December 13, 2015 - 21:01
it’s hard for me to name what i did, partially because i feel like this was such a group effort. not to downplay what individuals did, but the groups felt way more cohesive than did the final events in the identity matters cluster. actually… much of my reflections here on the final events come as a comparison to the last 360 event that i did with the identity matters cluster.
anyway, i suppose a quick rundown of my contributions: the website, largely based in using sula and joie’s pieces; the idea of the cafe; planning of the cafe; going off the seat of my pants for the rules and guidelines of the space; a handful of lively conversations with gallery viewers.
if my memory serves me correctly, i felt like the gallery up in the campus center last fall served as a display of work that we had done over the course of the semester more so than arts of resistance (aor) gallery did. i don’t know that either instance was inherently better than the other. i will say that i felt that the aor gallery did spark significantly more conversation than did the identity gallery. i think that really has a lot to do with the difference in course matter; regardless, i enjoyed the active discussions that i had during the gallery this time around. the opening night i had several lively conversations with current students about the PIC and prison abolition. i also was able to have similar conversations on the other two days as i visited the gallery space.
i did my best to keep my mind clear of expectations for the socrates cafe. jody asked in class what we facilitators might do if there were a large number of people. i have to say that i was slightly disappointed - though unsurprised - by the turn out, but i didn’t expect to feel so far away from people. i kind of hope that because of the set up, those who came to the discussion but were not part of the 360 weren’t fully aware of just how many of us were part of the 360 and not visitors into the conversation.
seeing the conversation bounce mostly among us as 360-participants wasn’t something that disappointed me; while i wish others had been more vocal, i enjoyed the ways that the conversation formed around our experiences of the semester-long dive into ideas and work around freedom, silence, and incarceration. it felt like we were creating a second gallery, one of voice and sound rather than visual work.
also, i just keep going back to how happy i was to see the gallery come together. while so many of us were concerned about it coming together (perhaps not outright fearful as much as vaguely disconcerted by the need of somewhat last-minute creations into a single space that we couldn’t envision), i think we were all surprised. there is a strong pride and admiration i feel/felt from us and to us.