Online Lightning Talks
Lightning talks are 5-minute "flash" video presentations. Authors present summaries or overviews of their work, describing the essential features (related to purpose, procedures, outcomes, or product). Authors are welcome to submit traditional "lecture style" videos or videos that use visual supports like PowerPoint. After the conference, the videos are made available on the network's YouTube channel.
Living Life to the Fullest: Generating Artistic Possibilities for Living
Virtual Lightning Talk Kirsty Liddiard
In this online lightning talk we share our methodological and theoretical journey so far in our narrative and arts-informed ESRC-funded research project, Life, Death, Disability and the Human: Living Life to the Fullest. Our research is using the arts to forge new understandings of the lives, hopes, desires and contributions of disabled young people with what are classified as having, according to medical language, ‘life-limiting and life-threatening impairments’ (hereby LL/LTIs). We can gauge the values of any society by considering how it treats those people who are the most marginalised and too often disabled young people find themselves on the outskirts of society. This is especially the case for young people with LL/LTIs. Importantly, while we know much about the deaths of young people with LL/LTI, we know relatively little about their everyday lives, ambitions and desires. This invisibility is detrimental to their social and emotional wellbeing, and that of their families, carers and allies. Working alongside our Research Management Team of community research partners, disabled people, parents of disabled children living with LL/LTI, academics, researchers, activists, artists and other supporters, and the Co-Researcher Collective, a core group of young co-researchers living with LL/LTI, we are in the process of accessing and making use of the arts and artistic practice to co-produce knowledge that seeks to value short lives and respect death as part of the human condition.
Twenty-One Trucks of San Antonio Texcala: A Fiber Based, Ethnographic Portrait Series
Virtual Lightning Talk David Schwittek
21 Trucks of San Antonio Texcala is a fiber-based, graphic design series exploring the importance of trucks and other vehicles to the people of rural Mexico and Mexican migrants in the US. Through depictions of trucks, towns, and people, this series explores the roles of trucks and the paquetero (individuals who transport goods across the border) in rural Mexican communities. This project is inspired by folk-art traditions of amate bark painting and quilting found in Mexico, Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series (1940-41) and the Quilts of Gee’s Bend in the US. This series consists of ten to fifteen distinct pieces varying in size from as small as 30 by 40 inches, to as large as 6 by 8 feet. The various media used in these pieces includes, but is not limited to, canvas, commercial textiles, fiber, buttons, die-cut cloth and foam, photograms, brass, acrylic, and found objects. These compositions explore individual trucks, groups of trucks, individuals involved in the use and transport of trucks, as well as individuals who depend on the cultural connections maintained by the paquetero between migrant communities in the US and relatives who remain in Mexico.
Changing Spaces through Rhythm: A Creative Process Integrating Teachers and Students of an Undergraduate Music Course
Virtual Lightning Talk Ana Luisa Fridman, Gilberto Assis de Oliveira Rosa
The Brazilian musicians and researchers Ana Fridman and Gilberto Assis talk and demonstrate their actions to create a performing and improvisational space integrating teachers and students of an undergraduate music course. At this proposal, a series of activities driven by rhythmic stimuli were made and performed by undergraduate students. After the proposal with the students, a video was recorded, edited and later shared in an event in which we invited teachers of this same undergraduate music course to interact musically with the material recorded by the students, using technological procedures and musical instruments for the performance presented to the students who were previosly the improvisers. This final event promoted an unique integration between teachers and students in which the main stimuli was the improvisation starting from rhythmic proposals. At this research the main focus has been to arouse the students and listeners interest in improvisation derived by rhythmic stimuli in order to create and inspire performance environments. This research was also born from previous researches approaching expressive materials and procedures found in non-Western music to develop hybrid environments for the practice of musical improvisation. At the end of the paper presentation, Ana Fridman and Gilberto Assis also demonstrate the idea of this research in a brief live performance using rhythm parameters and voice technological processing in interaction with the audience.
