Social Exchange, change, participation and the environment

‘All art invites social interaction; yet in the case of SEA it is the process itself – the fabrication of the work – that is social’ (P.Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art: 11)

Helguera identifies four types of participation: ‘Nominal’, ‘Directed’, ‘Creative’ and ‘Collaborative’. During Seminar 4 we discussed the extent to which SEA has the concept of ‘change’ as a premise. Whether or not the artist is in control of the nature of that ‘change’, (and one would expect that it might be largely unpredictable), the artist is engaging with a process that is likely to result in some sort of change. Perhaps any social interaction results in change, whether it is measurable or not, long or short term. 

I particularly like Jeff Kelley’s description of collaboration as ‘mutual transformation’. It would appear that in the most interactive and engaged SEA the creative process itself assumes control, and a receptive, open-minded approach by all participants (including the artist), can result in real transformation on both sides. I am very interested in this apparently ‘magical’ process, as I have sensed it at times while working with children. The need for the artist to cede control over the outcome is, however, central. Perhaps aspiring to this kind of ‘collaborative transformation’ becomes more difficult when dealing with the definite expectations both of a school situation and of an Art and Social Practice module. There is certainly a challenge there.

During the Seminar we were offered the quote, ‘participants in dialogue in socially engaged art are willingly engaged, so they feel enriched by the experience’. Reading Helguera’s chapter ‘Antagonism’, Santiago Sierra’s confrontational work, and the spectrum of ‘voluntary’, non-voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ participation, I am intrigued by notion that participation may not be obviously enriching, but perhaps even destructive. Of course, even the most negative participation is engagement and part of the art. The artist can meet her ‘aims’. But does it really work for the participant if it is not in any way ‘transformative’?

The challenge in the work I’m proposing with Resolis Primary School is that the children are to some extent ‘non-voluntary’ participants, stuck with whomsoever visits the classroom. They may have no interest in nature or in Millbuie Forest.  Part of my role as artist is to reach out to them to discover that ‘hook’ that will switch them on to something they are interested in. I am currently exploring the idea of listening with all senses and being aware of the 'stories the forest tells us'. I'd like there to be 'change', but I don't feel I have control over what it might be - I just hope it will be positive and enriching. I think stories may be a good start. 

Thinking of all this I researched a number of projects that involve social exchange, change or the natural environment:

1. Creativity works www.creativityworks.org  based in Bath

This ongoing project works according to a social, not a medical model, to connect people of all ages with mental health and addiction issues with their creativity. Projects have included sculpture with ketamine addicts, and long-term creative outlets for young carers. It does not regard itself as ‘art therapy’, but more open-ended, using art in a therapeutic way. The process of collectively making has clearly become central to the creative process, and the concrete ‘art’ produced is less important than the internal ‘transformative’ change on the participants. The positive impact on the participants is well-documented. It is quite collaborative; the projects are often run and led by the participants, and the process is designed to be empowering and to inspire creative and wider social confidence. I was particularly interested in the interpersonal ‘social exchange’ and transformative outcomes of this project. 

2. Anthony Schrag http://generationartscotland.org - a socially engaged artist based in Edinburgh

 A. Schrag: 'A Perfect Father Day'

Schrag’s work involves a strong element of fun as the social exchange. His work has included

‘A Perfect Father Day’ and ‘Male Roll Model’ where he encouraged people of all ages to roll down a hill. While the level of participation is apparently ‘directed’ – ie he is asking people to do a certain thing, I wonder if one can really predict the level of actual participation. What appears to be clear is that for certain participants, these activities are quite transformative, and connect children with their parents through the act of having fun.

I am interested in the element of ‘fun’ as social exchange, particularly when engaging with children.

3. Oct 2012 – Can Artists Heal Nature? - http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/la-tierra-de-la-culebra-artists-nature.html  10 artists opinions at an open air event in California

Environmental art is well-established, and art that highlights environmental concerns increasingly so. However, socially-engaged art that actually allows people to experience and be transformed in ways that might have a positive impact on the natural environment, are less common. I was therefore interested in the title of this project.

