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PROFESSOR: This idea
of social practice

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is one that a lot of
theorists and critics

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have talked about
and tried to frame.

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I think of social
practice as an engagement

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in art-making within a more
recent contemporary moment,

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although there are historical
antecedents perhaps

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many decades prior to now.

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We might think, in, relatively
speaking, last 30 to 50 years,

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some of these pieces
start to come together.

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But one person
who I've looked at

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to help theorize this
notion of social practice

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is educator and
artist Pablo Helguera.

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Helguera says--
unlike social work

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that aims for
betterment of humanity,

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defending human dignity,
and strengthening

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human relationships, a socially
engaged artist may subscribe

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to those same values but
make work that ironizes,

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problematizes, and even
enhances the tensions

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around those subjects in
order to provoke reflection.

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So it's that end
part of the phrase--

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to provoke reflection-- that
I bring into the classroom

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or that I try to center some of
my work around this idea of--

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what might we do to
provoke reflection,

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not only in other people,
but also in myself?

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Perhaps the work becomes a
provocation in that sense.

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And why would we
want to do that?

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Well, Helguera says we
want to do that perhaps

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to discover something
in the process.

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These artists, he
considers them--

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renames them-- free
agents, if you will.

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They insert themselves
into the most unexpected

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social environments.

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And they do so in
ways that break away

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from disciplinary
boundaries, hoping

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to discover something
new in the process.

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So the idea of inserting
oneself into an unexpected place

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or to perform a certain behavior
or certain interaction when

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it's not expected,
we would do that

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hoping to discover
something in the process.

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So these two terms--

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socially engaged art
and social practice--

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are connected.

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Helguera prefers
socially engaged art

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because it still has
that word art in it.

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He shortens it to be SEA.

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But this idea of social
practice is a wider range,

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is a term that seems to be a
bit more widely encompassing

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of the range of practices that
might fit those definitions.

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So to go on, just a couple
of more bits from Helguera.

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Again, there are other folks
like Claire Bishop and Grant

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Kester and other folks
who theorize and talk

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about socially engaged art.

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But I find Helguera's
approach quite useful.

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So he talks about
socially engaged art

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or social practice
as a multi-layered

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and a participatory engagement.

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He says that there
are these structures--

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multiple structures
or multiple layers--

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among which are
nominal participation,

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directed participation,
creative participation,

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and collaborative.

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So there might be multiple
ways to participate or engage

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the public or other individuals
within this practice.

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Helguera also talks about the
idea of how these practices are

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linked to other disciplines.

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Specifically, we find
tension between art practice

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and sociology, or
social practice.

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But that trying to make sense
of those tensions and say it's

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more art, it's like 85% this, or
16% of this something-- that's

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not what he's talking about.

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He says we want to stay
in that unresolved space.

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It comes at us perhaps
through a sense

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of art practices and
disciplinary considerations.

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But that we want to remain
in that unresolved space.

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We want it to be a bit messy.

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So here's a bit of a
longer one, and then we'll

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move beyond some
of the theorizing.

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Helguera says social
interaction occupies

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a central and inextricable
part of any socially engaged

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artwork.

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You've got to have the
social interaction.

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Just doing something and
then hang it up and not

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having other people
become participants at one

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of those layers is not enough.

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Although one might
argue that any artwork

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is a socially engaged practice.

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Once you put, let's say,
a painting or a sculpture

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out to be seen, at least
one person is seeing it.

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It's already an engaged
in a social relationship.

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But Helguera goes further.

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He says socially engaged art
is a hybrid, multidisciplinary

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activity that exists somewhere
between art and non-art.

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And what has to happen is,
you have to have actual--

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and not hypothetical,
not imagined--

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social action.

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You actually have to
engage with other people.

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So last week outside in
front of the building,

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we created ceramic
water filters.

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We mixed clay and
sawdust, and we

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had several people stop by
to see what we were up to,

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get their hands dirty.

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We brought that mixture of
clay and sawdust back upstairs.

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And we made ceramic
water filters.

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And these water filters will
render contaminated water

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with microbes and pathogens,
it will render it potable.