Teaching College-level Photographic Manipulation through Epistemology
Virtual Lightning Talk Yi-hui Huang
This paper proposes an innovative pedagogy that incorporates epistemology in teaching college-level digital photography. Specifically, students explore their views of reality, introspect about how they see the world, and infuse their contemplation into the production of assigned photographic projects. I will first explain the relationship between one’s knowing and creating; that is, how different worldviews generate different approaches toward art-making. Next, to better articulate one’s knowing, I will introduce epistemology, which can be roughly categorized into subjectivist and objectivist, based on the subject (mind)/object (world) relationship. Through reading and class discussions on various views of major philosophers who address epistemology, students learn how they situate their views within the philosophical spectrum with the objectivist view on one end, and subjectivist view on the other. A more approachable way to investigate one’s epistemology is to explore one’s view of reality (Alston, 2006; Gelernter, 1995; Pojman, 1991), the notions of which may include sensory perceptions, emotions, imagination, or the subconscious. In addition, students will learn four theories in aesthetics, including realism, expressionism, formalism, and postmodernism, all of which reflect various epistemologies in artwork, to philosophically understand digital composite photographs of contemporary famed artists, such as Kelli Connell, Thomas Kellner, and Maggie Taylor. In turn, the connection between worldviews and artwork of these artists also verifies students’ exploration of their own views in creating manipulated photographs. Lastly, the proposed presentation suggests a number of photographic projects based on various schools of epistemology and aesthetics to be assigned to students.
Strune: An Interactive Audio-visual Installation Inspired by String Theory
Virtual Lightning Talk Davor Branimir Vincze
“Strune” is an interactive audio-visual installation inspired by the string theory of particle physics, presented in January 2018 in Galerija SC in Zagreb, Croatia. “Strune” consists of 15-meter-long tensioned piano wire, supported by a resonant plywood box, and is driven to resonate by an all-thread bolt attached to a subwoofer. A Max/MSP patch is used to process the vibrations propagating on the string according to a dataset from the MadGraph particle collision simulator. Correspondingly, the process brings out a series of frequencies akin to the families of particles produced by the resonances of quantum mechanic strings. Design details and audience experiences are described.
Culture and Art Promotion in International Cooperation: A Review of Three Swiss Organisations
Virtual Lightning Talk Irene Antolín
The paper seeks to gain an understanding of how and why official agencies and NGOs of the field of international cooperation promote cultural development or art-based development initiatives by researching the practices and assumptions of organisations working in the field in Switzerland. The first part provides definitions of the key concepts and a discussion on various theoretical approaches to culture and development, the relationship between cultural development and social change, the issue of impact evaluation and the relevant policies and institutions internationally and in Switzerland. The second part presents the conclusions of the analysis of the interviews to employees of three Swiss organisations working on cultural development projects in the Global South and the East regarding their practices, the features of their programmes and their motivation. Cultural rights are elaborated in a considerable number of international conventions and national policies. Nevertheless, explaining and justifying initiatives of this kind and evaluating their social and intrinsic impacts is one of the main difficulties experienced by the implementing organisations, as well as the strong dependency on external funding, achieving project sustainability and the limited control over the outcomes of artistic projects. Personal experiences and convictions of the employees play a key role in the involvement of organisations in this field.
Art as Expressive Therapy for Vulnerable Populations
Virtual Lightning Talk Amara Merritt
This lightning talk will describe a project utilizing art to provide a means for unheard voices to tell their unique stories. The impact of providing art materials to a variety of people with invisible disabilities, assessing their levels of emotional and physical pain before and after creative activities will be discussed. In the U.S., 10% of people have a medical condition which could be considered a type of invisible disability. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for youth aged 10–14 and the 2nd leading cause of death for people aged 15–24. Approximately 20 veterans die daily by suicide. Many people suffer in silence and making art is powerful, helping provide a space for their individualized healing process. Artistic expression is a vehicle to amplify unheard voices. For example, art created by mentally ill homeless people including veterans, will raise awareness to their plight and demonstrate untapped talents that uplift their spirits and create a unique way to give more meaning to their lives. Through this project, I hope to encompass this idea in a visual format and develop a compelling message demonstrating that people need more than talk therapy to allow them the opportunity to express themselves. This project will allow them to have a voice and result not only in something beautiful to look at but also to create a way to alleviate anxiety and depression.
