Click on chunks of text, images, or other objects in order to bring them into view...
Navigate by clicking & dragging...
Pre-class stuff:
http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/aad/support/
Announcements:
* Open Access week (details & link to schedule of events)
* talk 10/26 (1-2:30 in Knight Browsing Room): Future of Graduate Education—the path forward
* Statesman Journal article on SCY: SALEM
* THURS= UCLA in town to play Ducks, and campus museums are offering free admission; other events coming up for Halloween...
* CSWS is hosting a grad student interest group: coffee hour on 10/29, 2-3pm, EMU/Alsea Room
* OFN launch & symposium, Bill Ivey's visit & talk is related to this...
TECH ISSUES with course site or resources:
* related to ePortfolios...are there online resources connected to the ongoing work associated with building ePorts? AAD hub has a page of "support" materials, along with a FAQ; Scott Huette also offers one-on-one support via open office hours or appointments
* Navigating "module" questions & comments (posting of student responses): many students adding comments to the "stream" attached to our "initial questions" post for each module [which is the ideal place for these], but some students are adding comments to the "module readings/materials" page [less ideal, as not everyone looks there for comments, and so discussions become fragmented].
This is certainly an artifact of how we've built the sight...we are looking for feedback on how to continually refine navigation/structure
http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/ofn/
Basic outline of class
The activites...
>>Module questions<<
What are the politics of participation—in curating, collecting, critiquing,etc?
How do power and social practice intersect?
How do power and social practice intesect in transmedia environments?
The Plan:
I. Spend some time with responses
II. Culture if Ordinary: Focus on collecting - students bring objects
III. American Assembly - Arts Sectors
IV. Mapping Eugene - Compare results to Sterns & Seifert
V. Cultural Democracy & Civic Ecology - Thelma Golden video
We didn't get to it in class, but here it is...
- Opened class with a reference to
Raymond Williams reading: "Culture is ordinary..." quote is at the core of what we're looking at today!
- moving between the personal and broader social contexts via the objects we brought...
an activity:
1. a piece of paper is in front of you: imagine that object you brought as being in the center of the piece of paper, and imagine/visualize the art world that surrounds it....
spend 7 min charting this 'art world' out on your paper...
QUESTIONS about collecting:
1. why do you collect what you do?
Student thoughts/answers:
• personal affinity/meaning;
• attraction to uniqueness;
• documentation;
• knowledge of materials;
• tracking of experience (eg. ticket stubs);
• inquiry into mystery/history (eg. second-hand postcards);
• charting change/continuity in the world (eg. National Geographic);
• gathering of materials for re-use/re- purpose/appropriation (eg. in 'art');
• representing cultural affiliation/identity
Doug's thoughts/answers:
•connection to past & memories;
• satisfying a sense of personal asthetics;
• demonstrating individualism & relationship to notions of "norm" in aesthetics/art;
• resonating with a sense of completness/ sense-making in the world; money & profit (to resell!) [complications/questions around USE value vs. ECONOMIC value?];
• collections can "move" us through worlds & experiences; NEUROSIS also associated with collections { best to avoid this topic!}
3. move away from the personal and into a discussion about the "sectors" within which our objects exist = specific connection to the "Arts and the Public Purpose" article and comments about arts sector in America/U.S.
- pluralism of U.S. society & arts: convergences, collisions, and divergences give rise to the 'arts in America'
- 4 public mandates: quality of life; economic growth; inform an educated & aware citizenry; generate collective identity (national, community, regional...)
DISCUSSION: processes of creating 'art' speak to or engage in dialog with larger social processes and/or collective endeavors
2. systems within which objects exist = how do we situate objects/collections within broader networks of meaning, use, value, transmission, experience, etc?
* these systems extend into realms of production, design, distribution, use, identity...
.... geographic, as well as conceptual, locations..
