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week 4-2 | Otter.ai

week 4-2

Jiaqian Long30min

Speaker 1

00:00

is actually not the issue of premature premature stage. The result can prove disastrous. An examination of and I hear I've used the Pacific, as well as the world's decolonial pattern may be helpful. And there are many instances in which people who want to make decolonization merely on demand a change in position of the colonizer. So for example, the Constitution of the newly emerged Pacific island nations as well as all the African nations, do they reflect more closely the social and legal culture of the immediately preceding colonizer or of the indigenous culture? Are those documents truly reflective of the hopes and aspirations of the people previous coordinators? Or do they represent the colonial mentality which pervades the society at a time of a foreign departure? Were they written or advice of colonial expats coming from the mindset of Western political structures? Or were they drafted by the people themselves? True, decolonization is more than simply replacing indigenous or Cruzi colonized people into the positions held by the colonizers. True decolonization includes the revaluation of the political, social, economic and traditional structures themselves, the development if appropriate, of new structures, rich and house, fold in house the values and aspirations of the colonized people. And again, I'm going to use Barbados for this and I'm using Vargas a lot today because I literally just finished writing program everything's very fresh in my head. The moment that we decided to become a republic, the National Museum of Barbados was invited to come in and restructure. The public office where the governor general normally sat in our government generals from Barbados, she's a woman, she's amazing. She's done all these things with the UN or whatever, and she's just mind blowing. So she said, I don't want to be in an office. Where those images of colonisation, I don't want to be in an office. Whereas there's images of people who set foot in jeans and took over the island. I don't want to be in an office where there's no indigenous anything. So she couldn't miss it. Went to the Barbados Museum and say, can you all do something? And so this became not just an office, but the entire building. What they did was they commissioned local artists to create new artwork, everything that was on the walls, it was not destroyed. Which I love. It was put into storage, and it will become a part of exhibition, they said in about 10 years time. But what they did was they commissioned these artworks, and they invited the artists to come and work on the building, and this building is in the middle of Barbados. And no one's ever been allowed. And so all of a sudden, you're opening up a space that local people have never populated and the artists took images and took photos and mentally this stuff and now that entire building is full of work. From local beach and artists. And so when you add you're not allowed to go and watch political happenings in that space, but what it's done is it's open up this kind of, hey, we can go in and see what parliament is doing for our little island and we're not in a space where we're feeling that we're isolated. Or it's not a space where you're being told you shouldn't be there based on the artwork on the walls. It's not a space where it's like this goes back to this communal gathering of politicians. Again, they're fighting and they're doing whatever they're doing, but the local populace who are watching are sitting there kind of Kenyans quite decent monk. I was quietly smoking when I mentioned last year, I was just like, okay, get health checks. That will fix the rules, you know, but you have this woman very you semi it's this weird thing where you walk into this building that was very colonial, and now it's not and there's this kind of justice take a little Okay. All right. What are we going to do here? What what what how amazing this is going to be and I'm not saying that things like this automatically mean that we're the best thing ever, and there are no problems because we're business about problems. But what is good is have that feeling of indigenous culture coming together and trying to, to to write some roles together. And that's the most important thing to be able to look at this building and to see these amazing artworks done by people from the island.

Speaker 1

05:04

And then the last phase is, second last phase is commitment. So we are in the process of dreaming, the people will have the opportunity to rate the voices rather than becoming caught up with competent votes or bullets. They'll be able to read through the colorful personalities from the histories. And release themselves from shackles of colonial Patriot patriarchy, they will not be able. They're not ready for commitment to a single direction in which society must move. The fears will culminate and people combining their voices in a clear statement of their desired direction. There's no single process for people expressing the commitment. In fact, over time, the commitment will become so clear that a formal process merely becomes a pro forma expression of the people's well, it will be difficult to distinguish between an early termination of the dream and phase from the start of the commitment phase. And all such calls for process must be carefully scrutinized and questioned as to whether these calls are consistent with the desire to allow the full process of decolonization to take place, or cut into the dream in and force a premature resolution of historical injustice that limited the losses of those whose interests are threatened and that the colonizing process and again we see this bit stay the likes of the prime minister of Guyana coming to Britain and saying reparations and it's not just though we don't just want money, you need money to rebuild our country in a way that we want it to be rebuilt. So it's not what aspects of colonialism anymore. And so when he was here as then I think I've said to you guys, I was really impressed with the fact no matter what questions were thrown at him, he was very clear in his conviction of what he was looking for. And therefore nobody could shake him and then you suddenly get to that stage where you're like, Okay, I'm doing the best I can do for my people in this moment in time. For me like that's like that's like the beginning of the breakout right