"Potlatching" as an Alternative Exhibiting Space: Public Art Installation across Australia’s Tropical North
Virtual Lightning Talk Ian Hance, Birut Zemits
Alternative methods of presenting artworks allow for the engagement and exposure of artist’s ideas to a broader public. In seeking spaces outside the formal gallery, exhibition strategies extend the ideas embedded within particular artworks to groups who may not otherwise experience art in their environment. Within the practice examined here, the content of the art links to innovative roadside research and installation techniques. By way of extending the narratives and interaction with the themes of his art-making, the artist donates paintings to wayside roadhouses and hotels on the major highways across Australia’s tropical north. This generous gifting was done with no recompense and minimal conditions to the art ‘hosts’. Such an installation practice involves a ‘non-productive expenditure of energy’ as interpreted within the tradition of Australian Potlatch. Thus, it is suggested that this form of art and installation extends inclusive art communities. The remote wayside stops of Australia’s northern highways are presented as a case study of "Potlatching" as a means of building interaction between the art subject (dressed termite mounds), the artwork (oil-painting of these dressed mounds) and the people living in and travelers moving through a place where these items exist. This work extends on notions of how public art and exhibiting can be considered.
The Periphery Landscape as Self-activated Museum: Modern Ruins and Their Surrounding World
Virtual Lightning Talk Rafela Nicolau
This proposal aims to be a debate and a reflection on art as experience of environment. From the imaginary of Dada and Land Art to the practice of walking as a way of aesthetic knowledge, this work will focus on the modern ruins and their landscapes. In order to achieve this goal, phenomenology tools will be used to approximate the relations between last century objects (military ruins and industrial ruins, specially) and their surrounding world (society). The main objective is to contribute to a greater openness to this field of research, offering a deeper degree of interdisciplinarity between art, philosophy, architecture, history and geography. Therefore, the concept of art museum will be as well in the center of the reflection, with the will to offer a permanent critical revision of the term and taking advantage of the contributions of authors such as André Malraux, Rosalind Krauss and Francesco Careri.
Art, Wellbeing and Health: Paint Your Pain
Virtual Lightning Talk Sarvenaz Sohrabi
Painting has been demonstrated to have a beneficial impact for people when representing their state of mind/body in a visual way, allowing them to produce an image that everybody can relate to. In the past, researchers collected various paintings from people dealing with chronic diseases (Kirkham, 2015). Art therapists believe that the process of painting supports people in expressing and shaping their own emotions which otherwise would stay abstract, hidden, and could affect their mental stability (Edwards, 2014). Our project is going to provide a better representation of pain and create a network of communication between members of the public. The aim of the project is to ask the public to paint their pictorial representation of pain related to any illness directly or indirectly connected to the person. We are interested in analysing artworks collected by detecting differences in shapes, use of different colours, different types of brush strokes, size of the drawing, and so on. This will allow us to communicate to the public how pain linked to illness affects everyday life. Each painting tells the story of different pains. Following our analysis, the artist uses the paintings to produce artworks summarising different visions of pain in the form of visual art, audio art and performances presented as part of exhibitions and festivals. This will allow us to communicate to the public how pain linked to illness affects everyday life. We are hoping to be able to present some of our research results and artworks in this conference.
Experiences from Social Practice Art in Community: Examining Positionality
Virtual Lightning Talk Maria Lisa Flemington
What were the experiences generated for the participants and facilitators of a social practice art occurrence? This research identified the narratives and experiences of artists, participants and researcher. This study employed concepts of mode of address and positionality, while staging a social practice art project as performance ethnography as a method of inquiry to examine social, cultural, and power relations. The implications of this study revealed the individual participant experiences could transcend to the community through the various practices. Additionally, the experience of getting together, creating collectively, and sharing understandings were equally as important to the participants as the content and concept of the social practice art.
