This week: ASU School of Art JEDI lecture series will host Sarah Lewis this Thursday February 18 at 4PM (Arizona Time) 6PM Eastern Time.

John Anne and I are all crazy busy right now– like so many of you. But we also realize how important it is to keep these connections and conversations going as we approach the 1 year– geez–one year anniversary of, it doesn’t even really have a name or an exact date–but that time during March of 2020 when our lives changed.  We are all in some ways waiting for things to get back to something, but I think everyone knows there is no going back so the conversations have gradually been shifting towards addressing more long term issues that will continue beyond the pandemic. As John, Anne, Becky and I negotiate launching the 2020 All Star Cards Kickstarter campaign, I am aware of how time has moved forward and how it hasn’t. We are also realizing that the Class of 2021 is also facing a compromised and different spring semester of their senior year– their whole final year of college or even for some more than half their graduate school experience, is radically different from what they expected. So first, we are thinking about that, about the difference between the emergency situation for last spring, and the much more long term adjustments and changes that we are all facing now–and yet, and still, I for one find it both difficult and inevitable to try to plan for something a bit more normal.

I wanted to blog here to highlight the upcoming Kickstarter launch for the cards, to get people ready for our idea for the Class of 2021, and to highlight some of the recent and upcoming FotoFika sessions as well as highlight some other related conversations.

Two weeks ago FotoFika hosted Annu Palakunnathu Matthew and Max Kandhola in discussion about expanding the canon and really examining what we need to consider as we make our classrooms and our field inclusive of all experiences and perspectives, particularly in relation to ethnicity and race. A discussion which barely begins to scratch the surface and something that is not easy, especially for those of us who have made our way, who have established a way of being in the world, who stand in front of a classroom and get authority from our educations and tenure– This conversation that they graciously agreed to help us start by bringing us into their experiences and lessons  started by asking people to examine and be willing to reinvent–must continue.  And we must be willing to constantly examine what we think we know, from methods of teaching, to the set of slides we show, to how hard we work to correctly pronounce unfamiliar names to how we gain our authority. It is not easy. And some of us will have to give up power so that we can fairly share it.  Opening up places to talk about it and being willing to question what we think we know is essential. And not easy. Much more to come on this topic.

This week we will take a slight, but related turn and discuss mental health in the classroom, in academia and in art. Like all college educators, we have students at a particularly vulnerable point in their lives during a particularly difficult moment in history and this has exponentially increased the stakes for our behavior in the class room and our responsiveness. As we all know the art classroom is not like a science classroom. Tangents are at the core of the experience and fluid boundaries are often the point. Subject matter weaves itself in and out of our personal lives and our work. Many of us take pride in nurturing openness and expression of the inarticulable, dark and painful.  Its not all Covid related– but somehow it for me at least seems overwhelmingly intense– and I am someone who thrives on intensity. How do we talk about this? How do we take care of our students–what are the resources for the students? What are limits of our responsibilities? And how do we pay attention to our own mental health? This Wednesday we welcome Marianna Chiokan as we begin to address these questions and more on FotoFika.

We really hope to see you this Wednesday  at 4PM (EST) and stay tuned for our All Star Cards Kickstarter Launch!

Betsy

https://vimeo.com/161259012?fbclid=IwAR3tgZ3ykRhKLzT01ICCmYd-OPs_r8YvX-wuVOHJObfC3EeYMuuBUzRyx0k

The second thing was well, the semester itself. Teaching in person small classes spaced out with no darkroom time, no close time and a mid-level asynchronous class with 30 students known by name only– I began to get frustrated by the lack of deep engagement. No one it seemed could say anything even slightly critical or negative about each others work. So when I do its sounds like I’m just out of it or adhering to old ideas.

And then a former student sent me this Tik/Tok by Ghost Honey–which is funny and was funny until I realized that as much as old school art school critiques drove me crazy– the only thing that still happens is that people say “I like the colors”–

https://twitter.com/tylergaca/status/1313308793237721088?lang=en

And then someone posted Terry Barretts tips for running a critique and that launched a discussion on the Photography Professors page that made me realize that I do not use silence well, at all. And I wondered what I could do to get better at this thing I’ve been supposedly good at for the past 20 years. 

And well, I have a lot more to say but its Wednesday and FotoFika day and I am looking forward to hearing what others are thinking as well.

Looking forward to beginning to dig more deeply into this issue later today.

Betsy 

How are you teaching: Totally online? synch, asynch, hybrid, flex plan, students take home equipment, meeting outside– how is everyone coping with the first few weeks. I’d love to know (and once I figure it out this will be a poll instead of a post)– What its called and how it is working for you and the students?

At Emerson I’m teaching what we call a “Flex” plan. Camilo said it was 50% of 50%, which if I remember my math right its 25%– I thought they meant instruction–but they meant people in the buildings. And it is weirdly lonely and quiet in the buildings.

What kinds of discoveries are you making about teaching, about yourself, about your students?

I realized that I read faces–not eyes– I listen to voices and they are muffled and silenced by the configuration of the class. Under the best of circumstances, I find teaching tech stuff very awkward and even with equipment I’ve used for decades (literally this happened last week) I fumble in front of the class–Normally I make it part of the schtick–but now its a very  small class where I can’t see their expressions I am filled with self-doubt. They are here for such a brief time during the week, the time is precious and I don’t want to waste it. But I can’t tell how they feel. Do they think I’m funny? Or a huge dork? Are they bored? or worse…–Maybe they are just not paying attention–zoned out behind that mask. Its like Zoom but in person, and with masks–so well its like a truncated version of Zoom. —

I’m not entirely sure what to do, but I would love to hear how others are experiencing this.

