We are running out of time, folks, but I want you to finish reading Irish's book on Suzanne Lacy. There are only 50 pages left to go, which cover Lacy's work on teen violence in her home area of Oakland, CA. This body of work shows a mature artist who has learned from her mistakes and found a way of doing effective, sustainable community-based collaborative performance art. Some hallmarks of her '90s work are: longterm (2+ yrs) research and community organizing efforts prior to presenting any kind of public event; personal investment and permanent residency in the neighborhoods most effected by the artwork; dispersed leadership; and sustained focus on one issue over a period of more than a decade.
The trajectory of her art from the early '70s - present reflects and embodies key developments in public art and U.S.-based feminism in the latter half of the 20th century. For example, in feminism the shift from Second to Third-Wave feminism was basically a philosophical shift in refocus from commonalities between women (the "we are the world" syndrome) to prioritizing difference (race, class, genders, national origin, religion, age, ability, etc.). This is one of the things that makes Lacy's work important. If you have any doubt about this, just look through the back issues of the leading public and performance art journals of the last 3 decades, Public Art Review and High Performance.
And so, even though we're moving into the period when you need to start thinking of your final project for this class, I want you to keep reading and incorporate your knowledge of chapters 6 - the conclusion into your final paper/project/response. There won't be any discussion topics or questions for the last chapters. It's entirely up to you to determine what matters and what doesn't matter to your own research objectives.
As you know, one of the main objectives of this class was to facilitate your own research process. Throughout the semester, I have asked you to relate the different readings to your own interests and objectives as a grad student. If you came into the class not sure of your research agenda, hopefully by now you have formulated an idea. If you came into the class with a research idea but no clear plan of action of how to implement it, by now you should have a clearer sense of direction. In the final project, I will again ask you to apply the readings to your research as it has evolved over the semester.
It is important that you understand - as I think all of you do - that your research project for this class should not be different from your MAE thesis idea or PhD dissertation idea. For this reason, the pages you write for your final project may include sections of papers you are writing or have written for other classes. Obviously, I don't want you to plagiarize yourself. I do want to underscore the importance of developing a consistent idea that pulls in material from all aspect of yur graduate program, because this is how you will put thesis or dissertation together.
I expect your final paper to contain ideas and writings from the blogs. You may quote another member of the class, as long as you cite them appropriately. Make sure to cite all of your sources according to APA style, as outlined in the very helpful APA sites listed in the right column of the blog (I use these sites when I'm feeling too lazy to open my paper APA manual - which is to say most of the time!). Your final paper should be exploratory: a work in progress. I don't expect you to wrap up your ideas in a nice neat conclusion, as might be expected in other classes. The whole point of this class was to get you thinking about what you could do in your graduate program and how you could go about making it happen.
It shouldn't be hard for you to come up with 10 pages of writing on your chosen research topic. Remember - I expect to have read some of it before. What's important to me is how you reassemble your thoughts in the format of a paper, and how you make connections to other ideas you thought of on your own or in the context of other classes. It may sound like I'm asking you to rehash old ideas, but I think you will discover many new things in the process of piecing-together. A quilt, as you know, is more than a bunch of squares sewn together in a certain pattern. Putting the pieces together to form a whole always takes more time than one could ever imagine. Well, the same goes for writing a thesis paper or dissertation.
You will have the last 2 weeks of the semester to work on this project. Please feel free to ask questions of others via the blog or to email me with questions. You can send me an early draft if you're feeling unsure, and I'll give you feedback. Please send me the "final final" in a Word document to my email address: c.erler@ttu.edu Everything is due on May 13th. Please let me know in advance if you foresee a problem getting it finished by then. Some of you, I know, will be taking your Departmental Qualifying Exam at exactly the same time.
Good luck, everyone!!!
Monday, April 30, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between, Chapters 4-5 (pp. 83-127)
I am looking for one or two volunteers to write this week's questions/topics. Since there are two chapters, perhaps someone would take chapter 4 and someone else take chapter 5? Thank you for considering!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between, by Sharon Irish, pp. 37-81 Topics & Questions
If I had to choose an artist who most thoroughly embodies arts-based research methodology and practice, it would have to be Suzanne Lacy. Other artists (John Malpede, Mierle Laderman-Ukeles, Judy Baca and the Beehive Collective come immediately to mind) stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Lacy, don't get me wrong. But they all were influenced by her to some extent, either as a peer or a next-generation artist. I hope this comes through in the pages of Irish's book.
