kirkqcastudytrip

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Photos taken in the Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow of the didactic accompanying the installation

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Initial Research into Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow

http://www4.shu.ac.uk/mediacentre/features-comment/yesterday-today-tomorrow

Artist Bryan McCormack spent most of year visiting (dozens) both official and unofficial refugee sites across Europe - asked people to make three drawings, one representing ‘Yesterday’ (their past life), ‘Today’ (their present life) and ‘Tomorrow’ (imagining their future).  Presented as focus of installation in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini for the 57th Venice Biennale.  

McCormack talks about these drawings as giving a voice and dignity to those who have had theirs taken away - helping to create a ‘traceability’ of their experience.  

Also uses social media (Twitter, Instagram & Facebook) to regularly post

Majority of people in sites visited owned smart phones - connection - by sharing, commenting or liking these drawings people are acknowledging the experience of the artists and, even in a small way, are helping to give people a voice

McCormack additionally delivered a class to students at Sheffield Hallam Theatre students to create performances of ‘living sculptures’ based on drawings (eh..) - displayed as part of the Venice installation

Traceability is credibility

exhibition on the walls was photographs of the various locations where the artists of the drawings were residing

http://www.agendavenezia.org/en/evento-38052.htm

drawings are ‘visual blocks’ for the installation

on social media the artist wishes to ‘sensitize the world’ to the crisis

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Initial Green Light Project Research

Described on the artist’s website as ‘Green light is an act of welcoming, addressed both to those who have fled hardship and instability in their home countries and to the residents of the cities receiving them. …  Mass displacement and migration are core challenges in the world today, affecting millions of people around the globe. Green light displays a modest strategy for addressing the challenges and responsibilities arising from the current situation and shines a light on the value of collaborative work and thinking.’

‘multifaceted programme of creativity and shared learning.  The educational programme includes a workshop for the construction of Green light lamps, language courses, seminars, artist’s interventions, and film screenings’

- rest of website features slick interactive animation (supposedly) outlining the steps of the design, as well as a video showing the assembly of the green light. ��‘Made from recycled and sustainable materials and designed to be stackable, the Green light modules can function either on their own or be combined into more complex structures.’

Geometry of green light was developed with Einar Thorsteinn as part of his long standing research into fivefold symmetry

On artist’s website also mentions NGO Georg Danzer Haus - no links to either that or Emergency

http://olafureliasson.net/greenlight/

Francesca von Habsburg, founder of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21), and by TBA21’s chief curator Daniela Zyman

Made from European Ash, Recycled plastics from yogurt cups, plastic bags, recycled nylon & LED

Website also features links to a shop where the green light object is for sale for 250 euro - can be bought during course of the bienalle or mailed as a flat pack with a certificate of authenticity

All proceeds of the fundraising campaign are donated entirely to Emergency, a humanitarian NGO that work with refugees.

https://www.tba21.org/#item--greenlight_venice--1631

Issues inherent in NGO’s - resulting in lessened infrastructure in host countries (only issue if there is infrastructure at all, though)

During the planning process, they discussed the project in depth with the local aid organisations that they partnered with — Georg Danzer Haus and Caritas — who then brought in a new perspective and contributed new ideas.

http://tlmagazine.com/olafur-eliasson-on-green-light-at-tba21/

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/about_gl_history

Pilot of project at TBA21-Augarten, Vienna - ‘structure that could be replicated and further developed in collaboration with other institutions and other contexts worldwide’

Raised over 100,000 euros

Each iteration up to 40 refugees and asylum seekers are invited for period of seven to eight weeks to build lamps - complemented by educational program based on Shared Learning principles. - ‘explore a variety of perspectives on migration, citizenship, statelessness, arrival, memory, & belonging, and generate an exchange of knowledge, experiences, and values.’

‘Green light aspires to expand by partnering with institutions around the world that are eager to use the agency of contemporary art to support processes of civic change and to test alternative forms of community.’

In first iteration in Augarten, Vienna - Shared Learning program consisted of daily German classes (devised to prepare for official language exams) - series of weekly seminars, artist’s interventions and special workshops.  

Seminars such as ‘Displaced’ and ‘History(ies) of Migration’ brought students and refugees into teams to deconstruct notion of migration & individual impacts.

Number of artists (Tarek Atoui, Johannes Porsch, Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs Media Collective, and David Rych) held ‘research-based, process-oriented interventions’ - based in belief in the ‘transformative potential of collective and embodied artistic production’

International and local speakers with expertise in artistic and institutional practise or critical theory were invited to speak ‘explored the social, geopolitical, and cultural aspects of migration’.  

‘Key questions were the states of transition, globally and within the societies of arrival, the formation of new communities, and how art and its institutions can reflect and perform agency in regard to these contemporary challenges.’

Feb 24-May6 2017 held in Houston Texas (one of top 3 US cities to welcome refugees in last year) - NGO was Interfaith Ministries.  Shared Learning program involved language classes, job formation training.

May 13- Nov 26 2017 at 57th Bienalle di Venezia, Venice - Eighty Participants - Shared Learning involved vocational and practical training (job training, language courses, psychological & legal counselling), collective applied activities & discursive program of lectures, talks and seminars.  Contributors selected based on criteria such as interest in pedagogical (?) working methods, experience working with marginalised groups, development or directorship of schools or alternative educational hubs run or influenced by artists, and biographical diversity.

