to describe Person 3’s response. While she thinks the main character (Psy) is nothing spectacular and quite average for Koreans, she commented on his contradictory state of being surrounded by beautiful people. To her, it seemed like they were all not important. He has no relationship with the other characters; they exist to dance and “pretend like he’s sexy, if they’re girls.” Despite having read much about the song/video/dance phenomenon and discussing it with students, she said that she doesn’t know if the video has a message. The song is peppy, a lot of fun, and makes her want to dance, but the video is ridiculous. She doesn’t think she would understand a point if she hadn’t read articles, and even now, she doesn’t know if there is a point. While in the initial stage of the interview, she explained the intended message of the makers, after rewatching it, she didn’t believe that to be the message being communicated.

Like Person 3, I do not believe non-Korean speakers would arrive at the Korean dominant-hegemonic understanding if they merely watched the video. The visual needs to be paired with language and cultural background of South Korea. The popularity of the video, though, has led to many parodies, blog posts, and articles in English. The intended message is spreading around the United States via these channels. A dominant-hegemonic reading, critique of the wealthy elite, is clearly modeled in the parody Mitt Romney Style. While American people might not understand the original, they can understand


          “Hey wealthy ladies!”

And lest we think one candidate is favored,
there is also Obama style…

Read more...

Visual Texts

Ethnicity. Nationality. Race.

  

What am I?

Yesterday, a teacher at an international school in Beijing updated her Facebook status.
“It's international day and children are crying because they don't know what they are. I feel their pain!”

For some, the answer is not so clear.

Last night, I was talking with teenage girls. Two Korean-Americans, a Chinese, a Korean, an Indian, and an American whose dad is Chinese-American and mom is white. Their American friend is moving back to the states after being here for a year. In discussing this upcoming adjustment, we began debating the friend’s identity. One Korean-American insisted the girl was German and Irish. I contended the girl was 100% American. She did not live in those countries. Her parents were not born in those countries. While she can trace her roots back to those European nations, she is American. A European mix-breed.

In light of those discussions, I was shocked to randomly stumble upon Lolo Jones’s twitter and read her tweet asking if someone has ever dated a ½ white girl. A few more clicks, some articles and pictures. The girl I had thought was Caucasian with dirty blonde hair turns out to be of French, African-American, Native American and Norwegian descent.

(At this point in time, I would like to clarify. The track and field events were on the tail end of my time in the states. I was too busy packing, missing planes, and beating jetlag to be aware of any media coverage of her events or media coverage of her media coverage. So I got caught up on all of it today.)

How is this 30 year old woman portrayed?

Issues of ethnicity, race, sexuality, and gender abound, with a touch of religion thrown into the mix.

To begin, I performed a Google Image Search (Safe Search-moderate) of her name. Ever wanting to help, Google suggests you might want to add the terms ESPN, Olympics, hot, hurdling, or LSU to your search. Four of those terms relate to her career path and skill. One is entirely based on her physical attractiveness. (ESPN could also be in reference to her physical beauty, since she posed naked for ESPN in 2009.)

The first 34 images were diverse, ranging from a shot of the 4th place finish to black lingerie, and even included an image of Dawn Harper, Jones’s teammate who beat her and earned the silver medal in London. Looking at only the 20 posed photos, not the candid shots (before/during/after a race or during an interview/press conference), I analyzed the images using the following categories.

Google Image Search—Top 20 Posed Images of Lolo Jones

8-Normal Clothes           6-Athletic           2-Weak

3-Athletic Clothes           4-Powerful           6-Sexual

5-Fancy Clothes           2-Dominant           6-Passive

4-Minimal Clothes—lingerie, flag bikini, or no clothes visible due to cropping

From my personal perception, she seemed equally as likely to be shown as athletic as sexual and/or passive. In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne observes that dominant and powerful images of athletic women are often counterbalanced by the media with sexualized images, as if to make their power less threatening. Lolo Jones is another female example of this phenomenon, but with some interesting complexities due to race/ethnicity and sexuality.

In regards to race, Lolo is part of a long history of multiracial children who do not neatly fit into binary categories of white and black. While I assumed she was Caucasian based on photos from races, her image fluctuates between the races. Lolo’s light skin, light hair, and bone structure group her with many African-American and Asian-American models who are more successful due to their similarities to white ideals. In her case, this is even more pronounced due to her genetics. Her medal-earning teammates, with more traditional African features, did not receive as much publicity. There are a myriad of factors to this media frenzy around Lolo, such as her agent and her own marketing campaign, but one cannot deny that Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells have darker skin, less Caucasian features, and Olympic medals.