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And so this practice of
performing the construction

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and the production of
ceramic water filters

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fits within Helguera's notion
of socially engaged art.

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So I'm telling you that is
kind of a back step to what we

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did last week, but also to
give you a specific example.

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But then I want to give
you some other examples.

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And some of the examples
that I want to share with you

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push this idea of
telling stories that

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might not be told otherwise.

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I was in a course.

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I was teaching a course a few
years ago to undergraduate art

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education students.

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We're trying to make sense
of-- what is it that art does?

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Why are we teaching art?

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What is the central
importance, or what

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seems to be at the core?

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Not that there might
be a singular core.

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But there could
be multiple cores.

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And one of the students
said, you know what?

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I think art allows us to tell
stories that we would not

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be able to tell otherwise.

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In some ways, we might
not be able to tell them,

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or we probably shouldn't tell
them otherwise as completely

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through art practice.

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And so I kind of
latch onto that.

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But I'd like to add
the difficult stories.

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The work that I try
to do is interested

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in those difficult stories that
might not be told otherwise.

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Not that they're
not told, but they

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wouldn't be told
in the same ways

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that socially engaged
art would do that.

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So as I think
about this approach

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to telling difficult stories, I
think of the word double-take--

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when you see something and
then you have to look again.

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This is a double-take, right?

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You see it once, but it
caused you to stop and take

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a second look.

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We might think of
research in the same way.

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We can search.

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But when we research,
we search again.

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It's to look again, to
do this double-take.

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I also appreciate the
idea of making trouble.

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Not only the idea of
troubling something

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through the making of objects
or the making of experiences

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or making of social actions,
but the making of trouble

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in the idea of troubling
things that others

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have made, whether they be
objects or social constructs

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or ideologies.

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So it's this idea of trouble
making and making trouble

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that I like to play with.

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And there's still images from
one of the Marx Brothers films

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where Harpo and Groucho,
essentially the mirror breaks,

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and they're
mirroring each other.

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So there's all this
double-take going on.

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They're looking
and looking again.

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And so you have this idea
of visuality happening,

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the perspective of the viewer.

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But it's through this
social interaction.

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And there a number of
iterations of that Marx Brothers

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mirror scene that
play out in cartoons,

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that play out in other stories.

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So other ways that I've made
trouble in the past was--

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and to think about
what we're seeing

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and how we're seeing it--

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was to take a look at February.

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Quite often, I have been
invited to give talks

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at schools or at
other institutions.

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And they like to bring
me in in February.

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I guess it's because February
is the month of Valentine's Day,

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and they know that I'm a
very passionate person.

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But if they look more
closely at my work,

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they say I deal with
some difficult issues,

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and not the least of which
is the construct of racism.

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And that's also the month where
you have Black History Month.

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And so I'm pretty sure
that's why they bring me in.

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So if we look at February
a bit differently,

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if we engage with
that month, not only

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is it the month where we--

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let's look at a specific
group of others,

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which suggests there is another
construct against which we are

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situating African-Americans.

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But also the idea
of February being

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the month for Valentine's
Day, is it's shortest month

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of the year.

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And the shortest
month of the year

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is the year we say-- go tell
other people how much you

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love them.

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I mean, you would think a
month with 31 days would

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be a better choice for that.

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Or maybe all year
long we should think

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in more passionate
and considerate ways.

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So this is the work I
did a number of years

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ago that revolved around
those two concepts.

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I also am interested in
this idea of disruption.

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I mentioned this
briefly last week.

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And I think disruption
happens in a number of ways--

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pushing back, questioning.

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I'm interested in questioning
answers rather than answering

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questions.

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One of the ways I've done that
is, I've looked at barber shops

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as pedagogical spaces,
as curriculum spaces.

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What can we learn
in a barber shop?

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And I wrote an article
about Pat's Barber Shop

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in Norfolk, Virginia.

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And I tried to make
the case that what

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happens in a barbershop is a
hyper-textual, multi-layered,

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multifaceted, learner-centered
space of inquiry.

