Bodies of Empathy

Trauma is defined as the emotional and or psychological response to a deeply disturbing event. When looking at domestic, familial and generational trauma, however, it is not a singular event but a thread through a lifetime or even generations. When it accumulates and goes beyond one person or body, that trauma can embed itself deeply and go neglected and unaddressed. Despite this, trauma is not invisible, and it is not silent. It festers in the mind and surfaces on the body. In Bodies of Empathy, I discuss my body of work which attempts to come to terms with my own past trauma in the context of womanhood, culture, and family. But what does it mean to “come to terms” with trauma? And how do you begin to grasp and heal something neglected for years? I have broken up my own way of dealing with these questions into three parts: realization, process, and reconciliation. However, these parts are not linear, and they are in constant conversation. The resulting work is a collection of forms made from repetition, contemplation, and time. I view these forms as bodies that are receptive to marks, like how the female body is a vessel that carries and passes the past. Though the following work may be in its final form and presentation, my process of healing and creating empathy is a continuous journey

\u3ci\u3eWhen This You See Remember Me:\u3c/i\u3e Sampler Making as a Material Practice of Identity and Selfhood

I would like to acknowledge the extensive research done by Textile historians, curators and collectors. I owe a huge debt to their research and all the documentation that is available. It is my hope that I can build on this strong body of knowledge and offer some new thoughts to this historic, vibrant and diverse practice. I want to share with you a short survey of the terrain I have been cultivating on the topic of needlework and sampler making. I want to talk about how I use samplers as a pedagogical tool and as an assigned project in my first year surface design class. I want to talk about Samplers within the context of narrative and how I use them as narrative devices in the developmental process towards creating reflective selfhood in my textile arts students. My thinking and conceptualization of Samplers is influenced by narrative theory and I will depart from the simple claim that the stories we tell about ourselves construct our identities. What I want to focus on is the construction of identities through the development of narratives. It is the narration of the self, or self-writing, and the construction of these material narratives that I see as important in the development of my students as emerging textile artists. I have been assigning a Sampler Project in my Surface Design Class since 2000 and I have witnessed the creation of over 100 contemporary Samplers made by my students. What strikes me most about these Samplers is how the students draw upon their own experiences and knowledges to create works that reflect their own needs, values and interests. These needs, values and interests foreground how their subjectiviites are deeply tied to their memories and are embodied within the narrative form of the Sampler. Before I go further I need tell you how I interpret Samplers and the meanings I make from them. I read Samplers as material, textualized objects as well as visual aesthetic objects. As if these material, textual objects were cloth pages, or remaining fragments blown out of larger, albeit incomplete, cultural text. These fragments, often read in isolation, need to be read or viewed within a larger context. Other disciplines such as archeology, social theory, history and museum practices all aid in their visual and textual interpretation, highlighting Sampler’s interdisciplinary, or, transdisciplinary nature

Towards a Revised Approach to Designing From the Outside In: Contextualizing the Preliminary Proposal for the Fourth Addition to Bard College Library

Before creating the new, architects are faced with the existing. An enormous oak tree might be within the bounds of the site you’ve been hired to build a house on. Do you cut it down, or leave it? A tall brick building might be next door. Do you imitate its scale, its materiality, its style, or do you create something that looks entirely different? These kinds of questions, while perhaps always fundamental to architecture, were especially pertinent in mid-to-late-twentieth century debates surrounding “context” as architects like Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown challenged the conventions of “orthodox” Modern architecture. “Frank Lloyd Wright said architects should design from the inside out,” said Venturi in his 1991 acceptance speech for the Pritzker Architecture Prize. “But we now accept within our more complex view of things, as we acknowledge context as an important determinant of design, that we design from the inside out and the outside in.” But what constitutes the “outside?” And what did designing “from the outside in” mean to Robert Venturi? Using their 1990 addition at Bard College Library as a case study, the first part of this thesis investigates what “designing from the outside in” might have meant for Venturi, and, specifically, examines how his ideas about context in architecture intersected with the literal orchestration of movement of bodies through space. Beyond writing in the traditional essay format, I present a series of diagrams, images, and other architectural forms of representation alongside written commentary to communicate various findings of this research, the most striking being the extent to which the existing context — both inside and out — is physically inaccessible. Plans to create a fourth addition to the library have been expressed publicly in Bard’s 2017 Masterplan. The masterplan expresses needs for updates to circulation on campus in general, but does not integrate that into its brief for the “library expansion project”; its only mention of the circulatory needs of the building are expressed in terribly brief terms: “Pedestrian access from existing building. Reconfigured dock.” Yet it is clear that this site is an important node of the largely inaccessible network of paths with too-steep gradients and uneven surfaces. The brief for the project would better be framed in the following way: The fourth addition should consider both that there is pressure from the library to expand “inside-out.” And: That this site is also a nexus of circulation outside and around. In reinterpreting Venturi’s claim that architects “design from the inside out and outside in,” the ensuing conceptual design proposal attempts to address both the needs of the library in its expansion and the needs of its surrounding context, where the surrounding context is understood primarily as a network of inaccessible paths of circulation. Whereas the existing building has restricted movement due to its controlled points of entry and exit — in part by Venturi’s aesthetic intention, and in part by nature of it being a library which attempts to keep books secure — in my scheme for the fourth addition, myriad points of entry and exit blur the line between route and goal; one could go from “A” to “B,” but also from “C” to “E” and “F” back to “A” — all while following a playful network of accessible infrastructure that aims to open up new possibilities for the way human beings with various abilities relate to space