And in the totally online arena: a class I’ve been teaching for years is fine but I have a respect issue from an older guy– emails that he would never send to a male (maybe I’m wrong but…)– (“This class just keeps getting better and better” after watching a feedback session from another semester).  How can you both establish some kind of rapport, keep up with everything and at the same time keep authority?  Seems like it should be easier from a distance, but for me it sometimes seems harder.

That said I have one older guy online student who is fantastic. And he just got a picture included in David Campany’s ICP show (and no Anne did not pull strings).

I look forward to tomorrow’s FotoFika to discuss these matters. And watch for a poll here from me soon.

Out of  respect for the continuing momentum behind BLM political movement over the past month we have pulled back on FotoFika both in promoting the All Star Cards as well as the planned workshops.

Today’s workshop was to focus on workers rights and unionization and it was the title Solidarity that made us reconsider the subject in the midst of the protests. We strongly believe that this movement is something that is vitally important and that it was the time for us to stand back a bit. This is not to say that the urgency of planning and adapting to remote, hybrid and online teaching is not an essential and continuing task. So while we will not be having the planned FotoFika Workshop today. We are continuing to work on the All Star Cards and I would like to offer smaller, more informal 2 hour working sessions starting July 15 to those who wish to sign up–please fill out this Google form if you wish to participate in any working sessions or panel discussions.

Please plan for July 1 at 1PM to discuss issues of workers rights issues, big tech and the broader political implications for online teaching, art, photography and higher ed.

Workshops will take place on Wednesdays but unlike the regular FotoFika slot, we will meet from 2 to 4 (EDT). The dates and general topics are as follows:

Workshops will be participatory and emphasize problem solving and solutions through communal engagement.

June 17  POSTPONED TO JULY 1—Solidarity

The first workshop will address issues of political and social concern for the students and the faculty. Scheduled for the 17th of June which is the anniversary of, John said there was something but all I found was the 119th anniversary of the establishment of the College Board (boo). But there is a lot of other cool stuff that happened on the 17th of June  (check it out here: https://www.onthisday.com/events/june/17).

This workshop will address how we can advocate for our international students, concerns about access to equipment and software for students in a distance, hybrid or socially-distant campus situation, what this means for adjunct, un-tenured and other contingent faculty–as well as tenured faculty and how we might approach this with a shared sense of mission.

July 15– Tools and Concepts

The second workshop will address conceptual concerns,  questions about teaching portraiture in a Covid era, intimacy and distance learning, ways to provide an open and rigorous classroom environment, giving feedback, conducting critiques , using flexible techniques for giving feedback.

August 5 -Syllabus Boot Camp

We will go over assignments and strategies for planning our classes including assignments, readings, sharing lectures, artists visits and sharing resources.

August 19 – On your Mark, Get Set, Go (or Ready, Steady, Go)

Who knows what things will look like by the end of August. Wherever we are we’ll use this workshop to respond and work together to be ready to take on the new and the unknown.

Now is the time to make education and art as good and as valuable as possible, to assert the value of creativity, visual literacy, and the connections, understanding, empathy and richness. 

But the this article scared me and provoked the need to articulate why engaging with online/remote education is not the same as denying the essential need for in-person, hands on human connections and the need to fight for the brick and mortar experiences. It is not the same as believing that technology and those who control and profit from should be deciding what matters and the future of education or proposing grand solutions at a time when really no one really knows what the post Covid world educational world will look like. I firmly believe that in person education should be the foundation of education for artists and for children. It is interesting  to consider what might come out of Covid as Naomi Klein points out a lot of ideas have been  lying around and are picked up in these times–both good and bad. One of the more dangerous ones for educators is the continued devaluing of what really happens between students and teachers and the need for the interpersonal and the need to feel things, touch things and to be with human beings outside our homes. It seems logical that we are learning this even more than ever now. But we are also at risk of learning the opposite. Maybe a lot can be done from home, maybe some things don’t need to consume the resources they consume. Of course both things can be and I believe, are true.

This gets back to the idea of hybridity, flexibility and the ability to exist in the in-between space. The non-binary, the grey area (or if you are writing an artist statement the “liminal space”. It means that we, as educators as people in a time of uncertainty need to really consider, again going back to John’s post from Tuesday and a key tenet in recovery,  operating knowing that there are things we can’t change or predict or control and accepting those things and still going forward. As artists we can really thrive in this space, as educators its much more tricky, especially when our livelihood is on the line.

But something that we must be vigilant about is the idea that something or someone is going to save us with a definitive answer. While Bill Gates and others with wealth and other with innovative technology may have something to offer we cannot look for saviors to rescue us from where we are. We cannot give up our power because we don’t have definitive answers.  More specifically to us as artist and educators we must critically engage with technology applying what we know to be valuable. We can to embrace the true potential of reaching people in new ways but this is not the same as being saved by technology or by thinking that by preparing to teach online, or remotely this fall we are conceding that in person experiential education should be replaced.

Its back to the in-between space and acting without fully knowing. Not looking for a panacea or a savior, neither Bill Gates nor Andrew Cuomo know and they know less than you do about teaching photo students and I would argue know very little about what the K-12 children of the country need. Resist huge sweeping generalizations about the state of education and focus on doing what you need to do.

Time to get off of Facebook. (not gonna happen though).

In response to John’s post however I think the idea of being aware of our limitations and the fact that what we are dealing with is long term and not emergency means we have to draw on different resources, emotional, physical, virtual and so forth.

Today’s FotoFika will continue with the idea of planning for uncertainty and the general idea of hybridity.  We invite David Tinapple to talk about CritViz a platform he designed with his colleague at ASU Loren Olson to deal with teaching a large in person class at ASU We hope to also start an ongoing conversation about the tools we are using and how we are using them and paying attention to yourself– we will all need this summer to recharge and make art hopefully this can help you not spend the summer filled with dread and busywork.