reStAGEactivist art/disruptive technologies

In this article, I explore, with you, artists’ socio-political disruptions with communication technologies to inspire political action and social change, and how such art can be environmentally and socially useful. How does art function politically? What is activist art? What non-violent forms of dissent or disruptions to harmful practices are possible today with digital technologies, and how do artists manifest political perspectives in their practice

Book Review: African Women & ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment

Review of African Women & ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment, edited by Ineke Buskins & Anne Web

Book Review: Susan L. Smith (1995), The Power of Women: A Topos in Medieval Art and Literature

Book review for The Power of Women: A Topos in Medieval Art and Literature, Susan L. Smith, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1995

Diálogos Transculturais

Transcultural Dialogue builds relationships, which becomes the content for a community to create collaborative art based on the group’s dialogue. As an art education professor in the United States, I began facilitating Transcultural Dialogues in 2007 with students and colleagues at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and at the University of Helsinki. In this chapter, I present theories, concepts, strategies, and examples of Transcultural Dialogue concerning contemporary visual culture, cultural practices in relation to particular places, and a pedagogy designed to erode assumptions, ignorance, and misunderstandings. Pedagogical strategies of Transcultural Dialogue consider positionality, subjectivity, situated knowledge, transformative learning, intra-action, speculative standpoint, and diffractive methodology. The dialogic process elicits micro-cultural views that are specific and unique (i.e., they sustain difference), yet are shared within or part of macro-cultural knowledge. The act of meaning-making from micro-cultural practices can sustain as well as change the macro-cultural beliefs. Transcultural Dialogue is conversational performative cultural critique, collaborative artmaking, and commentary surrounding artworks by those involved in Transcultural Dialogue[1]. I have developed Transcultural Dialogue as a process that exposes systemic and environmental conditions, and approaches creativity as a social process.[1]    This chapter is developed from my 2017 InSEA keynote as published in the InSEA 2017 proceedings and several publications (KABIITO, LIAO, MOTTER & KEIFER-BOYD, 2014; KEIFER-BOYD, 2012, 2016; PAATELA-NIEMINEN & KEIFER-BOYD, 2015) in which I, along with co-facilitators, reflected on our process in order to improve future Transcultural Dialogue projects and to study educational impacts in relationship to pedagogical goals.Diálogo Transcultural constrói relacionamentos, que se transforma em conteúdo para uma comunidade criar arte colaborativa com base no diálogo do grupo. Como professora de arte-educação nos Estados Unidos, comecei a facilitar Diálogos Transculturais em 2007 com alunos e colegas na Makerere Universidade em Kampala, Uganda, e na Universidade de Helsinki. Neste texto apresento teorias, conceitos, estratégias e exemplos de Diálogo Transcultural sobre cultura visual contemporânea, práticas culturais em relação a lugares particulares e uma pedagogia projetada para corroer suposições, ignorância e mal-entendidos. As estratégias pedagógicas do Diálogo Transcultural consideram posicionalidade, subjetividade, conhecimento situado, aprendizagem transformadora, intra-ação, ponto de vista especulativo, e metodologia difrativa. O processo dialógico elicita visões microculturais que são específicas e únicas, mas são compartilhadas dentro ou através do conhecimento macro-cultural. O ato de construção de significado das práticas microculturais pode sustentar bem como mudar as crenças macro-culturais. Diálogo Transcultural é crítica cultural performativa, arte colaborativa e comentário sobre obras de arte por aqueles envolvidos no Diálogo Transcultural. Desenvolvi Diálogo Transcultural como um processo que expõe condições sistêmicas e ambientais, e aborda a criatividade como um processo social

Deep-Seated Culture: Understanding Sitting

Similar to the way that our culture influences how we interpret the world, the way that we sit in a chair and the type of chair that we are in positions what we see and how we are seen. Environmental cues communicate information through which we establish context and define a situation (Rapoport, 1982, p. 56). In this paper I examined the ways in which chairs (defined as that which is underneath us when sitting ) and sitting (defined as the infinite ways that we sustain our bodies in a bent position ranging from squatting, kneeling, reclining, or the lotus position) reflect cultural values and influence what we learn, through disempowering or empowering us.. Based on this examination, I collaborated with poet, Amy Klauke, to develop a multicultural environmental art unit that promotes understanding of the diverse ways that people organize space, time, meaning, and communication. The art unit described in the second half of this paper could serve as a curriculum model in which other objects of material culture (i.e., entrances, eating paraphernalia. etc.) are experientially deconstructed to reveal culturally constructed meanings

Editorial

The group of six articles in this volume explore the theme “invisible in plain sight.” The authors examine the structures that enable or disable cultural visibility. They question: Who creates the visions of the world? Whose views are pre-empted

Editorial

One way to look at the 1995-96 proposed social action through art theme is that issues of relevance continually emerge- that is the action itself. Social action as identified in these articles revolved around the issue of diversity. Some identified differences as an abrupt clash or confrontation, others as a negotiation between worlds. All were concerned that we critically examine the values embedded in images-whether in art history textbooks, everyday images surrounding us via entertainment systems, television, film, or computers; or in fine art

Editor’s Note: Social Action through Art

Continuing the tradition, begun with JSTAE 14, The Gallery features visual research, actions, and art that contribute to social change. Nine artists/activists/art educators, many serving as facilitators of projects involving diverse communities, have contributed images for The Gallery. The images direct our attention to issues of racism, exploitation, intolerance, war, world relations, joblessness, homelessness, a damaged infrastructure, women\u27s health, equal rights, and peace

Pedagogical Encounters with the Indigeneity & Disability Justice Art Exhibition

Curricular encounters with the work of artists invited to be part of an online and ongoing exhibition, Indigeneity & Disability Justice Art, for the 3rd International Conference on Disability Studies, Art, and Education is the focus of this essay. The authors introduce pedagogical art encounters with the art in the exhibition to engage teachers and learners in the complexity of multiple layers of personal experiences of disability situated within systemic colonialist structures that reinforce ableism and hierarchies of power.&nbsp