August 4-November 5, 2017

Invited to participate in 6th Yokohama Triennale - context of geopolitical constellations and protectionist Japanese immigration policies.  This iteration of Green light centred on ‘enclosed communities’ within Japanese society, invites climate and nuclear refugees, indochinese communities who immigrated in 1970s as well as local students & volunteers.  Shared Learning Program responds to specific context in Japan - has four local NGOs

If not a full 7 or 8 week artistic workshop, Green Light can be demonstrated in smaller formats - some ‘short seminar workshops’ that last two or three days.  Held in Art Basel, Switzerland (June 18-19, 2016), the International Peace Institute in Salzburg (IPI) (September 4-6, 2016) & the National Gallery of Prague, Czech Republic (March 17-19, 2017) - some of the above were supervised by former Green Light participants, who in some instances gave workshops or small tutorials in the assembly of the lamps as well as sharing their experiences.

http://greenlightworkshop.org/green_light

Project initiated in collaboration between Danish-Icelanding artist Olafur Eliasson & Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (TBA21)

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/about_shared_learning

Shared Learning engages artists, dancers, language teachers, educators & cultural practitioners.  “school’ of Shared Learning is located in centre of Green Light Space -  curriculum has daily language classes tailored to language skills of participants & weekly psychological counselling - ‘Legal assistance & vocational training provided intermittently & upon request’

Artistic workshops are devised for the participants of Green Light therefore active participation by visitors is limited

http://greenlightworkshop.org/shared_learning - program: 6 week Occupational Consultancy, legal consultancy, workshop on fashion-textiles and identity, artistic workshops such as ‘A Cosmology of the Sea’, artist talks, film workshops

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/You-must-have-control-of-your-life

main feature of the texts in an interview with Tahajud Alghrabi, a 48yo asylum seeker from Baghdad who used to work as a school principle  - outlines her history of migration from Iraq, syria, Jordan & turkey in 2015 cam eight husband and two sons to Austria - currently working in a school supporting teachers w/ students of migratory backgrounds

Read about Green Light on the internet - went to the first meeting - introduced herself to Francesca von Habsburg ‘I don’t have time to stay at home and wait for somebody to help me.  I want to help myself’ - wasn't on the list with the red cross but after insisting to Daniela Zyman to be admitted she told red cross it was okay.  Wanted to use program to get a job after - sort of stand in CV.   Has gone on to help other people in seeking asylum, w/ jobs and taking care of children through shared understanding of experience and language.  ‘team was really good, they knew they were dealing with people who had suffered a lot and they treated all of us very gently’

In the words of the artist: http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/Assembling-Light-Assembling-Communities ‘Art and culture, I believe, can have a pertinent role to play in responding to such events: as a start, it can reverse our emotional disconnect and, whether directly or indirectly, inspire us to take action.’

‘We believe that culture is able to shine a light on and shape discussions about contemporary global challenges such as climate change and forced migration, and is able to develop new models of interaction and catalyze positive change.’

‘The journey (from the assembly of a light module to social change) might seem long and convoluted, yet a simple but crucial first step is to trust the potential in the non-spectacular situation of sitting down together and doing something basic with out hands’

lamp is more easily assembled with two pairs of hands. even though in later interview one participant said he got it done faster by himself

lamp was developed by close friend of artist - late Einar Thorsteinn (mathematician & architect) “super cube’ - geometric study began between artist and Thorsteinn & continued by the artist and his studio.  

Hope that as Green Light community expands, cities, national governments & policy makers are influenced by creative approaches to welcoming refugees

http://greenlightworkshop.org/blog_list/8

Well kept blog with multiple posts per week - some centring on experiences of individual participants, some documentations of Shared Learning workshops

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/A-place-where-we-could-spend-time

in interview w/ Murtaza Azimi 16yo Afghani refugee - heard about green light through his guardian ‘chance for all of us who are not going to school yet.’ mostly attracted by german classes - which quickly improved, learned to lose discomfort in the presence of people from other countries & how to live together and alongside others, ‘learned a lot about myself and about good manners and the importance of the way you behave’.

‘Yes, the project meant structure. Since the project ended, I’ve been taking language courses and two times a week I play football, and that’s it. It’s exhausting. Not being able to do anything is exhausting. Not doing anything is exhausting by itself.’

Look into experience of participants after involvement with project -

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/Shared-Learning

‘conceived as an alternate educational model catering to plurality’

‘project answered to a double-bind systematic default: a lack of future possibilities for those who slip through the loopholes of the governing legal system and the construction of internal borders that enforce social, economic, cultural, spacial & personal marginalisation.’

cooking sessions - of interest

weekly initiatives

Participating artists focused on alternative educational models - ‘education without an emphasis on the production of expertise’

Ahmet Ögüt’s ‘Silent University’ curricula developed by refugees and migrants for refugees and migrants - to reactivate knowledge and studies that the individual can no longer practice due to circumstance

Artist-Musician Tarek Atoui’s workshop involved participants recording their environments (the park, city, instruments, speech & chants) which were subsequently composed into a sound piece.

