formsofseeing2017spring-blog
FORMS OF SEEING SPRING 2017
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Photo mockup of The Subconscious Installation. (By Robyn Fettman)
Photo mockup of The Subconscious Installation. (By Robyn Fettman)
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Photo of what the average child will look like in 2050. (The Subconscious, by Robyn Fettman)
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A Secure Future by Maria Colina
The overall goal for my project was to transform professional visions by using familiar food culture imagery to educate a privileged community with the realities of food insecurity in their local community. I also wanted my project to be used as a resource for those in the community facing food insecurity; educating precarious individuals on protein complementary diets, nutritional health can improve many areas in their lives.
Based on my medical anthropology book, food insecurity is defined as “difficulty ensuring that nutritional and safe food is consistently available. It is not unusual for food insecurity and obesity to be found in the same household because of the inability to purchase healthful foods” (McNeil p. 202-203). It is important to clearly define the issue because of preconceived notions. You don’t have to be hungry to be food insecure.
In order to face the issue of food insecurity, I found it important to connect two distinct discourse communities: food culture, primarily restaurants and restaurant go-ers, and those who do not have secure jobs, living conditions, and easy access to healthy food defined as the precariat social class. Food security primarily affects those who lack resources or money for healthy, safe food.
Because I work in the restaurant industry, I am technically included in this discourse community. In retrospect, I also belonged to low economic status in my early years of college. I did not have the money or knowledge to feed myself with healthful foods causing fatigue and lack of motivation. I could not imagine this being the case for entire families. While the restaurant industry in Cincinnati is booming and dozens of publications cover food culture news, 20 percent of individuals in the area face food insecurity and 1 in 3 of Over-the-Rhine residents are obese. Corner stores and food banks who serve the precariat class of individuals prominently market highly processed foods. This creates a vast divide between social classes; those who can afford a $40 steak and those who not have $40 at all. The gentrification of Over-the-Rhine exacerbates the divide.
At my restaurant, we have seasonal postcards that accompany bill tickets when we present them to the table. I took a similar approach to my critical visions project. I created a small 6” x 4” postcard with similar style. On one side, I provided a delicious, homemade fruit pizza. On the other, I provide limited statistics and information about food insecurity, guiding people to my tumblr page that has further information and resources to connect two discourse communities over the commonality of food. I intentionally made one side of the postcard to have “20 percent” in large, bolded letters. At a glance, the postcard looked like a coupon which would grab the viewer’s attention and cause them to keep looking and learning about food insecurity. A bold red color stands out as well. The most effective method of distribution would be to allow the postcard to accompany checks at a restaurant. Because I also designed the postcard to look like a coupon or discount, handing them out in business districts with high traffic flow might offer the same effect.
Ultimately, I hope my postcard and accompanied article about food insecurity will encourage restaurants to take affirmative action with other discourse communities over the commonality and necessity of healthy foods. Together, the community can educate and assist lower class individuals who do not have the resources and knowledge about food that is available to media and businesses.
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The Subconscious
By Robyn Fettman
The Subconscious-
“According to The U.S. Census Bureau by 2010, the percentage of respondents who checked more than one race jumped by 32 percent. National Geographic determined how the ‘average’ American will look by 2050.” (Mxmasha).
Six years later, the University of Washington came out with a study that reported:
“Acceptance of interracial marriage masks deeper feelings of discomfort— even disgust— that some feel about mixed-race couples. Published online in July in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and co-authored by UW postdoctoral researcher Caitlin Hudac, the study found that bias against interracial couples is associated with disgust that in turn leads interracial couples to be dehumanized (Bach).”
The study included a series of three different experiments. (The details of the experiments can be found here: http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/08/17/study-finds-bias-disgust-toward-mixed-race-couples/).
Based on this series of information, it became apparent to me that we are in a progression of disconnect, which begs the question: If our society is moving toward a more racially ambiguous future, then why do we as a society associate interracial couples with subconscious levels of disgust?
I decided to take this disconnect of progression and disgust and place it towards a visual and listening exhibition.
