Blog 2
Blog 2 – faith
- ● Religion, Belief and Faith identities UAL website.
The information on the website specifically targeted towards inclusion, religion, faith and belief is hard to find. The link above didn’t work – followed by googling and search englines didn’t lead me to something specific for UAL staff/students. Religion, belief and faith is highlighted in the university’s strategy but doesn’t have any extra nuance or detail. In the current strategy no work from a performance department on any of the campuses was highlighted/ were contributors to the artefacts mentioned.
“Religion and Belief Champions Forum
The Religion and Belief Champions Forum is chaired by a member of UAL’s Executive Board. The group is made up of staff and students committed to inclusion with respect to religion, belief or no belief.” – UAL website
This was the only information I could find that specifically centred religion, faith and belief that seemed vague and lacked clarity from my perspective.
- ‘Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education.’
Multiculturalism
One of the things that really struck about Modood and Calhoun’s writing on Multiculturalism was the idea that we embrace ‘the abandonment of the pretence of ‘difference-blindness’. This articulated something I have been increasingly trying to incorporate into my practice as a teacher and artist.
The notion of abandoning the idea we are all the same feels freeing, feels empowering, it allows students to have edges, to have highs and lows, there is no homogenous way to be in a class to respond to an exercise. I think it will be particularly useful when I set an exercise in class with specific parameters, if a student responds in a way that seems to move beyond the limits I sent, or even seemingly abandon my instructions, I will consciously remember to abandon the pretence that we are not different, that we do not understand the worlds and instructions in ways unique to ourselves, shaped perhaps by our context and lived experience.
Vaguely Christian UK
I was struck by the sentence
Religious identities are only partly about religion. They are labels for groups that may be distinct in various ways and have a range of concerns that are not strictly religious.
It provided an interesting and important moment of reflection for me about my own fluid relationship to faith; points in my life when I have actively and socially practiced my faith, and other moments I have had a more personal and non conformist approach to religion.
- Kwame Anthony Appiah – Reith lecture on Creed.
I noticed the extent that was taken to understand who Kwame is and his experience and his positionality – through race, creed, location, and experience. I reflected on how little I knew about the people in the online classroom, of my tutors and I noticed how this affected my understanding of where their viewpoints, opinions and critiques were located in their experience – and how potentially this made me feel unsafe to voice my own. I don’t know who I’m talking with and that means I stay guarded and uphold stronger boundaries, to protect myself in this space. I know through my own history and experience of code switching – that changing who I am and how I arrive, depends on who my audience is. I make a performance differently centred on who I believe my audience is. I devise and create a show through one angle if it is aimed at teenagers differently to if it is aimed at people my parents’ age. I research differently, I package my work differently. Similarly, if this is an audience of queer people, black people, people of faith, atheists etc. Yet I don’t know who I have in this room, and therefore feel guarded how much of myself – I bring to this work. I question who, the others in this space believe they are speaking to. Who is enabled and isn’t – who believes they are speaking to people who share similar views and who has others’ views? Who is included in this space and who isn’t in this classroom? I realised, I – through my own intersectionality’s, identities and experiences am often marginalised in UAL, and professional workspace settings and therefore feel sensitive and have an expectation that harm is likely to be experienced in this type of discussion – which directly impacts how I show up. It surprised me that this wasn’t included or addressed to make the space we are existing in – safer for the more marginalised people in this room. I questioned what positive action had been taken to make this classroom – inclusive and how the identities that often take up space in our racist, homophobic, ableist and unjust society is being rebalanced in this room. I questioned in my own practice what measure I take to make this overt and how inclusive am I? I realised my issues and challenge with online learning and why being the Course Leader of BA P:DP through the pandemic felt complex and chall;engi9ng for me and why I spoke so often with my team and work force about this exact issue.
- Shades of Noir articles around Faith
Its interesting to read these articles. They shine a light on the experiences of staff and students. How intertwined religion, ethics, identity, and creativity are. My own beliefs and experiences show how connected these things can be – who is the work for and what am I trying to say with my artistry. How may I assert my viewpoint or expand a conversation or include more opinions may be a mission for my own artwork? How may I embody or act in the image of ‘God’ through my teaching? Do my actions work in harmony with my beliefs and ethics or am I being asked to work outside of my beliefs? These can all present a dissonance – representing myself vs representing UAL. Each article feels to get tied up in this and the challenge of separating ones views/beliefs from their creativity and identity. We are all things. My provo9cation would be – how can we be inclusive to let a multitude of faiths, ethics, identities, religions co-exist? What are we saying yes to, and what are we saying No to ?– which views do we not tolerate and how do we enter conversations with LOVE and kindness – when boundaries are crossed?