By utilising decolonial approaches we can reinforce the importance and joy of learning while emphasising criticality. However, I must add that the research methodology was a process of discovering practices and relations rather than a collection of ideas and set boundaries. At times the chaos or lack of boundaries was overwhelming. Reminding myself of the necessity of the “mess” in order to move forward was essential and to give myself time out.
Participants will be invited to draw/mark make with pencils/pens and a large roll of paper provided on a communal table in the 1st year studio space. This is a space that is familiar to all the participants and big enough to accommodate an extra table which won’t interfere with any studios.
The session will be filmed by a fellow film maker. At the end of the session the drawings, recordings and any writings will be gathered as data and conversations analysed. I will be participating in the exercise but also prompting the conversations towards how the participants feel and noting anything down of particular interest that speaks of the relationship with research knowledge and relationship to others, using In-relations methodology (Tachine and Nicolazzo 2022).
Prompts may include the following questions to spark conversation but it will be important to gauge the room as to what is needed.
How do you feel about drawing?
What made you want to take part in this workshop?
Do you draw as part of your art practice?
How important do you think drawing with a pencil on paper is?
How does digital technology compare to paper and pencil?
Do you think technology is colonising the Art College?
Is Digitally technology a more sustainable option than paper?
Should drawing be brought back into art schools?
How important do you think working with your hands is?
Has the workshop changed your mind about drawing.
How do you feel after the workshop?
What do you think makes us human?
What could be changed about the workshop?
In order to sit in the decolonial process, it will be important not to fall into collecting quantitive data, or find measuring tools to measure emotion or empathy or even to define borders in methodologies. This is not to disregard quanititative methods where appropriate. Instead, essential to this process is to note down anything that speaks to how the room feels (transformative methodologies).The quote from E.M. Forster’s A passage to India illustrates my approach to the decolonial process. Fielding, always objecting to Aziz’s irrational responses accuses him,
“Your emotions never seem in proportion to their objects, Aziz.”
Aziz replies with,
“Is emotion a sack of potatoes, so much the pound, to be measured out? Am I a machine?”
E.M Forster was highlighting the bigger issue of British Rule over India. An orderly, profitable capitalist system was seen as a solution to India’s apparent ‘chaos and inefficiency’. Aziz objected to the materialism that valued profit and efficiency over intangible matters of spirit and love. An essential part of the decolonising process is to somehow express the intangible. I believe this expression can be found in the “a messy area, as a vital element for seeing, disrupting, analysing, learning, knowing and changing.” (Cook, 2009)
The apparent mess or chaos that the rational mind would perceive and be disturbed by is exactly where decolonising takes place, reframing, generating new knowledge leading to an action turn in the research process through transformation of practice. (Cook, 2009)
If belonging and being fully human is respecting the interconnectedness of all that deemed ‘Other’ in order to be conquered and exploited by the forces of colonisation then this ‘Other’ must include Nature (Plumwood 1993). “Kin study” counteracts the notion of ‘Other’ and abstraction as a result of colonisation. It considers relationality and desired bonds of kinship and reciprocity with the more-than-human world(Russo 2023). With this in mind, the paper will be recycled from removal company packaging. The re use materials unit at Chelsea College is also a well stocked resource.
The most important aspect is to keep the whole process as natural or informal as possible with participants feeling free enough to respond in any way they like seeing it as a safe space (Kara 2015). I welcome the process and any unexpected encounters or results. It must be a place to dream, imagine and create freedom through knowledge and relation.
The most important aspect is to keep the whole process as natural or informal as possible with participants feeling free enough to respond in any way they like seeing it as a safe space (Kara 2015). I welcome the process and any unexpected encounters or results. It must be a place to dream, imagine and create freedom through knowledge and relation.
Although I am as a researcher excited by this project, I have to be aware of my own vulnerability and exhaustion due to the complex nature of events that have brought me here as as well as my intersectional positionality. This is an intervention towards well being but I must practice radical care for myself.
‘Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare’(Lorde).
It is important not to fall into the capital appropriation of self care. The multi-headed hydra grows another head every time one is cut off and so we remain colonised(Blackwell 2023). I have to prioritize my embodied wisdom over head knowledge. This means prioritizing rest, ritual and community not just making time for it. I still have blocks in admitting when I am feeling anxious, overwhelmed or even to own my positionality. This has really been highlighted during this course and I have to be aware of myself before I can truly be there for anybody else. Inspite of capitalist appropriation, care, according to Angela Davis is explicitly tied social change. Attention to the body and to the spiritual dimension are part of radical social justice struggles. Bringing complexity and interconnectedness back into the discourse can be exhausting and I have to recognise that and even take time out or stop without feeling I’m letting people down.