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That you might go in
trying to get a haircut,

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but you come out
with an education.

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And this happens in all
sorts of service locations--

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hair salons and other places
where conversation becomes

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essential to those locations.

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I've also written about
digital technology.

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When my wife and I
learned we were expecting

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our birth of our daughter,
I started to think-- well,

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that's fantastic.

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And I thought--
oh, my goodness I'm

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going to be someone's parent.

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And, oh, I need to
think this through now.

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This is a big deal.

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So I started writing
myself a series of emails

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to explain to our unborn
child who I thought I was

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and what I was working through.

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And so that series
of emails became

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an article, or a chapter, an
email from a digital daddy.

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And I was trying to
make sense of how

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her future existence and
identity would be mediated

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through digital technology.

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But what came through in
the process of that was her

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multi-ethnic identity and the
ways that I imagined camera

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technology,
surveillance technology,

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being scrutinized at airports--

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among other approaches--
would render her body

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the object of examination.

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I want to shift now to tell
you a story about Henry Brown.

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I'm not sure if you're familiar
with the Henry Brown who

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I think about quite often.

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Henry Brown lived in
Virginia outside of Richmond

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in Henrico County.

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And there's Henry in the middle.

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He's inside this
box, and there's

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some people outside the box.

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So I guess they're
thinking outside the box.

251
00:11:50,450 --> 00:11:53,900
And the story of Henry
Brown was told by himself.

252
00:11:53,900 --> 00:11:56,870
He narrated this
story of himself.

253
00:11:56,870 --> 00:12:00,660
And there are many
versions, or at least it

254
00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:03,096
was published in a number
of different contexts,

255
00:12:03,096 --> 00:12:04,470
in a number of
different formats.

256
00:12:04,470 --> 00:12:07,060


257
00:12:07,060 --> 00:12:09,977
And so Henry Brown earned
the name Henry Box Brown.

258
00:12:09,977 --> 00:12:11,310
He was in that box for a reason.

259
00:12:11,310 --> 00:12:13,860
I'm going to let you know
why in just a second.

260
00:12:13,860 --> 00:12:16,740
I brought-- I didn't
bring them in.

261
00:12:16,740 --> 00:12:19,380
We have obtained a
couple of pallets.

262
00:12:19,380 --> 00:12:23,730
And I put the wooden
pallets on the floor here.

263
00:12:23,730 --> 00:12:27,030
So you have these two
wooden pallets on the floor.

264
00:12:27,030 --> 00:12:29,591
And I want to read you a story.

265
00:12:29,591 --> 00:12:30,840
It's not a story that I wrote.

266
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:31,710
Henry wrote it.

267
00:12:31,710 --> 00:12:36,600
But it's been retold and
is retold by Ellen Levine.

268
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:41,280
And the story is "Henry's
Freedom Box: A True Story

269
00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:43,800
from the Underground Railroad."

270
00:12:43,800 --> 00:12:47,250
The reason that I'm reading
this to you on these pallets--

271
00:12:47,250 --> 00:12:51,120
what you see are two
pallets and this book

272
00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:56,940
that I put on a sidewalk in
the middle of campus last year.

273
00:12:56,940 --> 00:13:01,440
And I let it sit there
for 10 minutes or so.

274
00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,564
And then I sat on the pallets,
and I read this story the way

275
00:13:04,564 --> 00:13:05,730
I'm going to read it to you.

276
00:13:05,730 --> 00:13:07,020
And people walked by.

277
00:13:07,020 --> 00:13:12,610
Some of them stopped and
listened, and others did not.

278
00:13:12,610 --> 00:13:15,430
Henry's Freedom Box--

279
00:13:15,430 --> 00:13:18,670
Henry Brown wasn't
sure how old he was.

280
00:13:18,670 --> 00:13:21,940
Henry was a slave, and
slaves weren't allowed

281
00:13:21,940 --> 00:13:24,060
to know their birthdays.

282
00:13:24,060 --> 00:13:28,110
Henry and his brothers and
sisters worked in the big house

283
00:13:28,110 --> 00:13:29,610
where the master lived.

