Videos

B. Stephen Carpenter II delivers a lecture, accompanied by examples of inexpensive ceramic water filters. (Image by Sham Sthankiya Photography. Used with permission.)

B. Stephen Carpenter II, Ida Ely Rubin Artist in Residence at the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST), and Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, combined art, science, and social practice to demonstrate how to enhance practices and possibilities for sustainability through socially engaged art and education.

During his fall 2017 residency, Carpenter provided new perspectives on issues of access, privilege, and the global water crisis (particularly in Africa and Central America) through a series of seminars, performances, and workshops. The series, entitled Intentional Public Disruptions: Art, Responsibility, and Pedagogy, provided an opportunity for students, faculty, and the MIT community to work with Carpenter and learn about his approach to socially engaged art and education. He also modeled how social practice (as action researchers, artists, educators, and activists) offers possibilities to disrupt systems of oppression and ways to increase access to potable water in politically marginalized communities in the United States and abroad.

This video takes the concepts discussed about socially engaged art out into the field. Community participants try their hand at both “reading in public spaces” and “reading public spaces.” The week’s topic is rounded out with a discussion of implications for and responsibilities of art educators.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Brown, Jeff. Flat Stanley. HarperCollins, 2013. ISBN: 9780060097912.
Pinkwater, D. Manus. The Big Orange Splot. Scholastic Paperbacks, 1993. ISBN: 9780590445108.
Lionni, Leo. Little Blue and Little Yellow. Dragonfly Books, 2017. ISBN: 9780399555534.
Ringgold, Faith. Tar Beach. Dragonfly Books, 1996. ISBN: 97801517885444.
hooks, bell. Skin Again. Jump at the Sun_,_ 2017. ISBN: 9781484799239.
Polacco, Patricia. The Art of Miss Chew. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN: 9780399257032.
Angelou, Maya (author) and Sara Jane Boyers (editor). Life Doesn’t Frighten Me. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 1993. ISBN: 9781556702884.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Routledge, 2009. ISBN: 9780415327596.
Pérez de Miles, Adetty, and Scott Peck. “Exhibition as Curriculum: Creative Activity as a Human Right.” Art Education 70, no. 4 (2017): 60–64.
Schlemmer, Ross H., B. Stephen Carpenter II, and Erika Hitchcock. “Socially Engaged Art Education: Practices, Processes, and Possibilities.” Art Education 70, no. 4 (2017): 50–59.
López, Vanessa, Adriane Pereira, and Shyla S. Rao. “Baltimore Uprising: Empowering Pedagogy for Change.” Art Education 70, no. 4 (2017): 33–37.

In this video, Carpenter explains the concepts of double taking and troublemaking through his project on double water fountains. Susskind and Carpenter also engage in conversation about how art can be used to instigate conversations about race. This video will be stimulating for those interested in socially engaged art and art’s ability to open difficult conversations.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Double Water Fountains project on tumblr.
Elliott Erwitt’s “Segregated Water Fountains.”

In this video, Carpenter provides an introduction to social practice and socially engaged art, explained both through literature and through real world examples. He then narrows in on both “reading in public spaces” and “reading public spaces” as disruptive interventions. This video will be particularly interesting to artists, art educators, and social activists.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art.
Claire Bishop:
- Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. Verso, 2012. ISBN:9781844676903.
Grant Kester:
- Kester, Grant H. The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context. Duke University Press, 2011. ISBN:9780822349877.
Marx Bros.’ mirror scene from Duck Soup (1933). YouTube. June 16, 2011.

Carpenter’s projects:

Carpenter, Stephen. “E-Mail from a Digital Daddy: A Conversation with My (Future) Child in an Age of Digital (Communication) Technology.” In Mothering a Bodied Curriculum: Emplacement, Desire, Affect. Edited by Stephanie Springgay and Debra Freedman. University of Toronto Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781442612273.
Carpenter, B.S. “Never a Dull Moment: Pat’s Barbershop as Educational Environment, Hypertext, and Place.” Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 21. (2003): 5–18.
Levine, Ellen. Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad. Scholastic Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780439777339.
Brown, Margaret Wise. Goodnight Moon. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN: 9780064430173.
Goodnight Slavery by Larry Whitmore.

In this video, Carpenter introduces his theory of disruption and explains how his work combines art practice, art education, and social practice. He explores ideas of access and how people can create “something from nothing” using the example of his work on low-cost ceramic water filters with underserved communities in south Texas. This video will be of interest to art educators, socially-engaged artists, and those with an interest in access to clean water.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Oscar Muñoz and the Colonias Program at Texas A&M University
Umberto Eco’s theory of intentions
Potters for Peace Ceramic Water Filter Project
Pablo Helguera, Education for Socially Engaged Art
Potters Water Action Group
Appropriate Technology: Hernandez, M. “Appropriate Technology in Developing Countries.” NCECA Journal XXII (2001): 96-102
Africana Research Center

Special thanks to the Africana Research Center for their support of the water filter project.

