On the 3rd of November, I met Laura and Jo at the SCVA. This meeting was to the first opportunity to discuss the objects I had made for them and their expectations, thoughts and relationships with these seemingly odd and bespoke objects.
Before. I felt nervous that morning. I felt the expectations of others as I have spoken about before but also that my focus on them and the closeness of my material making and thinking to them (although they were not present). There is something gentle and profound that is happening within these encounters. The encounters that I am identifying as both material- human and non-human- I know I am enmeshed in a process and wonder how I can expect that to be as profound for those taking part. I keep thinking about the performativity of pedagogy and the particular performativity within my research. It is a strange choreography of patterns repeated and new – we are all moving together with thoughts and reactions but not in straight line- rather a fluctuating rhythm of shapes and interrelating movements. I want to reference two different phrases that link to this gathering of people and the relational correspondences of our thoughts and actions. One is the ‘dance of attention’ (Manning and Massumi, 2014 p 6) where they describe ‘the making-felt of a co-compositional force that does not yet seek to distinguish between human and non human, subject and object, emphasising instead the immediacy of mutual action, and associated milieus of their emergent relation.’ This infiltrating of states and beings is where I understand the nature of reciprocity to form within the framework of pedagogical encounters. It is the navigation of others but crucially being able to ‘hold others in mind’ whilst being active and responsive at the same time. We knit without a pattern, but we are forming something and somethings that functions in ways that we are yet to know and that Atkinson would refer to as ‘yet to come’ p63 disobedience. This brings me to the second phrase; ‘developing ways of living attentively with learners’ (Atkinson, 2017 p 16). This attention is becoming more focussed and necessary within this research. The pedagogy is in the relationship and the listening closely to the experiences and exchanges that come to form. I feel I am standing right next to the individuals that jo, Laura, mark and Lloyd, Sophie are speaking and acting, close-up magnified, with higher volumes and colours than normal. I almost – more than see – more than her and in turn more than make. I will go on to explore this critically thinking critical looking bad critical making but it is an amplified experience. I was conscious of how they may feel or not feel this attentiveness. However, it is not my intention that the attentiveness id a burden for them- my intention is that the attentiveness opens something for them or ‘remaining open to the not known’. (Atkinson, 2017 p 60) I had initially thought that I would speak to Laura and jo separately before coming together and sharing objects, however I reconsidered this and decided that I would ask them what they wanted to speak together or alone. They arrived separately with their boxes in the arms and I feel odd. I am so used to arriving at a space with numerous objects and boxes and devices that I often feel like a pack horse or a peddler – with my wares. I am conscious of the weight of materials, of material encounters. Materiality is cumbersome it is surrounding and encompassing. I was interested in seeing the objects again and whether the fact that they had been posted and left my studio and entered their domain before being introduced to the gallery environment would change the relationship jo and Laura had to them. Through the domestic context, the objects first connections and considerations were the individuals not an art work or exhibition but themselves. What did they see when they opened the boxes and saw the objects could they see themselves. I was thinking back to the questions of affordance and what these objects afforded, what work they had to do and what they stood for? I would by the end of this if the objects are tired or always ready to function- alert.
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Kimberley FosterKimberley's practice as an artist is pedagogical, it doesn’t just reference learning, it plays with, embodies and encourages learning at its core. The objects consider ideas of collaboration and authorship, discussions about touch and encounter, and bring into active consideration issues of learning within social and participatory practices. Archives
October 2018
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