284
00:13:29,610 --> 00:13:33,180
Henry's master had been good
to Henry and his family.

285
00:13:33,180 --> 00:13:36,720
But Henry's mother knew
things could change.

286
00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,870
Do you see those leaves
blowing in the wind?

287
00:13:40,870 --> 00:13:43,780
They're from the trees
like the slave children

288
00:13:43,780 --> 00:13:46,390
are torn from their families.

289
00:13:46,390 --> 00:13:49,580
One morning, the master called
for Henry and his mother.

290
00:13:49,580 --> 00:13:51,850
They climbed the wide staircase.

291
00:13:51,850 --> 00:13:56,050
The master lay in the bed with
only his head above the quilt.

292
00:13:56,050 --> 00:13:57,530
He was very ill.

293
00:13:57,530 --> 00:13:59,560
He beckoned them to come closer.

294
00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:01,780
Some slaves were
freed by their owners.

295
00:14:01,780 --> 00:14:03,340
Henry's heart beat fast.

296
00:14:03,340 --> 00:14:06,670
Maybe the master
would set him free.

297
00:14:06,670 --> 00:14:10,530
But the master said,
you're a good worker Henry.

298
00:14:10,530 --> 00:14:13,070
I'm giving you to my son.

299
00:14:13,070 --> 00:14:16,820
You must obey him
and never tell a lie.

300
00:14:16,820 --> 00:14:20,960
I will mail myself to a place
where there are no slaves,

301
00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:22,220
he said.

302
00:14:22,220 --> 00:14:25,200
Henry, are you all
right in there?

303
00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:26,960
All right, he answered.

304
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:28,430
The cover was pried open.

305
00:14:28,430 --> 00:14:30,140
Henry stretched and stood up.

306
00:14:30,140 --> 00:14:32,090
Four men smiled at him.

307
00:14:32,090 --> 00:14:34,130
Welcome to Philadelphia.

308
00:14:34,130 --> 00:14:36,290
At last, Henry had a birthday--

309
00:14:36,290 --> 00:14:41,660
March 30, 1849, his
first day of freedom.

310
00:14:41,660 --> 00:14:45,140
And from that day on, he
also had a middle name.

311
00:14:45,140 --> 00:14:47,930
Everyone called him
Henry Box Brown.

312
00:14:47,930 --> 00:14:50,440


313
00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:52,780
So this is the
story of Henry Box

314
00:14:52,780 --> 00:14:57,280
Brown as told in a children's
book by Ellen Levine.

315
00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:59,065
And it was illustrated
by Kadir Nelson.

316
00:14:59,065 --> 00:15:00,440
Why did I read
that story to you?

317
00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,920
Well, I wanted you to hear
the story of Henry Box Brown

318
00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,470
not the way that he told
it, but the way that it

319
00:15:05,470 --> 00:15:07,450
was retold for children.

320
00:15:07,450 --> 00:15:09,082
That's a children's book.

321
00:15:09,082 --> 00:15:10,540
It's meant to be
a children's book.

322
00:15:10,540 --> 00:15:12,867
It's meant for children
to hear that story.

323
00:15:12,867 --> 00:15:14,950
And it's a story that I've
read as a bedtime story

324
00:15:14,950 --> 00:15:16,620
to our daughter.

325
00:15:16,620 --> 00:15:19,900
There are different versions
of Henry's Freedom Box,

326
00:15:19,900 --> 00:15:23,280
different children's versions
and different adult versions

327
00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:25,470
of telling this story.

328
00:15:25,470 --> 00:15:27,640
There are art approaches too.

329
00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:31,370
There's a monument to Henry
Brown in Richmond, Virginia.

330
00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:34,420
And this is a sculpture
made out of metal.

331
00:15:34,420 --> 00:15:38,194
The same dimensions as
that box that Henry was in.

332
00:15:38,194 --> 00:15:39,610
And etched in the
ground, it says,

333
00:15:39,610 --> 00:15:41,680
"In a wooden crate
similar to this one,

334
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:44,020
Henry Brown, a Richmond
tobacco worker,

335
00:15:44,020 --> 00:15:47,740
made the journey from
slavery to freedom in 1849."