In this video, Carpenter discusses ways to integrate social practice into art education and curricula, using the example of his work on ceramic water filters. He explains how interdisciplinary topics like access to clean water can be integrated into teacher training programs and into curricula for art students. This session will be of interest to art educators, curriculum developers, and those interested in issues of clean water access.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Water filter and water crisis curricula and examples.
Dread Scott, artist.
The 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, TN.
Darts, David. “Visual Cultural Jam: Art, Pedagogy, and Creative Resistance.” Studies in Art Education 45, no. 4 (2004): 313–327.
Africana Research Center.

Special thanks to the Africana Research Center for their support of the water filter project.

In this video, Carpenter offers a live demonstration of the portable water filter press he and his students have developed. He reviews how activists have used these types of low-cost water filters around the world to help communities get access to clean water. Carpenter also presents his use of live demos as a form of public pedagogy to encourage learner engagement. This video will be of interest to socially-engaged artists, art educators, and those with an interest in global access to clean water.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Architecture for Humanity. Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises. US Green Building Council, 2006. ISBN: 9781933045252.
Fernando Mazeriegos, Guatemalan inventor who pioneered the use of low-cost ceramic water filters for disaster response.
Ron Rivera of the organization Potters for Peace.
Oscar Muñoz and the Colonias program at Texas A&M University. “Clean Water for Texas”. YouTube. February 19, 2009.
Undergraduate Engineers, Affordable Portable Filter Press.
Richard Wukich, CNN Video. YouTube. March 27, 2010.
Sandlin, Jennifer A., Brian D. Schulz, and Jake Burdick, eds. Handbook of Public Pedagogy: Education and Learning Beyond School. Routledge, 2009. ISBN: 9780415801270.

In this video, Carpenter focuses on how educators can disrupt traditional pedagogical models to engage learners with social issues and lived experience. He uses a group activity to demonstrate how curriculum development is a political act that involves choosing not only what is included, but what is excluded. This video will be of particular interest to art educators and curriculum developers.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Jasper Johns (pop artist).
The Elements of Art & Principles of Design (used in traditional arts curricula).
Olivia Gude (Art Institute of Chicago) and her development of the “Postmodern Principles”:
- Gude, Olivia. “Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century Art Education.” Art Education 57, no 1 (2015): 6–14.
Storyspace (a hypertext software):
- An example of Storyspace as applied to art education and curriculum development, by Pamela G. Taylor.
Carpenter, B. S. “Never a Dull Moment: Pat’s Barbershop as Educational Environment, Hypertext, and Place.” Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 21 (2003): 5–18.
John Snow’s epidemiology work on the 1854 cholera outbreak in London:
- Cameron, Donald and Ian Jones. “John Snow, the Broad Street Pump and Modern Epidemiology.” International Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 12, no. 4 (1983): 393–396.
Schoolhouse Rock! (TV show) & the “No More Kings” song.
Andres Hernandez (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) and his work on informal settlements.

Here Carpenter explores the notion of using conventional studio activities to expand thematic and conceptual exploration, and participants engage in two such activities. This session will be particularly interesting to art educators.

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This book is not mentioned in the video, but is a text that may be useful to audiences:

Taylor, Pamela, Stephen Carpenter, et al. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School. National Art Education Association, 2006. ISBN: 9781890160367.

Carpenter introduces curriculum theory and discusses the movement away from art as materials-based practice to art as engagement with the world. This type of art lends itself to disruptive practice and transformative learning. This session will be particularly interesting to art educators as they navigate how to include elements learned throughout Carpenter’s lecture series into their classrooms.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Posner, George. Analyzing the Curriculum. McGraw-Hill Education, 2003. ISBN: 9780072823271.
Bateman, Walter L. Open to Question: The Art of Teaching and Learning by Inquiry. Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1990.
Architecture for Humanity. Design Like You Give a Damn. US Green Building Council, 2006. ISBN: 9781933945252.
Thompson, Nato and Gregory Sholette, eds. The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life. MIT Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780262201506.

Here Carpenter engages participants in two interpretation activities used to encourage meaning-making and provoke reflection and shares other example projects from an assignment he uses in a college class. This session will be particularly interesting to art educators.

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People and ideas referenced in this video:

Dread Scott, On the Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Slavery and Genocide.
Garoian, Charles. Performing Pedagogy: Toward an Art of Politics. SUNY Press, 1999. ISBN: 97807091443248.
Tara Brown (top) and Nichole Rodriguez (bottom), autobiographical public performance interventions, 2017 (at 9:31 in the video).

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Intentional Public Disruptions: Art, Responsibility, and Pedagogy

Videos

Part I: Making Something from Nothing

Part II: Double Taking and Troublemaking

Part III: When Curriculum Becomes Art Practice

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