‘internalized, institutionalized, and socialized othering and bordering can be reversed if we recognize our own situations and contributions to subtle structures of domination and are thus able to take another subject’s viewpoint’

‘

[6]

Sara Danius, Stefan Jonsson, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “An Interview with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,” Boundary 2 20, no. 2 (1993): 24.↩

https://www.tba21.org/journals/article/Hosting-the-Spirit-of-Green-light

in words of artist ‘Green light aims to decentralise hospitality’ … ‘which means there is no centre, but rather only periphery’

‘We constructed a simple experiment, in which people first had to build something together and then they had to play a sharing game with each other. This is an investment game; it is called a public goods game among economists. The idea is that I put something into a pool and you put something into a pool. We don’t know what the other person puts into the pool, but this pool magically grows and we share whatever is in it. Now the best for me would be if you put everything into the pool, I get half of your things and then I keep everything for myself. Of course for you this would be a very bad strategy, and the crucial question is if we could come up with a situation in which we both trust each other to invest the maximum. What we found in this experiment is quite surprising, namely that when people built something together, which they knew the purpose of, then they were basically investing everything in the communal pool afterward. Whereas when people didn’t know the purpose of what they were doing, then they were much more reluctant to engage in the simple collective play of investing in a sharing kind of way. And very interestingly, when they knew what the result of the work was all about, they were also much more willing to trust or invest in another person whom they hadn’t met previously.’

‘when you don’t know the outcome of the labor that you are involved in, you become, so to speak, disembodied’

http://greenlightworkshop.org/article/You-have-to-be-social

Interview with Anas Aljajeh (27) studied Interior Design in Damascus until Syrian civil war - parts of the workshop that worked out fine ‘cooking together, eating together, sitting, talking’.  

‘But the work itself, when we were working as a team, could sometimes get complicated, because not all the members of the team were working on the same level, you know? One person would make three lamps per day and three other people together make only one lamp a day. It created some complications.’

‘But in Greenlight I found that I actually preferred to work a little bit by myself. Because I preferred to improve, to make more lamps every day, which I could do that better if I worked alone.’

‘sometimes, I didn’t think the preparation of the wooden sticks was perfect. So I would have to redo them to my standards. Because I knew how to do it the way I wanted it to be. So that the lamps I made were perfect in my eyes, by my standards. I wanted to keep my standards.’

‘I think it’s important to find places like this, where you create infrastructure, where people come together with ideas, people who want to work and sharpen their skills.’

‘The problem with translation was there, since on the one hand we had work connecting us, but we still always needed language. You need good translators. If you can’t communicate to someone else the full idea in all its clarity, then they won’t understand what is happening.’

http://www.arterritory.com/en/texts/articles/6640-an_uncomfortable_green_light

As Eliasson said in an interview with The Art Newspaper, “I would love to say to Angela Merkel: ‘Here is a model.’”

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On the ‘Doing’ of visual research on borders and migration: Collaboration between Professional Photographers, Social Scientists and Subjects BALL, Suzan

who holds copyright in Y/T/T - not addressed at all

Conformed consent assumes ‘that the subjects are made fully aware of the purpose of the research, what they will be required to do and how the images will be used, and are asked to make an explicit statement of their consent.’

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Why Do Immigrants and Refugees Give Back to Their Communities and what can we learn from civic engagement? WENG, Suzie

Refugee communities are often overlooked as rich resource for volunteerism and giving back

immigrants volunteering ‘can enhance social and human capital which contributes to integration into the host country’

Transnational philanthropy (as in an example of Somali refugees collecting remittances in Canada to support education in Dadaab refugee camps) - lessens the distance of separation - associated with ‘giving back motivation of altruism and patriotism’

Remittances could have been a better idea for Green Light? - probably would have raised more ethical dilemmas.

four reasons immigrants give back: -maintain ethnic identity, (green light doesn’t do much for this, instead opting to create a homogenising label of ‘refugee’) -ethnic community as extension of family, - sense of duty and obligation, - measure of success

for refugees  - a sort of extended family can be based on the shared experience of being forced to migrate - sense of community

remittances not just money being sent ‘what they can do from far away to contribute to a specific cause and goal’

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Participatory Action Research: Practical Strategies for Actively Engaging and Maintaining participation in Immigrant and Refugee Communities VAN DER VELDE, Jeannette

Research indicates correlation between cultural changes experienced by IDP and rates of mental illness - lose their natural support systems

in arrangment of study pre-focus group questionairre was used - increases ‘likelihood that both minority and dominant views are included in focus group discussions’ also can be starting place for in-depth discussion

focus group conversations transcribed verbatim and analysed for thematic content

Participants stressed importance of tangible rewards (skill learning that could result in future employment), cultural norms and altruism for initiating involvement

‘continued participation was enhanced by the operational design of the project; the real, and perhaps perceived sense of opportunity; and particiapnst’ willingness and desire to learn.’ features that promoted continued invovlement were a democratic process, community involvement,  

hey just thinking about the Foucalt views of power and Green Light - especially that artists interview - in the picture were the participants sitting on the ground listening to an artist and a colleague discuss? and they were discussing basically how well their own project is/esoteric art theories (which were pretty high folauten)  - that really doesn't do much to recognise or challenge the conventional flows of power does it?

was there consultation with the participants of green light as to who or what would be booked as workshops?  Was there discussion around the structuring of the program with them?