*objects circulate within systems of power, politics, value—sometimes in conjunction with prescribed "use," sometimes outside (or even in contrast to) those notions of "use";
*objects connect dispersed realms of history, geography, social groupings, etc;
*objects connect to environments (living space, domestic, etc), as well as highlight cultural differences (collecting anchored in material 'status' associated with U.S/America, vs. a 'no-stuff' approach associated with other socio-cultural groupings that are more mobile and/or less materially-oriented)
art & economic growth= how to best consider this "mandate" when we look at examples? (geographic, culturally-bound)
where art does not have direct connection to economic growth?
what are the factors at play here: state-level support; perspectives and value systems on 'art' in DIFFERENT contexts; limited understanding of how large an ARTS SECTOR may actually be [which was one of the issues that the American Assembly was responding to in putting together their mandates/document]
LIMITATIONS of these mandates: the 'national' focus, eg. 'arts in America' seems to be limiting and not thinking toward a global perspective...how does this 'limit' complicate the VALUE of this document? it has utilitarian value, but also does set arbitrary and/or UNEXAMINED biases....
What about the 'unincorporated' sector discussed in the American Assembly?
what are some examples of that sector that demonstrate the 4 mandates?
- Carnival (Brazil & Colombia); open mic/jams at Sam Bonds; SXSW and 'counter' events; bee keepers; book groups = assemblies centered on practices/identities that come together around common interests/arts that serve to further some of the 4 mandates...
Helen DeMichiel and the notion of "sub sectors" that move toward a PROJECT-based and ephemeral existence, and away from a for-profit/non-profit model (overly dichotomized and at this point the "norm")
- times we are living in generate an environment of AGILITY that allow for fourth-sector, alternative and collective models of sustainable funding/support for arts: KICKSTARTER as example...
I.
disconnect between cultures/groups & the potential for art/culture to bring people together: arts as bridge/common ground/pluralistic learning environments[PRESERVATION of culture? collections and/or gathering in relation to the MANDATE(s) for the arts in this article; how do we generate a resonance with the PAST that does not ossify heritage or standardize emergent/dynamic identities?]
http://www.kickstarter.com/
Sterns & Stiefert = important arts/culture research project; ongoing; not enough attention paid to their ideas!
- arts/culture activity MOST LIKELY to occur in neighborhoods that are ethnically/culturally diverse
- diverse neighborhoods with HIGH levels of cultural engagement are more likely to be engines for economic development
- their QUESTIONS about location of arts/cultural orgs, neighborhood characteristics that correlate with such orgs, and the ways in which participation emerges in communities related to these factors are KEY!
BREAK!
II.
Thinking about arts/culture orgs in Eugene:
- they are mostly in CENTRAL Eugene; near downtown...nothing in the South hills, nor up in the RiverRoad area
- what are the NEIGHBORHOODS like in which the orgs we've identified exist?
- WHITEAKER is diverse (home to Up Start theatre...and the Lord Leebrick is right at the south edge)
- COST of building/space is a key factor
- in what ways does the DIVERSITY in Eugene (and the relative scale compared to PHiladelphia) impact our discussion on the location of arts/culture sector institutions?
- relationship of Eugene to Springfield: history and the politics of culture come into play when thinking about perceptions, assumptions, biases....
- what about the issues of EXTREME LOCALIZATION present in some urban centers: S.F., N.Y.? Arts/culture practices & resources anchored in place, to the exclusion of the things/places existing in other neighborhoods or sections of a city
—impact or relationship of this to thinking about POLITICS of culture?
III.
* WHAT DO WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT WITH REGARDS TO PROTECTING ARTS PARTICIPATION?
riffing on Bill Ivey's "Cultural Bill of Rights" and thinking about issues/questions/extensions....
- small group exercise:
1. identify barriers to participation connected with the 'article' of the Bill of Rights your group has been assigned [Link to online version of the Bill...]
2. offer solutions or strategies for engaging these barriers....
for more clips from this session, Google:
"bill ivey cultural bill of rights"