ACE - Week 3

After reading both of these articles I had a hard time finding a coherent thought to write about, however, I found a few points in the text relatable in that they helped me identify, and pinpoint a few places where I may be considered “privileged”. My parents are highly educated and well off, my brothers and I never had difficulty making it to school, paying for books, or test. We were able to do all of the activities or experiments that we wanted to. These “privileges” that I have been given in my life have only given me the tools to be a better artist, advocate, and communicator for my self and the people around me. However, race, gender, sex, or income for that matter, ever played a large role in my life then. With that in mind, I can say that I cannot identify with someone who is impoverished, or homeless, or someone who doesn’t have parents. Those are factors which I never have had to deal with. If it were to come to creating art for those people/with those people, I will be there to help make it happen, but I cannot creatively add to that process as I have no connection to the lives that they have lived. On the other hand, if art is being made for the well off, suburban city where I came from I absolutely will add to that conversation as those are people that I relate to. 

Week Three - IDENTITY, PRIVILEDGE, AND OUR SOCIAL-POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Week Three - IDENTITY, PRIVILEDGE, AND OUR SOCIAL-POLITICAL CONTEXTS

After readying both of these articles I struggle to find a straight correlation between the two. As a white American I agree that the aspect of having privilege is overlooked in today’s society. Privilege is a daily occurrence in people’s lives but does not come into focus until what we believe is our privilege comes into question. Every ethnicity naturally comes with privilege and how they are introduced to those privileges stems from historical past. If only there was a way to end privilege, what would that situation be like? To me, if there was no privilege we would all be on the same level. Now, if equal privilege was to happen, society would have no way of progressing. Today we have a leader and the followers, the leader has the privileges to guide the followers onto a new path, and to grant them new privileges. Privilege to me comes from the basis of how you grow up, privilege grows from historical context. 

In our second reading, by Guillermo Gomez Peña, his story of touring resonated with my lifestyle. However, I did not expect his introduction to focus so greatly on how his lifestyle during his tour affected him. As someone who has toured with a non-American/white musical group I rarely stop to think how traveling with an ethnic group effects each tour stop. I’ve spent my time touring with a Persian/Iranian artist, being their lighting director, traveling, eating, and being in company with people who were far away from my White European ethnicity. I never stopped to think how my privileges may be limited due to being around such a ethnic group. The music is sung in Farsi and they speak their language occasionally, but they too speak great English. There was a time when we traveled to Oklahoma City to have a show, a town I thought was very white and would have a poor turn out of from the Iranian population. Little did I know, Oklahoma City had a fairly decent population of Persian families. I think there is a privilege to working with Artist groups, like my tour, of ethnicity where you start to be included in the aspects of how performance is about presence and not representation. Not once was announcing that the Persian’s where here to perform happen. There was only a energetic presence that came about. The local crew had their typical comments here and there which contributes to how Guillermo Gomez Peña felt when he was asked about his heritage with somewhat racist comments. I’ll leave you with a quote from Peña which sums up performance and reflects appropriately my lifestyle of work; “Performance is a disnarrative and symbolic chronicle of the instant which focuses mainly on the “now” and the “here.” Performance is about presence, not representation; it is not…a mirror, but the actual moment in which the mirror is shattered”. 

Week 3

Jake Maize

Full disclosure: I’m a straight white guy from a upper-middle class family. Most of my formal education has been in private schools, and I’m writing this blog post for a class at CalArts. It’s only been a couple years since I’ve been made aware of the idea of privilege. My language here is purposeful: “been made aware”. I’m not sure if I would see more then a handful of instances where I have an advantage if it weren’t initially pointed out to me. As Peggy McIntosh said, its privilege that lets us not see privilege. I’ve never feel like my voice isn't heard because of who I am. I’ve never experienced what it feels like to be discriminated against by race, gender, sexual orientation, or really any other category. Given my background, its not terribly surprising that I have my share of biases that I struggle against. The very least I can do is strive to identify those biases. And I agree that seeing our own privilege is important to understanding our place as artists, especially when we’re reaching out to people with varying levels of privilege. McIntosh points out, “power from unearned privilege can look like strength when it is intact permission to escape or to dominate.” I’m not proud to say that I once had an outlook that only took “earned” strength into account. It wasn't intensionally malicious, it was ignorance. Certainly a self centered view of the world around me. To use a metaphor used by one of the community members from last week’s video: Privilege gives us a blanket that protects us from cold reality. I was holding my blanket over my head. I certainly still have my blanket, but I hope it’s acting less as a blindfold.

