Community Connections
University of San Jorge
Extra Skin: Migration of/through Cardboard and Textiles in Contemporary Art View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Edit Toth
My paper explores the role of textiles and cardboard in migratory contexts and the strategies of exchange by which they are mediated through art and the gallery system. Textiles, produced in sweatshops in developing countries, and cardboard as packaging material, circulate in large quantities across borders. They bear the imprints of human migration, provide shelter, act as "extra skin," markers of identity and belonging, revealing how their relationships are mutually constitutive. The paper investigates works that employ these materials and involve the migrants as well. As social interstices, these interventions address how discarded objects generate social agency. Indonesian Tintin Wulia's Trade/ Trace/ Transit (2014) engages Filipina migrant women who collect and recycle waste cardboard to build "homes." Mexican artist Pia Camil embraces the barter tradition of street markets to collect second-hand t-shirts made in Mexico for US consumption that filter back to Mexico through illegal trade, or she exchanges t-shirts with immigrants living in the US to create participatory large-scale pieces. Danish artist E. B. Itso collected discarded clothing that refugees shed once reaching the shore in Italy in 2015 and cardboards used by prisoners as a means of escape. Dealing with things and people in transition and transformation, these projects can be associated with Giorgio Agamben's notion of bare life, yet they are also supported by the institutional framework of the gallery system. Besides the social agency of objects, the paper explores the role artistic negotiation and forms of mediation play in the migratory interaction of objects and people.
Whose Dance Is It Anyway?: Intellectual Property in and for Dance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session A. W. Brian De Silva
Dance is embodied, ethereal and ephemeral...after it is performed it is gone forever. But is it really? As performers, we put our hearts and souls into the performance. As audience members, we have viewed it, experienced it and have memories of it. The question that bears asking is this: Is a repeat of a dance performance the same as an original performance? My question really is whose dance is it anyway, the dancers, the choreographer or the dance company. Who will have rights of assertion for the dance performance? Whose intellectual property is it really. The law is not very specific about the rights of assertion. The law is different in different countries. Despite most Western Countries ( US, and the British Commonwealth) having their roots in Common Law and Equity, their development and application is different when applied to Intellectual property in the performing arts. I consider the different approaches (and interpretations) adopted by the US, Canada, UK and Australia. I conclude by asking the question, who has rights to damages for infringement, and is it economically worthwhile to do so....by looking at the costs and benefits of asserting your right of ownership of a dance.
A Community Orchestra with a Mission: An Arts-Based Wellness Initiative to Reduce Healthcare Burnout
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matthew Brooks
Widely reported before the Covid-19 pandemic, and even more as a result of the pandemic, burnout is a common affliction among healthcare professionals. Often associated with emotional exhaustion, a decline in empathy, elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and a reduction in job performance and satisfaction, burnout can lead to medical errors, higher healthcare costs, and even depression and suicide. Engaging in the arts and humanities can lessen symptoms of burnout. The Nebraska Medical Orchestra (NMO), a non-auditioned, community orchestra open to all healthcare-related musicians, was created in 2018 as a wellness initiative in partnership between the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Omaha School of Music (USA). In a 2019 study of the NMO, respondents reported their participation had a positive impact on their sense of well-being. A more recent study from 2021 builds on the previous research investigating how participation in the Nebraska Medical Orchestra is beneficial for participant well-being. This paper 1) introduces the Nebraska Medical Orchestra and explain it as a wellness intervention, 2) outlines the past research demonstrating its positive impact on participant well-being, and 3) shares in-depth results from the most recent interview-based study suggesting how and why the orchestra successfully delivers its wellness mission. The results have implications for the creation of other arts-based wellness initiatives to improve healthcare provider wellness, thus improving the healthcare experience for all.
