Berwick Research Istitute and other ideas

HEY!HEY! I have been selected to develop this project in a residency at the Berwick Research Institute- The Public Art Incubator program. It should be a great way to get things off the ground!

In the process of leading up to the berwick selection, Andi, one of the panelists, presented me with some questions. I list them below with some responses. The one that stuck with me was whether or not this could end up being a form of cultural tourism, and that people of color have to deal with that struggle of aestheticism all the time, why should it be imported into their neighborhood. I think its an important question. I think it also points to the degree of anger and conflict that already exists. a degree of the project's success could hinge on how I frame this question.

I have been thinking a lot lately about academia and the difference between creating inside and for that world vs creating within the "real world" or for people who don't have the same exposure, language and perspective as the "art world". I feel myself clashing against the academic world, and its funny because initially i didn't feel it. But now it feels like part of the crisis i'm experiencing. there feels like a lot of pressure to come up with an "original piece" "a clever piece" . something the gallery world will consume, but without a concern for how it is perceived by others. i am very happy for Erkki Huhtamo and his assertion that artists continue to recreate the same ideas and that this is a good thing. I like the idea of being unoriginal, of copying, of deriving, of re-creating, of referencing. I should gather up here all the references to that, Sherry Levine, etc.

Here are the questions presented to me by the Berwick:

What is your thinking about the site specificity for the project? Why Dudley?
Why Brookline? Do you forsee any potential conflicts initiating your project
in these two sites? What do you think about this? How would you overcome these
conflicts?

I chose two sites that are close together, which are easily accessible, one to the other, and which have a large pedestrian population. They are both hubs, of sorts and even have a bus running between them. Yet people don’t seem to traverse between the two neighborhoods.

Some of the basic premises of the project are that it is interesting and useful to put yourself in a new place, one where you wouldn’t normally go, and that dialogue is useful and creates new understandings. Other media and means of communication have dramatically changed our lives –newspapers, letters , radio, TV, and now the internet. It allows us insight and ways of experiencing the world that dramatically shift our perceptions and create new relationships. Video conferencing has been used primarily at the corporate level to replace face to face contact. I am interested to see how this new technology can be used at a street level, a grassroots level to instigate dialogue and new relationships.

Conflict
Every community public art project involves conflicts of some sort as everyone has a different opinion about how public space should be used and what good art is. The important thing is setting up a good process to facilitate negotiation.

I believe that an artist, particularly from outside the community, needs to negotiate the use of public space with the people who use it.
Some of the approaches I would use:

--Work with community groups who I trust and which have credibility in the community.
--Use an inclusive process and be willing to listen to concerns and compromise.
--Avoid confusion in the first place by clearly defining roles.
--Set up models of the project in public space and engage passersby in what they think of the idea.

Perhaps the most important thing is to see the entire process of bringing the community on board , including the conflicts, as an integral part of the piece, rather than imposing your brilliant idea on everyone else.

The project is inherently about conflict. Segregation and race and class are conflicts that we negotiate everyday, there just doesn’t seem to be a lot of discussion about it at the city level. It may be that a third portal needs to be created at City Hall.

I should stress that the idea is very much in development and that is why I am so excited by the Incubator. My approach could change in response to what I learn. In addition to gentrification, an issue that seems to be important right now is the location of the BU bio lab. Another is the Silver Bus Line and why that was substituted for a subway. Education I’m sure is another. neighborhood resources, another.

Have you ever had to deal with communication difficulties or conflict with
community collaborators in other projects you have been a part of (art or
otherwise)? What were these conflicts and how were they solved?

Many many times. I worked in El Salvador for two years for a Human Rights Organization, creating public art and documentary videos. Human Rights were a tremendously polarizing topic, and I always had to deal with language and cultural understanding/misunderstanding. So conflicts have been as direct and intense as having a collaborator on a project kidnapped and myself receiving death threats to disagreeing about which images to use in a mural, or timelines and permits at city hall.

Do you plan on seeking input from residents from both sites? How will you do
this and what kind of collaboration do you hope to achieve? Have you already
started develping these connections? Where and with whom?

I haven’t officially begun this step yet, but have done many community projects in Boston, and in the Dudley area. I have less experience in Coolidge Corner.