Throughout reading this text I have come across some points that are made that resonate with me and some that don't resonate with me. I don't believe in lessening male social status to make a womans social status seem equal. I believe that a woman's social standard should be raised but not lessen a male social status to make both equal.

I don't think people with white privilege understand the weight it holds for their benefit because the majority have never experienced or will experience what it is like to be without it. Growing up in a predominantly Caucasian city, from an early age I understood how my dark skin did not comply with the standards of normality. I was picked on and called ugly because my skin color did not fit social standards at school. My craving to have white privilege lead me to bleach my skin at 13 years old.

I disagree with few of the statements made in the list. On number 12. I completely disagree by being caucasian and swear and dressing in dirty second hand clothes in public that it does not effect your perception to the world around you because of white privilege. I have at time at mall jumped to conclusions about people who carry themselves in an unkept manner with unruly behavior. I have associated people like this with unruly morals.

Understanding your identity is essential to any art and work you put forth because your identity will effect your product. Knowing your identity and privilege is extremely essential to when you want to produce art into a community to help determine the effectiveness and its reception.

Week 3 post

Reading both of these texts really affected me because being Mexican American I really can imagine what it's like to work hard and be outcasted in society where they won't accept you. My own mom came from Guadalajara to Los Angeles when she was 17 and stayed with her grandma to go to school and learn how to speak, read and write in English. Finding work was difficult. She is my hero because she ended going to college to get a degree for teaching. She is making a difference in this world like so many others who come to the U.S. to make a better future. Today is breaks my heart that there are people who want to keep Immigrants out even if they have lived in the US for half of their lives. 

I could go on and on but, this made me realize how fortunate I am to be where I am in life which is a proud Mexican American who will help educate and spread awareness to the negative ones on this Earth. Mainly the U.S. I'm fortunate to have parents to protect me and help me go to school. I may not be dark skinned for my race but, I am more Mexican than American. 

I work as a server at a restaurant and the chefs in the kitchen are mainly hispanic. I have had times where I would sit and eat with them during our breaks and I would ask them where is home? Do they have family? Most of them sacrificed to be here. To send money back home to support them. That to me is hard work. I can't complain about my problems because there are others that need help. I'm willing to be that person to support. 

I remember going to Mexico City for 2 weeks during Christmas break and I was excited to see family and experience my culture even more. Before my trip I've had people tell me to not look expensive and don't have my phone or wallet out or else people will snatch it. I was confused because I felt like I would be safe because this is my culture but, knowing I have very fair pale skin I might not look Mexican to others. The culture in America is different than Mexico. So I understood why my clothes and look would appear that I'm not from there. When I was there, yes I got looked at a lot but, when I spoke Spanish most of citizens there were impressed of how well I spoke it. Then they proceeded to ask me where my parents are from which both are from Mexico. I felt much more at home when I engaged in conversations with them. 

Here in Los Angeles there are specific areas that are populated with Latinos which make me feel closer to home and I am thankful for that. I honestly wouldn't know what to do or feel if every single Immigrant had to be deported. It wouldn't feel safe or like home anymore. I'm proud to be an artist because this gives me a reason to express myself in this area when it involves community and love. 

Week 3

Victor Murillo

Art and Community

02/01/17

IDENTITY, PRIVILEDGE, AND OUR SOCIAL-POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Consider these texts together. How do these texts challenge previous positions/assumptions/biases/experiences you might have had in regards to your understanding of your own identity and privilege?

Reading both of the texts was great combination on readings on how to relook at my positions/assumptions/biases/experiences. In the paper about white privilege, it did not help me in understanding the privilege of a white American male. The paper instead it helped me look at all the disadvantages that come with being a person a color. These disadvantages helped me look at my past remember the times I was stopped or followed in a store or when I was traveling with a friend I had to wait since my friend was not a American citizen.

