Author: Smriti Mehra

As an undergraduate student at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, I was in a yearlong lab called Communication for Social Change. We travelled to various parts of India to meet different practitioners working with marginalised communities within villages as well as metropolitan cities. We came to understand that the main objective of communication for social change was to give voice to the voiceless.

The idea of giving voice to the voiceless is rooted in the field of anthropology and ethnography, which emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a way to study and document the diversity of human cultures and societies. One of the earliest and most influential proponents of this idea was the anthropologist Franz Boas, who emphasized the importance of understanding cultures on their own terms and giving voice to marginalized or oppressed groups who had historically been excluded from mainstream academic discourse. Boas and other anthropologists of his time recognized that Western society had often suppressed the voices and perspectives of non-Western cultures and marginalized groups within their own societies. In response, they sought to create a more inclusive and diverse approach to anthropology that prioritized the perspectives and experiences of those who had been historically marginalized.

While the intent of this methodology is well-meaning and still widely practiced and taught in various disciplines, framing it in this way reinforces the hierarchy it seeks to address by situating power in the same framework that it exists.

Trinh T. Minh-ha speaks of allyship which equalises these positions while acknowledging the differences in positionality.

“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.” Minh-ha, Artforum

In “Whose Story Is This?”, Rebecca Solnit explores the relationship between storytelling and power. She argues that the act of telling stories is inherently political, as it shapes our understanding of the world and the power dynamics that operate within it. She argues that those in power have historically been the ones to control the narrative and determine whose stories are told and whose are silenced. This has resulted in the erasure of many voices and experiences, particularly those of women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. Solnit calls for a shift in power dynamics and an expansion of the stories that are told and heard, to include a wider range of perspectives and experiences.

Through her writing, Solnit challenges the notion of a single “true” story and instead emphasizes the importance of multiple perspectives and the value of a diversity of voices. This echoes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk titled “The Danger of a Single Story,” which has since become a seminal work on the importance of diverse and complex storytelling.

Solnit argues that by acknowledging the power dynamics at play in storytelling, we can work towards a more equitable and just society, one in which all voices are heard and all stories are valued. The very significant shift here lies in the power of listening. Everyone has a voice and everyone has stories to tell. Power dictates whose stories are listened to. It is this power of listening that I would like to develop and adopt as practice.

References:

Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). The danger of a single story. TEDGlobal. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Boas, F. (1889). “On Alternating Sounds.” American Anthropologist, 2(4), 47-53.

Solnit, R. (2019). Whose Story Is This?: Old Conflicts, New Chapters. Haymarket Books.

Trinh, T. T. (1991). “Outside in Inside out.” Artforum International, 29(2), 96-119.

My Reflections on Catherine Borshuk’s article, “Managing Student Self-Disclosure in Class Settings: Lessons from Feminist Pedagogy”

Catherine Borshuk is a feminist professor who believes and teaches that the “personal is political.” She argues that while it may be challenging to deal with students’ self-disclosure, balancing the two is possible through the use of feminist pedagogy.

She stresses the importance of developing an approach to managing self-disclosure in the classroom. Her approach relies on “feminist pedagogy, and highlights classroom dynamics and ideas about welcoming the whole student into the classroom.” 

She quotes Shrewsbury, who in a seminal piece of writing, stated that feminist pedagogy is a form of interactive teaching and learning. This approach involves continual self-reflection, active engagement with the subject matter, and a collective effort to overcome prejudices and discriminatory attitudes towards gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and other forms of hatred. Moreover, feminist pedagogy also involves interaction with the community, established institutions, and social movements for progressive change (1987, p.6).

While Borshuk teaches psychology I wonder how this might relate to teaching Fine Art – as an educator using this methodology with limited knowledge of psychology and the skills to deal with addressing trauma.

The challenges she identifies of applying feminist pedagogy to her courses of biography and beliefs are helpful. While students share anecdotal experiences through their art based on traumatic personal experience, getting students to collectively identify their beliefs on the issue could be helpful to frame the personal experience in a broader political and pedagogical inquiry. However, my concern is whether bringing traumatic anecdotal experiences up for discussion bears the risk of re-traumatization when beliefs on the issue differ in the classroom. Or that the issue is discussed in a way that the student could feel quite disconnected as the conversation moves away from their direct experience.  