‘Learning is viewed as a two-way process because it provides opportunities for practitioners and community members to learn new ways of attaining and interpreting knowledge’

consequence of multi-ethinc project was that communities learned about and from one another.

the aspects of the project that lead to participant empowerment: -creation and control of project by community members, -‘active involvement in a project designated for the betterment of their communities’

‘networking between mainstream and community-based human service agencies and raising public awareness about the challenges that newcomers encounter increase the prospect of social change’

What is the continuing engagement in Green Light and Y/T/T

Further involvement in the process was field by - having internal knowledge validated, -learning and practicing new skills -witnessing changes in other participants and themselves

collective advocacy for change and momentum is accumulated over time as individuals become more empowered - best if a few cycles of learning, practicing and observing change are iterated over

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The Microphysics of Participation in Refugee Research DONA, Giorgia

people researching forced migration inherently accept that their research will (through the generation of knowledge) help those like their research participants

‘research into the suffering of others can only be justified if alleviation of that suffering is an explicit objective’ - Turton 1996

is the tracability and credibility that Y/T/T promises as an alleviation sufficient?  Does Y/T/T even succeed in its goal - the Instagram only has like 250 followers, is it being promoted (i guess it’s well hash tagged?) - sure it’s being maintained - for how long?

FB page has 613 likes

Some of these works are signed for goddamn sake - and the artist isn’t named - that feels wrong

resarch into forced migration is ‘partisan’ through its objective for change in the plight of the subjects of investigation - influence the policies on part of goverment, NGO, refugee community organisation & inter-government agencies

‘participation refers to citizenship rights and democracy in political sciences (Habermas 1989), is articulated as the inclusion of ‘subjugated knowledges’ in philosophy and sociology (Foucalt 1980), and is concerned with issues of representation: of the ethnographer as the narrator of another culture in anthropology (Abu-Loghod 2006; Clifford and Marcus 1986), of gender in mainstream research (Wolf 1992; Indra 1999), and of the ‘Other’ in critical literary theory and post-colonial studies (Said 2000)

Refugees viewed as ‘objects’ when ‘their lives and experiences are investigated from the perspective of others such as government officials, aid workers, lawyers or receiving societies’ members, or when they are symbolically present as “objects” of study in disciplines such as legal theory or international relations that deal with institutional and legal frameworks’ - don’t have power over the knowledge that is produced about them.

‘subjects’ when they are limited in their involvement in the research process  - have little power over the information is retained in the process

‘social actors’ when in dialogue with researcher, ‘inform the consent of the research process’ - don't just respond to pre-formulated questions but are treated as ‘informants’

‘participants and co-researchers’ when they are ‘involved, informed, consulted, and heard’ in a methodology that views the ‘co-production of knowledge’ as research

ideally (i guess): objects of government policy, subjects to welfare provisions, social actors and/or co-researchers in social movements, advocacy groups, non-governmental and refugee community organisations.

Miller (2004) uses analogy of ‘frontstage’ and ‘backstage’ and stresses importance of research participants being involved in relationships of trust that allow ‘backstage access’

Kothari (2001) criticises the participatory discourses as reinforcing binaries, such as those between powerless and powerful, north and south, local knowledge and professional knowledge, lowers and uppers - wherein aim is to reverse them

Foucalt’s idea of ‘microphysics’ (rather than ‘macrophysics’) of power is examination of everyday aspects (many sites of power & diverse manifestations) of power relations (rather than centralised forms such as ‘concentration in the hands of a coercive elite or a ruling class’)

‘with no agency, host country, nor the migrant population wishing to concieve of refugee measures as being long term, there is no motivation to develop these kinds of planning and structures that are required to foster participation’

‘Participatory research with the “refugee community” … is an essentialising practise if the term refugee is used as a label’, whereas participatory research ‘with refugees’ can be translated as programmatic participation and participatory research ‘with refugee advocacy groups or refugee community organisations' LOOKING AT YOU, GREEN LIGHT ‘when it incorporates aspiration for broader political changes, direct advocacy work or social transformation may become transformative participation’ - what was Green Light’s involvement with advocacy groups or refugee community organisations?

‘Representation implies the presence of a physical or symbolic entity that acts as advocate, ‘bears witness’, makes visible’

Foucalt: power circulates - only functions in the form of a chain - never localised, in anyone’s hands, appropriated (like a commodity or piece of wealth).  Individuals circulate between it’s treads - always undergoing and exercising this power - not target also elements of articulation. ‘individuals are the vehicles of power, not points of application’

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‘Stop Stealing Our Stories’: The Ethics of Research with Vulnerable Groups PITTAWAY, Eileen

Reflects principles of an anti-oppressive social work

‘the responsibility to the story’: ‘Where does knowledge about the story come from and how is it passed on?” “What spurs ethical thinking at an individual and organisational level? ‘How can ethical sensitivity and strategic effectiveness be combined?’

IDP - Internationally Displaced Persons

Beauchamp and Childress - model of bioethics - frequently lacks capacy to address problems in working with vulnerable populations

Inherent power imbalances between researches and participants

also inherent in the power relations between artist and participants in Green Light and Y/T/T

Documentation of Y/T/T is kind of bull - on the artists websites are only JPG with pictures of exhibition, no text, no further information is readily available on internet

‘Researchers are often perceived as having power to effect change at both an individual and community level, and refugees are very cognisant of this fact.’

