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Researcher(s):
Sierra Nelson-Liner Feona Rehfuss Sofia Linden
ENVS course(s): 295 Initiated: March 2017 Completed: April 2017 Go to project site
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The only thing that is impossible it seems is purity. Through the scholarship of Actor Network Theory, Entangled Identities, and hybridity we hope to explore the various actors and factors that influence how a subject is thought about within certain contexts. We are investigating how personal, cultural and institutional contexts influence one's perception on a subject. Mapping out how a subject is entangled in the different elements of society will allow us to visualize the multitude of political, cultural and social institutions that influence the spaces, perception and symbols that one subject embodies.
We decided to think about rats. Partially because of a particular partner's interest and partially because of the many curious identities, spaces and symbols that are attached to them based on their various institutional, cultural, and political contexts. For instance, when one thinks of a rat they may think of a pest, pet, plague-ridden, or a specimen depending on your relationship with the subject, the cultural norms, their known institutional use, and so on.
We sent out a call for art to see how LC students portray "rats." We chose to focus on students due to time constraints and the valuable variability and creativity that they will be able to bring to the discussion.
So far we've got some awesome art pieces to show for our workshops. The pilot was fairly successful, focusing on Actor Network Theory to guide our concept map we were able to have a fruitful discussion about the entangled influences and how the artwork embodies that. We had students view the art submitted so far, talk about it, and then made individual concept maps. We then discussed the concept maps, gave people a chance to add more, and then came together to collectively make a large concept map.
The final workshop took place on April 7. We had similar setting to the pilot workshop, but with more people and art. The first workshop gave us a chance to see what did and didn't work, so the second workshop ran a little smoother.
While the first workshop tended to gravitate towards institutional, cultural and political perceptions of rats, the second workshop talked more about the social and historical factors that influence a rats position, portrayal, and the perceptions of them. Students were ecstatic to learn this new tool to critically think about topics within their own lives.