In briefing students before they embark on projects, would it be better to advise them to think carefully about making work based on personal traumatic experiences? The point is not to get them to avoid the topic in question but to get them to think about how they might address the issue it brings up without directly implicating their own trauma in the work. This might help honouring the personal while maintaining boundaries for themselves and addressing confidentiality when it comes to sharing the work more publicly. Removing themselves directly from their personal experience would inspire them to engage in what Borshuk terms, “cognitive restructuring.”   

It will be helpful to emphasize, as she says, “the ubiquity of such experiences, rather than as pathological, marginal or deviant. And having these experiences validated through readings and classroom learning can be affirming to those who have struggled with issues of mental illness, poverty, or violence (Phillips, 1998).”  Using ‘we’ in taking about these experiences is inclusive and empathetic.

References:

Borshuk, C. (2017). Managing student self-disclosure in class settings: Lessons from feminist pedagogy. Teaching Sociology, Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 17, No. 1, 78-86.

Phillips, B. D. (1988). Teaching about family violence to an at-risk population: Insights from sociological and feminist perspectives. Teaching Sociology, 16, 289-293. 

Shrewsbury, C. M. (1987). What is feminist pedagogy? Women’s Studies Quarterly, 15, 6-14.

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 

Colombian Hypnosis – activity from Theatre of the Oppressed.

Groups of 3 – 1 leader 2 followers – Leader puts hands out – the 2 others bring their faces close to a hand. The Leader is the puppet master. The followers need to move themselves with the hand. Hands and faces are not to touch. Each person gets a chance to lead for 60 seconds.

Discussion questions with faculty: What did it feel like to lead? What did it feel like to follow? How powerful do you feel with students? How powerless do you feel with students?

Discussion questions with students: What did it feel like to lead? What did it feel like to follow? What kind of leaders did you experience? What does that say about power?

Rank Awarness – activity from Process Work Psychology.

Groups of 3-5. Distribute one playing card from a deck to each person. Suites don’t matter. The group is to collectively make a dinner plan. Each person is to negotiate this plan from the rank of their card and influence the decision making from this given rank.

Discussion questions with students: Interpretation of rank is different for each person. What is high? What is low? Implicit Rank affects how you negotiated the Explicit Rank you were operating with. What are you conscious of? What are you unconcious of/blind to? What identity/ranks affect you?

Workshops with students and staff were very productive. What came up repeatedly in role play is how generous higher ranks played out with Kings and Queens and high Aces offering to fly their group to Sardinia or pay for an expensive meal out to their favourite restaurant. Questions to take away and think about more were about the reality of how ranks play out in our lives – When we have more, are we generous? Or is it easier to pretend to be more giving when we don’t have much? How do we experience rank in similar situations with friends/colleagues/peers? Perhaps we disguise our ranks with people who have more. How have we experienced empathy for our ranks in similar situations?

Point of View – inhabiting a different positionality (in development).

I could give them a choice from 3 fairly current newspaper articles.

They start by reading the chosen article and writing down their response to it.

In groups they pick different positionalities to explore the article. I would identify and choose different people presented in the article and they would randomly pick one. They are then asked to develop a response to the situation in question from the role of the person they picked. 

They then share their different Points Of View.

They are then given time to think about whether their initial position on the article has shifted in the process. Do they empathise with the situation any more or less?

The aim of the exercise it to get students to try and inhabit a different point of view – to view a situation by stepping into someone’s else shoes. Can they find empathy in another position? Cognitive restructuring (Borshuk. C, 2017)

Reference: Catherine Borshuk, Managing Student Self-Disclosure in Class Settings: Lessons from Feminist Pedagogy, Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Vol. 17, No. 1, February 2017, pp. 78-86.