I was interested in what Janet Owen Driggs, one of the artists, said: The subject is such an enormous one, and one that I am wrestling with a lot at the moment. Not literally, I mean I am under no illusions that 'art' can 'heal' 'nature'. But because I believe the question, because it is crass, enables us to access some very important, elusive, other questions. It begins to pry open:

1) Access the ways in which we conceptualize, and (attempt to) experience, the environment as a thing apart from ourselves.


2) Consider ways of constituting "non-humans" as subjects.


3) Think about our practices as beginning to not only imagine and represent difference or change, but to perform it.

In an age where certain natural environments and monuments are being granted legal ‘personhood’, and in which perceived self-interest appears to be the ruling motivation, at least in individualistic developed societies, I am interested in how one attempts, through art, to bridge the gap between the human species and the environment

4. Zach Pine, Berkeley http://www.naturesculpture.com and https://vimeo.com/92631547

Zach Pine project with homeless
children, Ursula Sherman
village, CA

Zach Pine describes himself as a socially engaged nature artist, and sees both nature and people as his two kinds of medium. He uses nature as a vehicle for allowing people to connect both with nature and with each other. As an artist he gives them access to creative experience that ‘connects them to the earth’. He loves working with younger children, despite the challenges, and says, ‘kids’creativity hasn’t been stifled in a way that some grownups has been’.

I share some of his motivations, and was interested to see how he approached his creative work. I also loved the fun element of the social exchange.

Lessons in all this for Project Wild Millbuie!

More conversations - Social Exchange, words and silence

This week's task was to introduce some kind of social exchange into a conversation. I am familiar with how social exchange works, particularly when dealing with children, but I had a look at Social Exchange theory. I have written a more detailed reflection of how this task went in my developmental portfolio.

This blog entry is a more informal reflection on this week's practical exercise. In essence, Social Exchange theory proposes that relationships are built as the result of an exchange process. The perceived rewards and costs of interacting drive relationship decisions, and self-interest is seen to drive interpersonal relationships. The theory could seem rather calculating and self-motivated... As a mother, I would maintain that there are many everyday social transactions that do not appear to bring personal benefit, but perhaps Richard Dawkins would disagree. But, like so many things, it is all about relationships.

With these ideas in mind I thought about Project Wild Millbuie. In this case there are a range of different relationships at issue, not only interpersonal ones, but the relationships between humans and their natural environment. It is difficult to say whether such relationships can ever be mutual in the way that human relationships are. Essentially, many would argue that the cycles of life, survival needs and death inevitably connect humans to nature in ways few appreciate.  Linked to this is the important sense in which humans are able to derive a great deal from being in a wild spot through giving it their quiet attention. One result of this kind of ‘social exchange’ might even be concrete benefits for conservation, although this could not, of course, be described as a social transaction.

So I thought I would approach this exercise in several different ways. First of all I had a conversation with my children two about what they thought about all the above, and particularly, what kind of ‘give and take’ a human might have with nature.  Kai (8) said, ‘I know, I’m a tree – I give you a seed and you give me air’....OK thanks Kai. I asked Freya (10) how she felt when she sat under a tree in silence for a while. She answered, ‘It makes me feel really calm if things are going wrong. It feels like I am talking to the tree and the tree is reading my mind.’  Social Exchange? Reflecting on these responses I was interested in the idea of silent conversations, without words....

So in the end we had 4 different conversations, all exploring the theme of QUIET:

1. Conversation in Mime - I played a game where the children were asked to sort out between themselves what they wanted to do, but without using any words! The social exchange was the promise of agreeing on some fun. Funny to watch, lots of gesticulating, not much clear sense. Finally the children realised they had to take turns, but even then they were not sure whether they had been understood. There were frustrations, but it was definitely a useful exercise in 'listening' with more than just ears.