-refugees often take risk in airing grievances with researches such as retributory punishment from camp authorities

was this covered in Y/T/T?  On the one hand the lack of authorship attributed to the artists in Y/T/T could be protecting them from retribution in the hands of camp authorities - but the complete lack of information about this makes it impossible to know - the Artist has a responsibility to a)think through all of these things and b)be as transparent and open as possible with their audience

Privaliging of refugees who engage in research as to those who don’t - in one case after a study was conducted 100 families were moved from refugee camp in Africa to the west, but no assessment of the difference of need between those who were move and those who were not

most obvious problem - researches publishing data without sufficient consideration of impact on involved community.

whether or not the refugee community (after potentially extensive isolation) will understand the implications of releasing a DVD to the media

Some refugees, when their photos and stories are used in media and become public knowledge, and are subsequently resettled in a country are shocked - gave ‘informed consent’ but had little understanding of what this might mean at a later stage of their lives

community representation is called into question when community leaders or people in authority have control of who is permitted to be the participant in a study - exacerbated by NGO ‘gatekeepers’ who in turn control access to community leaders - as NGO’s validate the community leader’s powers and therefore the community leaders do not research to reflect poorly on the NGO

Often divide is gendered with male leaders speaking on behalf of entire community, female representatives (many through strong push from UNHCR) are sometimes token appointments

Should the ethical dilemmas such as representation of authorship/confidentaility of artists in Y/T/T be addressed in the exhibition and documentation of the work?

‘What does “informed consent” mean in an isolated refugee camp with security problems and no proper interpreters?’  ‘people are so desperate for any form of assistance they would agree to anything just on the off chance that I might be able to assist.  It makes asking for permission to interview them or take photographs a farce…’ (personal comment - Linda Bartolomei, 2004)

principle of reciprocity - ‘researchers need to return to the community something of real value, in forms determined by participants themselves’ - current funding arrangements usually don’t allocate sufficient time or resources

in study which this paper emerged from the reciprocal benefits requested by women’s group participants were training and programme support

unsound practices may raise expectations for participants which are never met or introduce dangers of ‘retraumatization’ if sensitive issues are handled inappropriately

Well i guess we are to assume that reciprocity was not considered in Y/T/T (unless the exposure of their work in the context of the art work is considered so) and isn’t there kind of a good chance that an element of retraumatization is to be expected in a possibly triggering activity such as drawing a representation of your ‘yesterday’, ‘today’, or even ‘tomorrow’?

Non-intervention in the name of ‘objective’ research, when a human being is in need (the example given is in the case of a 9 year old girl who had been raped and injured who wasn’t receiving adequate treatment) is ‘ethically untenable.

the ethical issues in this article were raised by the communities of refugees and IDP’s that the authors worked with - not academic pursuit

. They asked us to lead them to women who had been raped so they could record their stories. ‘Tell us what happened – how did you feel?’ Women were so upset after the interviews, we did not know what to do. We never heard from them [the researchers] again – we decided then that we would never work with researchers again. They stole our stories. We can gather the stories ourselves from our own people – you can help [with training]. (Women’s Group, Thailand, 2003)

‘firmly places refugees as “objects” of research and denies their agency and capacity to respond to the serious issues affecting their communities’

‘They speak to “owenership” of the issue once it has been told, and how much control research participants have over these once they are taken away from them’

Women from the Womens Group in Thailand, 2003, agreed to be research participants in return for training and project support, as well as ethics agreement which put them in control of materials selected - researchers could only use data with sign off from participants

Read Licence to Rape by Shan Women’s Action Network, 2002

Methodology laid out in article very interesting!!!!! - Reciprocal Research Through Community Consultation and Training - process starts with provision of human rights training - 4-6+ days working with communities.  Human rights framework sets context for discussion & to identify abuses experienced by participants.  ‘stories as evidence’ concept is introduced by participants sharing stories of issues within the human rights framework. Though the use of storyboards,  ‘Situational Analysis’ and ‘response mechanisms’ are developed by participants  - through which proposals for actions, response and intervention are produced.  Storyboarding allows naming of issues within communities by the participants themselves and recognises their inherent skills, knowledge & experience.  Further interviews can explore themes which emerge from this stage.  Strategic planning is the final stage of methodology - seeks to address some of issues found in earlier stages - plan advocacy program.  ‘Wherever possible all key stakeholders are involved in this final stage’.  Ethical ‘confidentiality agreement’ - researches ensure materials collected remain property of participants who must give permission for them to be used.  Ethical framework is based on UNSW Ethics Agreement, but is often expanded upon (Pittaway and Bartolomei, 2009a, 2009b; http://www.crr. unsw.edu.au).

NGOs and UN agencies have commissioned training in the above methodology - researchers are often told by participants that this is the first time they feel they have been ‘listened’ to.  

‘Once the process is understood by the communities, people self-select to participate’

Authors Pittaway and Bartolomei, with Rebecca Eckert were at the time of writing conducting a three year project with refugee women resettled in Australia (CHECK OUT) - ‘Author Hugman is monitoring the process ‘to evaluate the way in which the ethical framework is applied …. process involves examining and at times challenging the organisational ethics procedure to ensure that it is adequate to the needs of very vulnerable groups and non-traditional research methodologies.  Similar work has been done by researchers working with indigenous communities in Australia’

‘Ethics should be extended to promoting the interests and well-being of extremely vulnerable research subjects … promotes an ethical understanding of subjects as participants in and beneficiaries of such research’

Participatory approach has potential to build agency through ‘enhancing the skill base of some participants, providing access to services, offering new contacts and facilitating their voices being heard’

‘if the affected communities are not actively participating in identifying rights violations and solutions, then it is not a rights-based approach’

in response to criticism that the teaching of human right to refugees who live in extreme poverty and are often pre-literate is setting of false expectations or hopes:

Sally Engle Merry (2001: 94) has argued that ‘In many ways human rights represents a discourse available for framing problems rather than a system of law for preventing them’.