Speaker 1

07:18

so we're then looking at of course, last one, which is action. So this phase can be properly taken, only have a consensus of commitment reached in that force for free. There's other ways the action can actually be said to be the choice of the people colonnades, but the reality of many situations does not allow for such this methodical, patient time consuming process. Of this for our for earlier phases because people like to jump hack. So many people are under attack. Many people are finding their children torn from their wounds for re education and many people are being removed from their traditional lands and drills. actions may be called for prior to the society's completion of the dreaming phase. But that can't be responsive action to colonizations onslaught. It's not the action spoken up here. The responsive action is one versus WIPO. The action calls for and this fifth phase of decolonization is not a reactive but proactive step taken from the consensus of people. It may incorporate the full spectrum from all juries and on one on one end, to resort to arms on the other on the appropriate times and in the appropriate manner. All of such actions are a sanction on international law. So when the first off independence could have been to drop a rifle and march against labor, it seems that a new weapons are dictated by technological development, social media, the mobile phone and computer television, radio and newsprint are perhaps more effective and execution long battle. These new records notwithstanding the rifle it's been argued, may still be necessary to defend those of other medium of expressions. And not only those the methods of executing upon these commitment change but areas of contests are no not as geographically defined as for, therefore, to speak before National Congress or an appropriate body of United Nations may be far more effective than to build up Netherstorm on a mountaintop with a one school mind and an arm backhoe not written this, and I think it's I I was struggling with this myself because for me, the United Nations no longer has the power that it had before. And so if this particular body which is supposed to be maybe the heart of the world can't function anymore, then who are we supposed to turn to? When these justices keep happening because they don't have any power anymore? I like to think that big death, I mean, in the early days, when it was there, this was the reason it was created. Right? They were like the conscience, I suppose more than the heart of the world. And somewhere they've forgotten how to be that. They were more dependent on money coming from these countries and at the end of the day, my philosophy is always if you're dependent on somebody for money, and they go like you're gonna do this or we're not gonna give you money, then you're gonna do the thing that they want you to do because you want the money. But I also know that there are a lot of people who've recently resigned from the UN because they're like, Well, what are we here for what are we doing because we are not making a difference anymore. And so this is quite interesting for me. I've recently been made un something or the other women something or the other. And my first question to them was, but why are we why are we here? Like, why did you contact me? What is it that we're supposed to be doing here? How are we helping them you know, I need to see a list of like your your action points or what you're doing. And the person I spoke to said, Well, nobody ever asked that. Well, if you want to come on board this organization, you can need to show me what you're doing. Because at the moment, from what I see you're not doing anything. I don't have time to race. So you then have to look at other ways of being and social mean, as we're all artists. This is one of the things that we do we challenge. Right? So now do we live in a world where artists maybe have a little bit more responsibility to maybe shoulder some of the things because United Nations don't have that remit anymore? And again, this is for me, where I say decolonization is not just a buzzword, because of the powers that be are supposed to be the conscience, but yet they're not acting as such because there's their skater or their whatever, then you can't keep using that. Word, but we need new words. We need to come up with our own terminologies to be able to battle these things

Speaker 1

12:30

okay. So in this in this case, we have so we've just talked about polymerizations. We just talked about five actions of decolonization. So this is a case where the structural and institutional racism account for on the representation and many fields. So we're going to look again, as I like to do some of the artists, curators and institutions who are challenging this in their daily practices.

Speaker 1

13:02

And one of the things that I am interested in is, if we're saying that we're looking at decolonization and we're seeing that on the structural racism, the economic structure, poverty, and income inequality. There we now live in a world which of course and feeds on to educate, etc. If we're saying all this and we're also saying that it needs to this structural racism, racism, it needs to social environment. Then how do we begin to fix this? Because these are not small questions, and they're quite large and you're literally going like how we're to begin to break this down. How do we begin to fix this within our own practices? So I spent the season listening some of your answers. I have ideas, but you know, we can't go to one

Speaker 1

14:15

Okay, so the first one is, it's called dreading the map. I love this. I got to see it. I was very happy. The original artwork was by visual artists, Sony Bharat in a third of a series of provocations, by the creative approaches to race and insecurity in the Caribbean in the UK. So this sculpture was made was made using 100 paper maps over three days from sites connected through triangular trade, by a map collective sort of mapping collective of black and brown women. And women sure you.

