Nuts and bolts of the project:
Thinking behind the project:
Ann: Electronic technologies are embedded in our culture and must be continually
faced and dealt with. Therefore an ongoing narrative strategy
can sustain community members over the long haul.
In describing the narrative structure of WYRED, it
is more useful to look at serial narratives (daytime soap operas) rather than
traditional closed narratives (most feature films, novels and plays). WYRED is designed as an on-going art practice with no
known end point. While each act does conclude, there is always a "hook"
hinting at a larger narrative that extends beyond the day's activity.
In a serial narrative different roles can be recast without disrupting
the narrative, because it is not dependent on specific stars to continue. The
major goal is to build a group of performers, who have the skills, the
hardware and software, and the desire to continue the art piece. The important thing is to expect the
recasting and be prepared for it. Plan for it. Since the project is based on a
serial narrative structure, I have to be ready for last minute cast changes.
Serial narratives are not based on a single resolving plot line (as in
traditional closed narratives), rather they include "a set of interrelated plots,
which may merge, overlap, diverge, fragment, close off and open up again
over a viewing period of several years." (Allen, p.108) Under the WYRED umbrella the
youth have accomplished a diverse array of projects ranging from the
homeless dinner, to the drumming circle, to web pages holding kid designed
money and poetry. The flexibility of the Web which can accommodate text,
sound, and graphics within HTML programming is in sync with the
elasticity of the project. Different students emerge as leaders in different
areas. The important thing is that there is a diversity of forms to match the
range of learning styles.
In a serial narrative, without "a position after the 'The End' from
which to look back on the entire text... we cannot help but be inside the
narrative flow..." (Allen, p. 109) This location within the narrative flow potentially
positions all citizen artists (youth and adults) as subjects in the narrative.
One of the key tenets of radical education is to position all people as subjects.
"Teachers and students (leadership and people) co-intent of reality, are both
subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that reality, and thereby coming to
know it critically, but in the task of recreating that knowledge. As they
attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they
discover themselves as its permanent recreators. In this way, the presence
of the oppressed in the struggle for liberation will be what it should be: not
pseudo-participation, but committed involvement." (Freire, p.57) For people engaged
in community art practice, serial narrative offers a framework that supports
the desire to become active subjects in the real life dramas that unfold in the
community.
Looking ahead:
Ann: When grassroots community groups are working on long term problems serial narratives can be a useful form. For example in Indian Orchard, the grassroots community group fighting UniFirst/Interstate Nuclear Services is facing issues like contaminated ground water. Clearly this will not be resolved overnight. Serial narratives allow people to step forward in leadership roles, and then pull back into a supporting role so others can lead. Acting within a serial narrative framework can help individuals adopt a different mind set allowing them to think in terms of the long haul without feeling overwhelmed by having to shoulder the entire real world performance alone.
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