Training in human rights enable refugees to make informed decisions and to acknowledge their agency - more effective to lobby from an informed position

Agency: ‘the capacity of people to actively engage in challenging social structures in order to bring about emancipation and social change (Pease et al., 2003; Ngwenyama in Boudreau, 1997) .

mismatches of exceptions - could be in Green Light

new ethical framework ‘moving beyond the dominant principles of harm minimization to an emphasis on negotiated reciprocal benefit that challenges researchers to justify their projects with reference to the benefits delivered to the vulnerable groups themselves.’

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From Refugee to Good Citizen: A Discourse Analysis of Volunteering YAP, Su Yin

Paper is about how refugees who volunteer with refugee organisations talk about themselves and their work ‘constructed as a technology of self, a way of transforming the refugee into a ‘good citizen’ - way of preparing for the labour market & as self improvement

volunteering may help to mitigate feelings of powerlessness caused by inability to work, and also may assist in the gaining of social approval

reduces isolation and boredom and contributed to their wellbeing

relieve depression and anxiety

in reporting from refugees who had volunteered, meta level discourse of ‘good citizen’ was well articulated - route to employment, a way of self improvement

Good citizen within social context which largely constructs them as negative

Foucalt (1982) ideas of governmentality with  citizenship involving ‘normalizing individuals by transforming them into subjects who actively participate’

Allows refugees to ‘resist dominant constructions of refugees as lazy and drain on the economy’

certain opportunities are afforded with access to the ‘good value citizen’ position (which can be attained through volunteering) such as ‘acceptance and/or approval from the British people’

‘proof of industriousness’

Many still recognise racism as a barrier to social acceptance regardless of industrious refugee behaviour such as volunteering.

‘construction of volunteering as a form of self-improvement assumes a universal capacity for agency and silences an exploration of why refugees might be ‘sitting’. - ‘no recognition that it may be more difficult for others to mobilise themselves to volunteer or learn English’

Constructs a hierarchy of refugees with ones who volunteer are seen as competent, active and refugees who don't as passive, voiceless and helpless

‘construction of volunteering as social action offers the refugee a way of resisting the power of the asylum system’

‘good citizen’ meta discourse - has many political and social constructions - constructions of refugee as economic burden can remain unchallenged though, in the hierarchy of refugees - volunteering is constructed as an activity that will repay the State for its financial assistance

humanitarian constructions of volunteering may be lost if volunteering comes to be perceived by refugee volunteers as obligatory

Plurality of constructions (volunteering as activism or as a means to social change) could be lost if active citizenship through volunteering is enforced

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Managing Ethical Dilemmas in Community-Based Participatory Research With Vulnerable Populations - CAMPBELL-PAGE, Ruth

research team working with undocumented immigrants - seeking health care in Toronto, Canada

When two participants  thought that one of the researchers was a spy for the CBSA (authority?) it was partly because there was not sufficient rapport between these participants and the researcher in question

What was the rapport establishing process in Green Light y/t/t - how was trust established between participants and the organising artists?

imbalance of power between participants in the projects

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Collaborations and Performative Agency in Refugee Theater in Germany - BHIMJI, Fazila

Formation of political identities of asylum seekers within theatre in Germany  - performative agency

Refugees lend their stories to theatre productions via interview (then performed by professional actors verbatim) as well as participating in follow-up discussion

performative resistance against invisibility, isolation and disconnectedness

to resist isolation legally imposed on them through by german state - collaborate with touring theatre team.

Refugees and non-status immigrants through political acts, such as visibly protesting, have performed ‘acts of citizenship’ counter to their formal denial of citizenship from the state.

‘refugees in collaboration with the theatre company break themselves away from the ways in which they are positioned within dominant German society and articulate and convey themselves in novel ways.’

‘refugee’s voices together with the actor’s voices become intrinsically a collaborative political movement’

‘within the space of the theatre, the refugee can elect to “talk back”, ‘Embody”, “parody”, or simply “retell” their experiences’…’contest assumed representations and become an activist figure’

stopped reading at “methodology” on page 88 and started at the conclusion

Wait hold up is anyone getting paid in either green light or y/t/t?