Exploring the landscape of reflection

open4noopenFrison, Daniela; Fedeli, Monica; Tino, Concetta; Minnoni, ErikaFrison, Daniela; Fedeli, Monica; Tino, Concetta; Minnoni, Erik

‘Multi-directional management’: Exploring the challenges of performance in the World Class Programme environment

Driven by the ever-increasing intensity of Olympic competition and the ‘no compromise – no stone unturned’ requirements frequently addressed by HM Government and its main agency, UK Sport, a change in culture across Olympic team landscapes is a common occurrence. With a focus on process, this paper presents reflections from eight current or recently serving UK Olympic sport Performance Directors on their experiences of creating and disseminating their vision for their sport, a vital initial activity of the change initiative. To facilitate a broad overview of this construct, reflections are structured around the vision’s characteristics and foundations, how it is delivered to key stakeholder groups, how it is influenced by these groups, the qualities required to ensure its longevity and its limitations. Emerging from these perceptions, the creation and maintenance of a shared team vision was portrayed as a highly dynamic task requiring the active management of a number of key internal and external stakeholders. Furthermore, the application of ‘dark’ traits and context-specific expertise were considered critical attributes for the activity’s success. Finally, recent calls for research to elucidate the wider culture optimisation process are reinforced

Biblical Reflections on Co-Creating with the Redeemer

The Bible does not explicitly answer questions about co-creating with God and discerning whether to try to have children. In consulting Scripture regarding contemporary concerns, one needs to go beyond historical exegesis. Reading Scripture as God\u27s Word requires seeking what God, the divine author of all of Scripture, is currently saying in the biblical passages under study. The primary foundation for biblical teaching about marriage and family is Genesis, especially concerning God\u27s original intention in creating marriage (Gen 1-2). Humans are created in the image of God as male and female, and marriage is the two becoming one flesh. Most of Scripture treats adjustments that were made after marriage and family were gravely wounded by human rebellion against the Creator\u27s plan (Gen 3). The Book of Ruth demonstrates the broader familial contexts and purposes of marriage beyond the couple. The Song of Songs is a powerful poem celebrating the passion, emotion, and love in courtship and marriage. The prophet Hosea portrays the relation of God to his people as that of the covenant between husband and bride, on which the New Testament Letter to the Ephesians builds, in comparing Christian marriage to the mystery or sacrament of Christ\u27s marriage covenant with his bride, the Church. Sayings of Jesus make obvious that after death there will be no more purpose for marriage and procreation in our immortal resurrected bodies. St. Paul develops the meaning of celibacy from these eschatological sayings of Jesus, and discusses a topic closely related to the topics in this conference: temporary sexual abstinence in marriage (see 1 Cor 7). The more synthetic section on theology of the body and magisterial summaries of biblical teaching is structured by the topics introduced in Vatican II\u27s Gaudium et Spes: how marriage is ordained toward begetting and educating children; warnings against lust toward one\u27s spouse as supporting communion of persons of equal dignity in marriage; openness to life and Jesus\u27 welcoming of children; co-creating and receptivity to God\u27s gift of life in marriage; and discernment about bringing new life into the world. Specific answers will require the cooperation of theologians and others, as is manifested in the schedule of papers in this conference

Innovation dialogue - Being strategic in the face of complexity - Conference report

The Innovation Dialogue on Being Strategic in the Face of Complexity was held in Wageningen on 31 November and 1 December 2009. The event is part of a growing dialogue in the international development sector about the complexities of social, economic and political change. It builds on two previous events hosted the Innovation Dialogue on Navigating Complexity (May 2009) and the Seminar on Institutions, Theories of Change and Capacity Development (December 2008). Over 120 people attended the event coming from a range of Dutch and international development organizations. The event was aimed at bridging practitioner, policy and academic interests. It brought together people working on sustainable business strategies, social entrepreneurship and international development. Leading thinkers and practitioners offered their insights on what it means to "be strategic in complex times". The Dialogue was organized and hosted by the Wageningen UR Centre for Development Innovation working with the Chair Groups of Communication & Innovation Studies, Disaster Studies, Education & Competence Studies and Public Administration & Policy as co; organisers. The theme of the Dialogue aligns closely with Wageningen UR’s interest in linking technological and institutional innovation in ways that enable ‘science for impact’