Speaker 2

15:08

How could you begin to visually show that these places are

Speaker 3

15:13

implicated father's work raises a number of really important geographical issues?

Speaker 4

15:18

I don't want to stand in line and what's his job? In current times?

Speaker 2

15:23

I think this is also at the heart of the colonial days that is possible to have a place like London because what's happening is happening and the map shows is that these are somehow separate spaces. This is a story that

Speaker 5

15:39

I think is really important because the challenge was to acknowledge to interrogate is

Speaker 6

15:42

a provocation and encourage us to think about what those outside what they represent, who created them, why they were created, how they

Speaker 2

15:51

were doing them was the most radical because it really involved in creating these, these long strands. smash these pieces together into

Speaker 2

16:12

the project really started when I had missed the last part of my research, which was researching into the plantations in the southern states, which was where I was ready to leave and return to London. And then it struck me that actually one was I really loved this one geography. And then another one actually, probably London has indicated

Speaker 4

16:44

the Caribbean in the UK had a February long history together. The Caribbean and people in the Caribbean are often still very aware of because it shaped their landscapes and shape their societies, whereas the UK is often known for it seems that a long time ago, and my argument is that actually that relationship between the caregiver and as much as it can be. So I want to think creatively about insecurity in the world about Mason's one of those insecurities. Fathers were raised with a number three important geographic conditions, which are around the place in the medical place around connection and how we integrate each other. I don't want to stand on that job. In current times. So Sunday is where wear coats right to the center of what we want the product to do.

Speaker 2

17:47

When I was thinking about what was making me feel that that was over there. That was over here. I was really, this is upon that. And I think this is also at the heart of the colonial ease. That is possible to have in a place like London, because what's happening is happening. And the map shows this idea that these are somehow separate spaces. And when I think about bringing them together and and scrambling so that they could not bring us the kind of territory and they could not be used to create a human. I thought, well, there's a practice that there's already in the back community that does that. And that is plotting and writing and tribal pain. It's actually as tough as using a black practice that everyone for me felt like something very controversial, but also a very dedicated way of of, of sharing an idea, you know, this idea of a community of black women getting together disabled. Flexing French. Literature is very important because this is your way of expressing ourselves and inspired by truth. I thought it would be really excited to make this work here in the Map Room in the knowledge and graphics society in London, where so many of us have departed from critically returned to recount their versions of of what they saw.

Speaker 5

19:28

His face is a really interesting space. It's deliberately set up I think, to showcase the society's involvement with fieldwork and exploration of open it from the 20th century. So over the long history of the societies and this was founded in 1830. And I think it's one of the most obvious pre colonial spaces in the building and lots of the what's on the walls in the building is set to showcase that history of course, given the history of geography and imperialism and colonialism that have to do those intertwined. It's a kind of a kind of demonstrates that history very compellingly. So it's a it's a deeply global space, but it's also spaces at the heart of the organization. You're going into organizations history. And this is a story that I think is waiting for the rest of town for us to acknowledge, to interrogate and to also do work in terms of pattern recognition. This is difficult based on current histories. And I think more importantly, how do we address the impacts that these histories continue to have on us today, whether that's across society, whether it's in geography as a discipline, and

Speaker 4

20:30

as we move together towards a future where as small islands, we're all going to have to face climate change and all sorts of shared insecurities. We really need to remember that history of drawing all get together,

Speaker 6

20:44

it's a provocation. And encourage us to think about what those maps are, what they represent, who created them, why they were created, how they be used. And I think it's really important for for geography education for geographers to be to be questioning in this particular way. So it's a wonderful, beautiful installation is a beautiful sculpture. But it's just so much more than that. It's

Speaker 2

21:09

as important as the sculpture. This is when the sculpture facilitated us to gather the space between the place for us and the conversations are as important as the sculpture which is really an output in this country. Is Not A is not a thing to celebrate anything or any one individual role. is to create a collective, which is a sculptural practice, which is the exact opposite of the kind of traditional sculptures who celebrate one individual that we see so often in Europe.