336
00:15:47,740 --> 00:15:50,650
And that box is interesting
because the lid is off,

337
00:15:50,650 --> 00:15:55,220
as you saw in that previous
image, but one side is open.

338
00:15:55,220 --> 00:15:59,790
And it's open with a silhouette
of a man crouched down.

339
00:15:59,790 --> 00:16:04,440
Now, Henry Brown was 5'8.

340
00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:05,910
I'm 5'8.

341
00:16:05,910 --> 00:16:08,070
And I was compelled to
get inside that box.

342
00:16:08,070 --> 00:16:09,890
And this idea of--

343
00:16:09,890 --> 00:16:12,060
from Henry, thinking
outside of the box

344
00:16:12,060 --> 00:16:14,130
meant literally to
think inside the box

345
00:16:14,130 --> 00:16:19,170
and to put himself into a
situation that was disrupting

346
00:16:19,170 --> 00:16:20,490
the current practices.

347
00:16:20,490 --> 00:16:24,870
But he was at a point at which
he was willing to try anything.

348
00:16:24,870 --> 00:16:28,440
Now, this story of Henry
Brown can be retold

349
00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:30,450
and can be recreated
and be reproduced.

350
00:16:30,450 --> 00:16:32,930
And there are some folks who--

351
00:16:32,930 --> 00:16:35,010
you know, I make
these connections.

352
00:16:35,010 --> 00:16:36,660
The image on the
left is actually

353
00:16:36,660 --> 00:16:38,790
someone who is trying
to get themselves out

354
00:16:38,790 --> 00:16:41,340
of this particular
situation putting themselves

355
00:16:41,340 --> 00:16:45,240
inside a suitcase and
mailing oneself out

356
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:46,500
of a horrible situation.

357
00:16:46,500 --> 00:16:48,270
The image on the
right is actually

358
00:16:48,270 --> 00:16:52,860
a white student in black face
as a Halloween costume going

359
00:16:52,860 --> 00:16:54,450
as Henry Box Brown.

360
00:16:54,450 --> 00:16:57,180
Now, both of these
images relate directly

361
00:16:57,180 --> 00:17:00,280
to the Henry Box Brown story
for me, but in different ways.

362
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:02,370
They can be unpacked--
no pun intended--

363
00:17:02,370 --> 00:17:07,020
to deal with various
levels of class,

364
00:17:07,020 --> 00:17:09,060
of identity, of
social situation,

365
00:17:09,060 --> 00:17:13,599
of systems of oppression,
and expectations.

366
00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:15,359
This idea of reading
in public places--

367
00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:19,020
just like I did with the Henry
Brown work last year and also

368
00:17:19,020 --> 00:17:20,280
here--

369
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:23,849
I think is an important
piece to consider.

370
00:17:23,849 --> 00:17:26,069
And the way in which we
read to children, I think,

371
00:17:26,069 --> 00:17:26,859
is important.

372
00:17:26,859 --> 00:17:27,900
Words are very important.

373
00:17:27,900 --> 00:17:28,900
Words are powerful.

374
00:17:28,900 --> 00:17:31,680
There are games that we
play through social media

375
00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:33,420
in public spaces like
Words with Friends.

376
00:17:33,420 --> 00:17:35,310
I play this game quite often.

377
00:17:35,310 --> 00:17:37,910
But there are some words
that are unacceptable.

378
00:17:37,910 --> 00:17:38,830
You think-- what?

379
00:17:38,830 --> 00:17:39,650
There are some words
that aren't-- well,

380
00:17:39,650 --> 00:17:41,630
if you misspell it, it's
probably unacceptable.

381
00:17:41,630 --> 00:17:46,131
Negro is an unacceptable
term in Words with Friends.

382
00:17:46,131 --> 00:17:46,630
Really?

383
00:17:46,630 --> 00:17:48,130
Because that's a
term I think people

384
00:17:48,130 --> 00:17:51,940
need to deal with and
address and unpack.