Applying Emotion Strategy in Creative Advertising
Virtual Lightning Talk Wei Zhao
Emotion penetrates life, it exists as a feeling and an inner state of human beings in every day, and fills the interpersonal gap between people (Strongman, 1978). Emotions are not only a linear phenomenon, but also are feedback processes. Emotional resonance is crucial and has been highlighted in business marketing and everyday advertising. Ferreira, Brandão, and Bizarrias (2017) point out that positive or negative emotions can affect consumers’ responses.
Play(e)scapes: Stimulation of Adult Play through Art Based Action
Virtual Lightning Talk Nina Luostarinen, Minna Hautio
This paper is based on an experiment in which people were given the task of building visual reinterpretations, in a natural environment, of artworks they were given. The premise was to get participants to build play inspired by the works specifically on the terms of, and in interaction with, the location. Through this experiment we wanted to find out of whether adult’s play could be stimulated using art-based exercises. The premise for the experiment was a curious idea: if we could use forest-themed art to get adults to play in the forest, these places – and the works being interpreted – would acquire an experiential emotional. Because the content and location of play are rigidly the same in visual interpretation play, we studied the pictures through content analysis and creative methods. We conducted the most important parts of our study, the analysis and the conclusion, while walking and talking in the forest. The results show that playing took place in the forest. The pictures show clear signs of adults surrendering to play, and proof of use of playthings. Adults’ play may be stimulated using art-based exercises, and that they make astonishingly multi-dimensional and deeply meaningful picture interpretations, as long as they are given, a good reason to do so and, thanks to that, the freedom to throw themselves into action. Giving permission to act differently, the permission to free oneself from familiar operating models was enough, and forest acquired new experiential, functional, multi-sensory purposes which crossed the boundary of normality.
Metaphor, Mytenomy and Visual Multimodally Mediated Interactions: Severe Communication Disability and Multimodal Design
Virtual Lightning Talk Joseph Agan, David Charles Chioffi
This abstract presents a case study of a project between a professor of graphic design (PGD), with a severe communication disability and a speech language pathologist (SLP), and their collaboration to maintain PGD’s employment status. PGD sought treatment in a speech therapy clinic for long-standing neurogenic stuttering, a rare condition following stroke with accompanying aphasia. PGD’s complex communication needs far exceeded strategies and tools currently offered. Design theories organized and advanced the application of frameworks that included medical-rehabilitative, clinical ethnography, Vygotskian, multimodal literacies and cognitive linguistics. Ethnographic investigation revealed privileged modes of oral and written communication. A variety of language practices, preferences and mediational means that contributed to communication breakdowns, inefficiencies and frustrations were observed in classroom interactions. A design-centric intervention approach was implemented to enhance PGD’s teaching interactions with his students. Ethnography revealed a shared foundation in figurative language (i.e, metaphor and metonymy) between spoken communication and the visual multimodal student compositions in progress. This research allowed for the evolution of innovative design methodologies for mediating communicative interactions. Conceptual Metaphor Theory provided a framework for establishing explicit connections between oral and visual multimodal compositions. This allowed multimodal aspects of each course project in development while also constructing a new pedagogy for PGD. The students abilities to verbalize their intentions and struggles in conceptualizing their compositions were also improved. We continue to explore the potential of design practices to develop multimodal semiotic resources, tools and practices to positively impact all disabling aspects of the human condition.
