A brief questionnaire that I will give to the students before the interactions.
1. How does school make you feel about learning?
2. What kinds of behaviours are most rewarded in school? Is this the same kind of behaviour that is valued in the outside world?
3. When do you feel most engaged in learning?
These questions have been taken from the book previously mentioned - Wounded by School - Kirsten Olson.
Thanks.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Structuring student interactions.
A small mind map on some things to keep in mind while
remembering.
Games/ Tools
- school related word > associated emotion > illustrate the emotion using a single colour > when was it that you felt this way?
- series of images > metaphoric > identifiable (pop culture symbols) > relating to classroom life.
Since in most of the schools, it seems like I am going to be assigned upto an hour with the students, I have decided to stick to only 2 tools, more will make the interaction confused and a mess.
I will post the list of words and images later.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Book: Wounded by School
A book Akshataa found in the library with a similar concern area as my project.
Wounded By School identifies seven kinds of common school wounds, and tells the stories of those who have experienced them
http://www.kirstenolson.org/wounded.php
Constructing a Collective Memory in Argentina
Read about the project at www.argentinaindependent.com
An Excerpt:
"Speaking at the conference, Estela de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo spoke passionately about ensuring that history does not repeat itself: “We must not lose our memories, so that those who come after us, even if we are not here, can help them find their siblings and families. We most not lose our memories so that this never happens again. Those who killed our children have not repented, they say that they did the right thing and would do it again.” She also pointed out that Argentine democracy was still young: “We don’t have a well developed democracy. Only 26 years of a stable period which we need to preserve and defend with memory.”
The construction of memory is considered a process in the fight for justice. When the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo discover a missing grandchild they often also discover a person or people responsible for the illegal adoption. The construction of memory has been critical to the justice system in Argentina. Supporting the justice system are the human rights groups who have fought to uncover the truth."Questionnaire for teachers
1. Comment on the general educational system.
2. How does the school handle the system (mediate between the board, students, parents and teachers)? Do you agree with these methods?
3. How could any of it be changed to better the experience for everyone involved?
4. What are the factors that motivate and demotivate the students in performing better?
5. What are the things that you think distract the students from their studies?
6. List out issues that you think most stress the students.
7. How do you see your students dealing with stress and school/ exam/ board related issues?
8. What do you advise your students in regard to coping with these issues?
9. When faced with a ‘situation’ in class (misbehavior, incomplete homework etc) how do you deal with it?
10. Do you think any alternative outlets (on part of the students) help ease these issues? (eg. Extra- curricular interests, sharing stories for venting, discussions, therapy etc.) Why and how?
An Update.
Visited a couple of schools yesterday.
Handed out a questionnaire for teachers to fill out.
A questionnaire to help me structure my interactions with the children better and to gain an insight into issues that the students might face.
Faculty at Delhi Public School, Bangalore (North) were extremely co-operative and interested. Scheduled one session there on Monday with class 11 students.
Met the principal of Vidyashilp School. Open to the idea - sessions will be scheduled by the end of this week.
Handed out a questionnaire for teachers to fill out.
A questionnaire to help me structure my interactions with the children better and to gain an insight into issues that the students might face.
Faculty at Delhi Public School, Bangalore (North) were extremely co-operative and interested. Scheduled one session there on Monday with class 11 students.
Met the principal of Vidyashilp School. Open to the idea - sessions will be scheduled by the end of this week.
Some Clarifications & Conversations.
Focus on the stories that emerge and representing those visually.
Focus on facilitating recollection of memories and creation of the visual form.
Focus not on illustration, or my illustration.
Research segment narrowed to class 11 and 12.
Interactions conducted in groups - more sharing and collective.
Deboo said "may work better to talk to larger groups first, and then follow up with a few students from each."
Roanna said "what about abstract photography to signify the things that stand out from the memories, and some sort of projections of those in the installations?"
Ameeta said "consider students' past experiences as well as their anticipation and approach for future choices. Consider the academic streams they come from and the pressures of that particular stream versus others."
