Sixth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This project is centered on the Black Lives Matter murals from various artists, creators, and makers and their murals and street art in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina and on the methodology of slow looking to critically experience the murals. The slow looking experience equips us with a greater intentionality in sitting with these images, their messages, and the lived realities that they reflect and convey by slowly viewing the entirety of the mural and art. Cogapp’s slow looking is seemingly most traditionally associated with high-brow art museums and pieces, but I want to challenge these associations - while retaining the intentionality of the experience, of sitting with a visual artifact at great length for more immersive experience. But instead of passively observing these visuals, how can we draw upon these image-experiences to pay attention to what and how we are seeing, thinking, and feeling? How do these images surprise, shock, challenge, ignite you? Simultaneously, I grapple with my own positionality as a white woman, educator, and student in relation to these murals and their messages.