The most important thing I have learned from this class is to not be afraid to ask a question or be afraid of my own ignorance. My topic from the slideshow on The Declaration of the Rights of Man was helpful as an example of another country trying their best to achieve civil rights. The Federal Theater project; that was the first time I had really learned a concrete example of when the government funded the arts. I had never heard of Brutalism before this class and that style of life/architecture really affected me. I had never heard about Maquailopolis before I watched the documentary and it taught me about the reality of the lives of the people affected by mass labor exploitation. Another key takeaway, also from the same documentary, was that the physical presence of someone documenting your experience can embolden you to make radical change, and can also affect the way others see you professionally (ie the crew going with the women to the lawyer meeting with the company). The exercise we did where people stood for their privileges really stuck with me and showed me who I related to and extremes of the class' experience. The exercise where we tried to form a spectrum on how we view our artmaking (aesthetic or activist) stuck with me because we really thought the spectrum would work and we keep finding that is it hard to find a "shape" to represent all of these people's stories. A huge takeaway was getting to talk with Noga and Josh on their direct arts/activist experience of taking their devised piece, reconstructing it based on feedback, and caring for their collaborators. This class has me constantly thinking about my specific privilege of receiving this education; Evelyn changing the curriculum to address certain topics/conversations about trans rights and the current political climate/having an instructor that actively listens and tries to change so that we are learning in the best possible way for us. Because this class really listens, I am inspired and dying to create change.
Comments
Post a Comment