Munmun said "for the interactions, do a mock one with either the aditi kids, or the foundies. It will remove the doubt that you may have right now.
for the installation, the constructed images - photography and illustration can work like a patchwork - superimposed & juxtaposed with each other, like a reconstruction of how you remember."
Focus on facilitating recollection of memories and creation of the visual form.
Focus not on illustration, or my illustration.
Research segment narrowed to class 11 and 12.
Interactions conducted in groups - more sharing and collective.
Deboo said "may work better to talk to larger groups first, and then follow up with a few students from each."
Roanna said "what about abstract photography to signify the things that stand out from the memories, and some sort of projections of those in the installations?"
Ameeta said "consider students' past experiences as well as their anticipation and approach for future choices. Consider the academic streams they come from and the pressures of that particular stream versus others."
Munmun said "for the interactions, do a mock one with either the aditi kids, or the foundies. It will remove the doubt that you may have right now.
for the installation, the constructed images - photography and illustration can work like a patchwork - superimposed & juxtaposed with each other, like a reconstruction of how you remember."
Thursday, July 22, 2010
The Memory Project
"Using the power of art, story and media to help people connect and understand our common humanity."
The Memory Project
This project's video installation is another example of integrating the process and documentation with the final outcome. (what Danika suggested I keep in mind during my first review) Similar to what my project is dealing with, this project uses memory (different aspects) and visual artwork.
The Memory Project
This project's video installation is another example of integrating the process and documentation with the final outcome. (what Danika suggested I keep in mind during my first review) Similar to what my project is dealing with, this project uses memory (different aspects) and visual artwork.
"Art & Memory" - An Educational Project of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum
A similar project I found online.
During the summer of 2009, Holocaust survivors met with youth ambassadors from Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community, a program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, to participate in the weeklong project, "Art & Memory." One of the goals of "Art & Memory" is to take history beyond the walls of the Museum and into the community. Through interviews conducted by youth, survivors share their experiences and then groups composed of survivors and ambassadors work together to commit these memories to canvas. The resulting artwork will be exhibited in schools, churches, and synagogues throughout the Washington Metropolitan area during the 2009 - 2010 school year.
Washington Post article on the same.
(I need to achieve the same level of organization and interaction that this project displays.)
During the summer of 2009, Holocaust survivors met with youth ambassadors from Bringing the Lessons Home: Holocaust Education for the Community, a program of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, to participate in the weeklong project, "Art & Memory." One of the goals of "Art & Memory" is to take history beyond the walls of the Museum and into the community. Through interviews conducted by youth, survivors share their experiences and then groups composed of survivors and ambassadors work together to commit these memories to canvas. The resulting artwork will be exhibited in schools, churches, and synagogues throughout the Washington Metropolitan area during the 2009 - 2010 school year.
Washington Post article on the same.
(I need to achieve the same level of organization and interaction that this project displays.)
Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research in Action by Jennifer Mason.
Excerpts from the chapter: Qualitative Interviewing: Asking, listening and interpreting.
(points mapped out. it made more sense to me this way, though it might look confused & complicated to you)
echoes what my review panel says:
- be sensitive to creating the right atmosphere
- on what basis does this interview and interviewee illuminate the social 'phenomenon' in question?
- asking definite questions makes it easier through specifics of the narration, and possibly easier to interpret.
- anticipate and discover the range of contexts in relation to the interviewee.
- ask what matters to them, what does not.
- use of a situational approach, active engagement between interviewer and interviewee.
Excerpts from the chapter: Qualitative Interviewing: Asking, listening and interpreting.
(points mapped out. it made more sense to me this way, though it might look confused & complicated to you)
echoes what my review panel says:
- be sensitive to creating the right atmosphere
- on what basis does this interview and interviewee illuminate the social 'phenomenon' in question?
- asking definite questions makes it easier through specifics of the narration, and possibly easier to interpret.
- anticipate and discover the range of contexts in relation to the interviewee.
- ask what matters to them, what does not.
- use of a situational approach, active engagement between interviewer and interviewee.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Reading: Hal Foster: The Artist as Ethnographer
Some Key Points:
Assumption that the site of artistic transformation is the site of political transformation. this site is always located elsewhere.
