Anyone seen this before or seen projects similar to this? Here is a link to a prison book program based out of Quincy, Mass:
http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/index.html
Sunday, December 9, 2007
"This is Bullshit"
Britt and I wanted to continue focusing on the creative process rather than the final product, so we decided to do a workshop of de-constructive art. We conceived of this layout:
-everyone got a blank sheet
-with colored pencils only, everyone had 10 min to draw a nature scene.
-then, we told them to pass the sheet to their right.
-with washable markers only, everyone had 7 min to draw civilization over the nature scene passed to them
-then, we passed again
-with black sharpie only, everyone had 7 min to fundamentally alter whatever was in front of them
-then, we passed again
-everyone had to pick their favorite 1/3 of the picture, then cut that out in whatever shape they like. We mounted those favorite parts onto black paper.
-finally, discussion altogether about why the piece was your favorite, how the activity went, how it felt to pass your art and change other people's art, etc.
We originally didn't want to tell the women that their art would be passed, but in the workshop at the beginning I did accidentally tell them that "you won't end with the paper you begin with", then Britt cut me off. So some of the women who listened got that clue.
Climax of the workshop: When everyone was using sharpie to fundamentally alter the paper in front of them, one woman started to say that she wanted to leave (Let's say her name was Shelly). Shelly hated the activity, thought it was bullshit, didn't see the point of it, and really just wanted to leave because she was extremely pissed. Shelly's friend who was drawing over her civilization drawing apologized if it was her fault, but Shelly assured that "I'm not mad at you for drawing over it -because you're just doing what they told you." Britt and I told her that she could always leave if she felt uncomfortable; she said she knew that, then said some more loud statements about the workshop, then left. Britt then told everyone that the workshop was about de-constructive art, and one woman made a comment about how Shelly's exit shows how intensely personal art can be. We were all quite shaken by Shelly leaving, so people were really ready to talk about it. After Shelly's friend left to see if Shelly was OK and if she wanted to come back and talk, Shelly said no and just wanted to know why we made the workshop like that. We did our best to explain the goal of the workshop - to expose ourselves to the entire process of de-constructive art and explore how we feel about it. Who owns art? Everyone who made a part, or just the first person, or just the last person, or whoever liked it best, or no one, etc? Must art be so personal? How does it feel to have your art taken away? Etc. We really wished Shelly would have stayed to discuss her feelings and thoughts, because there was never meant to be a right answer or a decision that de-constructive art was good or right. Her comments would have been valuable in the space. It eventually got into a great discussion beyond de-constructive and into ideas of nature, civilization, why women created what they did, etc.
-everyone got a blank sheet
-with colored pencils only, everyone had 10 min to draw a nature scene.
-then, we told them to pass the sheet to their right.
-with washable markers only, everyone had 7 min to draw civilization over the nature scene passed to them
-then, we passed again
-with black sharpie only, everyone had 7 min to fundamentally alter whatever was in front of them
-then, we passed again
-everyone had to pick their favorite 1/3 of the picture, then cut that out in whatever shape they like. We mounted those favorite parts onto black paper.
-finally, discussion altogether about why the piece was your favorite, how the activity went, how it felt to pass your art and change other people's art, etc.
We originally didn't want to tell the women that their art would be passed, but in the workshop at the beginning I did accidentally tell them that "you won't end with the paper you begin with", then Britt cut me off. So some of the women who listened got that clue.
