Posthumanism, Equity, and Monuments as Public Pedagogy

• In Event: 58.057 - Reexperiencing Democracy Through the Arts as Scholarly Work in the Public Sphere

Abstract

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Following from monumental public performances at AERA 2016, this panel reconvenes in order to pedagogically trouble the intersection of digital technologies, performance and equity – both social and educational. Last year’s performances to the MLK and FDR monuments in Washington DC asked viewers (some intentional, some casual) to participate in a re-experience of democracy as lived and expressed by previous era’s politicians and also artists. Scholarship in a range of fields continues its turn to the merging of monuments and linearity, the historical and futuristic nature of democracy, to performativity and virtuality (Broadhurst & McMahon 2012) within education, and to the role of emotions in enquiries both educational and socially just (Hardt & Negri 2009). This year’s revisitation of these themes and methods raises the question of how education scholars and artists increasingly incorporate the virtual into our explorations of what it means to embody change and transformation, and asks readers to consider not only why greater access and equity in education still matters, but more importantly how it can be improved with incorporation of the past, and of the arts (Hermida & Bryson, 2010).

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

This presentation will be a performance of spoken word which incorporates some of last year’s interrogation of monuments, everyday lives, publics, and video into its exploration of contemporary education. I will perform my spoken word piece while interacting with other public pedagogical inputs such as performances, digital devices, and collaborators.

Data sources, evidence, objects or materials

This performance/reflection can also be understood as a demonstration of a cultural model from Riceour, “where culture is seen as founded on triangular encounters between subjects, texts and contexts” (Fornas 2002, p 102), as a multimodal way of making sense of the intermediality of modern life. Broadhurst and Machon (2007; 2012) and Senft (2013), amongst others, explore the ways in which performance collaborations between education (ephemeral) bodies and digital bodies is changing society and education systems.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

As affective inquiry into the somatic/virtual nexus, Sobchack (1995) for instance raises the elision of emotion and feeling from much digital and posthuman scholarship about the dangers of human/machine collisions, both metaphoric and ‘lived’. This critical performance highlights through an engagement with the physical ‘monument’ a broader turn toward our democratic public valorisation of monuments, fixity, and the myth of educational certainty and measurement.

Author

• Anne M Harris, Monash University