When discussing my installation to prospective participants and those who actually participated, the reactions were overall positive. Because I am and have never been in an interracial relationship, it was important for me to keep my research in mind when communicating my thoughts as well as being open to criticism and suggestions. I also needed to keep in mind that interracial relationships can be of any race, not just black and white, relationships in general do not just involve female and male, but male and male and female and female as well as trans couples.
By the completion of my installation, I found myself thinking more critically of how I and society views relationships, more specifically interracial relationships. I find myself to be more cognizant of my thoughts and the conversation that surrounds this topic.
My installation is set in a gallery/art exhibit setting and begins with a row of photographs, independently framed with a different individual. The viewer will be asked to take a few moments to look at the photos and gather their own thoughts, all while having no context as to why the photos are there, if they are related, etc. They will then be asked to press a button for audio below the photos. The audio contains each couple answering a series of questions related to their relationship. The purpose of this installation is to leave the viewer connecting their initial thoughts and reactions to what is now known.
According to Marketing of Art Museums by Robert C. Blattberg and Cynthia J. Broderick:
“Because art is an “acquired” taste, it has historically appealed to certain segments of the market who have devoted time and effort to appreciating art. Thus, the audience for art museums has been heavily populated by upper-come, educated households (Feldstein).”
Blattberg and Broderick’s studies go hand in hand with the demographic of those who felt subconscious disgust by photos of interracial couples. Understanding this research led to this target audience. Because of these connections the dominant forms of seeing are stigma and ethical looking. The stigma associated with interracial couples has continually been a hot topic historically, especially over the past several decades. Because my dominant form of seeing is ethical looking it was important to research and connect every component of this piece, ultimately leaving the viewer questioning their initial thoughts.
Connecting my process and research to the artistic and critical works of those from class was extremely important. A work I continuously referred back to was the work of Marina Abramović, more specifically her Silent Sitting Exhibition. The amount of respect associated to this piece was incredibly and ultimately led me to my decision of hosing my installation in a gallery/art exhibition. Her piece also evoked a diverse set of reactions with those who interacted with her, another important component and connection with my piece, The Subconscious.
(Words Count: 671)
Link to Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phdl9N5GXBg&feature=youtu.be
Citations:
Bach, Deborah. "Study Finds Bias, Disgust toward Mixed-race Couples." UW Today. University of Washington, 16 Aug. 2016. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
Feldstein, Martin S., Robert C. Blattberg, and Cynthia J. Broderick. The Economics of Art Museums. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1992. Www.nber.org. The National Bureau of Economic Research. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
Mxmasha. "What Americans Will Look Like in 2050 - It's Beautiful." Amazyble. N.p., 31 Jan. 2015. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.
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Final Project Narrative | Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong
Four Lessons (pdf) available for download here.
Four Lessons is a brief guide to interdisciplinary arts teaching that subverts our current federal administration’s unwillingness to support the National Endowment for the Arts.
The government’s aversion to promoting public art not only closes avenues of funding for artists and arts organizations across the country, but furthermore would change the station of public art into something private, exclusive, and limited. While it could be argued that federal funding is damaging to the arts due to state influence and control factors, this project stands on the premise that the availability of federal funding for the arts promotes increased diverse opportunities over time.
Four Lessons subverts the government’s position by using its own outlined education standards to first measure the government’s competency; and secondly plan lessons according to where I find the administration to be lacking in comprehension and/or capability. Specifically, by using the Ohio state standards for visual and musical arts education I can relate the larger issue on a local level. Beyond that, I can implement the lessons in my local community, as well as support arts educators and advocates in a direct manner.
For my project, I implemented the lessons from Four Lessons at MyCincinnati, a community arts center in Price Hill that is based on the El Sistema education structure, offering free music lessons to community children (and adults) in return for the student’s dedication and time investment. This community was important for me to interact with because it exemplifies many of the groups the NEA supports across the United States. In my (very) brief experience as an arts educator for both visual and musical arts, I have found that there are many complex issues that can be addressed through the arts concerning child behavior, world views, and cognitive development.
Within Four Lessons, there are well, four lessons: and each addresses a different facet of the federal administration’s behavior and practice that is problematic for both the National Endowment for the Arts as well as many of the other groups or individuals the administration may be opposed to. For example: the first of these lessons, Language, is aimed at developing students’ understanding and ability to use advanced English vocabulary. Through this lesson, objectives for learning include the ability to speak, express ideas, and explain decisions coherently – all markers of developmental maturity. This is an important topic to comment on, because parts of the American population feel our president and other government officials are lacking these attributes.