Assumption that the other is always outside and that this alterity is the primary point of subversion of dominant culture.
Assumption that if the artist is not socially or culturally other - then he has limited access to this transformative alterity.
if the artist is perceived as other - then he has automatic access to it.
The danger: ideological patronage.
Marxist: this quasi-anthropological paradigm in art tends to displace the problematic of class and capitalist exploitation with that of race and colonialist expression.
Post-structuralist: It doesn't displace this productivist problematic enough, because it tends to preserve the structure of the political, to retain the notion of a subject of history, to define this position in terms of truth and to locate this truth in terms of alterity.
'Other' the self versus 'selve' the other.
Effect of projecting alterity; overlapping with our own unconscious.
Self-othering can easily pass into self-absorption.
Why this prestige of anthropology in contemporary art?
- anthropology is prized as the science of alterity.
- it takes culture as its object and it is this expanded field of reference that post-modernist art and criticism have long sought to make their own.
- ethnography is considered contextual, what contemporary artists and other practitioners aspire towards today.
- it is interdisciplinary.
- it is the self-critique of anthropology that makes it so attractive.
Over the years, the institution of art, could no longer be described simply in terms of physical space - studio, gallery, museum etc - it was a discursive network of other practices and institutions, other subjectivities and communities.
Art passed into the expanded field of culture that anthropology is thought to survey.
What are the results?
Ethnographic mapping of a given institution or a related community.
But these 'critiques' are often commissioned, and site specific work faces the danger of becoming a museum category, where the institution imports critique for purposes of inoculation.
Values like authenticity, originality, and singularity, banished under critical taboo from post-modernist art, return as properties of the site, neighborhood or community engaged by the artist.
Naturally and unintentionally, focus can wander from 'ethnographic self-fashioning' in which the artist is not decentered so much as the other is fashioned in artistic guise.
Assumption that the site of artistic transformation is the site of political transformation. this site is always located elsewhere.
Assumption that the other is always outside and that this alterity is the primary point of subversion of dominant culture.
Assumption that if the artist is not socially or culturally other - then he has limited access to this transformative alterity.
if the artist is perceived as other - then he has automatic access to it.
The danger: ideological patronage.
Marxist: this quasi-anthropological paradigm in art tends to displace the problematic of class and capitalist exploitation with that of race and colonialist expression.
Post-structuralist: It doesn't displace this productivist problematic enough, because it tends to preserve the structure of the political, to retain the notion of a subject of history, to define this position in terms of truth and to locate this truth in terms of alterity.
'Other' the self versus 'selve' the other.
Effect of projecting alterity; overlapping with our own unconscious.
Self-othering can easily pass into self-absorption.
Why this prestige of anthropology in contemporary art?
- anthropology is prized as the science of alterity.
- it takes culture as its object and it is this expanded field of reference that post-modernist art and criticism have long sought to make their own.
- ethnography is considered contextual, what contemporary artists and other practitioners aspire towards today.
- it is interdisciplinary.
- it is the self-critique of anthropology that makes it so attractive.
Over the years, the institution of art, could no longer be described simply in terms of physical space - studio, gallery, museum etc - it was a discursive network of other practices and institutions, other subjectivities and communities.
Art passed into the expanded field of culture that anthropology is thought to survey.
What are the results?
Ethnographic mapping of a given institution or a related community.
But these 'critiques' are often commissioned, and site specific work faces the danger of becoming a museum category, where the institution imports critique for purposes of inoculation.
Values like authenticity, originality, and singularity, banished under critical taboo from post-modernist art, return as properties of the site, neighborhood or community engaged by the artist.
Naturally and unintentionally, focus can wander from 'ethnographic self-fashioning' in which the artist is not decentered so much as the other is fashioned in artistic guise.
Reading: Dmitri Nikulin: Memory and History
No one ever remembers alone – Ricoeur.