Why is an understanding of our identity and privilege (and/or perception of) essential factors in our creative work with communities?

My understanding of my identity and privilege is that I am a Mexican-American. I was born in the United States and the son of immigrant from Tijuana, Mexico. I am a hetrosexual 23 year old male, come from a middle class family of 5, owns a home, has a car that is in good working order for everyone with a driver’s license, and all insured with Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance. My privilege is also to go to CalArts with a yearly tuition of $45,000 dollars. I understand all my privileges and it is a tool for me to understand how to approach communities of all kinds. I know I cannot approach an inner city with an art project that puts the city in a light of self-reflection since I did not come from that community. I also know that I cannot represent a class of poverty since I have never been impoverished in my life. I can do my part to support movements of great roots. I can create art to make inner city more beautiful or to help the community. I can support an artist in a community with ideas using collaboration as tool to help build the bridge of partnership between communities of different sizes, social economical status, race, and etc.      

Week Three: Privilege

Privilege is something that has existed and will exist (unfortunately) as an ongoing entity. It is a challenging and interesting exercise to speak of because it is something that I myself, am still figuring out. As a person who came from Houston, TX the oil and gas capital of the USA, the level of privilege that exists there is immense; wether it be race, sex, age, language, education, and even income. With that said, my own privilege being a white male in todays society has me "ranked" if you will in society as being on a higher rung up the social ladder. And then there are the people who say "oh no I don't see race" haha okay, as Peggy McIntosh pointed out for her own self realization, "I repeatedly forgot each of the realization on this list until I wrote it down." This is something that I can also second and continue to as I am constantly being reminded the more and more I grow in life. It is not something that is pointed out to you, but just happens in front of your very owns eyes, and these "happenings" become your world, your life, your privilege.

While I have always known preset privileges existed around us, up until these past few years I have just seen just how much of an un earned benefit someone gets in their life just by the acknowledgement of somebody's own identity. In closing I think this picture will do a fantastic job as a visual for my thoughts.

Sources/Additional Readings:
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/why-we-still-need-talk-about-privilege
http://media.wix.com/ugd/87d3d4_5bf06e65e2e94a7fb5f1852c9a249e03.pdf

Image:
http://www.justiceislove.org/power-and-privilege/

Week 3

The articles bring to light privileges I get as a white male that I do know about, but don't think of. It sounds bad, but I don't constantly think about my privilege because I've just been grown up with it. Even Peggy McIntosh mentions it in her essay, " I repeatedly forgot each of the realization on this list until I wrote it down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject." (McIntosh P.3) It's good to get that reminder though. It's definitely important for us ot understand our identity and privilege when making art. If we don't, then the problem won't be fixed. In terms of animation, there aren't many non-white characters. Even in anime, where most of it takes place in japan, the characters are drawn to look white. So even if Sailor Moon is Japanese, her big blue eyes and long blond hair don't reflect that. As a white male, in an industry dominated by white males, it can be easy to forget any other race, sexuality, religion etc. So it's my job to acknowledge that, and build on it. I make a point to try and draw characters of color. I'll be honest, it definitely does not happen as much as I draw people of my own skin. But I do make sure to at least try. There's a great short comic by a recent Character animation grad about her journey drawing black characters. Feel free to read it here: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/calarts-animation-student-dont-draw-black-characters-will-137372.html

Week 3

I enjoyed both articles as they can really bring to light how privileged I am from something I had no choice in being.  Peggy McIntosh's article had a couple things that were a bit of a stretch in privileged but for the most part I can see how the things she listed can be privilege.  Guillermo Gomez-Pena's article was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed how he talks about being an outsider can make things difficult but not impossible.  He shows how it is possible to make it even if his skin is a different color and isn't considered privileged. Growing up I was never really taught about my privileges of being a white male, it was just sort of learned throughout my life that some people have more advantages than others just based off skin color and gender.

Week 3

In Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack" she looks at her experience and thoughts on white privilege as wells male privilege. Guillermo Gomez Peña talks about his experiences with being a migrant and performing all over the world in the “Introduction to  Dangerous Border Crossers.”