After recognizing this larger issue, this project employs the forms good and ethical seeing (as defined by Susan Sontag) to raise awareness in a practical and effective manner. I use the word “effective” in correlation with good ethical seeing, because this indicates the empathetic viewer will be prompted to act on what they see. Action is important for change to occur in the public sphere’s perspective concerning federal and state arts funding.
The issue of advocacy for public art in the United States is a tricky one because outspoken protesting has proved unsuccessful for previous NEA advocates. Past examples of advocate failure have involved well-meaning protestors who spoke and act in bold manners, but ultimately gave the public the impression that the NEA only takes public money to give to the already privileged for luxury purposes.1 Many government officials in power still share this dominant way of seeing, despite extensive evidence that the current NEA majorly supports rural and disparaged communities.2 Since outspoken protesting has not worked in favor of the NEA, some professionals have suggested approaching the issue in more silent tactics that to not incite the public, but rather directly reach the individuals and groups with power and input. Art educators and public officials fall into that category, and for these reasons they are the targeted audience of this project.
As an object of artistic output, Four Lessons relates to the work of Social Practice Artist Pablo Helguera of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Helguera’s practice incorporates teaching and lecture as performance, thus subverting arts education and administration into art forms. His works The Administrative Artist (2003) and The School of Panamerican Unrest (2003-ongoing) have particularly influenced Four Lessons through the concept of transpedagogy; defined by Helguera as an art form that “blends the educational processes and art making in ways that are clearly different to the more conventional functions of formal art education.” 3
Through the process of this project I learned to cross a few boundaries when it comes to artistic output. As a young arts student, the first things learned are basics of technique and art history; and while subversion and risk-taking is encouraged, it can be difficult to validate newer and relatively unestablished art forms, such as Social Practice. However, I have found through this experience that such options are viable to study and implement in my own practice.
-SCK
1 Moss, I.D. “Uncomfortable Thoughts.” Createquity. August 19, 2014. www.createquity.com
2 “Arts Education Fact Sheet.” National Endowment for the Arts. November 2016. www.arts.gov.
3 Helgura, Pablo. “Transpedagogy: Contemporary Art and the Vehicles of Education.” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, May 2009. Public Panel. Read here.
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Stephanie Cuyubamba Kong | Final Narrative Documentation
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The Male Gaze and Public Posters - grocery store
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Drunk on Bad Advice and Good Intentions by Caleigh Richissin
For my final project, my goal was to challenge stigma and address the social discrediting of poor mental health by calling attention to the lack of acknowledgement of mental health illnesses as real diseases. Additionally, I wanted my project to act as a resource for those attending the University of Cincinnati struggling with their mental health may it be staff, student, or visitor.
Often time individuals struggling with their mental health hear phrases such as:
-“You’re not sick you’re just stressed out!”
-“Take a chill pill!”
-“It’s not a disease it’s a decision.”
Unfortunately, phrases like these discredit the seriousness of mental health by downplaying a potentially harmful situation. Because this type of advice is often coming from a friend or loved one who has good intentions, a victim of mental health illness may disregard the severity of their struggles and be more likely to listen to this “bad advice” because they do not hear it as such.
In addressing this issue, I had a few setbacks during my process. While I always knew I wanted to address issues regarding mental health, I found difficulty coming up with visuals that would not further enhance the stigmas surrounding the issues rather than eradicating them. Eventually I decided that rather than putting into art form how mental illness looks, I would represent how it may exist through the use of material culture.
For this assignment I specifically looked at alcoholism, the need for medication, and smoking addiction and translated those manifestations into materials: alcohol bottles, pill bottles, and cigarettes. I then made the decision to relabel these materials with some of the phrases I have listed above. The newly labeled materials would be photographed and displayed. Theoretically, by putting these pieces of advice on materials that most commonly carry negative connotations, the “good advice” is more likely to be perceived as negative. I then had to ask myself a tough question…
So what?