2. Silent conversation between leader and led - So we went out into the Forest and developed the idea of a 'silent' conversation, thinking about not only building interpersonal relationships, but relationships with the natural environment. One adult/child led one of the others, who had eyes shut, around a short area of forest, stopping to ‘show’ the blind one things of interest to feel, like moss, bark, water etc. Then the ‘blind’ person was allowed to open their eyes and try to work out which route they had been led on, and show the leader, again without speaking. This involved a lot of communication, both between the led and the leader, and, indirectly, between the humans and their environment. This communication was tactile and potentially on a more emotional level, rather than simply verbal/intellectual. (For a short video see Leader and Led 'Conversation')

3. Filmed interview - As we spent time in the Forest, we noticed that we became quieter, and the children changed from communicating with words to using motions, whistles and animal sounds to catch each other’s attention. To capture this we staged an 'interview' about being quiet and about being in the forest. We decided words would work best for this.  In this case the social exchange element was that the children decided the format - One child was interviewer, one answering the questions. I made a four minute film of this and asked them afterwards what it was like. Kai confessed he’d been so intent on thinking up the next question he had not be able to listen properly. Freya had enjoyed it. Performing on film had become part of the social exchange! (see Interview)

4. Kitchen chat over chocolate cake - Cake has been a staple of social exchange for centuries! We had a group of children playing at our house. After a while I invited them into the kitchen to have a slice of chocolate cake - and a chat. While all the children were eating I asked them questions about being in the Forest. We talked about all sorts of things, being wild, quiet, free, wildlife...One, Cara (9), said that she liked the quiet. She then mentioned the wind farm that is proposed for the Forest, and explained that she had done a project on wind energy, and had actually visited a big wind farm and touched one of the turbines as it went round. The other children were interested to know what it had been like, and she reported that it had been scary and very noisy, and that she did not want wind turbines in the Forest near the house.  There was a discussion between all of us about the contrast between quiet and noise and the difference it could make to experiencing the Forest.

It was fine, and the 'cake for talk' plan worked well, although the neighbour's kids were a bit shyer. I wanted to introduce the children to thinking about the sorts of feelings and values they attach to the Forest, but not in a forced way. I was also aware that the cake was the main motivation for them to sit still and talk instead of going out to play. I knew I would get something of what I wanted and they would get what they wanted if we stayed relaxed and chatty, and there was no pressure for an outcome. We had a nice chat, then, as I knew would happen, when the cake was finished off they ran to play again. With kids you have to be ready to grab the moment!

I really enjoyed all these conversations and felt that they went well, mainly because I took opportunities as they came up, and thought ‘on the hoof’ about what to do to make them work, rather than planning the details of exactly when and how they would happen.  The main thing was creating the right moment, when the children and I were both ready.

Social Exchange theory is about developing relationships on the basis of give and take. Social exchange takes place in every successful conversation, whether you are aware of it or not. If people are engaging, there is social exchange. The trick is to get them engaged! 

From my experiences of all these different types of ‘conversation’, the easiest and most successful seem to be those in which you know the participants and there is a clear reason for engagement – either something fun, like the silent 'leader-led' game, or something concrete at the end of it, like a filmed performance. Being outside can help too. There is a place for more formal, staged events and more 'freeform' ones. These points will be important to take into the larger class situation.

Touching Places - 'Common Work'

'Place is where time takes root...across it the cycles of life and death unfold'  Jeff Kelley 'Common Work' 1995

My take on Jeff Kelley's thesis in 'Common Work' relates to what he sees as the need to harmonise the functional and the 'spiritual', to combine the realities of daily living with the transformative power of the creative imagination - a collaboration between the 'architect' and the 'artist' to create something 'other than'. While this chapter of Suzanne Lacy's Mapping the Terrain is already dated (1995), it does rehearse some of the old frustrations that 'art' might be getting too 'virtual', lacking in the substance of real life.

In this he shares ground with Rirkrit Tiravanija, who first used cooking to 'bring alive the object', before realising that the same principle can be applied to art and human relationships. For Tiravanija, spending time with people immersed in the real, daily processes of living can reveal its own meaning - as with his cooking utensils it is 'through usage you find meaning'. 

For Kelly sense of 'Place' is not merely physical, it touches culture, psychology, community and common values, and is able in some way to hold and contain time. He writes, 'Place is where time takes root', yet 'places are experienced concretely' - the real and the intangible held in the same instant of experience/creation.

Collaboration - The Vitality Institute

I am interested in Kelley's analysis of collaboration. He writes, 'Collaboration is a process of mutual transformation in which the collaborators and thus their common work are in some way changed.' In relation to collaborative SEA, this statement begins to erode any distinction between 'artist' and 'participant' and 'spectator'. The artist is not the arbiter of 'transformative experience' but has to be open and ready to be transformed, has to cede control, be vulnerable to exposure, to the unexpected, the unpredictable, to wonder...

