Issue
00
Upcoming Events
SUMI INK CLUB
8:00AM-3:00PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY
25, 2017
NORMAN HALL, N10
(ART EDUCATION)
The Sumi Ink Club is an ongoing
participatory-style art project
started in 2005 by Los Angeles-
based artists Sarah Rara and Luke
Fischbeck (the duo is also behind
the experimental music project,
Lucky Dragons). The premise for
the project relies on coordinating
open-to-the-public meetings,
where participants work together
to create collaborative drawings
that follow a certain set of loose
guidelines. These guidelines
include:
(guidelines taken from their
website)
Enim neo velit adsum odio, multo,
in commoveo quibus premotamen
erat huic. Occuro luxor dolore, ut
at praemitto opto si sudo, opes
feugiat iriure validu.
Meetings are free and open to
the public of all ages
Everyone uses the same materials
(same-sized brushes, and same
color ink, for example)
Dont dilute the ink, blackest
black is best
Everyone works on the same
drawing surface
Anyone can add to anyone elses
drawing
Move around the drawing, dont
get stuck in one spot
Everyone agrees when the
drawing is finished
Each physical drawing (the piece
of paper / wall / window, etc.)
remains the shared property of
everyone who contributed to its
making, to do with as they please.
All images of drawings made by
Sumi Ink Club belong to the public
domain, and can be freely used in
any way by anyone to print a
zine, create designs, or to share
online there is no limit to how
you can use the drawings you have
made together (browse the sumi
archives for inspirations).
The Sumi Ink Club has held
meeting all over the world,
including at The Getty Center (Los
Angeles), University of North
Carolina, Rice University,
Headlands Center for the Arts,
Museo Universitario del Chopo
(Mexico City), Gallery One
(Melbourne, Australia), San Diego
Museum of Art, Riverside Art
Museum, Pasadena Museum of
California Art, and The University
of Texas Visual Art Center. More
info about this art project may be
found at http://sumiinkclub.com.
February
2017
This community goes far
beyond our face-to-face
relationship with each
other as human beings. In
education especially, this
community connects us
with the . . . great things
of the world, and with the
grace of great things.. . .
We are in community with
all of these great things,
and great teaching is about
knowing that community,
feeling that community,
sensing that community,
and then drawing your
students into it.
-PARKER PALMER
Partnerships
IN PARTICIPATORY ART
What is Participatory Art?
Participatory art is an art-making approach where
the audience is directly involved in the creative
process behind the piece. A participatory art project,
in theory, would not exist if it were not for the
contributions from the audience. Participatory art
stands in contrast to the conventional Western
interpretation of art, which views art as a good or
service produced by artists, to be then consumed by
a passive audience.
Unlike other styles of art that are commonly
viewed as belonging to their respective art
movements, or ones that are traced topically to
specific periods in time, participatory art is not a
distinct genre--instead, it is a concept and
methodology with scattered origins, involving
decentralized applications that span across
movements and genres. The lack of clarity
surrounding the definition of participatory art has
remained an issue since the terms inception, when,
in 1980, the phrase first appeared in an article
reviewing an art exhibition featuring the works of
three artists anonymously installed throughout a
Santa Barbara neighborhood; in the review, the
author suggests that the shows artists bore an
implicit responsibility to the Santa Barbara
community, and thus, their artwork could be
considered participatory in nature.
While this initial context defines participatory art
based only on a notional relationship between
artist and audience, one of the fundamental
principles of participatory art today relies on its
emphasis on authentically egalitarian measures--
requiring that artists contribute an equal or
lesser amount towards the creation of an
artwork, while maintaining an equal or lesser
amount of control, as compared to the power
wielded and exercised by the participating
audience. This emphasis on shared divisions of
labor, power, and control between artist and
audience makes the participatory art approach
distinct from other art movements associated
with audience participation, i.e., relational
aesthetics, community-based art, interactive, or
socially-engaged art. Beyond simply allowing
audience participation, participatory art offers
the audience the agency of creation.
: What
EDUCATOR
SPOTLIGHT:
SUSIE VEROFF
My first role was to serve as
catalyst. A unique educational
experience was set up by inviting
these students to participate in a
research process. A problem was
identified and agreed on in relation
to difficulties in school and the
relationship of this to individual and
cultural identity. I provided
information as to how to go about
researching the problem as far as
approaches or techniques.
I acted as active, critical
ethnographer throughout the
process, taking detailed notes of
what I observed, how I reacted, and
how I theoretically and
phenomenologically understood the
situation. The students did not keep
regular journals but were asked to
write their reactions and feeling at
regular intervals. I tried to develop
strategies for evaluating what the
actual effects of this process were to
see if my presumptions about the
effect of art making on self-esteem,
cultural identity, and motivation to
change were appropriate constructs
in such a project.
The whole process was an emergent
design and not something anyone
could control or predict. Because
this process was a participatory one,
these were the activities I proposed
as catalysts. It is important to note
that although I took a somewhat
directive role in my function as their
teacher, I was very attentive to
promoting openness, flexibility, and
safety within the learning
environment. I wanted the students
to take an active role in making all
this happen in their own ways
through their own perspectives. I
wished only to provide the basic
structure and my available expertise
as artist, teacher, and change
agent.
-Susie Veroff, Participatory Art Research: Transcending Barriers and Creating Knowledge and Connection with Young Inuit Adults
Teacher Talk
A monthly feature dedicated to sharing the stories of
teachers and researchers that use participatory art in the
A LOOK BACKPARTICIPATORY ART FROM THE
classroom and beyond
(RECENT) PAST
PARTICIPATORY ART RESEARCH: USING
RESEARCH/ACTION AND REFLECTION THROUGH
ART PRODUCTION TO SEEK SOLUTIONS TO
COLLECTIVE EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS
Susie Veroffs study of participatory art research involves the process
of research/action (art production) and reflection while seeking
solutions to collective educational problems expressed by a group of
Inuit students studying in Montreal, Quebec. The findings of her
research, expressed through a critical ethnographical account,
EDUCATOR confirm that art used in this way can be a transformative, facilitating
tool for stimulating relational knowledge and critical consciousness,
SPOTLIGHT: making the research process a shared experience of collaboration
and growth for all involved. The diversity expressed through this
SUSIE VEROFF universal channel, artistic expression, becomes rich and illuminating
and stimulates understanding about both identity and culture.
ON USING Some of Veroffs questions
for students included:
PARTICIPATORY The art objects that came out
of this research were
ART TO ADDRESS reflected upon and analyzed,
What crosses your mind with students using the data
THE UNMET when you experience what collected to help inform their
you or others have created? choices in their next art
EDUCATIONAL project. Because each
How do you feel?
artwork discusses the work
NEEDS OF A
What sort of sense can you made prior to it, the art
GROUP OF INUIT make of it? pieces have the capacity
both to produce reality and
STUDENTS IN How does this relate to your to shape it, through
past experiences, your recording, stabilizing, and
MONTREAL present self, your family, interpreting the students
your community, your lived experiences.
culture?