Apart from Lolo’s natural beauty, her sexuality became more prominent in the public eye when she admitted to being a virgin at the age of 30 and cited religious beliefs for saving herself for marriage. This emphasis on her sexual identity, the media’s love of her beauty, and her inability to earn a medal at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics led some to insult her, referring to her as another Anna Kournikova. As one sports commentator said, “If you want to dismiss a female athlete, you use the word Kournikova; that’s how you marginalize her.” The term insinuates that she is famous for her looks despite mediocre skills, which is not accurate given Lolo’s first place finishes in many world events. Additionally, Anna Kournikova was an excellent doubles player and ranked 8th in the world. 8th of 6 billion is impressive; she was not just looks.

But in this world, whether you are too pretty or not pretty enough, it is held against you.

To further analyze the image of Lolo Jones in the media, I found 20 images from magazine photo shoots, advertisements, and publicity shots from Lolo’s own website. I used the same criteria for analysis as with the Google Images, but added what race I perceived Lolo in the image, what setting she was in, and if she was dismembered or her body equated to an object she was advertising.

20 Images of Lolo Jones from magazines, advertisements, and publicity shots

3-Normal                     8-Powerful                     6-Weak                     6-White                     8-Outdoor

            8-Athletic                   10-Athletic                     8-Sexual                9-Multiracial            3-Domestic Interior

  3-Fancy                     6-Dominant                  9-Passive         5-African American           7-Unknown

5-Costume                                                                                                                                        1-Gym    

1-Nude                                     2-body equated to an object (never dismembered)                           

Both of the pictures above show Lolo advertising for Red Bull, but the image on the left shows her as powerful, athletic, and dominant. She is confident and assertive, facing the outdoor world bravely. In the image at the right, she is reclining in a domestic space, even partially covered by sheer curtains. Her body is passive and she smiles with slight seduction, as if you are a male approaching her romantically. In the image at the left, it is as if she has consumed the Red Bull. On the right, the male viewer is the only one who could possibly have Red Bull in his system; her submissive body speaks nothing of energy drinks.

In a similar manner, the two images below show Lolo as weak, passive, and sexual in a domestic space. The nude photo for ESPN attracted more attention three years later in light of her comments about virginity. She glances over her shoulder, vulnerable, almost bashful, as the presumed male approaches her. On the right, she is frail, slumped in an armchair, her nakedness only covered by a towel. In both cases, she is aware of the gazing male, but her eyes communicate a passive submission to his dominance.

Lolo’s sexual image becomes more objectified in the Vargas-inspired ads for Spikes. In all three images, she is shown in vintage dresses, posed seductively, and desiring attention from male viewers. The pastel colors continue the weak, passive, feminine aesthetic. One photo uses her body to frame the shoes, one photo shows her wearing the shoes, and in one photo, the shoes are absent entirely. These images bear little resemblance to the powerful athlete that trains with these products. Instead, she is a typical white pin-up girl.

The cover of TIME magazine uses unmuted primary colors to render a very different story. Along with Gabby Douglas and Ryan Lochte, Lolo is shown in action, muscles tense, limbs and hands strong. She is focused on her task, not a demure woman in need of male attention. She strides confidently into her challenge; 100 meters of hurdles and the world that watches.

Despite the contradictory messages in the images of Lolo Jones, her story is stereotypical of the female athlete. At times she is strong; other times she is desperate for a man’s attention and protection. She seems to jump between the two roles seamlessly, even within the same advertising campaign.

Her racial story is less clear. A multiracial heritage makes her a chameleon, able to play up either end of the spectrum with lighting, hair, clothing, and Photoshop. Additionally, the ambiguity might give her a broader appeal among viewers who perceive her identity in light of their own. Though my recognition of her as white, multiracial, or African-American changed in the various photos, only the Vargas-inspired ads seemed to identify with a specific racial story, and that of classifying her as a white sexual object.

Is it important that the audience be able to place Lolo’s race into a distinct category? While my mistaken assumption of her race being identical to mine was surprising, the popularity of Lolo in the media implies that it is less alarming than indecipherable gender. When it comes to gender, Lolo is clear in that regard.

She is a sexualized female.

(Am I crazy to see images like this of Lolo and think we have the same color skin, the same color hair? Sure, she tans better, like my sister, but she fits within the range of like-me. My perceptions were further confirmed when I saw blogs calling Rashida Jones her celebrity doppelganger. I know Rashida. Jim’s girlfriend on The Office. Lolo’s doppelganger is white—I’m not that crazy. Wait, what? Rashida’s dad is African-American? She’s been vocal about her biracial identity since Tupac was still alive? Wow.)

Read more...

6: Future Vision

I held a baby last night. She was just over a week old. Teeny tiny. She just slept in my arms.