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The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents: Claire Bishop

‘All artists are alike. They dream of doing something that's more social, more collaborative, and more real than art. -Dan Graham’

talking about the criticism which has responded to an increase prominence of socially collaborative art: ‘the social turn in contemporary art has prompted an ethical turn in art criticism’ heightened attention to how a give collaboration is undertaken … artists are increasingly judged by their working processes the degree to which they supply good or bad models of collaboration-and criticized for any hint of potential exploitation that fails to "fully" represent their subjects, as if such a thing were possible. - justified as oppositional to capitalism’s predilection for the contrary

Santiago Sierra

Accusations of mastery and geocentricism are levelled at artists who work with participants to realise a project instead of allowing it to emerge though consensual collaboration

Oda Projesi (Turkish for Room Project) is an artists collective that works with community in the Galata district of Istanbul - organise workshops, collaboration with neighbours & community -  in interview stated that they consider ‘aesthetic’ to be ‘a dangerous word’

Swedish curator Maria Lind interested in ‘using art as a means for creating and recreating new relations between people’ rather than showing or exhibiting art

HIRSCHORN’S BATAILLE MONUMENT 2002

Lind considers Oda Projesi’s approach as more successful than Hirschorns because of equal status of collaborators -   Hirschorn’s work ‘by using participants to critique the art genre of the monument, was rightly criticised for “‘exhibiting” and making exotic marginalised groups and thereby contributing to a form of social pornography’

Lucy Lippard - Book The Lure Of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society presents eight-point “place ethic” for artists who work with communities

GET UR HANDS ON THAT - check out Dogville - lars von trier

Socially engaged art has been largely been exempt from art criticism, in part because of the privileging of authorial intentionality over conceptual significance as aesthetic or social form. Emphasis on moral precepts over specifics of given work.  

‘The discursive criteria of socially engage art are, at present, drawn from a tacit analogy between anticapitalist and the Christian ‘good soul’’. Focus on self-sacrifice, a renunciation of the artist’s authorial presence to allow participants mouthpieces, fused with a viewing of the aesthetic of art as ‘useless’

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Making Art to Make a Difference: A Review of a Collaborative Project Between an Arts and a Social Service Organisation

Becca Baniskis & Jane Oxton

Resource Exchange Design Team in review of collaboration between Paramount Theatre & Visual Arts Centre and Hands Across the World (HAW) in small city of St. Cloud Minnesota asked three questions:  

-How might art making lead to greater knowledge and understanding among people with varied artistic and cultural traditions and backgrounds?

-What does it take to build and sustain an effective collaboration between an arts and a social service organisation?

-What about the work in question is specific to the local context and what might be relevant to teaching artists and educators elsewhere?

HAW had in the past found that arts had been effective ‘as a means of teaching language, work and social skills …. relaxation and expression’

selected art forms that would help the development of fine motor skills (use of scissors, needle threading, paint brush) that could be translated into other forms of work to widen opportunity for employment. - many students were not able to develop these skills during extended stays in refugee camps

lesson plans often needed to be adjusted or abandoned to ‘work in the reality of the moment’

photographer worked to document the project - found that many women didn’t want their faces captured on film - while the men were not concerned.  Ended up with a lot of photos of hands at work.  

in final exhibit included individual artist biographies to accompany the work, which many visitors spent extensive time reading

Most artists who were facilitating workshops stated desired goal as: ‘to create something students would regard as both beautiful and useful’

Teachers noted discomfort with language barrier as they were unable to gauge how much information was being absorbed by students. - used sometimes official translator, sometimes fellow students as well as vocabulary lists as needed.

Artists had to pay attention to what their students were making and use artwork as guide to determine next steps - artists eager to learn from their students

lack of student representation in project documentation - hearing from students more directly? why not Someone in the Somali community involved in project’s facilitation?  Art forms rooted in Somali culture and tradition?  Preperatory training for teachers to work across language gaps?

Project emphasis on storytelling evolved as facilitators got to know more about their students - some metaphors wouldn’t work as they were not familiar to students

“For example, she was unclear in her understanding of whether human representations in artwork would be an appropriate expectation for the students because of religious strictures. Everyone involved wanted to be very respectful of religious and cultural traditions. By connecting with artists and performers who are working in different art forms within Islamic culture and getting permission from a person with authority in that culture during the project, students and artists felt more freedom to fully participate.”

With the green light blog curated and maintained (presumably) by staff of APT21, where is the room for unmitigated responses from participants?  

If the participants in Y/T/T were noted to have access to smartphones, where is the linking to their personal accounts?  Tradeoff between anonymity and personal engagement/agency?

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Refugee Children and Art Teacher Training: Promoting Language, Self-Advocacy and Cultural Preservation - WELLMAN, Sascha

Art room proven to be “an especially effective place for immigrant and refugee students to exhibit an awareness of their new environment... and to confront disturbing issues and use problem-solving techniques through art- making processes” (Brunick, 1999, p. 17)

in teaching preservice art teachers the curriculum changed from more traditional art school lessons to an ‘asset-based model’ focussed on the promotion of language/literacy, self-advocacy, self-esteem & cultural preservation.

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Rozalinda Borcila - Learning Alongside

6+ is self-organised group of women in US - emerged in attempt to outline different ethics of artistic cooperation - committed to imagined return to Palestine

Held workshops with eighteen young women in Palestine (aged 16-18) involved bookmaking to create journals, with entries such as family stories, personal events, folklore etc are translated between English and Arabic - allowing for organic transformation.  Focus on unpacking one moment in each story. Each story recorded in 60 second audio.  In small groups ambient sounds are created and recorded from the environment - particular sounds are paired with moments in each story.  In follow up the girls continued to use the journals but not the recorder - taught siblings to make books.

aimed at sharing the recordings with a global audience - requested by everyone in the Dheisheh camp

‘existing models of ‘community arts’ in the US, which often work to conceal structures of oppression and domination’

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Learning With Refugees: Arts and Human Rights Across Real and Imagined Borders - MAGQUIRE

Maguire’s work since 2009 focusses on global collaborations with populations in conflict-affected environments -creates projects with local partners including children and youth -  emphasis on respect, long-term cooperation & open dialogue

Emphasis on sharing experiences with global audience - Green Light does this but emphasis is not there, do visitors to the bienalle get all the information from the blog, or the hint that it is there?