I think in order to creatively work with a community you need to be a human, in particular you need to be an artistic human in order to do an art project. Duh. I think that you have to be there for the community, not for yourself. I would say that I would even be best to be anonymous to the outside world in particular instances. Projects such as The Roof is on Fire is a project that needed to be a known project but didn’t need to have the artists names attached to them. What is the project called? The Roof is on Fire by Suzanne Lacy. What should it be called? The Roof is on Fire by the students who want there voices heard. 

Week 3

These two pieces were very interesting to compare to one another because they were so diverse in format and language.  Peggy McIntosh’s article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack” speaks to the specific privileges that people have, specifically white privilege and male privilege.  This text really challenged my positions on white and male privilege.  Before reading this article I didn’t really think about how this double standard not only puts others down, but raises up those who are privileged.  Personally, I already knew that being white and a male comes with privileges that others do not have, but I never really thought about it as me having an advantage while also others having a disadvantage.  This has really changed my thinking about privilege as a whole as well as myself personally.  Furthermore, in Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s article, “Introduction to Dangerous Border Crossers” he talks about his experiences of being an “outsider” who performs for people.  His article also changed some assumption that I had about migrants and “outsiders”.  The major assumption being that “outsiders”, like Gómez-Peña, couldn’t make a living based off of their identity, but clearly they can and he has shown that.

The End of Identity Liberalism + Guillermo Gomez Peña

How do these texts challenge previous positions/assumptions/biases/experiences you might have had in regards to your understanding of your own identity and privilege? 

This is a challenging question to answer as I feel that I had two distinctly different reactions to the two texts I read. The first text I read was The End of Identity Liberalism by Mark Lilla. I found this particular opinion piece challenging because while there were certain things I agreed with, I largely disagreed with most of the article. For instance, Lilla writes, "If you are going to mention groups in America, you had better mention all of them. If you don't, those left out will notice and feel excluded." I think it's certainly difficult to disagree with this statement after we've seen the results of the 2016 elections - clearly, we have forgotten (especially those of us from large urban centers) about fellow Americans in neighboring suburbs and rural areas. And I'd say that we have forgotten about this rural population long before this election. In my opinion, there is no doubt, that the left has failed to recognize "the other" and I would say that since day 1 after the election, it has been my goal as a human and artist to fix that misnomer and recognize "the other" with empathy. On the other end of the spectrum, the Trump campaign could be equally blamed for forgetting or rather, ignoring and blatantly attacking citizens of the left (immigrants, diverse gender-identifying people, minorities, different races, people of diverse ethnicities, women, etc.). Furthermore, I largely disagree with the authors insistence on a post-identity politics after we have just witnessed and continue to witness the literal attack on the diverse identities that make up this country. How can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump's entire campaign criminalized minority communities, largely through assumptions of supposedly increased crime levels in "inner cities"? How can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump's administration places a ban on Muslim refugees? And finally, how can I not view the circumstances of today as a whitelash when Trump belligerently insists on deporting undocumented immigrants and building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico? I could continue to list these questions on and on, not mention the misogyny that dictated Trump's campaign, but my overall point is that we are not at the point where we can enter  a space of post-identity when we've all literally suffered a crusade against our identities via Trump, with the exception of white, heterosexual, American men (and I apologize for my bluntness here).

After reading this article, it was truly a breath of fresh air to enter the text of Guillermo Gomez Peña, who so beautifully articulates his experience between borders and around the world as a Mexican man. Peña invites us to understand his positioning in the world and how his identity as a Mexican nomadic performance artist/writer has created a liminal existence for himself, further questioning our notions of identity. I sympathize with his explanation of his own "Chicanoization" process that he's undergoing especially when he questions, "Will I ever be considered Chicano?" Ultimately, Peña allows us to understand that the question of identity does not follow a clear binary, but is rather a beautiful, complex thing. In my own personal life, it is only recently that I've come to understand my own identity. All my life, people would ask, 'where are you from?' and when I'd respond that I'm from New York, people would insist further by asking, 'where are you really from?' I've often questioned in my own life whether or not I would ever be considered an American? Especially as a child, I desired so much to be identified as 'American' and to be  befriended by fellow American classmates in school, but this would never happen because kids would make fun of my traditional Russian lunches or laugh at my father and his think accent when he'd pick me up from school. Perhaps, I'm oversimplifying, but identity in America is a weird thing. Today of course, ones' identity can literally prove to be a matter of life or death as we've seen this weekend with the Muslim ban.

