Text and Making
The Text and Making session builds on the 'Table Method' that PIRG is developing as a methodology. Similar to the Table Method, a text is shared followed by discussion and making. Questions around the interpretation of text and embodied knowledge making underpins the activity.
30 October 2020
Session lead by Yonat Nitzan Green.
Text used: Marsha Meskimmon (2019) 'Art Matters: Feminist Material Corporeal Aesthetics' in A Companion to Feminist Art, Robinson, H. and Buszek, M.E. (eds), Wiley & Sons, pp. 353 - 367. and Yonat's preparatory notes
12.30 - 12.40 saying hello
12.40 - 13.10 writing
13.10 - 13.40 conversation
13.40 - 14.00 making drawings
14.00 - 14.30 conversation and end of session
Here is the record of the drawings that were created during the session and a short text reflecting the activity.
Text used: Marsha Meskimmon (2019) 'Art Matters: Feminist Material Corporeal Aesthetics' in A Companion to Feminist Art, Robinson, H. and Buszek, M.E. (eds), Wiley & Sons, pp. 353 - 367. and Yonat's preparatory notes
12.30 - 12.40 saying hello
12.40 - 13.10 writing
13.10 - 13.40 conversation
13.40 - 14.00 making drawings
14.00 - 14.30 conversation and end of session
Here is the record of the drawings that were created during the session and a short text reflecting the activity.
Jane
Yonat introduced us to a most interesting text by Marsha Meskimmon about feminist corporeal-materialist aesthetics. Meskimmon states this paper ‘challenges conventional concepts of subjectivity, moves away from representation and helps to rethink agency’ and she draws on new materialist thinkers to develop her argument, referencing Barad’s notions of entanglement, intra-action and the agential cut. She writes about the photos created collaboratively between Joanna Frueh and Frances Murray as an example of creativity that is materially and bodily engaged, yet the result is still an image, fixed in time and open to various interpretations, still a representation. Whilst Meskimmon describes the defractive nature of their processes of working, the end result is a representation. Rosi Braidotti’s concept of figurations brings us closer to realising a depiction of the phenomenal, and the process of Gedankenexperiments (thought experiments) feels more like kneading ideas rather than materials, even though these ideas have a potential future in material form. Taking Elizabeth King’s Pupil as a way to develop the concept of the work of art as ‘an instrument’ opens up space for diffraction and entanglement, and allows us to dig deeper to understand how process (as an instrument) allows us ways of enacting entanglements.
This was a dense but very interesting text and I should like to understand it more fully, perhaps discuss in another session. My reading time was mostly taken up in trying to understand Meskimmon and, regrettably, I didn’t have enough time to take in Yonat’s discussion. I think she is asking some tricky questions and would like to continue the discussion about art as an instrument.
In approaching the drawing part of the session, my mind was focused on my ‘problem’ – or rather question – of what entanglement and diffraction ‘looks like’, how can it be enacted through drawing – or if it can be enacted through drawing. I had pencils and pastels to hand and really worked intuitively, thinking about Barad’s ripples, about the co-existence of difference and interaction.
This was a dense but very interesting text and I should like to understand it more fully, perhaps discuss in another session. My reading time was mostly taken up in trying to understand Meskimmon and, regrettably, I didn’t have enough time to take in Yonat’s discussion. I think she is asking some tricky questions and would like to continue the discussion about art as an instrument.
In approaching the drawing part of the session, my mind was focused on my ‘problem’ – or rather question – of what entanglement and diffraction ‘looks like’, how can it be enacted through drawing – or if it can be enacted through drawing. I had pencils and pastels to hand and really worked intuitively, thinking about Barad’s ripples, about the co-existence of difference and interaction.
Yvonne
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Having allotted time to draw gave me a problem. It created a self consciousness that I do not usually experience. Not knowing what to draw or where to start, I picked a felt pen out of the pot and doodled, scribbled. I had chosen pink, and was thinking around the notion of creating problems, as talked of in the session. I drew a world of ongoing non specific runs of ‘problems’ pink lines circling through the world. The green followed creating a focus circle around a meeting or crossing over point of ‘problems’. Wanting to enlarge the information I pulled in other lines of pink by ‘fishing’ for them with the drawn nets.
There then felt to be a dense centre out of which grew the roots and possible solutions in yellow , reaching down to roots and up to form new branches, new information.
I did not consider it a useful drawing nor an aesthetic drawing, however as I proceeded to photograph it as a record, I was suddenly made aware that I had quite unconsciously been picking up on a nearby item. When I moved the drawing to take an image the item came into my conscious view. My colours were ’taken’ from the envelop that has been sitting on my desk for some time.
This unconscious absorbing of information fascinates me.
There then felt to be a dense centre out of which grew the roots and possible solutions in yellow , reaching down to roots and up to form new branches, new information.
I did not consider it a useful drawing nor an aesthetic drawing, however as I proceeded to photograph it as a record, I was suddenly made aware that I had quite unconsciously been picking up on a nearby item. When I moved the drawing to take an image the item came into my conscious view. My colours were ’taken’ from the envelop that has been sitting on my desk for some time.
This unconscious absorbing of information fascinates me.
Luisa
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- the first one I chose to do a small diagram to put all the ideas from the text together and try to make sense (in my head).
