Creative Practice Showcases
Art-Making as Inquiry: Utilizing Interdisciplinary Expertise to Create an Arts-Based Program for Youth Impacted by HIV/AIDS in Hai Phong, Vietnam
Creative Practice Showcase Kyoungmee Byun, Victory Osezua, Thang Nguyen Duy, Andrew Winters, Doroty Sato, Sara Williams, Rebecka Bloomer, Lesley Harris
This presentation brings together artists, researchers, community organizers, curators, educators, and students from South Korea, Vietnam, and the United States in Fine Arts, Social Work, Youth Development, Public Health, and International Development. Together, we developed an Arts-Based Youth Development Program entitled “Our World, Our Say” in Hai Phong, Vietnam, while investigating the social impacts of HIV/AIDS from the standpoint of the local community. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the team developed an arts-based youth development curriculum to be implemented within a summer camp structure, used photovoice and other forms of art-making as inquiry, and compiled youth arts and narratives to raise awareness for social action via global art-advocacy exhibitions. The team engaged in youth-directed intervention development, including community campaigns, vocational training, and using social media to promote change. We explain the guidelines used to work in partnership throughout the project and the key lessons learned. We describe how the relationship between the interdisciplinary team developed and how we utilized these relationships and expertise to respond to challenges in the work. We focus on strategies for engagement in art-making as inquiry with youth, youth-adult partnerships, and power sharing. Despite increasing international art-based research, limited information is available on interdisciplinary program development. We focus on the nuances of a working partnership between artists, researchers, and the community. This presentation contributes to understanding how interdisciplinary networks, infrastructures, and initiatives support youth-serving organizations, center participants' voices, and ultimately improve project outcomes.
What Is the Correlation between Sound and Color in Raw Digital Data Formats?
Creative Practice Showcase Nick LeJeune
Throughout my work, I am always searching for interesting connections between light and sound. This includes how it involves the exploration into how sound is interpreted into visual information through open source command line software. In my graduate studies, I took digital images and converted them into sounds which were then organized into sound compositions. More recently, I have been researching my process in depth, RAW data formats for both sound and image, the different variations and methods used in the data import process and how color is translated from audio information. In galleries around the world, my installations convert raw information from the viewer into visual data. It is done by utilizing one to several kiosks that allow viewer interaction through webcams and microphones. This touches on several topics such as data visualization, raw data interpretation, surveillance, viewer interaction, installation art, video and sound art, color mapping and data conversion. Site specificity determines the size and scope of each installation as well as the number of kiosks. Each kiosk consists of one raspberry pi, one microphone, one webcam and one projector. Viewers enter the gallery and are encouraged to approach a vacant kiosk (or join an occupied one) interact with and alter the positioning, settings, focus, keystone of each projector and provide their own specific input to the webcams. In addition, viewers are encouraged to combine projections with other kiosks to create meta-projection compositions.
Women and the Symbolism of Ghanaian Wax Prints: An Interdisciplinary Storytelling Method
Creative Practice Showcase Xorlali Plange
Wax prints (Ankara/Ntoma) have become a fashion trend in the global modern space currently. Historically, Wax Prints have been part of African material culture since the 19th century. Women who joined the trade developed a system of naming these prints and turned it into a mode of conversation among each other. My research investigates the sources, theories and inspiration behind the names and what roles their meanings played in society and how that has evolved. This naming system is very crucial because it juxtaposes material culture with a non-verbal way of communication. As such, it is important for modern wearers to understand the philosophies behind them. This study collects sixty wax prints and examines their contribution to storytelling in today’s society. Key questions explored by the study are as follows: How did women and girls use clothing forms and patterns to address both serious and lighthearted issues in their communities and how are they interpreted in different spaces today such as theater, social justice movements and basic schools? We explore these questions in an organized workshop during which we introduced wax prints to children between the ages of 9 and 15 in a basic school as inspiration to produce essays and art works. The findings suggest that wax prints speak beyond their designs and colors. Hearing what they have to say opens up conversations and ignites creativity.
