a proposal for a more fun senior project

this is a proposal i wrote, expanding the map idea, asking for space to do it at the end of the semester:

OLD GYM PROPOSAL 2008-2009

KELLYANNE MIFFLIN 301-518-4405 / km784@bard.edu


Description:

I am writing my senior project in anthropology/LAIS on the artistic expression coming out of social movements in Buenos Aires, Argentina right now. I am interested in how people are making politics creative and in what ways their cultural and artistic activities tie into larger social and political projects. I spent basically the past year (and intensively this past summer) in Argentina making friends, participating, and observing different groups and their various activities. Writing about this only in the form of a paper doesn’t come close to showing the neat inspiring things that are happening in Argentina right now and leaves the voices of the actual participants only accessible through my words, which doesn’t feel satisfactory. So this would be the visual, interactive, tangible creative part of my senior project.

I would like to include the following components:
1. The central part would be a gigantic fabric hand-sewn 3-d map (sewn from material, silkscreen, trash, etc. collected in Argentina). The map would also be made up of objects and words, but primarily would be to show all of the different neighborhood groups/art collectives/popular libraries/community centers/street theater etc. that form a larger network of autonomous horizontal cultural and artistic spaces working for social change in some way. On this map, with color coded yarn, different connections between the groups and spaces will be traced out. (Physical, geographical, collaborative, activities, historically connected, etc.)
2. The yarn would also lead out into the room from points on the map that I want to expand on, specifically relating to the 4 groups that I am writing my project on. So Imagine that the fabric map takes up most of an entire wall and then leading out of it into different parts of the room you follow the yarn to places that would be set up with video projections of art actions, with recreations of parts of murals, with audio clips of interviews. I have a huge amount of documentation and collaborative work of the projects of these people ranging from video, photo, woodcut, silkscreen, audio recordings, artwork, tools, flyers, zines, books, posters. I am also working in a woodcut class on projects relating to this which would be incorporated into the show. Everything will be accessible and able to be touched and examined and read (there will also be some translations)
3. Murals are a huge part of the groups I was working with and I want to have a live mural painting in the Old Gym (perhaps next to video of a live mural painting in Argentina). The theme is still to be decided and would be determined by the painters. It would be happening live while people were moving around the space and there would be the opportunity to pick up a paintbrush and take part. (Don’t worry, with LOTS of drop cloths)
4. Aside from a primarily documentary manner of presenting all of this, I am planning some sort of interactive and participatory part. Ideally this would be popular theater working with the ‘audiences’ experiences in relation to all of the material, but I don’t think that part of it will actually be ready by December. What I am envisioning as possible is an extension of the map. I would like this to be not just ‘interactive’ but actually incorporating the experiences of people in the audience. Rather than just consuming in an inactive way the activities and creations of people and groups in Argentina, those experiences could be seen and then built upon. On the opening (or closing) night people would come together and talk about what this could be related to in their own communities. Material, yarn, and maps would be available to build off of the Argentina map, adding connections and places here in New York, and creating some sort of web of projects across countries.
5. I also am interested in documenting the process of researching and writing and the personal lived reality of anthropological work and how that is so often left out of the final piece but orients and influences every word that goes into it. Far too infrequently do we hear about the fears and worries of the anthropologist and all of the disasters, misunderstandings, personal feelings, and beautiful friendships that go into the creation of an academic project. Throughout the course of my research I’ve been in correspondence with other seniors doing fieldwork, people in Argentina, and friends and relatives outside of the university system who’ve provided invaluable dialogue and perspectives. I would like there to be a section of copies of journal entries, notes on the backs of subway cards, panicked e-mails, and snippets of conversations with participants about their feelings of being ‘researched.’

I love the Old Gym. My favorite performances have taken place there and I’ve always wanted to be involved in something in the Old Gym and now am in my last semester at Bard. As I’ve been planning this project I hadn’t been able to envision it working in any space at Bard until I thought of the Old Gym. The Old Gym would be ideal for this because of the amount of space it provides and the opportunity to work in a multi-media way and cross-disciplinary. The Old Gym allows the possibility to display a lot of material as well as include a performative part at the same time as well as specially light certain parts. What is great about it is that it can be used by so many diverse performances and feel right for each one (unlike say Smog or the MPR that have distinct feels to them no matter what the show). I am excited to be working in a student space, especially because my whole project focuses on community run, autonomous, non-hierarchical spaces.

amigxs: perdón por la larga ausencia. entre ordenando mis cosas en eeuu, viendo mi familia, pasando unos dias en el carcel por participar en una manifestación y volviendo a la facultad no he tenido ni un minuto libre. pero ya estoy empezando a pensar en esto otra vez y estoy emocionada de compartir mas y abrir el dialogo de nuevo. hasta pronto!!