Created ‘Art and Human Rights:Western Sahara’ class, example of learning that is ‘critical, democratic, moral and ethical - as much as it is about ‘key skills’ or ‘deep’ individual learning (Walker, 2004, p. 131)

class concerned with looking at how artists & community can create society that is more just, which promotes solidarity with others as well as self-determination.

Class held at Abidin Said Sales Audiovisual School in Camp Boujdour in Western Sahara, all Saharawi students were born in the refugee camps

Partnered the class with other university programs, K-12 schools & community organisations seeking to foster ‘informed empathy’.  In working with the partners close to home were active in recognising and addressing impulses to essentialize the Saharawi partners.  Course was designed in partnership with educators in the camp around identity, international humanitarian law & arts as a tool for resistance grounded in Saharawi specific content.   Danger of a Single Story - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & How the Visual Arts can Further the Cause of Human Rights Craven 2011

This is dafur

^^TO READ^^

Students on US side (where were the partnering universities?? Adelphi University?) - weekly online conversations with Saharawi film school students in the course

Students Designed creative responses to content - reflective journal prompts bled into Skype discussions & sharing of personal stories - importance of witnessing & ‘holding space’ for sharing experiences of forced displacement, loss, torture from Saharawi students

Hosted ‘The Western Sahara Human Rights and Arts Festival’ - included social gatherings  with elements of Saharawi and American culture (henna painting, dance, tea ceremonies, collaborative art making, spoken word)

Had a guest speaker Robin Kahn - shared the documentation of The Art of Sahrawi Cooking: A Couscous Event which was exhibited at dOCUMENTA (13)

Entire event broadcast via internet with Saharawi peers in camp

Collaboration has fostered further interactions between the school and the camp and a documentary When the Sun Came for them consisting of shared oral histories about families & life in the camp, has been created to share the Saharawi situation with a broader audience

Nussbaum (2006) “the arts, by generating pleasure in connection with acts of cultural criticism, promote an endurable, even attractive dialogue with prejudices of the past, rather than an argument fraught with fear and defensiveness” (p. 3).

These partnerships could have been something that would have been good for Green Light - at the end of the day were lasting links between communities created?

Is there in Green Light any opportunity for the participants to ‘steer their course?’

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Supporting refugee students in schools: what constitutes inclusive education?

Sandra Taylora and Ravinder Kaur Sidhub*

RE READ AFTER ASSESMENT - Really good introduction to context of forced migration & links to globalism

Refugees fortunate enough to be settled in western countries have often stayed for 5-10 years in refugee camps which have devastating effect on educational development and attainment

lack of policy or targeted research around refugee youths has reduced opportunities for integration - when such research did take place, often treated refugee youths as homogenous groups, hindered understanding of specific needs and the development of appropriate educational support.

‘refugee children were often seen as ‘problems’ - rather than having the potential to bring positive elements into the classroom.’  Jones & Rutter (1998) identified main issues in refugee education: ‘delivering adequate language support, providing all students with information and understanding about refugee students’ experiences, and meeting the students’ psycho-social and emotional needs’   Later Rutter (2006) identifies further limitation in the governments ‘unwillingess to be seen as being supportive of refugees’. Much research frames refugee child as subject of ‘trauma’ which in Rutter’s view ‘impeded real analysis of their backgrounds and experiences’ and also minimises impact of post-migration experiences like racism, isolation as well as uncertainty about migration status.

should mention the massive benefactors behind the green light project as a hindrance to it’s scalability - is it self sustaining?  would economies of scale allow it to be self sustaining?  are we to suppose that there is an unlimited market for 250 euro LED green lamps?  - contrasted with infrastructure with is struggling to cope such as:

In a study of four Brisbane state high schools in 2008 (Matthews, 2008; Taylor) Teachers interviewed reported being struggling to cope with higher numbers of refugee students with insufficient resources in ESL and general teaching staff - as well as access to professional development opportunities which could provide skills to meet refugee children’s needs

-space for green light project (or similar projects) to provide??-

Arnot & Pinson (apparently holistic focused survey of school policies and practices in refugee education)

Rutter’s (2006) three discourses in ‘good practice’ literature: welcoming environment, need to meet psycho-social needs, linguistic needs.  Most successful interventions were the ones that targeted particular groups, rather than refugee students in general, viewed children holistically - worked to meet psycho-social & learning needs

Arnot & Pinson (2005) classify a holistic model as one that ‘recognises the complexity of needs of asylum seeker and refugee children - recognised refugees as having multiple needs and established support systems to meet all aspects of these needs - provided a targeted system of support for refugee students - importance of parental involvement, community links & working with other agencies

Does green light operate within this framework or on a layer above (supposedly state infrastructure) which is supposed to have support systems - is there enough comprehensive organisation to make sure that participants don’t have needs that fall through the cracks?

Well - they are working with the Red Cross, so assumedly - yes. What do the participants do after the program finalises - one interviewee said now that he is back to waiting again -

trust fund for post-school education of asylum seekers…….?><>?><>?><>