There are certain aspects of Lacy's work that I'd like you to focus on and write about in relation to your own evolving research. Each of the questions/topics for this week's reading address a key focal point. Some points may be more relevant to your particular research project than others, so I want you to respond accordingly. (By all means, use every bit of this class to further your own research in any and all ways possible. In my mind the worst thing you could do is waste your time writing purely academic responses to questions on topics that only marginally interest you!)
Respond to 2 or more questions (below) that are relevant to your research. Since each of you is working on something different, I will leave it to you to find or make the appropriate connections to your work. If none of the questions below are particularly relevant, please find something in the book that resonates for you and write about it.
1. Chapter 2, Embodied Networks, addresses the centrality of the body to Lacy's art practice. In this she is not alone: the body is central to most feminist art, literature, political action and theory. So what is meant by "the body politic" and/or, more importantly, how does Lacy's art make it tangible?
2. Look back at "Exploring Risky Youth Experiences," by Diane Conrad in Method Meets Art (pp. 162-78). Connect Conrad's example of arts-based research to the feminist idea of "self-naming" described on p. 46 of Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between.
3. How did Lacy & Labowitz exploit press, media and public (municipal) space for maximum impact in their 1977 performance, In Mourning and In Rage? (The media-sphere has changed radically since the '70s. Does this have any bearing on your research?)
4. As Lacy's work grows in scale and complexity, it involves more research before the public event. You can see this even in her early work. If you were on the steering committee of one of Lacy's performances, what kinds of research would be on the table? )Hint: community organizing counts as research.) What challenges might you anticipate?
5. How did Lacy's background in pre-med, her interest in dissection, etc., influence her art in the '70s? Relate this to feminism's focus on the body and identity.
I hope you can find something here that relates to your research. If not, remember it's perfectly okay for you to create your own question based on the reading, as long as it helps you along with your research project. If you have questions or need help, please done hesitate to post your question here or send me an email!
Thanks & good luck...
carolyn
There are certain aspects of Lacy's work that I'd like you to focus on and write about in relation to your own evolving research. Each of the questions/topics for this week's reading address a key focal point. Some points may be more relevant to your particular research project than others, so I want you to respond accordingly. (By all means, use every bit of this class to further your own research in any and all ways possible. In my mind the worst thing you could do is waste your time writing purely academic responses to questions on topics that only marginally interest you!)
Respond to 2 or more questions (below) that are relevant to your research. Since each of you is working on something different, I will leave it to you to find or make the appropriate connections to your work. If none of the questions below are particularly relevant, please find something in the book that resonates for you and write about it.
1. Chapter 2, Embodied Networks, addresses the centrality of the body to Lacy's art practice. In this she is not alone: the body is central to most feminist art, literature, political action and theory. So what is meant by "the body politic" and/or, more importantly, how does Lacy's art make it tangible?
2. Look back at "Exploring Risky Youth Experiences," by Diane Conrad in Method Meets Art (pp. 162-78). Connect Conrad's example of arts-based research to the feminist idea of "self-naming" described on p. 46 of Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between.
3. How did Lacy & Labowitz exploit press, media and public (municipal) space for maximum impact in their 1977 performance, In Mourning and In Rage? (The media-sphere has changed radically since the '70s. Does this have any bearing on your research?)
4. As Lacy's work grows in scale and complexity, it involves more research before the public event. You can see this even in her early work. If you were on the steering committee of one of Lacy's performances, what kinds of research would be on the table? )Hint: community organizing counts as research.) What challenges might you anticipate?
5. How did Lacy's background in pre-med, her interest in dissection, etc., influence her art in the '70s? Relate this to feminism's focus on the body and identity.
I hope you can find something here that relates to your research. If not, remember it's perfectly okay for you to create your own question based on the reading, as long as it helps you along with your research project. If you have questions or need help, please done hesitate to post your question here or send me an email!
Thanks & good luck...
carolyn
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between, Sharon Irish, pp. xiii-36
Dear All,
This week's reading will be fairly brief, as will the questions/topics, since we're running slightly behind.
If you have not heard of Suzanne Lacy before, I am proud to introduce her and her work to you. She is widely believed to be the pivotal feminist artist of the latter half of the 20th century. Her work, over 3-4 decades, reflects changes in feminist thought, action and theory. I chose this book for us to read because her work is not only aesthetically important; it is research-based, public and communal. I hope you will regard her as a stellar role model.
