B. Stephen Carpenter II delivers a lecture, accompanied by examples of inexpensive ceramic water filters. (Image by Sham Sthankiya Photography. Used with permission.)
B. Stephen Carpenter II, Ida Ely Rubin Artist in Residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), and Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, combined art, science, and social practice to demonstrate how to enhance practices and possibilities for sustainability through socially engaged art and education.
During his fall 2017 residency, Carpenter provided new perspectives on issues of access, privilege, and the global water crisis (particularly in Africa and Central America) through a series of seminars, performances, and workshops. The series, entitled Intentional Public Disruptions: Art, Responsibility, and Pedagogy, provided an opportunity for students, faculty, and the MIT community to work with Carpenter and learn about his approach to socially engaged art and education. He also modeled how social practice (as action researchers, artists, educators, and activists) offers possibilities to disrupt systems of oppression and ways to increase access to potable water in politically marginalized communities in the United States and abroad.
Part I: Making Something from Nothing
Video 1: Appropriate Technology as Intentionally Disruptive Responsibility
Video 2: Intentional Public Disruptions, Art, and Social Responsibility
Video 3: Community, Water, Pedagogy, and Learning
Part II: Double Taking and Troublemaking
Video 4: Socially Engaged Practice Enabling Difficult Conversations I
Video 5: Socially Engaged Practice Enabling Difficult Conversations II
Video 6: Reflecting and Disrupting
Part III: When Curriculum Becomes Art Practice
Video 7: Educational Experiences as Intentionally Disruptive Pedagogy
Video 8: Art Education as Engagement with the World
Video 9: Conventional Practice and Conceptual Explorations
Video 10: Performing Explorations of Context and Meaning Making