Speaker 7

21:48

The fact that it's tapping into this space and an overview of the society that makes such a provocative impact it thank you lots of powerful things. And it's something that if you get a chance to experience it, it really seeps into your body and you experience it both from just looking at it but also when you experience it close that you're able to see the different intricacies in that and that could be really reflects not just dance, which is also a form of something that you experience in the moment, but also a lot of African diasporic and African rituals, which are meant to be experienced in the moment at the time. And so what we're really left with with this sculpture is, is as it leaves this space is what we have experienced in our bodies, and what we've experienced as we interact with it.

Speaker 4

22:36

Now the thing that I want to do in this project is to make the issue of race in education.

Speaker 8

22:44

more easily spoken about and more openly and explicitly

Speaker 4

22:51

talked about on the tracks. I think there's a there's quite a lot of anxiety around ways and that women could because of the happenings in the US around that as matter. We know that there are things to be addressed. But for the UK was such a long history that challenging opinion of history. People find it quite hard to talk about race, particularly in contexts that have been very heavily affected by colonialism, such as geography. So I want to also to begin to be able to talk not comfortable with each other so we shouldn't be comfortable is history of violence. But I want us to be able to talk and to be able to to make individual change actually thinking how our discipline and the public can just do a little bit to begin that conversation, to start to think about how might we can all be very happy

Speaker 1

24:15

so just so you know what did they do see braided together maps from Africa, the Caribbean and the UK. Using that to integrate and refuse the lines that normally separate us so both boundaries added distance, and and so reading the map really does undo the notion of separate here are there and shows that nothing can really on the service separate from anywhere else. And so the idea that again, they're they're bringing it back to black women co creators using African Caribbean hairstylist techniques to practice shredded map. Culturally, such female spaces of hairstyling are filled with discussions around South and community care. And this black woman centered cultural practice juxtapose the words like walls, blogs and portraits of white explores and really embodying that building the latter black for men talking and working together. And so, for me, this particular project is a great example of kind of working collectively or collaboratively to begin to, to understand, you know, something other than just this word decolonization because what they're doing is exactly that. They're trying to bridge these three localities and but it's gonna bring train and bring it back to to the global majority and how they've, they've suffered, but they're not put a negative spin on it. When I finished walking through this exhibition, I was really happy because it was like oh, you can't normally what's a map you go like, Hey, I was born here, or this is where my family is from. You couldn't do that? Because everything was all like, planted together and it was just this amazing concept of people just coming together to try to do something positive and I really love that

Unknown Speaker

26:30

last close up

Speaker 1

26:44

so there's also the black Atlantic Museum, which is a digital resource research project based on archival research and interviews. It seeks to the references and influences of contemporary art in the UK since the 1990s of sociologist Paul Gilroy, as he says, develop in his seminal work the black Atlantic, which is 93. The latter posits the sensuality of the slave trade in the formation of modernity, shaped by the circulation of human economic and material goods at sea, and a dialogue between African and Western cultures, which following subtlety we do wrong, or results in a double consciousness and a black cultural expression. And these relations between your ideas recontextualize and discussed in relation to recent scholarship and black studies around the slave trade and its aftermath, and contemporary art are explored through a mapping of artwork exhibitions, cultural movements, and social political initiatives that manifests afterwards displayed slavery. The project aimed to identify and visualize and study the interactions between contemporary art cultures of the black Atlantic and liberation projects in the UK. In this context mapping is informed and understood in the sense development by black scholars and artists are articulating. So Black geographies, namely space, place and location, and their physical materiality and imaginative confirmations that are inhabited by black communities and overlooked or imposed by prevailing of knowledge systems. The black Atlantic museum operates in two levels, researching to artists, curators and institutional archives mapping project of artists and artworks, exhibitions and events in the Asian with the history of the black Atlantic, intersecting them with the market of black British social political initiatives, commissioning of online essays and hosting of online events. The specialist in Black Studies responding to accounts of British art history through the prism of the black Atlantic and its aftermath. So this project aimed to renew your understanding of the spectrum of specific artistic and curatorial practices within the wider contemporary and trans historical contexts.

Speaker 1

29:25

So Rosina is artist started painting for she started playing catcher in 1955. Her work primarily focused on folklore forests and the saints of Brazil. And what's really important here is she's bringing back that indigenous culture and that indigenous kind of religion. So in the image here, you can kind of see variations of skulls, the devil, the African mass, and it's she's really kind of bring it back in involved in that and thin carnival, and also the third image again,

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