First, I'd like you to read the Preface and Acknowledgements. While the acknowledgements typically aren't very interesting, I want you to pay attention to Irish's preface. Notice the "I" language. Speaking in the first person, she explains her own position in relation to Lacy and lays out some of the basic ideas in the text. This continues into the Introduction.
The Introduction is quite theoretical in places. For this reason, I advise you to read as follows: PhD students, read the whole Introduction and make sure you understand all the terms. Each term is like a door opening onto a world of ideas, research, theory and dialogue. It's very important that you make the effort to appreciate the richness of the subject matter. The first chapter of your dissertation will resemble this chapter in terms of its structure.
MAE students, you may skip over paragraphs that befuddle and frustrate you. This, of course, is only if you aren't overwhelmingly keen to know and understand important developments and trends in feminist theory from the 70s - 90s. There was a significant shift. However, much of the chapter is mostly descriptive of Lacy's early works. Please read these sections.
Now for Chapter 1, Visceral Beginnings. Of course, first read it. Then choose one of the following questions to respond to in depth:
1. Why is the body so central to feminist or woman-centered art?
2. How and why does Lacy include non-artists in many of her artworks?
3. How and why did Lacy integrate the popular media into her projects on rape?
I'm sorry to be so brief in this introduction to Lacy's work. However, I think that once you start reading the book, and especially after you get through the Introductory chapter, you will find it very engrossing and will have much to share on this blog.
I will check back soon! For now, I only have internet access in the hotel lobby, which is very busy and distracting.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
carolyn
This week's reading will be fairly brief, as will the questions/topics, since we're running slightly behind.
If you have not heard of Suzanne Lacy before, I am proud to introduce her and her work to you. She is widely believed to be the pivotal feminist artist of the latter half of the 20th century. Her work, over 3-4 decades, reflects changes in feminist thought, action and theory. I chose this book for us to read because her work is not only aesthetically important; it is research-based, public and communal. I hope you will regard her as a stellar role model.
First, I'd like you to read the Preface and Acknowledgements. While the acknowledgements typically aren't very interesting, I want you to pay attention to Irish's preface. Notice the "I" language. Speaking in the first person, she explains her own position in relation to Lacy and lays out some of the basic ideas in the text. This continues into the Introduction.
The Introduction is quite theoretical in places. For this reason, I advise you to read as follows: PhD students, read the whole Introduction and make sure you understand all the terms. Each term is like a door opening onto a world of ideas, research, theory and dialogue. It's very important that you make the effort to appreciate the richness of the subject matter. The first chapter of your dissertation will resemble this chapter in terms of its structure.
MAE students, you may skip over paragraphs that befuddle and frustrate you. This, of course, is only if you aren't overwhelmingly keen to know and understand important developments and trends in feminist theory from the 70s - 90s. There was a significant shift. However, much of the chapter is mostly descriptive of Lacy's early works. Please read these sections.
Now for Chapter 1, Visceral Beginnings. Of course, first read it. Then choose one of the following questions to respond to in depth:
1. Why is the body so central to feminist or woman-centered art?
2. How and why does Lacy include non-artists in many of her artworks?
3. How and why did Lacy integrate the popular media into her projects on rape?
I'm sorry to be so brief in this introduction to Lacy's work. However, I think that once you start reading the book, and especially after you get through the Introductory chapter, you will find it very engrossing and will have much to share on this blog.
I will check back soon! For now, I only have internet access in the hotel lobby, which is very busy and distracting.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
carolyn
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Method Meets Art by Patricia Leavy, ch. 5 (pp. 135-178) Discussion questions & topics
All,
Since we have a holiday weekend coming up, your responses will not be due until next week Wednesday. The topic/questions will therefore be posted a little later than usual: possibly Saturday or Sunday.
You may have noticed from her recent blog postings that Liz has been reading ahead. She is very excited about the Leavy book, and is discovering ways of implementing arts-based feminist research methodology into her MAE research project. For this reason, I asked Liz to write this week's topic.
Liz really deserves praise for accepting the challenge of writing this week's topic. As you know, she teaches full-time at a middle school, and runs an award-winning after school program. She is also an accomplished athlete with a demanding training schedule. I don't know how she does it all, but she stepped up to the plate when I asked her to consider writing this week's blog topic.
Popular performance is dear to my heart. It was the main methodological tool I used in my own doctoral research, and I highly recommend it as an exciting exploratory approach to working with groups. If you find yourself drawn to the topic, please consider following up Leavy's chapter with Augusto Boal's (1979, 1992) Theater of the Oppressed and/or Games for Actors and Non-Actors. From there, you can stretch out in different directions, but it's best to start with Boal.