     Serena Louise, the peaceful warrior.

In the fall of 2020, she will be a third grader.

What will her world look like?

Her big sister, not yet two, is more competent on an iPad than me.

     How will I teach these young ladies?
     What will I teach these young ladies?
     Will I teach these young ladies, or will I act as one of
          many facilitators in their learning experience?



The video by Corning reminds me of a similar future vision by Microsoft.
Perhaps they could have teamed together to create one video of Microsoft's platforms on Corning's glass surfaces.
     And for the cynic, a parody.

I am shocked by the idea of surgeries occurring across continental lines. My local hospital in Qingdao uses x-ray equipment that is outdated by 40 years. The idea of a wired, or should I say, wireless hospital in Hangzhou is unfathomable. The connectivity, accessibility to information, cross-national political dynamics make it hard to envision such a world. I cannot simply watch Corning or Microsoft's vision broadcast on YouTube from within the People's Republic of China, yet alone live their reality. Will such a future dissolve political strongholds that censor information distribution?

But for a moment, like watching a movie, I will suspend disbelief and imagine a glass tablet transforming my school life in Asia. Not just Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong, but here, locally, in this city of 3 to 8 million (actual urban population of 3 million but the greater sub-provincial city area is 8 million).

My students are synners. Original Synners. They are not bombarded by information; it is all they know. It is all they've ever known. And they are learning to synthesize. "Just-in-time learners, confident that when they need to know something, they'll know where to find it." (Anderson 4)

My school is partnered with a school in Australia. Despite all the interconnectivity and global flattening, we haven't figured out a way to dissolve time zones. We can fake daylight, and while businesses frequently disrespect nature's daily rhythm, schools continue to function in a traditional 8-3 time frame. We have other projects with schools across continents, but our sister school in Australia allows for real-time collaboration. Serena's class of third graders are currently working with a partner from the class in Perth to design an apartment that could be built in either country and meets the needs of both students' families. They have researched the demands of both locations, including environmental challenges facing each community. This project is one aspect in their unit of study surrounding immigration, emigration, and habitats. The designs will be (3D) printed and donated to the early childhood center for creative play. A contemporary doll house.

My classroom can no longer be called a classroom. There is a learning lab with specific tools and tables allocated for visual art, but most of the time, I traverse the elementary hub to the students' stomping ground. Everything we need is on the cloud or on my art cart of physical supplies. Nearly every surface is interactive. Despite the touch-capabilities and the digits on one's hand, we have tools to supplement learning. The stylus. The brush. There is something in the physicality that continues to appeal to some, young and old. It also helps transition students to experimentation with real media when they've used physical tools in their digital learning experience.

My schedule looks different each week. The grade-level advisers schedule their grade for at least one hour with me per week, but the day and time changes. As instructional teams, we've developed units that holistically combine previously separate disciplines into one thematic learning experience. Art is not subservient. I still focus on developing visual communication as creators and critical receivers, along with problem solving, fine motors, and links to art from across time and throughout cultures, but I don't work in isolation. Skills are developed as students express content learned from areas--areas traditionally seen as separate from art class. It is all part of their learning story.

My fifth graders, the class that includes Serena's big sister, are learning about government structures. As they track the struggle for power and control in different governments, the students are asked to release control in an art activity. They use a random selection application to generate stipulations for a collaborative piece of art. The work is then disseminated to the school via the intranet. Each work is accompanied with an explanation and challenge to alter the code and add one's own programming tag. After 10 students have tagged the work, they are to push it onto the art class electronic display board in the lobby of the elementary hub. Private. Public. Who has the power? It may be an exploration of chance, but it questions the power structures that control people. (Envisioning 1)

My goal is not to create art, to teach the creation of art, or to advocate for art; it is to see students develop into global citizens. This includes integrated training in art because art is integrated in global life.

Better Life & City with Art.



Assignment: Write a speculative fiction as a critical vision of art education in an imagined future teaching context. Revise/rewrite/revision future teaching in re-considering the essay at the beginning of the semester in light of the readings, explorations, and my feedback throughout the semester. There is no required length to the essay.

References:
Anderson, S. and A. Balsamo. (2008). A Pedagogy for Original Synners. Digital Youth, Innovation, and the Unexpected. 2008. 241-259.
Keifer-Boyd, K. (2012). Envisioning a Future Techno-Infused Eco-Pedagogy. NAEA White Paper.
Keifer-Boyd, K., & Smith-Shank, D. (2006). Speculative fiction’s contribution to contemporary understanding: The handmaid art tale. Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education, 47(2), 139-154.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkHpNnXLB0&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5X2PxtvMsU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qingdao

Read more...