Why is an understanding of our identity and privilege (and/or perception of) essential factors  in our creative work with communities?

Firstly, I would say that always questioning my privilege as a white woman is of crucial importance prior to working or collaborating with communities outside my own. I think more and more I have come to understand that giving credit where credit is due is of upmost importance, especially in circumstances of collaborative work within communities. Oftentimes, we see artists, who do not question their privilege prior to entering communities and quite frankly, capitalizing on those same communities through the production and profitability of art (Santiago Sierra, Artur Zmijewski, etc.). Beyond this, I believe that by understanding our own identities and privilege, this enables us to understand how that dictates our positioning in society and therefore allows us to understand our fellow neighbors and communities beyond with open hearts. I extremely appreciated Peña's astute explanation of working with his own identity when he wrote, "I only write or make art about myself when I am completely sure that the biographical paradigm intersects with larger social and cultural issues." I think that viewing ourselves as cultural producers against a larger framework is equally important and in my own practice, I also hope to refrain from the narcissistic tendencies often associated with artists, unless, as Peña evokes, it has something to do with the world at large. 

3 week

It's odd to read these pieces because the author has easily recognized how they see and how others see their race, gender, social, economic identities. I don't feel that I can recognize what privileges I get daily because I've been told I look racially ambiguous. I've been stopped on the street, at my jobs, at the store, and in class. People have initiated conversation in different languages without knowing if I spoke then. What am I suppose to answer? Often times the answer just exposes the other person's need to categorize me. It feels as if really resonated with Guillermo Gomez Pena was exposing in his performances and how his travels reveal inherit prejudices. Peggy McIntosh also noted that that those with privilege do not want to accept that it is not the norm. It is that society has trained them to believe it is a norm.
 I have just a mix of features: big lips, dark hair,  big almond shaped eye, freckles, a round nose, and a yellowish off white complexion.  I can see some of the privileges I have  because of lighter complexion and feminine appearance. I see some of the privileges I hold that Peggy had listed. Other times, I just feel like I'm passing. I can check different boxes on the form. Sometimes it feels like an advantage. I get to pick a box. I am not as easily targeted. Sometimes the bandaid color doesn't look so off. Sometimes, it feels like a disadvantage. There isn't a group I can strongly identify with. Belong to. I don't feel deeply connected to my Asian heritage, neither do I fully want to embrace my white privilege. They don't see me as theirs.


 

My pale skin

My dark hair and eyebrows

Reflected in orange, plastic pill bottles.

Who am I?

I am my mother.

I am her suppressed sadness and her disregarded loneliness.

I am her smile and sweet perfume in the cold air as she came through the front door at night before I ran to her.

I am my father.

I am his love of poetry and black coffee and strong whisky.

I am his anxiety, the pain of his childhood. I carry him with me within my eyes.

They are my blood, my bones,

Hands, ribcage and pounding heart.

My pain. My greatest inspiration.  

But I am not them.

In the introduction to his essay ‘Dangerous Boarder Crossings’ Guillermo Gomez-Pena makes reference to a metaphorical ‘needle’ that goes through a persons heart and creates the ‘biggest wound of all –the one produced by not entirely belonging anywhere.’ This exploration of the concept of identity struck me on an incredible personal level as my own ‘identity’ has portrayed itself to me as a murky, clouded concept as I was born in London, England and grew up with a British accent, yet England was never, and remains to not be home to either of my parents. My mother is from Ireland and my father was raised in New York. She is Catholic, he is Jewish. As I begin to grow into my adult body I find myself drifting from place to place without a real concept of my own culture, my own religion or my own home as I have no real concept of belonging.