Look for Liz's post in a couple of days. In the meantime, I imagine most of you have the weekend off - so enjoy! Of course, it's also a Judeo-Christian holiday, so for those of you who observe Easter or Passover, have a great celebration.
L'Chaim!
Since we have a holiday weekend coming up, your responses will not be due until next week Wednesday. The topic/questions will therefore be posted a little later than usual: possibly Saturday or Sunday.
You may have noticed from her recent blog postings that Liz has been reading ahead. She is very excited about the Leavy book, and is discovering ways of implementing arts-based feminist research methodology into her MAE research project. For this reason, I asked Liz to write this week's topic.
Liz really deserves praise for accepting the challenge of writing this week's topic. As you know, she teaches full-time at a middle school, and runs an award-winning after school program. She is also an accomplished athlete with a demanding training schedule. I don't know how she does it all, but she stepped up to the plate when I asked her to consider writing this week's blog topic.
Popular performance is dear to my heart. It was the main methodological tool I used in my own doctoral research, and I highly recommend it as an exciting exploratory approach to working with groups. If you find yourself drawn to the topic, please consider following up Leavy's chapter with Augusto Boal's (1979, 1992) Theater of the Oppressed and/or Games for Actors and Non-Actors. From there, you can stretch out in different directions, but it's best to start with Boal.
Look for Liz's post in a couple of days. In the meantime, I imagine most of you have the weekend off - so enjoy! Of course, it's also a Judeo-Christian holiday, so for those of you who observe Easter or Passover, have a great celebration.
L'Chaim!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Carrie Mae Weems - Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment
Can I have a volunteer to write the discussion questions/topic for this week's reading? I would prefer it be someone who is already familiar with Weems' work. Thank you!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Method Meets Art by Patricia Leavy, ch. 7 (pp. 215-251) Discussion questions & topics
In chapter 7, finally we reach visual arts-based research methods. You were probably wondering how long it would take! Hopefully, previous chapters and texts have shown that visual art is not the only art form we can use in our research. Narrative, poetry and performance (which we haven't discussed yet) can be equally important and integral to the production of creative research. Still, visual art is central to our research mission; it is the art form that brings us together and allows us to understand each other.
Because this chapter is so important, I have given much thought to the blog topic. I know that next week we'll be reading Carrie Mae Weems' Constructed Histories, which addresses critical theoretical issues of identity, representation and subjugated voices/perspectives, and as such constitutes a work of visual "aesthetic intervention," as defined by feminist theorist bell hooks (1995) in her widely read book, Art on My Mind.. (**note my use of APA style**). So what shall this week's topic be?
Here is what I think. I think each one of you quite capable of running with the material presented in this chapter. Therefore I'm going to limit my directives. What I want to know, and what I think you are ready to ask yourselves, is how you will implement one or more of the methodological approaches discussed in the chapter. Leavy divides visual art-based research methodologies into 4 general categories. Here is her description of each (the numbers in parentheses were added by me):
The visual arts-based methods researchers have created offer several options, including (1) using art that exists independent of the research in order to study something that it articulates or questions it poses about social life; (2) having research participants create art in order to express or get at some aspect of their lives that would otherwise remain untapped;(3) creating visual models in order to assist data analysis and interpretation; (4) and creating art as a part of the representation of data. (2009, p. 218).
[Side Bar: the above quote is formatted in APA style. It is a block quote, re: a quote over 40 words long. Block quotes are usually indented 5 spaces from the left margin (which I could not do in this format), do not use quotation marks, and provide date and/or p.# at the end of the quote, after the end punctuation]
The chapter goes on to give examples of the four methodological approaches or strategies. The Weems book (which you might glance at now) is a combination of research strategies #1 and #4. Vicuna's book arguably falls primarily into research strategy #4. The Carolyn Jongewood example on pp. 239-51 might be a combination of #3 and #4. Kim Hershorn's work exploring themes of violence in an artmaking project with kids in an urban school setting (see Leavy, pp. 229-30) is an example of research strategy #2.
As you can see, it is possible and even likely that more than one methodological approach will inform your research. You can set up your project to work in a certain way, but you cannot foresee where it leads. Research usually involves other people whose lives and personalities lead in new directions. It is important to be open, flexible and ready for unexpected opportunities. We can never predict another person's behavior, no matter how well we know them! For this reason, you may start out with the intention of using one methodological approach but end up with two or more overlapping approaches. In the analysis phase of your research you'll find out what happened, when and how it happened. In the writing phase of your research, you'll state what happened, when and how, in narrative form. Visual "data" will inform the research process and final product in different ways. It's up to you and your thesis/dissertation committee to figure out what works best.