385
00:17:51,940 --> 00:17:55,710
Asian is also an unacceptable
term in Words with Friends.

386
00:17:55,710 --> 00:17:59,850
Now, I find these two examples
interesting for the kind

387
00:17:59,850 --> 00:18:03,780
of work that I'm doing.

388
00:18:03,780 --> 00:18:07,980
But there are some other
words that are acceptable.

389
00:18:07,980 --> 00:18:12,890
And really big words matter.

390
00:18:12,890 --> 00:18:16,070
And just like
socially engaged art

391
00:18:16,070 --> 00:18:17,960
that moves away from
the materiality and more

392
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,660
to the conceptual
and the experiential,

393
00:18:20,660 --> 00:18:25,400
moving from specific labels to
larger concepts and constructs

394
00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:28,200
seems to be of more value to
Words with Friends as well.

395
00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:34,740
For example, "conceptualizing"
can earn you 1,469 points.

396
00:18:34,740 --> 00:18:35,760
That's a lot of points.

397
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:37,649
So maybe there's something
in conceptualizing

398
00:18:37,649 --> 00:18:38,440
that we need to do.

399
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:42,560
So how do we conceptualize
telling difficult stories?

400
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:44,280
Another children's
book, Goodnight Moon,

401
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:45,613
you might be familiar with this.

402
00:18:45,613 --> 00:18:47,780
Goodnight, moon.

403
00:18:47,780 --> 00:18:49,410
Goodnight, cow
jumping over the moon.

404
00:18:49,410 --> 00:18:50,910
There's this
interesting repetition.

405
00:18:50,910 --> 00:18:55,400
Well, Larry Wilmore created
a version of Goodnight Moon.

406
00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:57,650
He called it Goodnight Slavery.

407
00:18:57,650 --> 00:19:03,440
Larry Wilmore was a talk show
spin-off from The Jon Stewart

408
00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:05,240
Show.

409
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:09,710
And so this show
with Larry Wilmore,

410
00:19:09,710 --> 00:19:13,730
he decided that one
of the skits that he

411
00:19:13,730 --> 00:19:17,840
did was to create
a children's book

412
00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:25,070
called Goodnight Slavery
inspired by the Texas

413
00:19:25,070 --> 00:19:28,430
legislature and the
Texas Education board

414
00:19:28,430 --> 00:19:29,570
changing the curriculum.

415
00:19:29,570 --> 00:19:31,700
And changing certain
terms, moving

416
00:19:31,700 --> 00:19:35,210
the term the
transatlantic slave trade

417
00:19:35,210 --> 00:19:40,340
and renaming it the
transatlantic triangular trade.

418
00:19:40,340 --> 00:19:44,780
And so he has this entire
piece where he pulls apart

419
00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:50,080
that movement, the essentially
whitewashing of history.

420
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,960
And so what you see there
are lines from the book.

421
00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:55,330
"In a big red state,
there was a textbook

422
00:19:55,330 --> 00:19:59,680
in a debate and too many knaves
in one big cave and a book

423
00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:02,920
that is shut and a past
full of smut and a cranky

424
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:05,500
conservative with a
stick up his butt.

425
00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:06,970
Good night, slavery.

426
00:20:06,970 --> 00:20:08,530
Good night, bravery.

427
00:20:08,530 --> 00:20:10,690
Good night to things
we find unsavory."

428
00:20:10,690 --> 00:20:12,160
Well, what are
some of the things

429
00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:13,450
that they might find unsavory?

430
00:20:13,450 --> 00:20:14,960
Well, I'll get to
that in a second.

431
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,170
But this book Goodnight Moon
has been told in different ways.

432
00:20:19,170 --> 00:20:26,260
It's a fixture within
children's book culture

433
00:20:26,260 --> 00:20:29,080
that gets repurposed
and reimagined.

434
00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:31,990
Some of the ways that
Wilmore understands

435
00:20:31,990 --> 00:20:32,950
what is being erased--

436
00:20:32,950 --> 00:20:40,780
Goodnight KKK, Goodnight to the
decimation of indigenous people

437
00:20:40,780 --> 00:20:42,820
on this continent.