Simply calling out bad advice isn’t effective enough to address the stigma regarding the existence of mental health illness and, even if it was then what good does it do for those who are struggling? This is when I decided to participate in ethical looking in relation to good staring which can be defined as looking productively or looking with the intention of turning bad images into some sort of social action. To do so, I not only outfitted the new labels I created for various materials with phrases, but also with information to various mental health hotlines and wellness centers so that those who may be struggling with their mental health that are affected by my manipulated materials can seek the help they need if they choose to do so.
The last issue I found myself running into during the process of this assignment was where to display the photographs of these materials. A gallery space seemed to make the purpose of my project too obvious and it occurred to me that there are thousands of posters and images plastered all over the university that make it easy for my images to get lost in the crowd. Bulletin boards line classroom walls and the hallways of buildings but are almost always overlooked in passing. I eventually came to the conclusion that in order for these images to be seen for what they are, there needed to be nothing else for viewers to look at, yet located in a space that is informal enough that they don’t seem to be on display the way they would be in a gallery. By putting my images in places such as bathroom stalls where there is simply nothing else to look at and inside of elevators where we as humans constantly avoid contact with one another, the images are practically begging individuals to stare at them long enough to understand they aren’t only pushing an agenda but are actually helpful to those in need.
Over all I feel my project has been successful in regards to visual activism. By creating relabeled materials related to mental health issues I not only invited the public to look and think differently about mental health, I also gave them the opportunity to act on their thoughts in a positive way.
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Photo 3 for "Drunk on Bad Advice and Good Intentions"
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photo 1 for "Drunk on Bad Advice and Good Intentions"
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photo 2 for "Drunk on Bad Advice and Good Intentions"
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A Visual History of the Womanly Script by Shabria Williamston
My purpose in creating my final project, “A Visual History of the Womanly Script[1],” was to subvert the standardized conceptualization of “womanhood” that has persisted throughout Western society via advertisements for at least the past century. Sexual script theory[2], which was developed in the 1970’s, posits that every society on our planet has a set of behaviors and tasks that individuals are expected to “perform” throughout their lifetimes, and that these expectations are rooted in gender identities. Thanks to technological advancements in the early 20th century, visual and print media were able to be rapidly produced and reproduced; and companies seized this opportunity to pointedly market their products to various demographics. Anthropologist Charles Goodwin’s conceptualization of “professional vision[3]” maintains that small teams of “experts” usually come together to create the official standards by which a given topic will be perceived and discussed by other experts on said topic. I utilize my project to argue that the marketing “professionals” of the early 20th century invented a standardized way of visualizing, discussing, and existing within so-called femininity that we continue to employ in the 21st century. I personally believe that this is so because what originated as a vernacular form of seeing (unspoken, yet socially enforced gender roles) was refined into an expert form of seeing (professionally designed ads), and that these new standards buttressed the pre-existing vernacular vision via the firm gendering of material culture.
Inspiration for my project came from seeing what I viewed as sexist ads on streaming websites and modern cable channels. My problem with most of the advertisements was not so much that they themselves catered to the infamous “male gaze,” but that they encouraged women to reinvent themselves as objects that were better suited for the male gaze. According to many of these ads, as is evidence by my project, women are prettiest, smartest, and most accomplished when they are working to benefit someone of the opposite sex. As a staunch feminist, I took serious issue with companies insinuating that purpose of any individual’s existence lies in ensuring the satisfaction of another individual. The website for a subversive artistic collective called “Beauty is Inside[4]” motivated the artistic outlet for my project, as the group has several, online archived projects that strive to subvert various social stigmas.