‘Interaction with artefacts deepens students’ learning.’ (Schultz 2012, p.185) 
Your task is to prepare and deliver a 20-minute learning activity for your tutor group, based around an object. You can approach this activity imagining your tutor group are your students, or as they are (a group of teachers from different disciplines and with different levels of experience); it’s up to you. 
‘Object-Based Learning’ may be used to develop any of the following (not an exhaustive list): Observational skills
Visual literacy (ability to ‘read’ objects, to find meaning from them)
Design awareness and knowledge
Team working
Critical analytical skills
Drawing skills
Communication
Aesthetic judgement
Understanding of key concepts (e.g. branding, style, ethics)
Research skills and confidence
Inspiration  

Kasia Idzi – Zines Show – Discuss – Share Kasia shared with us some examples from the UAL Library zine collection. We discussed the zine as an object.  personal point of views – difficult subjects – can be offensive – amateur – low-fi – analogue – humour – lightness – urgent (immediate voice) – alternative voices (not mainstream) – punk – relatable – disruptive – reflective – collages – text + image (or one of the two) She also gave us a handout for us to access these ourselves from the UAL Library Resource online. Having done many online Library inductions I found this way more effective in person. Effective – Enriching – Educative

Joanne – Plant Based Interactivity Demonstration of Conductive = Programmable Interactive Installation – touch the plant and the plant says, “stop that”. Conductive materials can be programmed using Arduino – water, metal, plants, conductive inks, yarns and fabrics. Joanne made this so accessible and simple to understand. This was definitely a ‘wow’ object. *Resources – bareconductive.com – Ain’t I a Woman, Bell Hooks

Sarah Masters

Bow Tie Instructions – Learning through Doing

This was a very calm session that felt very nurturing. We all had a go at a complex skill (me helping Sebastian  and Joanne (because you can’t tie a bow-tie with one hand). She spoke about the relevance of the accessory in the film industry. I had never imagined people would be looking in this detail for continuity issues in film. There have been complaints to OFCOM about ties being tied right in one shot and from the left in the next! 

Sarah Leontovitsch  

Writing Alternative Text – Learning through Doing

Sarah started this exercise by giving us a postcard each. In pairs we had to describe the image to our partner for them to guess what it was. We were then asked to read the back of the postcard for contextual information on the image. By not being able to see the image and having to guess what it was from the description put us in the position of knowing what it feels like when you don’t have access to the visual. It made us empathise with this position. How does context change/alter the description. What does it add?  This was a very powerful exercise as without context we see and describe things as we relate to them. We then had to make an attempt at writing alternative text.  Not easy. It takes effort to make something inclusive. Parity in descriptions takes practice and training.

Michelle

Zines – Learning by Showing and Making

She then showed us how we could make a simple template for a zine and either draw/write on the template or use existing material to make a zine. I used a page from a magazine and it was amazing how beautifully you can read parts of the advertisement once folded. This is definitely an exercise to build on in class with my students.

Sebastian May

Speed Making This was one of my favourite microteaches! Sebastian’s object was a cup that he has had for a very long time. It once used to have his name on it but now it’s just white with a gold rim. Chance or Choice We were asked to pick one or more of the following ways to respond to the physical object: dance – storytelling – photograph – film – curation – collage – screen-writing – poetry – decoupage – wild card (your choice) The outcomes were fascinating! Carole made her zine using inspiration from the cup. Asuf made a film which was a self-portrait from filming the inside of the cup, Laura wrote a lovely poem in Estonian and Michelle wrote a curated note for the cup if it were to reside in a museum. 

I used photography to make notes to myself about the cup using other objects as prompts. Drink less coffee – Talk to a friend while drinking tea – Carry your own cup to eliminate disposable cups. What a wonderful way to remember that it’s easy and quick to make work with a simple prompt. There was an exhibition of artworks around one object right in the room that was created in 20 minutes!

Laura Linsi

Thresholds in Spatial Design – Mindfulness – What contributes to how you feel? I examined the threshold between the stairs and the corridor leading to the 14^th floor of the Tower Block at LCC. *Resources – Figures, Doors, Passages – Robin Evans – Niriguchi – crawling entrance to a tea house

Asuf Ishaq

Asuf brought in a candle holder he bought from a souvenir shop at a historic site in Pakistan. We discussed the origin the object (or rather we made calculated guesses about where it might be from, where iit might have been made, what was the significance of it to the site and what it means to him. We all drew the object. My drawing was not good but that was not the point of the exercise so in that spirit I share it here. Drawing made us contemplate the form of the object. I observed that the form had an interesting logic to its form. The object was closed when there was light and would open when there was a need for light – contrary to the movement and response of a flower.