Personal Explorations Fueled by Coffee

One of the first things I came across this morning as I was waiting for the caffeine to kick in was the following:

"Two things are necessary for me to be able to write: music and coffee." - Aleksandar Hemon, WSJ, 4/8/09.

This quote really struck me, because last night I was listing to Janice Ian, who was a student of the Rev. Gary Davis. Before performing, Janice revealed a bit of her story. She would go into NYC on the weekends to hang out in Greenwich Village with other poets and musicians. It was there that Janice met Rev. Davis and his wife. While Rev. Davis told Janice her hands were too small for his style of guitar playing, his wife became Janice's advocate. Without Rev. Davis and his wife, Janice's life journey would have been completely different.

After Janice's performance (she was playing backup for Marie Knight - what a voice!), I began exploring her song "At Seventeen." Here are the first few lines from the song:

I learned the truth at seventeen,
That love was meant for beauty queens.
In high school, girls with clear-skin smiles,
Who married young and then retired.

This was my high school experience to the letter. In a YouTube clip, Janice describes her battle with curly, dark hair in a world of females with long, straight, blonde hair. At this point in my curly, dark haired life, I've given up the battle - I no longer dream of being a blonde; instead, I want to dye my hair red, attention-grabbing red that cascades down my back in swirls and curls.

While Janice and I shared some common characteristics, I have yet to experience similar career influences. While my main writing focus tends to center around the world of academia, I find myself more deeply moved by poetry, prose, and art. The music and the stories of individuals like Janice Ian inspire me to hone my craft and look at my body of work through different lens.

The other day I stumbled upon an article about an exhibit at the Krannert Art Museum that illustrates ways to share research with others in a creative and unique way. And unlike traditional research distribution methods (i.e., peer reviewed journals, book chapters, etc.), it is likely that a larger body of people will experience these findings. The exhibit is titled, "Grand Text Auto," which, put simply, converts blog posts into performance art. More about this exhibit is available here. Electronic literature and gaming - how cool is that!

Another exhibit worth checking out, one which combines electronic text and art, was created by the French conceptual artist/provocateur Sophie Calle. The title of the piece, "Take Care of Yourself," which reflects the last line of an email message Calle received from a boyfriend who dumped her. In response to this rejection, Calle asks 100 women to read this rejection letter and respond to the last line. What started out as therapy became a very unique look at technology, communication, and interpretation. The exhibit has a limited showing. So if you're in the vicinity of the Paul Cooper Gallery in the next 27 days, this is work worth checking out.

Art Inspired Research

Over Spring Break, I was fortunate enough to visit two art galleries - Krannert Art Museum and the Indiana University Art Museum. The focus at Krannert was on two exhibits: Polaroids and Portraits: A Photographic Legacy of Andy Warhol and Audubon at Illinois: Selections from the University Library's Birds of America. Warhol's work has interested me for years, and his use of Polaroids was an attempt to democratize the concept of photography. It was also a way for him to create a visual diary of everyday life, which is very much like blogging, twittering, Facebooking, etc.

In contrast, the Birds of America plates, which were life-sized (the bound volumes of the plates are commonly referred to as the double elephant folio), had a more surreal feel to them. The colors in Audubon's work are so muted, yet there are plates such as the Roseate Spoonbill, 1836, where the colors are so striking. Prior to this particular viewing, I attended an entertaining and informative talk at the Lilly Library about Audubon. The event was by invitation only, and I (and the person who invited me) agreed to attend without knowing what to expect. Surprising to everyone in attendance, Christoph Irmscher was the guest speaker. Even if birds are not your thing, I highly recommend attending any talk given by Irmscher - a truly inspiring speaker.

These events merely whetted my appetite for art, so I went in search of another exhibit. I didn't have to go far - one was right in my own backyard. Because the weather has been more temperate, I've unearthed my camera from its hibernation spot and started taking photos again. As luck would have it, one of the current exhibits at the IU Art Museum highlights the minimalist photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto, who is influenced by the concept of 'Ma'. His images of movie theaters has stuck with me even several days later. Perhaps it's because at least two of the theaters included in the exhibit reminded me of the interior of the Art Theater in downtown Champaign, which is slated to close in December 2009. If the community cannot rally around this single screen theater enough to keep it open, someone should at the very least photograph the interior of this wonderful space. Maybe Sugimoto should add it to his collection?

Prior to my art binge, I read an interesting article by Osberg and Biesta (2008) on the emergent curriculum. In this piece, the authors refer via Ulmer, to the German performance artist, Joseph Beuys (1921-1986). Osberg and Beista suggest that Beuys' presentations did not transmit meaning; instead they inspired the audience to generate their own meaning. In other words, the audience was charged with creating their own art from the materials given to them by Beuys. Thinking outside the realm of art, this description sounds very similar to the rhetoric that surrounds constructivist ideals. According to those who espouse a constructivist approach to education, students construct their own meaning; the instructors merely serve as facilitators or coaches.

I guess one question I have is this: Can viewing research involving virtual worlds through an art world lens can be enlightening? By expanding my reading scope and drawing for what appear to be unrelated disciplines, I'm trying to shake things up a bit and alter my perspective. A misguided adventure? We shall see.