Climax of the workshop: When everyone was using sharpie to fundamentally alter the paper in front of them, one woman started to say that she wanted to leave (Let's say her name was Shelly). Shelly hated the activity, thought it was bullshit, didn't see the point of it, and really just wanted to leave because she was extremely pissed. Shelly's friend who was drawing over her civilization drawing apologized if it was her fault, but Shelly assured that "I'm not mad at you for drawing over it -because you're just doing what they told you." Britt and I told her that she could always leave if she felt uncomfortable; she said she knew that, then said some more loud statements about the workshop, then left. Britt then told everyone that the workshop was about de-constructive art, and one woman made a comment about how Shelly's exit shows how intensely personal art can be. We were all quite shaken by Shelly leaving, so people were really ready to talk about it. After Shelly's friend left to see if Shelly was OK and if she wanted to come back and talk, Shelly said no and just wanted to know why we made the workshop like that. We did our best to explain the goal of the workshop - to expose ourselves to the entire process of de-constructive art and explore how we feel about it. Who owns art? Everyone who made a part, or just the first person, or just the last person, or whoever liked it best, or no one, etc? Must art be so personal? How does it feel to have your art taken away? Etc. We really wished Shelly would have stayed to discuss her feelings and thoughts, because there was never meant to be a right answer or a decision that de-constructive art was good or right. Her comments would have been valuable in the space. It eventually got into a great discussion beyond de-constructive and into ideas of nature, civilization, why women created what they did, etc.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Britt and Becky, Collective Poems
Britt and I enjoyed a spectacular workshop last week. We've been wanting to focus on the process of creative expression and less on the product, since we've been feeling that the latter has been getting a lot more emphasis in our workshops, unintentionally. So, we devised a low-tech workshop to construct work together and focus on the writing process:
-We handed out blank paper to everyone, and said to label the lines 1-10
-Then, we told everyone to write the same line in Line 1: "Scraped up and put back down". We used this line because we wanted it to go in any direction--it's pronoun-less, direction-less, time-less, etc.
-After everyone wrote those words in line 1, we passed the papers to our left. Then, everyone would write down a new line in Line 3, and try to connect it to the line in Line 1. (We apparently didn't communicate this so clearly, and someone chose to write random lines without any connection to the other lines)
-We kept passing the papers with everyone filling in the odd Lines, then we reversed the direction and filled in the even numbered lines.
-We each read the poems out loud once, then read them out loud a second time: the second time, we took notes on each poem while the reader was reading, and we referred to each poem as "Britt's poem" if Britt was the reader, etc.
-We then had a discussion on each poem: thoughts, impressions, favorites, confusions, criticism--which was really important, to discuss what worked and what didn't
We then did a second prompt: "Set in motion", with a shorter number of lines, and we also read them aloud twice. The women really loved the workshop, and it was definitely one of mine and Britt's favorites. Here are some poems from our workshop:
--------------------------------------------------------
-We handed out blank paper to everyone, and said to label the lines 1-10
-Then, we told everyone to write the same line in Line 1: "Scraped up and put back down". We used this line because we wanted it to go in any direction--it's pronoun-less, direction-less, time-less, etc.
-After everyone wrote those words in line 1, we passed the papers to our left. Then, everyone would write down a new line in Line 3, and try to connect it to the line in Line 1. (We apparently didn't communicate this so clearly, and someone chose to write random lines without any connection to the other lines)
-We kept passing the papers with everyone filling in the odd Lines, then we reversed the direction and filled in the even numbered lines.
-We each read the poems out loud once, then read them out loud a second time: the second time, we took notes on each poem while the reader was reading, and we referred to each poem as "Britt's poem" if Britt was the reader, etc.
-We then had a discussion on each poem: thoughts, impressions, favorites, confusions, criticism--which was really important, to discuss what worked and what didn't
We then did a second prompt: "Set in motion", with a shorter number of lines, and we also read them aloud twice. The women really loved the workshop, and it was definitely one of mine and Britt's favorites. Here are some poems from our workshop:
Set in motion
A lit candle and lotion
That landslide you put me on, it sent me back fast.
Shivers up my spine, I can’t walk
You shook my world. How do I move forward?
Frozen, I want to make a move – my body says yes, but my mind says NO!
Legs like Jello. Feet tingly and mouth dry.--------------------------------------------------------
Scraped up and put back down again
We found elevation, you gave me altitude, we had an atmosphere
A helping hand, I was lifted by a friend
Lifted from below
Thought I couldn’t get any lower than where I’d been
To the depths I fell, now how will I recover?
I stood up straight and just lifted my chin
And the right side of my jaw swelled up again
Now I knock on my window and let myself in
Hello is anybody in here?
The Alpha and the Omega where it ends is where it begins
But you’ll die forever if you don’t forgive yourself of your sins.
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