To set a process going and hope that the creative imagination will do the rest.... 

My aspirations for Project Wild Millbuie have much to do with transformation, wonder and the rest, but evoked by a very real 'Place'. I think Jeff Kelley would approve - here's hoping!

Conversation 2 - and new skills?

As part of my Development Portfolio I ran my second Conversation on Friday 6 February. 

Timing, setting and the organisation of the Conversation were the focus. As my Project will centre around the pupils of Resolis Primary School and their interaction with their local environment, I thought I would stage the Conversation to help prepare me both for my visits and conversations with the pupils, and for the pupils visits to Millbuie Forest. 

I had two ready 'Conversationalists' in the form of my two children, who will both be involved in Project Wild Millbuie. To begin with I thought we could start off a discussion about what the Forest means to them and why it's important. I thought perhaps of beginning with a statement like:

• 'Millbuie Forest is only important if it brings money to the local community' or 
• 'The wildlife in Millbuie Forest is not that important because we hardly ever see it', or 
• 'Humans don't really need wildlife any more because we have computers and iphones and we can go to Tesco'

However, as I quite often have conversations like this with my kids, and they are often in the forest and are fully paid-up ecowarriors, who protest when I do go to Tesco, I felt I could predict the way such a conversation would go. I also thought this type of conversation might not work too well at the school unless the children had quite a lot of prior experience.

So I decided to take a different approach. The children at Resolis have already listed some of the questions they have about Millbuie Forest as the first stage of having conversations with me about the Project. The questions include:

1. Did Vikings ever live there?
2. Are there any hedgehogs in the Forest?
3. Are there animals like wolves and deer in there?
4. Do people make doors for the squirrels?
5. Are there any bears?
6. Are there any pixies?

It is clear from these that the Forest is quite unfamiliar territory to some of them. So I racked my brain to think of a way of getting the children to get 'inside' the conversation, rather just being humans looking in from 'outside' at the wild environment.

The solution I came up with was to set up role play conversations, rather than more structured 'adult' discussions. So as a test run I asked my kids to do some research on some of the animals and plants in the forest, choosing things from different parts of the food web that are connected - like badger, earthworm, woodmouse, or goshawk, crossbill, scots pine. The research was into questions like 'what is my favourite food', 'what does my home feel like', 'what is my most scary thing', 'what was my best day ever', 'is it hard work looking after my babies?'. Once they had done that they had a good idea of the facts, but also of the their 'characters'. 

Then they each chose a plant of animal, and the two of them had a conversation, which I recorded on MP3. We held the conversations outside in the garden, looking down the Forest ride in the photo (winter though). The timing was morning, after snack and a short play outside, when attention tends to be good. It was very entertaining, and they got fully into their roles.  For example, Kai, being a scots pine tree talking to Freya, a badger, said, 'I used to talk to your great great great grandfather - I am 700 years old you know'.

The process was useful and informative, and it really helped the children to enter into the Forest in their own way, not dictated by me. That was helpful experience, as I hope the Project might help the Primary children develop some of their own feeling of ownership and sense of belonging to the Forest.

The skills needed for this kind of Conversation included thinking creatively, sparking the kids' imagination into wanting to take part in the research and role play, and questioning them carefully about their characters, as well as listening to their interaction quietly, without interrupting. This kind of role play could be used in any scenario, and would be useful to tease out quite real-world conservation issues with older children. 

These role play conversations ran smoothly because I was interacting with two familiar children. In a class full of less familiar and perhaps less engaged children, the most important skills to develop might well be those of grabbing the attention of large numbers of kids. This might involve different strategies to get them interested and maintain interest, telling a story, for example, or making sure they were all able to contribute to the narrative in some way. It would certainly require a lot of preparation, but also flexibility to 'run' with whatever great ideas the children came up with. 

Brainstorm time!

‘I would love every child in my class to get into the forest, feel ownership for it and feel it’s theirs and it’s special’....‘That’s the point of this local stuff – it roots you and you know where you belong. That can be difficult to find these days.’ (Jane Bentley, Head Teacher Resolis Primary)

This Friday afternoon (6^th February) I met with Jane Bentley, the Head teacher at Resolis School, on the north side of the Black Isle.  Resolis is the local primary, with about 60 pupils, many from farming backgrounds. Millbuie Forest is the local forest, a couple of miles from the school, yet quite a few of the children have never visited it.