History is a multi layered enterprise. It does not rely on one universal history; instead it embraces a variety of histories. At a micro level – personal memory is private and internal. But as Halbwach says personal history is inscribed into a collective memory. Personal memory feels the need to understand itself within the framework of a more external, in this case, collective memory. Obviously then, collective memory remains broken, relying on oral transmissions and rituals remaining within a group. Historical memory, the macro; picks up these pieces, by drawing this unified picture of the past. This tends to translate into a one-sided, filtered, historian’s view of history. I agree when Nikulin says we must substitute the one unified, yet no one’s history with a whole plurality of fragmented histories. Purists would probably cringe – the thought of having a chaotic, emotional and multi sided view. Isn’t it better having a single integrated one – that doesn’t lend itself to a spectrum of interpretation? Last week’s reading tackled the topic of who decides what is considered as history. This ‘single integrated one’ is only going to be a reflection of what these decision makers believe we need to know. When living in today’s present we are bombarded with a variety of opinions and ‘memories’ by the media and people in authority, and we are left with interpreting it as we like, then why can’t we treat history as being a present, only a few years ago.
Another interesting point was Nikulin’s comparison between memory and imagination. Both are never concerned about the ‘is’. One is about things that have happened, the other is about things that could – that being a distance from the perceived and the thought.
Memory is alive.
Memory, as something in your mind is always prone to change – by forgetting and fabricating. By wanting to believe something, your memory slowly rewrites itself and by wanting to let go of certain details, your memory erases itself. This ensures that memory is never boring and remains novel. Self-interpretation is a constant process of evaluating your memories.
Nikulin also discusses an imageless history versus a nameless one. An image is more open to interpretation than a name. An image needs a narrative – it is external and secondary to the narrative. An image only assists in showing what the name intends to tell. The priority of history is to be told, and not shown.
History is a multi layered enterprise. It does not rely on one universal history; instead it embraces a variety of histories. At a micro level – personal memory is private and internal. But as Halbwach says personal history is inscribed into a collective memory. Personal memory feels the need to understand itself within the framework of a more external, in this case, collective memory. Obviously then, collective memory remains broken, relying on oral transmissions and rituals remaining within a group. Historical memory, the macro; picks up these pieces, by drawing this unified picture of the past. This tends to translate into a one-sided, filtered, historian’s view of history. I agree when Nikulin says we must substitute the one unified, yet no one’s history with a whole plurality of fragmented histories. Purists would probably cringe – the thought of having a chaotic, emotional and multi sided view. Isn’t it better having a single integrated one – that doesn’t lend itself to a spectrum of interpretation? Last week’s reading tackled the topic of who decides what is considered as history. This ‘single integrated one’ is only going to be a reflection of what these decision makers believe we need to know. When living in today’s present we are bombarded with a variety of opinions and ‘memories’ by the media and people in authority, and we are left with interpreting it as we like, then why can’t we treat history as being a present, only a few years ago.
Another interesting point was Nikulin’s comparison between memory and imagination. Both are never concerned about the ‘is’. One is about things that have happened, the other is about things that could – that being a distance from the perceived and the thought.
Memory is alive.
Memory, as something in your mind is always prone to change – by forgetting and fabricating. By wanting to believe something, your memory slowly rewrites itself and by wanting to let go of certain details, your memory erases itself. This ensures that memory is never boring and remains novel. Self-interpretation is a constant process of evaluating your memories.
Nikulin also discusses an imageless history versus a nameless one. An image is more open to interpretation than a name. An image needs a narrative – it is external and secondary to the narrative. An image only assists in showing what the name intends to tell. The priority of history is to be told, and not shown.
Clifford, 1988
"Is not every ethnographer something of a surrealist, a reinventor and reshuffler of realities?"
James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture
James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Video Installation: Candice Breitz
Candice Breitz's installation involving John Lennon fans from all over the world.
An installation that integrates process + documentation + final outcome.
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/395
http://www.candicebreitz.net/
An installation that integrates process + documentation + final outcome.
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/395
http://www.candicebreitz.net/
Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?
Charlotte Salomon (April 16, 1917 - October 10, 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theatre?: A Singspiel ) consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis.
http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1786
http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1786
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