            That is a concept of Gomez-Pena’s essay that I can relate to, however, as a white person living in a first world country I do not know, nor completely understand the depth of experience of my friends and family (particularly those of colour) who have immigrated to this country. Although I myself immigrated to this country from England, my race gives me the privilege to exist more in the realm of Peggy McIntosh’s exploration of white privilege.

‘1492 performances in which I’ve cut my hair and sliced my wrists’ -Gomez-Pena writes- ‘to accommodate your whims.’ When I came to this country I did not need to modify myself in order to be accepted into American culture, I did not have to leave behind my own culture in order to survive. I found his description of his experience at airport security to be striking, as he described being informed that he had an ‘archetypal suspicious look; a cross between a boarder bandit and a generic Latino outlaw’. This is where I open my own ‘white privilege backpack’ and take out my ability to pass through airport security, or go to the bank or the grocery store without concern for the loss of my freedom. And of course as anticipated by McIntosh, I wish to understand how to use my privilege in order to aid my friends and family who carry around a very different 'backpack' to my own.

It was incredibly fascinating reading the voices of these two writers next to each other they both seemed to compliment the other by writing about two incredibly different experiences of racial identity in America. McIntosh writes that whites are taught not to acknowledge their white privilege in the same way that men are taught not to acknowledge their male privilege. She creates an incredibly valid examination of her identity as a white female whereas Gomez-Pena’s writing highlights the other end of the spectrum as a person of color and an immigrant. The two writer's experiences almost completely juxtapose each other and together they exploit the seemingly unresolved racial profiling in our country.

My question moving forward is: how do we find the middle ground of this racial spectrum? Where can these two extremes meet in order for process to be made within our society?

AESTHETIC EVANGELISTS

Victor Murillo

Art and Community

01/25/17

AESTHETIC EVANGELISTS

As you read this text, reflect on the ethical considerations that artists or collectives should take into account when working with/for a specific community or group. Collect at least 4 separate observations (5 points each) on a blog post, and refer to evidence in the text to support your thinking.

1.   As analysis of community-based public art must begin with the vexing questions of just how one define “community” itself. …”community based projects often, although not clearly always, refers to individuals marked as culturally, economically, or socially different either from the artist or form of audience… projects are usually based on some form of collaboration[within the community].” Grant brings great points on the on how to approach community based art projects. That community is a diverse set of individuals that need someone to represent them. That representation can be accomplished through research about the community done by the artist or a form of collaboration within the community.

2.   “The signifying authority of the community artist is based on two points of ideological anchorage. First, their authority is understood to derive from the process of a pedagogically-based "collaboration". This is an "exchange," in which the artist, by surrendering some degree of their creative autonomy in negotiations with a given group over the production of a project is understood to have gained in return some authority to speak from the group's position or on their behalf.” Whenever working on a community project were one must have a good sense of authority but also good sense of compromise. Compromise is needed since in a community-based project there never is a boss.

3.   “There is a tendency in community-based public works to define the participants who make up a given project's community serially, as socially isolated individuals whose ground of interconnection and identification as a group is provided by an aesthetically ameliorative experience administered by the artist. Within this dynamic the artist takes on the delegate's role and attempts to literally "create" a community consciousness out of the atomized social detritus of late capitalism… Typically the artist sets out to challenge the subjects, to expand their awareness and engage them in a process of critical self-reflection and analysis… to resuscitate their sense of "self-esteem" and to provide them with a meaningful creative experience that will allow them to become "participants in their own reclamation.”  These point of making public art in a community that are more politically coherent show how artist who make community based art projects should be more about making the audience self reflect on issues in there community.

4.   When working on an art project in a public setting, is it considered public art or community art? How can you determine your project type? On page 2 of the reading, “The terms "public" and "community" imply two very different relationships between the artist and the administrative apparatus of the city. The public artist most commonly interacts with urban planners, architects, and city agencies concerned with the administration of public buildings and spaces, while the community-based public artist more commonly interacts with social service agencies and social workers (women's shelters, homeless advocates, neighborhood groups, etc.). In each case the interaction between the artist and the "public" or community is mediated through a discursive network of professional institutions and ideologies that the artist collaborates with and, in some cases, seeks to radicalize or challenge.”