Which visual arts-based research methodology/ies best fit/s your research project? If you haven't settled on a particular project, imagine different scenarios based on different methodological approaches.
Be aware that if your research involves people other than yourself, for example if you plan to conduct interviews, photograph people's faces or do a collaborative artwork, you will need to obtain permission from TTU via the Internal Review Board (IRB). The IRB process is more rigorous for research involving minors. I have had students obtain IRB approval to work with school children, so it's not impossible and you shouldn't be intimidated by the process. It does involve paperwork, however. The IRB process is in place to protect research subjects from potential abuse (bad stuff has happened in the past) and (most of all) to protect the university from costly lawsuits.
How will you implement visual arts-based research in your research study? Use chapter 7 to guide your responses. Good luck!
References
hooks, b. (Ed.)(1995). Art on my mind: Visual politics.New York: New Press.
Because this chapter is so important, I have given much thought to the blog topic. I know that next week we'll be reading Carrie Mae Weems' Constructed Histories, which addresses critical theoretical issues of identity, representation and subjugated voices/perspectives, and as such constitutes a work of visual "aesthetic intervention," as defined by feminist theorist bell hooks (1995) in her widely read book, Art on My Mind.. (**note my use of APA style**). So what shall this week's topic be?
Here is what I think. I think each one of you quite capable of running with the material presented in this chapter. Therefore I'm going to limit my directives. What I want to know, and what I think you are ready to ask yourselves, is how you will implement one or more of the methodological approaches discussed in the chapter. Leavy divides visual art-based research methodologies into 4 general categories. Here is her description of each (the numbers in parentheses were added by me):
The visual arts-based methods researchers have created offer several options, including (1) using art that exists independent of the research in order to study something that it articulates or questions it poses about social life; (2) having research participants create art in order to express or get at some aspect of their lives that would otherwise remain untapped;(3) creating visual models in order to assist data analysis and interpretation; (4) and creating art as a part of the representation of data. (2009, p. 218).
[Side Bar: the above quote is formatted in APA style. It is a block quote, re: a quote over 40 words long. Block quotes are usually indented 5 spaces from the left margin (which I could not do in this format), do not use quotation marks, and provide date and/or p.# at the end of the quote, after the end punctuation]
The chapter goes on to give examples of the four methodological approaches or strategies. The Weems book (which you might glance at now) is a combination of research strategies #1 and #4. Vicuna's book arguably falls primarily into research strategy #4. The Carolyn Jongewood example on pp. 239-51 might be a combination of #3 and #4. Kim Hershorn's work exploring themes of violence in an artmaking project with kids in an urban school setting (see Leavy, pp. 229-30) is an example of research strategy #2.
As you can see, it is possible and even likely that more than one methodological approach will inform your research. You can set up your project to work in a certain way, but you cannot foresee where it leads. Research usually involves other people whose lives and personalities lead in new directions. It is important to be open, flexible and ready for unexpected opportunities. We can never predict another person's behavior, no matter how well we know them! For this reason, you may start out with the intention of using one methodological approach but end up with two or more overlapping approaches. In the analysis phase of your research you'll find out what happened, when and how it happened. In the writing phase of your research, you'll state what happened, when and how, in narrative form. Visual "data" will inform the research process and final product in different ways. It's up to you and your thesis/dissertation committee to figure out what works best.
Which visual arts-based research methodology/ies best fit/s your research project? If you haven't settled on a particular project, imagine different scenarios based on different methodological approaches.
Be aware that if your research involves people other than yourself, for example if you plan to conduct interviews, photograph people's faces or do a collaborative artwork, you will need to obtain permission from TTU via the Internal Review Board (IRB). The IRB process is more rigorous for research involving minors. I have had students obtain IRB approval to work with school children, so it's not impossible and you shouldn't be intimidated by the process. It does involve paperwork, however. The IRB process is in place to protect research subjects from potential abuse (bad stuff has happened in the past) and (most of all) to protect the university from costly lawsuits.
How will you implement visual arts-based research in your research study? Use chapter 7 to guide your responses. Good luck!
References
hooks, b. (Ed.)(1995). Art on my mind: Visual politics.New York: New Press.
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