Hello all
Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion so far.
As one of the hosts this month (together with Dani Admiss), I would like to
touch briefly on why I am concerned with this issue as a curator and a
human being.
On Saturday, Dani and I had the pleasure of convening a group of
practitioners for a workshop on the subject of migration at Furtherfield
Commons in London (web link), the IRL aspect of our project. A few CRUMB
listers were able to join us, including Beryl Graham, Ruth Catlow and Jamie
Allen (and we look forward to Jamie's dispatch from COP Paris later on in
the week). We shared stories, assumptions and impressions of what we think
'technologies of migration' are, examining their limits and thinking about
what they could be. Taking small examples like SIM cards and ziplock bags,
we tried to reframe and rethink the social and political contexts of such
infrastructural technologies. We spoke about the notion of authenticity and
about the voices who are heard in the debates about migration.
Something significant that Dani and I took away from the workshop was that
in spite of the rhetoric of sharing, the supposed ubiquity of outlets for
expression otherwise termed ’social’ media, there is still a strong need to
give space to other perspectives, to listen, to posit and practice the
possibility of dialogue. Political positioning about migration is often
predicated on lazy and unsophisticated images of victim, intruder,
guardian, proud defendant of the land, traitor. The reality is of course
more complex - for instance, what position should we take if we are
children of migrants? Rather than reinforcing structures that dictate who
is/isn’t the authentic voice, raising collective consciousness that
multiple Other voices and views can and do exist, and providing a channel
for dialogue to take place is but one example of the role art and design
can play in social justice.
As i walk from the tube station to College, the pristine homogenity of the
visual environment hits me - if this was the only London i saw i would
never believe that poverty, discrimination or inequality existed in this
city. The necessity of making these underrepresented situations public,
visible and tangible drives me to 'carry on curating'.
The social media silos promote tunnel vision.
Patriotic posturing refutes the validity of the long view, the Long Now, or
the long ever.
In the words of Italian Berlin-based artist Costantino Ciervo: *BORDERS ARE
BORING - NATIONS ARE NUTS*
Borders act as exclusionary barriers that block lines of sight.
Poetry is important, tools are too.
peace out,
Cecilia
Cecilia Wee
Tutor, Sound Design
Royal College of Art
School of Communication
Kensington Gore, London
SW7 2EU
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