438
00:20:42,820 --> 00:20:46,180
So these are all the things
that the Texas curriculum was

439
00:20:46,180 --> 00:20:51,550
erasing or modifying or
eliminating or renaming to make

440
00:20:51,550 --> 00:20:55,800
them seem less unsavory.

441
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,600
And in one more skit,
he reads this book

442
00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:01,030
to a classroom of
kindergarten children.

443
00:21:01,030 --> 00:21:02,500
And their reactions
are wonderful.

444
00:21:02,500 --> 00:21:05,500
But it's also-- you can
tell it's kind of coached

445
00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:07,790
for the skit.

446
00:21:07,790 --> 00:21:10,310
Reading public places--
different than reading

447
00:21:10,310 --> 00:21:11,030
in public places.

448
00:21:11,030 --> 00:21:12,890
We could also read
public places.

449
00:21:12,890 --> 00:21:15,230
For example, in the summer--

450
00:21:15,230 --> 00:21:16,550
for the past three summers--

451
00:21:16,550 --> 00:21:20,690
I've had the opportunity
to teach at Vermont

452
00:21:20,690 --> 00:21:22,160
College of Fine Arts.

453
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:24,230
And one of the
courses that I teach

454
00:21:24,230 --> 00:21:27,830
looks at participatory
inquiry in the public sphere.

455
00:21:27,830 --> 00:21:30,290
One of the assignments
is for us to go

456
00:21:30,290 --> 00:21:32,690
to the State House, the
State Capitol, which

457
00:21:32,690 --> 00:21:36,160
is just a mile and a half,
two miles away from campus.

458
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,320
And it's the smallest state
capitol in the country.

459
00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:40,820
It's very accessible.

460
00:21:40,820 --> 00:21:43,420
We sign up for a guided tour.

461
00:21:43,420 --> 00:21:49,110
And before the tour, I give
each student a little figurine

462
00:21:49,110 --> 00:21:52,860
that I bought at the toy
store, these little busts of US

463
00:21:52,860 --> 00:21:54,940
presidents.

464
00:21:54,940 --> 00:21:57,550
And I ask the students
to go on the tour,

465
00:21:57,550 --> 00:21:58,810
to be polite on the tour.

466
00:21:58,810 --> 00:22:04,300
But I would like you to read the
state capitol in conversation

467
00:22:04,300 --> 00:22:06,820
with the tiny president.

468
00:22:06,820 --> 00:22:10,120
So on our walk down, in our
mile and a half walk down,

469
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:11,620
they're on their
phones, and they're

470
00:22:11,620 --> 00:22:16,090
googling Theodore Roosevelt
or Thomas Jefferson or Abraham

471
00:22:16,090 --> 00:22:17,590
Lincoln.

472
00:22:17,590 --> 00:22:23,300
And then they take
cell phone shots.

473
00:22:23,300 --> 00:22:25,750
There's a close-up
of tiny George,

474
00:22:25,750 --> 00:22:27,430
and in the back is big George.

475
00:22:27,430 --> 00:22:29,947


476
00:22:29,947 --> 00:22:32,280
Or please keep off, and they
put one of the presidents--

477
00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:34,170
I think that's Buchanan--
inside the cannon.

478
00:22:34,170 --> 00:22:36,800


479
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,530
Or they end up
reading other people.

480
00:22:39,530 --> 00:22:42,589
And it's with this tiny
president, this tiny object,

481
00:22:42,589 --> 00:22:44,380
that they're able to
construct stories that

482
00:22:44,380 --> 00:22:45,505
couldn't be told otherwise.

483
00:22:45,505 --> 00:22:48,240
Putting that situation,
that context, history,

484
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,340
and related information
that they have either

485
00:22:51,340 --> 00:22:52,870
brought to that
space or that they

486
00:22:52,870 --> 00:22:54,550
learn on the tour
in conversation

487
00:22:54,550 --> 00:22:57,330
with what they know
about that president.

488
00:22:57,330 --> 00:23:25,897