Nuts and bolts of the project:
Ann: In August 1995, Rolf and I were invited to add an Internet component to a Learning Technology grant (initiated by Parker and Poestenkill schools) that was already in progress to the New York State Department of Education. I found out about the Ark through the grant, and met with Jay (Co-Director of the Ark) and we agreed that I would start an Internet group at the Ark. In September, 1995 I integrated this project into my work as a new MFA student at RPI. WYRED eventually became half of my 1996 MFA thesis, "Citizen Artists: Electronic Telecommunications and Democratization". In September, 1995 I invited other MFA students to participate. Wendy Vissar and Lisa Erdman joined at differing levels of involvement. Chris Dobrian, acting chair of iEAR Studios at RPI, arranged to allocate 3 guest Internet accounts to the project. I set up these Internet accounts at the two Macintosh sites (Parker and Poestenkill), and found a IBM literate RPI student, Joe Annino, to set up the account at the Ark. At that point I was the only one who knew HTML, so I taught Wendy, Lisa, Mary Theresa, and teachers from Poestenkill and Parker school how to create web pages. Professor Branda Miller critiqued the project in Creative Seminar and individual meetings. In November, 1995, I received a New York Media Alliance Action Grant for WYRED. The grant ($700) paid for expenses associated with the meetings/events that brought the three groups together. The Learning Technology grant ($50,000) was awarded in December and provided a set of 12 powerbooks, a digital quicktake camera, a scanner and a zip drive that rotated every three weeks between the three sites in the grant -- The Ark, Parker School, Poestenkill Elementary. All three WYRED events, which brought together youth from the three sites, were planned and coordinated by the Ark group. When the Macintosh powerbooks were at the other sites -- the Ark group switched to the on-site computers at the Ark -- five IBM compatable Gateway computers and a digital Kodak camera. In February Erik Larson, a RPI senior majoring in Computer Science, networked this computers with a hub. Erik also served as our tech support solving many many problems over the course of the semester as part of his course work for an iEAR class. As a Macintosh computer user, learning the IBM compatable system at the Ark has been a real hurdle for me, and represents an on-going learning process from me. Things which I can easily do on a Mac like configure Internet connections and install new software are infinitely more complicated using when Microsoft Windows. This has meant that we are always dependent on tech support from outside, rather than being self-sufficient.
The first year of WYRED was significantly impacted by fallout from the $50,000 Learning Technology Grant. Initially, delays at the State Education Department affected the proposed timeline for the project. The grant which was supposed to be in progress during the 1995/96 school year was not awarded until December. I got a call in early December from the Parker coordinator suggesting that since we were already 4 months behind schedule that Parker and Poestenkill rotate the computers for the remaining school year and the Ark received them in the summer months. I told him that was not an option because the Ark was closed in the summer. However, Parker and Poestenkill went ahead and submitted a revised time-line to the State Education Department listing a new schedule for site 1 and site 2 with no mention of a site 3. This move which seemingly excluded the Ark from receiving the benefits of the grant created very bad feelings and resulted in a mediation between all three parties in the grant overseen by Chuck Weed from Education 21, a non-profit education consulting group. Mary Theresa, Jay and I worked to make sure the Ark received and equal and fair share of the grant. This conflict resulted in a loss of trust which significantly impacted the groups ability to carry out the collaborative project proposed in the grant. During the first and second years of the project, Rolf Hanson consistently worked one-on-one with youth that were having a difficult time with a particular project. His teaching experience and patience was extremely successful in getting youth caught up with the group and generating wonderful work. This contribution was so valuable because it allowed Wendy and me to focus on moving the whole group ahead in projects without losing the youth that had trouble with a particular project.
Thinking behind the project:
Ann: When discussing the art practice in WYRED, it is useful to
define the parameters of cultural production. Aboriginal media producers
from diverse backgrounds share a belief that the video is inseparable from
the activity that surrounds it, including both production and
distribution/screenings. Faye Ginsburg defines this mind set as "embedded
aesthetics" or judging work by its relationship to the social context.
Ginsburg writes, "Like the indigenous producers themselves, I suggest a
model that stresses not only the text but also the activities and social
organization of media work as arenas of cultural production."(Ginsburg, p. 378) This point
of view asserts the concept of "community authors" as an alternative to the
western notion of genius individuals.
Castillo, a radical Marxist theater group founded in 1983 in New York
City and named for the revolutionary Guatemalan poet, is another art world
example that supports a broader definition of cultural production. The
group is committed to creating working class institutions for creating
art/culture rather than only raising people's consciousness, "Emphasis lies
on the word 'building' - the activity of building a play, a set, a fund raising
campaign, a political campaign, an artistic collaboration. Castillo conceives
of all of those activities as fundamentally 'cultural'."(Brenner, p.37) There are echoes of
the Aboriginal model of art production in Castillo's Marxist commitment to
defining what is cultural. Castillo articulates the importance of building
institutions in communities for performance, instead of simply rolling into
town doing an event to raise consciousness and then moving on.
Turning to radical education theory, Paulo Freire offers a description
of his literacy program for oppressed peoples in Brazil. "We wanted ... a
program which itself would be an act of creation, capable of releasing other
creative acts." (Freire, p. 43) Freire designates cultural production as successful if it
generates more cultural production.
Looking ahead:
Ann: While there is a wealth of technically knowledgeable students up at RPI, it has proven difficult to find someone who is as good at teaching us how to fix our own problems, as they are at coming in taking care of problems. Or a student who is a good resource graduates and leaves the area. So we have never really gotten out of the technical dependency cycle. I would rather work with a lower tech system that I know how to problem solve rather than a sophisticated setup that puts me at the mercy of outside tech support.
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