Gene: I am thinking of combining a video and pictures to capture retention efforts by the college community as we work together towards academic excellence and achievement for the advisement center webpage.

I am in dicussion with my supervisor to see if I can explore these options.

Directing Energy as a visual and arts based researcher

How can a non-artist direct energy to directly address the social conditions in our society? Matta-Clark provides an arts based social ethnography perspective that can be transformative to artist and non-artist in our society. His reading was intriguing. I had never head of his work until this week’s readings. I gathered that he was influential in dealing directly with social conditions such as: lack of access to affordable housing, nutritional inequalities among marginalized groups through the arts and visual social projects with intention to transform and take ownership of the public spaces as artists and non-artists.

His framework reminds me of the Community Health Course that I took in 2010. We had to choose a social issue, survey the condition within the community, and come up with a solution to the problem. I chose school lunch as a social issue. Most public-school students that attend high schools are surrounded by  food deserts. The communities have local McDonald’s and bodega’s which are more attractive than the school lunch program.  Meeting with the students, I had several discussions on what ways we could improve the lunch selection so that more students can eat their school’s food. As an environmental health activist and educator, using video, pictures and drawings to evoke a better understanding of the issues that impact the decisions we make as members of our own community would have been more powerful than just the discussions.

As a non-artists this reading and the Pink article that quoted Dicks et al., work (2006:88) “photographs allow us to see modes that are visual: colour, shape, size, position and light”. Art  such as images, pictures and videos  could be use to spread awareness and direct energy towards solving some of the social issues and broaden the ideas and the types of solutions that can transform our society and inner cities.

I am so glad to enroll in a visual and arts-based research course. The last time I enrolled in an Art course was during my undergraduate studies as a pre-med student.  The ceramics and visual art courses helped broaden my visual lens to endure the science and math courses. I was able to conceptualize math and science concepts through a visual lens by drawing objects to help me to retain the information. The readings for week one reminded me of my visual and arts-based course experiences.

The following week 1/one reading What is Not Arts-Based Research? provides an overview of arts-based research as a foundation for creating expressive forms of art that should enlighten audiences (Barone & Eisner, 2012) I anticipate that this course will further enlighten me as we dive into literature and discuss research ideas to visually enhance our learning experiences and research ideas in the Urban Education doctoral program.

The second reading for week 1/one Eisner (2001), hopes that qualitative research expands, as do I, so that it is not confined to just print media. He discusses that there are parallels between the visual arts and qualitative research. Gene’s  picture with a student at the alternative high school in New Jersey is an example of how visual art and qualitative research connect together and be a transformative piece for others to see.

I am reminded that through Gene’s picture and week 1/one readings that we can articulate an idea, concept, proposal or a framework not only through writing but also through the arts.

This image is of an advisement center at Brooklyn College. As I explained to the class on Monday, I cannot put all of my feelings of this photo into words.

When was this photo taken? I am not sure but the image invokes a feeling of urgency and inquiry of, am I at the right place, because of the disposition of the student entering the room. For me, the visual artifact conveys an “active” message that there should be a need to see an advisor to discuss your academic and career trajectory.

As an educator, I would like to explore the rationale for this particular photo and if the message on this page that reads “Academic advisors are here to help you graduate on time!” helps capture the moment and message that is intended to be conveyed and can or should the message be conveyed in another way to various audiences that view this page.