Participatory Learning…Virtually.

Josephine Dorado is a professor at Parsons and an expert in the field of “creative collaboration and theatrical performance in virtual worlds.”  I attended her demonstration on Participatory Learning Through Performance at MobilityShifts on Saturday afternoon.  Dorado explored, most specifically, improvisational dance in the virtual world of Second Life as a tool for participatory learning.  I must admit…I’ve always been a Second Life skeptic.  This is partially why I chose to attend this demonstration.  How does Second Life work?  What is the appeal of using my computer to transport me away from my immediate environment into an atmosphere of aliases that interact in real time?  What makes this virtual world of improvisational dance more fascinating and effective then my neighborhood contact dance group?

Photo credit:  Josephine Dorado

The demonstration displayed Second Life aliases (including Dorado’s alias) dancing to music that was being mixed by a DJ in the physical Orientation Room at Parsons.  The physical audience could sometimes be seen on a big screen within the virtual world.  We could watch ourselves watching the dancers.  The dancers performed many moves which seem physically impossible in real life; such as rapid fire upside down splits.  At one point, colorful ribbons were received by the dancers as props to use in interaction or alone on a corner of the floor.

A photograph I took at the demonstration - Josephine Dorado at center

The element of individual ‘choice’ and experimentation is still very much alive in the virtual world, but it seems less intimidating to choose to approach another dancer on the virtual floor then on the physical floor.  In Augusto Boal’s approach to participatory learning through improvisational performance, he gradually works with people to allow them to slowly start to grow into their own bodies and connect with other bodies onstage; at their own pace.  In Second Life’s dance world, there seems to be a much lower threshold to full body participation and collaboration, right from the beginning.  It is not as intimidating to throw your body onto a virtual dance floor, but in what ways does that test your comfort zone?  What does “embarrassment,” “shyness,” or “tentativeness” feel like online as opposed to on Boal’s stage?  And, what sense of accomplishment does a person feel when they have worked through Boal’s exercises (mistakes and all!) as opposed to ribbon dancing for twenty minutes with a group of anonymous people from around the world?

I left Dorado’s demonstration – my first official viewing of Second Life on a screen – feeling even more curious about this new notion of participatory learning through improvisation.  It tests many of my own definitions (mainly those formed through personal experience) of what performance is and what it does to inspire dialogue and create community.  Boal’s theater inspires community dialogue and individual senses of agency.  What are the post-effects of an online dance collaboration on a virtual community and within the physical lives of the people on their computers?

PART I – Lab: DIY collage workshop

This past Saturday, from 12-4pm Athena, Stephia, and myself conducted a DIY collage workshop in Newark, NJ at the Barat Youth Initiatives headquarters. Watch all the photos here.

We were  joined by a community volunteers, in the creation of a big banner for the upcoming Creation Nation Parade. 15 highschool students joined the session along with numerous community artists and volunteers. We used Art Basel fine art catalogues (2008) and  deconstructed them into collage.Our collective artwork will  march on October 23rd in the parade with thousands of students, and stand in Washington Park for a youth music festival at the end of the parade!

 

 

Publishing Disruptions at Mobility Shifts

This past Friday, I was pleased to attend the panel discussion entitled ‘Publishing Disruptions: Extra-Institutional Publishing Tools’ which was conducted as part of the Mobility Shifts Conference. The panel was moderated by Morgan Currie, of the Institute of Network Cultures and included, Sam Gould of Publication Studio, Amanda Hickman of Document Cloud, Michael Mandiberg of Floss Manuals and Simon Worthington from Mute Magazine.

Each member of the panel presented their individual domains and organizations which share similar philosophies in regard to open-access and publishing as a social practice.
The panel introduced multiple newly-invented platforms for authors who are interested in publishing outside of traditional academic infrastructures, demonstrating that the act publishing can also be seen as a critique of existing institutions and copyright licensing.

Michael Mandiberg discussed Floss Manuals, a collection of manuals about free and open source software, encouraging open-source publishing as a technical and social practice.
Mandiberg discusses Collaborative Futures, a book which he worked on that was created during a ‘Booksprint’ (where many contributors come together for a few days and collaborate on a book.) Floss Manuals has a ‘remix’ option where the public can actually change/add to a book once it is formed. Mandiberg sees the hard copy as an artifact of the digital version which is constantly changing. This problematizes the notion of the book as a fixed entity by encouraging constant feedback, editing and alterations. Here, the book can never really be seen as a finished product, but rather, a malleable object which the public can engage with and adapt.

Sam Gould discussed Publication Studio, a Portland-based laboratory for publication which prints and binds books on demand. The most pertinent message of Gould’s address was his explanation of how PS does so much more than merely the production of books, but more importantly is concerned with the creation of a public. Through a consortium of studios, commissions, artists, authors, etc., PS creates a space for public collaboration. Publication Studio thus offers an expanded notion of what publication can mean, book publishing here is a social act which agitates for dialogue and as a result, forms a public around it.

Both of these speakers’ initiatives complicate traditional academic infrastructures by introducing alternative modes of publishing and collaborative pedagogy. This is central to the DIY ethic which proposes the creation of a new discourse, fracturing authority and encouraging openness, public interaction and individual agency.