Sharing Expectations...

I had done some work beforehand to make sure that I had my own aspirations clear. Jane and I discussed aspirations and expectations first, and it turned out that they matched well. My main hope is that, through this project, the children are able to feel Millbuie Forest is special in some way to them and they have a sense of being at home there, not just as humans ‘looking in’. Part of this I hope might be through learning to experience the quiet of the place and to appreciate and be aware of the wildlife and interconnected ecosystems that thrive there.  I will help them to express some of this in a creative way – either as part of a process of getting to know the forest, or as some sort of concrete artistic outcome, which they would help to decide on.

For Jane, who grew up with the privilege of fields and space to roam, she said, ‘I would love every child in my class to get into the forest, feel ownership for it and feel it’s theirs and it’s special’. Also important to her was the sense of belonging, ‘That’s the point of this local stuff – it roots you and you know where you belong. That can be difficult to find these days.’ She had asked the class who had visited the forest, and some had, and most of them had ideas about what could live there, although they included wolves!

Curriculum for Excellence

We talked about Curriculum for Excellence, which Jane fully supports because it ‘gives teachers back a bit of professionalism and ownership for what they teach’. The ‘experiences and outcomes’ are so broad-ranging that creative teachers can discuss with the class what they would all like to do and then key it in with CfE learning outcomes later on. ‘Active involvement in the Expressive Arts’ is a key to the whole of CfE and connects with the other areas of the curriculum. There is a great emphasis on enabling children ‘to be creative and express themselves in different ways’. The five experiences and outcomes of Expressive Arts include:

• ·       Enables me to experience the inspiration and power of the arts
• ·       Recognizes and nurtures my creative and aesthetic talents
• ·       Is enhanced and enriched through partnerships with professional arts companies, creative adults and cultural organisations

Outcomes for the Sciences in CfE include ‘developing curiosity and understanding of the environment and my place in the living, material and physical world’, and ‘developing an understanding of the Earth’s resources and the need for responsible use of them’. There are also relevant links to Social Studies and Religious and Moral Education outcomes. So a great deal of potential for creative art projects with an environmental slant!

Practicalities

Jane’s class of twenty primary 3, 4 and 5s ranges in age from 7 – 10, with mixed abilities. Two of the pupils are on the autism spectrum and any plans will need to be tailored for their needs. While unstructured time would be desirable to allow for free creation, some of the children may struggle with less structure. Some of the boys have quite short attention spans. It was agreed that groups of 4 or 5 children per adult in the forest would be ideal. We did not settle on the number of days that we'd need to make it work well, but thought we could be flexible.

Brainstorm 

We decided that some time in class to prepare for the forest visits would help us all get more out of them. We also wanted some input on the culture and history of the forest, and I decided to invite Jim Mackay, a local historian, to give a short talk to the class in February. This would cover the prehistory - chambered cairns, the use of the ‘Commonty’ by the local people and the gradual growth and planting of the forest.

Preparatory class activities could include:

• ·       Role play and ‘conversations’ between pupils playing the roles of different forest plants and animals (I tested this idea out with my children during homeschool and it worked well to get them to feel ‘part’ of the forest, not just visitors)
• ·       Card games related to awareness of key wildlife
•      An illustrated talk on the wildlife of the forest, with lots of sound effects to encourage the children to look and listen while in the forest.
• ·       Linking listening to bird songs with visual art activities

Activities in the forest could include:

• ·       Learning about camouflage, colours and how animals blend in
• ·       Predator – prey and tracking games
• ·       Listening games
• ·       Looking closely at a small area and either describing it in words, visually or in photographs (a non-selfie selfie of one’s chosen Place)
• ·       Creating natural sculptures
• ·       Building dens 'homes' in the forest
• ·       Working on a ‘forest pack’ with spotter sheets, hand lens etc.

Creative ideas following up on the forest visits - to be decided with pupils:

• ·       Making up a piece of music associated with the forest
• ·       A visual arts piece about nature, Place and belonging
• ·       A film?

It looks like I have a lot of thinking and planning to do to get ready for all this – I'd better get on with it!