- the second drawing, it's about... a woman that has been hurt, many times! ... but she's still breathing... and fighting... and winning some 'battles'... x
- the second drawing, it's about... a woman that has been hurt, many times! ... but she's still breathing... and fighting... and winning some 'battles'... x
Yonat
Donald Schön writes:
‘In real-world practice, problems do not present themselves to the practitioner as givens. They must be constructed from the materials of problematic situations which are puzzling, troubling, and uncertain.’[1]
Since March 2020, like many others, PIRG continued their monthly sessions on-line. October’s session included writing, conversations, text and making drawings. Digital technology helps maintain connections with other people which is vital to wellbeing. The condition of keeping a distance and wearing masks, of not being able to travel, of being far from families; the daily reports of high numbers of deaths; the uncertainty regarding the duration of this situation and its unknown outcomes are extremely challenging. Today we are all experiencing COVID 19 global pandemic. This pandemic is a highly complex problematic situation that brings to light, amongst other things, our connectedness.
The sessions prior to the pandemic were accompanied by light refreshment that participants brought to share. This was a material engagement that stimulated taste buds, humour, laughter and kindness. It enhanced thinking and listening as a mutual exchange that involved the heart; a warm and open minded, yet critical process. The intellectual engagement of reading texts and making conversations was enriched by adding drawing-making, a self-expression process that includes sense data, feelings and imagination.
On-line sessions are mediated through screens that enable seeing and hearing each-other, with the occasional technical problem. Touch, smell and body language are negated. We all look different on the screen and our voices change too. We are learning to be together under new conditions. Still, we are grateful for being able to see each-other and spend some time together. We are learning different kind of togetherness, different tolerance of time. It is exhausting to be on-line more than an hour.
[1] Donald Schon, ‘From Technical Rationality to Reflection-in-Action’, pp. 39-40.
‘In real-world practice, problems do not present themselves to the practitioner as givens. They must be constructed from the materials of problematic situations which are puzzling, troubling, and uncertain.’[1]
Since March 2020, like many others, PIRG continued their monthly sessions on-line. October’s session included writing, conversations, text and making drawings. Digital technology helps maintain connections with other people which is vital to wellbeing. The condition of keeping a distance and wearing masks, of not being able to travel, of being far from families; the daily reports of high numbers of deaths; the uncertainty regarding the duration of this situation and its unknown outcomes are extremely challenging. Today we are all experiencing COVID 19 global pandemic. This pandemic is a highly complex problematic situation that brings to light, amongst other things, our connectedness.
The sessions prior to the pandemic were accompanied by light refreshment that participants brought to share. This was a material engagement that stimulated taste buds, humour, laughter and kindness. It enhanced thinking and listening as a mutual exchange that involved the heart; a warm and open minded, yet critical process. The intellectual engagement of reading texts and making conversations was enriched by adding drawing-making, a self-expression process that includes sense data, feelings and imagination.
On-line sessions are mediated through screens that enable seeing and hearing each-other, with the occasional technical problem. Touch, smell and body language are negated. We all look different on the screen and our voices change too. We are learning to be together under new conditions. Still, we are grateful for being able to see each-other and spend some time together. We are learning different kind of togetherness, different tolerance of time. It is exhausting to be on-line more than an hour.
[1] Donald Schon, ‘From Technical Rationality to Reflection-in-Action’, pp. 39-40.
Daniel
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This is my video series about space exploration, mainly trying to create space through image superposition, movement and other ways. Of course, just showing the video on the screen might be too boring, so I seek to show it by using the interior space, and the art work will be presented as video installations.
Noriko
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I was really looking forward to the session as I am interested in the relationship between text and image and how the two can work together to create a visual form of knowledge making.
The text that Yonat chose was really challenging. I wasn’t too sure how to come to terms with the phrase ‘Feminist Corporeal Material Aesthetics’. Why does is have to be labelled as ‘feminist’?
This thought was in my head whilst I made my drawings. Also, my mind was slightly preoccupied by the huge earthquake that had happened in Greece and Turkey that day. My daughter was caught up in the event and she was texting me to tell me that she was ok having evacuated to high grounds to escape the tsunami warnings. The lacy shapes were created as a result of just allowing my hands to be busy, trying to calm my nerves and the anxiety that was building up inside me.
I look at the drawings now and wonder if there is an element of ‘feminist corporeal material aesthetics’ in the drawings that I created. The mother worrying over the safety of her daughter, expressed through the repetitive folding and cutting of the paper.
The text that Yonat chose was really challenging. I wasn’t too sure how to come to terms with the phrase ‘Feminist Corporeal Material Aesthetics’. Why does is have to be labelled as ‘feminist’?
This thought was in my head whilst I made my drawings. Also, my mind was slightly preoccupied by the huge earthquake that had happened in Greece and Turkey that day. My daughter was caught up in the event and she was texting me to tell me that she was ok having evacuated to high grounds to escape the tsunami warnings. The lacy shapes were created as a result of just allowing my hands to be busy, trying to calm my nerves and the anxiety that was building up inside me.
I look at the drawings now and wonder if there is an element of ‘feminist corporeal material aesthetics’ in the drawings that I created. The mother worrying over the safety of her daughter, expressed through the repetitive folding and cutting of the paper.