Post 7- Johana Lira

 

Chapter 4: Culture 

• "Culture is the realm of meaning. It’s where we make sense of the world and our place within it. If we want to change the world, we have to change the stories we tell about it."

Activism is not just about logic; it is about what we as a society have to play out. Through stuff like culture, activists go, as we can say, "all out," which can in some cases win an argument and change how an audience can view reality. With the help of activism, we can tell a new story and change the future not only for ourselves but also for the next generations to come.

• "Art and culture are often used to reinforce the status quo, making the current system seem natural and unchangeable. Activist art, then, must act as a 'counter-culture' that de-naturalizes these norms."

This also puts forth the idea that that which is most resistant to change is the acceptance of the status quo. Through culture, which is a powerful tool of the activist, we see the exposure of power structures. By making the familiar strange or "out of place" through performance or visual art, activists create the space in which people may imagine and thus demand a different system.

Interview with Shaun Leonardo- Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy

• "The argument that I’m posing here is that what interrupts or completely defeats interconnectivity is the fact that language is the very thing that gets in the way."

Leonardo talks about times where there is great tension in the terms of race and justice we see often put out, which is why we may as a society have defensive language that puts barriers up to true connection. He turns to body and performance, getting people to drift away from their political remarks and placing them into the raw human experience. The so-called "physical listening," which we see to be secondary in intellectual debate, he presents as the solution. 

• "I’m looking for ways to slow down the viewer and more carefully guide where the audience is looking, so that I may translate their seeing into witnessing."

In this quote we see the distinction between what is considered passively viewed and what is to be constantly held responsible for. Leonardo uses the word "seeing," which is a very removed action that is a product of media adaptation, but "witnessing" also includes an amoral and emotional element. With his performances he slows the audience's engagement with an image, which in turn makes it hard for them to look away and into the subject of what humanity is. 
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Art performance

For my art performance piece, I got inspired by Leonardo's thought of communication barriers and how we as humans need to listen to body language than actual words. I also got inspired by this quote: "Culture is the realm of meaning. It's where we make sense of the world and our place within it." (page) In today's society we understand each other through social media and political labels; with "Heartbeat," we challenge a new world by denaturalizing the tendency to judge people by their cultural background, and it gives society a chance to understand each other through something so basic that we all have in common. We don't have to talk the same language or talk about our culture to find similarities; we can talk through something greater than words—heartbeats. 

Title: Heartbeat
Issue addressed: Human connection vs. the digital world. We live in a society that thinks the only way we can have a connection is through a screen which can leave us feel physically alone. 
Instructions:
1. Performer sits in a table with two stethoscopes.
2. On the table a sign that says "Language is the issue, but listen to my heart which is what we should be talking from; I will listen to yours"
3. Both the performer and the participant will put the stethoscopes and place them on the each others heart.
4. Both will sit for 2 minutes listening and trying to match each other's heartbeats, this shows that even if we don't share the same culture we will always have something in common (a heartbeat).