Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper examines the installation and workshop series “Silver streaming systems 銀河系” to demonstrate how art workshops facilitate inclusive and affective environments. “Silver streaming systems 銀河系” was inspired by galaxy formation in scientific, ancient Greek, Japanese and Chinese mythologies, as well as feminist science studies, and the rivers that flow in Adachi city. The project was part of Immigration Museum Tokyo’s outreach program, held twice in three schools in Adachi city, with students of the 5th and 6th grades, and about 300 participants in total. In this paper, I describe the project’s implementation from my perspective as an artist facilitator, with auto-ethnography, material and technical narrations, and direct observations of and beyond the workshops. I take a queer phenomenological approach (Ahmed, 2006) to describe the workshops, and argue how the interactions with the material revealed having been directed in certain ways and the possibility of disrupting and reordering those. I draw the need to highlight the “frictions” (Tsing, 2005) when transcribing the field notes, to unravel the urgency of locality. The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of un-learning societal directions through art workshops accelerated with conceptual and physical matters. This paper contributes to the discourse on the importance of materiality in research and highlights the potential of art workshops to enhance new possibilities for personal and collective growth.