Maia Conran (Course Leader of BA Fine Art Photography) and I recently applied and received funding from the EDI fund at UAL to further develop our Positionality Workshops for year 1 into years 2 and 3.
– To develop and support a regular discussion group for students to whom intersectionality and considerations of positionality are key concerns. – To provide focused opportunity to deepen the enquiry and thinking, providing a space within the course where the complexities of positionality can be discussed at an advanced level.
Developing the program further will support students to extend positionality into their practice and critical thinking. In photography, specifically, the examination of how you look at yourself and the other is a key concern of the medium. These workshops therefore speak to the fundamental concern of our practice: how we look at what we see, in a nuanced, considered and compassionate way. We will start by running 4 sessions in year 2.
These seminars below have been developed by Olga Saavedra, Maia Conran and myself.
Seminar 1 – Belonging
‘An object is initially a perceptible presentation in definite ways and with specific tones of feeling; it depends in some but not all respects on the interpretation of the perceiver and their culture’ (Ballard 1976).
In this session we will reflecting on the role of material objects to evoke memories, stories, and reflections of the self. You are asked to bring an object that has value to you. The aim is to encourage begin to explore how objects can help us to connect or disconnect our stories of belonging. Belonging in a broader and critical way (to oneself, to art institutions, to a country, to a family, in general in relation to places, the ectomorphic space etc.)
Main text
Ballard. (1976). The Nature of the Object as Experienced. Research in Phenomenology, 6(1), 105–138. https://doi.org/10.1163/156916476X00069
Second reading
Mozeley, Judge, S. K., Long, D., McGregor, J., Wild, N., & Johnston, J. (2022). Things That Tell: An Object-Centered Methodology for Restorying Women’s Longing and Belonging. Qualitative Inquiry, 107780042211141–. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221114125
Seminar 2 – Owning Positionality – Allyship
“When you decide to speak nearby, rather than speak about, the first thing you need to do is to acknowledge the possible gap between you and those who populate your film… You can only speak nearby, in proximity… which requires that you deliberately suspend meaning… This allows the other person to come in and fill that space as they wish.”‘ Trinh .Artforum
In this session we will be exploring TRINH T. MINH-HA insights about Speaking Nearby and in relation to the work of Candice Breitz artwork: Love Story 2016, a seven-channel video installation.
Reference
“SPEAKING NEARBY:”A CONVERSATION WITH TRINH T. MINH-HA by NANCY N. CHEN
http://www.situatedecologies.net/wp-content/uploads/Trinh-Speaking-Nearby-1983.pdf
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/breitz-love-story-t15721
Seminar 3 – Discussion of an Unknown Object
In this session we will base our discussion on the unknown objects. How we interacted and understood them. How we can develop a sense of place and belonging through creative interactions with the objects. The aim is to develop further our understanding of how objects can help us to connect or disconnect our stories of belonging.
Reference ???
Seminar 4 – The Object Lesson and Positionality in Collaboration
This section will be a reflection based on a discussion of the Object Lesson a picture book by Edward Gorey. It will be based on previous seminars in positionality and in relation to collaborative work. It will aim to explore how the self-is being negotiated when creating collectively. It will focus on shared authorship.
Exercise:
We will use the “Exquisite Corpse collaborative Exercise” with the aim of reflecting on the benefits of collaboration. This will be played through drawing and through text.
Reference.
The Object-Lesson(1958) picture book by Edward Gorey
The Exquisite Corpse Project (2012) by Ben Popik: A comedy about five writers who are challenged to each write fifteen minutes of a movie, after having read only the previous five pages of the script. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3fXT63Zs8M