For the project itself, I created an online, virtual tour of a fictional “archive” that featured side-by-side comparisons of advertisements which promoted similar gender scripts. The tour takes place in the year 4000, and is guided by a nearly androgynous, female robot named “LDY-500.” LDY-500 guides visitors through the tour, speaking about all the images (including the ones from the 2010’s) as if they were ancient artifacts to be interpreted through both her expert knowledge and social biases as a citizen of the future. I did this to highlight the 2 points. First, it draws attention to the fact that the peak of American suburban culture (50’s and 60’s) was not as distant in the past as many people, especially millennials, regard it as being. Beyond that, in the less than 100 years’ time between then and now, not nearly as much progress regarding women’s rights and social freedoms has been made despite countless movements to initiate such progress. LDY-500 refers to all of “ancient America” as “primitive,” much as many today refer to 14th-16th century Europe as “The Dark Ages.�� For those living in the year 4000, both 20th and 21st century ancient America were times of corporation-inspired and socially-enforced regulations on womanhood and femininity. From mops to pens, the visitor is provided numerous examples of mid-20th century company’s attempts to tell American females the best way to perform womanhood, and how successful attempts were hardly altered in order to send the same message to the 21st century daughters and granddaughters of the original housewives. LDY-500 expresses mild disgust at this fact, which ideally would strike-up the same sense of disgust among visitors, especially since they are ones actually still existing in the 21st century. By highlighting issues of the present as extinct issues of the past, I hoped to inspire a sort of hindsight frustration in the viewers of my project, and to inspire a sense of urgency to work to change the situation before 2000 more years have passed.
[1] https://visualhistoryofthewomanlyscript.wordpress.com/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_script_theory
[3] Goodwin, C. (1994). Professional Vision. American Anthropologist: 606-632. doi:10.1007/978-3-531-19381-6_20
[4] http://beautyisinside.com/
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The Male Gaze and Public Posters
Critical Visions Project Narrative
For my critical visions project, I created posters revolving around quotes from politicians or of another area of authority. More specifically, the posters tackle women’s bodies being subjected to the scrutiny of the public domain, which has been perpetuated through men in positions of power. I connected my project to the slogan “the personal is political”, due to these highly personal and private topics, such as abortion or domestic abuse, coming into political discourse. When topics such as these enter into politics, they are thus public property, allowing any individual (including the men I examined in my posters) to voice their opinions on how a woman should be controlled. This can include any field related to body politics, or simply downright sexist or dangerous comments in regards to women. I linked this kind of rhetoric back to a patriarchal society, as well as a male dominant political field. Due to this observation, I decided my dominant form of seeing was the male gaze. Garland-Thomson defines the male gaze as “position of privilege in social relations which entitles men to look at women and positions women as objects of that look” (Garland-Thomson 41). If society as a whole, and men in particular, view women as nothing more than objects, then there is no shame in stating how on feels women’s bodies should be controlled (or any otherwise sexist comments) in a very public manner.
I decided to explore the male gaze after reflecting much upon the sexist comments that had been brought up in the media through the past election. While I initially thought I would focus solely on this arena and Trump’s comments in particular, after critiques I slowly moved away from this. I then focused mostly on body politics, and outrageous comments on the matter made by many powerful men in the media. Some of the quotes I incorporated were more obscure, and some were highly infamous. The quotes were sourced from politicians past and present, aspiring/attempted politicians, and one “media mogul”. I was inspired mostly by the Guerilla Girls and Barbara Kruger in their social activism through posters. I found the public accessibility of facts that the Guerilla Girls promote to be understandable enough for anyone to comprehend, but also enjoyed the more artful abstraction of text in Barbara Kruger’s work. I meshed half of my flagrantly paraphrased posters with statistical facts I had found to reflect the impact that these men have through perpetuating such dangerous rhetoric on women. Half of the posters dealt with attacks on woman’s right to choose, two were centered around violence against women, and one was a simply sexist comment in regards to finances between the genders. Through my somewhat abstracted text, statistics, and portraits of the men that stated the original quotes, I hope to invoke engaged staring in which the viewer contemplates what is being said and the implications the rhetoric has on society and women.
During critique, I was told that hanging these posters around a liberal campus would be “preaching to the choir”, and was challenged to canvas off campus. I asked my close friend with a car on campus if she could help me reach a new audience. When I explained to her my project, and need for canvasing in a more conservative area, she became very excite. She insisted that we take the posters to her hometown in Northern Kentucky, claiming the area was “not liberal at all” and would possibly even invoke controversy. Later that day and “under the cover of nightfall”, we hung the posters around Park Hills, Erlanger, and Edgewood Kentucky. The cites included a grocery store, park, Catholic high school, bus stop, and a public library. Upon reflecting on my posters, I hope to inspire good staring that leads to activism in the audience. This activism can be as simple as not voting to re-elect this politician, or not supporting his career otherwise, especially because these are men that a conservative area would typically support.
Senja Toivonen
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