The Role of Hand Weaving Craft in Shaping the Cultural Identity in the Sultanate of Oman
Virtual Lightning Talk Zahra Al-Zadjali
Traditional heritage includes folklore creations of traditional peoples, formed by the accumulation of experiences, knowledge and practices that are passed on from one generation to another, and often was not relay those experiences through memory or practice. In Oman dwellers characterize the mountains for the residents of the desert plains and traditional character was a reflection of a clear and evident to the nature of the environment in which they lived, as it was for the components of geographical and historical nature of social mobility, customs and traditions impact the literal configuration. Accordingly, it was for this traditional craft key role in shaping the culture and values, which in turn formed folkloric features of the national identity of the Sultanate of Oman. But the problem of the study has recently appeared in most of the Arab countries in general, and in the Sultanate of Oman, in particular, was the lack of crafts characters and its components from the educational programs in educational institutions to keep up with the technological developments and contemporary values, which began to spread among new generation. The importance of this study need to employ these cultural units because of their role in promoting the cultural identity of the Omani society. Among the most important study to deepen visual culture art icons associated with local cultural Bmorothet goals and emphasize the importance of art education, which through its programs are moved and the consolidation of national cultural identity among the young generation.
Crossing Boundaries: Traditional Far Eastern Art and Modern American Architecture
Virtual Lightning Talk Kevin Nute
This paper uses the examples of two modern American architects, Frank Lloyd Wright, and John Yeon, to show how long-established ideas in one cultural context can serve as a source of innovation in another. It shows how these designers translated two-dimensional devices found in Far Eastern art into architectural space to create new meanings. It is suggested that these examples demonstrate how the migration of ideas between different cultures and media can be an important source of creative inspiration, and that, contrary to popular perception, Western modernism was in fact willing to make use of tradition, provided it was sufficiently remote.
Site Performance at Brick Lane Mosque: Investigating the Interface between Muslim Prayer Sites and Artistic Interventions
Virtual Lightning Talk Julie Marsh
This paper reflects on the significance and impact of Assembly, a site-specific research project made and exhibited in Brick Lane Mosque in London. The artwork, Jamaat (2018) comprises of two simultaneous film installations, one in the main prayer hall and one in the female prayer room. Each installation is informed, shaped and determined by the social, political, architectural and institutional discourses present in the site. At the end of the residency, the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid invited the general public into both sites of worship, providing an opportunity for Muslims and non-Muslims to experience Jamaat prayer via the site-performance. This paper examines the role of artist fieldwork in engaging and connecting communities in Islamic sites of worship. Mosques in the UK sit within a wider unhelpful discourse that makes anyone mosque representational of the many. Jamaat (2018) implicitly performs involvements in, as opposed to observations on, site, allowing public audiences to experience their own relationship and reading of the site. The artwork provides a platform for direct engagement with the Masjid community, resulting in debate and discussion around complex issues of segregation and the representation of Muslims in the UK. This paper examines the ethics and efficacy of such methods of engagement; the beneficiaries and benefits of the work produced and the meaningful processes of collaboration and exchange.
Art in Dialogue: Giving Visibility and Voice to Communicating Illness Experiences
Virtual Lightning Talk Shanali Varuni Perera
I share my story of how using an app on my mobile phone to create digital art, has had a transformative impact on my ability to handle living with a rare illness. I started exploring the digital medium to capture ‘the essence of being a patient’, ‘expressions of illness’ and ‘making sense of illness’. Given that so much of the human experience around the illness is steeped in emotion and complexity, the focus of my art is a self-inquiry into our understandings of identity, art, and illness. The digital medium was the ideal adaptation for me due to limitations in hand function, as it enabled me to create art with minimal physical effort. I would like to see more art in dialogue, communicating and disseminating how art can help friends, family, public, health providers see the multiplicity, the fluid state of the lived experience. Connecting with health teams to highlight how ‘expressions of illness experience’ can open ways of knowing and learning to help clinicians get a deeper understanding of what people go through, the impact illnesses can have on image and identity. This can help bridge the gap between ‘Biomedical and Human focus’. Offer ways of seeing more of the face behind the illness, the person behind it all, not just the person with an illness. A great deal of diagnostic power can be drawn from the visual world, deepening understandings of the ‘human aspect of medical practice’.
