Public Pedagogy of Everyday Objects & Spaces: Table Talk
Posted on January 29, 2013
Deodorant. It’s a western norm. I wear deodorant and antiperspirant to avoid the giant, armpit rings and smell that comes with daily activity. It’s part of our cultural conventions. Cleanliness, I have been told, is next to godliness. At what price this cleanliness? According to EGW’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database:
- Ecotoxicology
- Allergies/immunotoxicity
- Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs)
- Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive)
- Cancer
- Developmental/reproductive toxicity
- etc.
WTF! Although the product has a relatively low score and is a moderate hazard risk, what exactly are we putting in and on our bodies? Alright. Something that I learned from my last job was that “the poison is the dose.” There’s a difference between exposure and dose. And that everything is a poison.
All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.
What does it mean? All things in moderation? It’s tough because water can kill you. Too much salt can kill you, even though it is an essential nutrient. We don’t know until we know and that is usually much later. Eggs are bad. Eggs are good. Cheese. Bacon. No cheese or bacon?
House Metaphor
Based on the works of Kerry James Marshall, Pepón Osorio, and Andrea Zittel, I see home as a vessel that works within and against conventions. It has sacred spaces and also feeds into voyeurism and the social expectations of house, class, status, and neighborhood. Although it is mine, it is one part of many. Although it is my inner place to define, it is also a manifestation of contradiction. It is part expression, part rejection, part conformity. Zittel talks about her influences in raising animals and her work with breeding units–everything needed for living. House or home both supports and restricts living. I have everything I need to sustain my modern life within the walls of my home, yet it also confines in terms of removal of self from community. I am one part of many, but it is also an island. A place where for some time, the goat path that I walked was an unending cycle of traveling from home to work and back again. As Osorio points out, you need to reflect and confront yourself. It reminds me of the panopticon and self-regulating society from A ED 812. All the elements are there for me to act accordingly for my neighbors, township, county, state, and country–the all seeing eye is around me.
Art Room Table
The personal experiences of being around a table are many. It ranges from a table for eating, a coffee table, a drawing table to a classroom table. In terms of an art room table in a typical school, the experience for me is mixed. The individuals at the table in a classroom have no choice, without encouragement, to not sit at this table and make art. Although the table is marked and used, it is surrounded by office chairs which require the occupant to sit there content and confined. The occupants are to be good little girls and boys behaving at the table making art. It is a remnant of learning to read and write and in my opinion not conducive to making art. It enforces obedience and quiet. It doesn’t involve the whole body. The body becomes complicit as the mind tries to express itself. I have no doubt that those involved are doing the best with what they have within the confines of their school. I have no doubt that there are good intentions and that there have been and will be many milestones with young people and making art at a table similar to this table. I just want to point out the conventions of this table and how it relates to the school system as a whole and the difference between learning the alphabet and creating art. To me this table, with others at the table, is confinement. The presence of the office chairs also says to me that these individuals are to be sedentary for long periods of time creating art. The assembly line of the industrial age has infiltrated our schools. Be good and color in the lines please.
Art Table – Update
So let me get back on topic and share personal experiences with a table similar to the one from the art room photo. If I have to name a table like the one pictured above, I’d call it “Big Eddie.” Big Eddie has been around for a while and has seen plenty of use. He’s dirty, chipped, a little banged up, and beautifully messy. I like that about Big Eddie. I’ve had good and bad experiences around a table like the one in the photo. At times it can be crowded both with people and materials and can create some frustration and anxiety if I didn’t have enough room, if someone spilled water or paint, or if the actions of others causes the table to move around and shake. The good things about a table like Big Eddie is the opportunity for shared experiences and collaboration where I’ve worked on things together with others at the table. We either worked together on the same thing or were assigned to make and create components of a larger whole. Good times. In contrast I think about the drafting and design tables that I used in high school. These tables were individual, taller, adjustable, and intimate. If you’re doing precision line work, I can see how this sort of table would be better than Big Eddie.
I was also intrigued by the contradictions of home that were brought to light by the contemporary artists. Pepon Osorio, in particluar, made me think about the threshold of sacred meeting communal at the front door. There is the possibility of allowing people to come in, but there is also the possibility of keeping the door closed to remove self from community and maintain (as Andrea Zittel states) personal, intimate and controllable situations within the home. .
OMG…your blog on the “Skin Deep” find on your deodorant made me laugh! I totally agree with you in the fact that everything appears to contain a “poison” of some sort. Do we or don’t we? It’s a crazy world we live in. I guess you would classify this as contextual thinking…overlapping ideas and the context makes all the difference in how one constructs the meaning.
Your blog on the house gave me a new perspective on my own home. An island as you state is quite the metaphor for a home. It’s true, I like the ability to lock the door and enjoy my own paradise of the room I am in whether I am cleaning, watching television, reading or drawing. It’s my time in space with no one else but me. I choose the prevalent signifiers that I wish to engage in. As Zittel states (and LIndsay also commented on), “what is controlling is liberating; there is a sense of security”. I found all the artists to be intriguing but Do Ho Suh’s comment about “mayber we’re not that unique” really stuck with me. Thanks for enlighening me with your take of home.
About those chairs… though I fully understand your feelings of confinement and restriction let me assure you they are anything BUT! The are wheely spinning chairs that middle schoolers LOVE! For those who need to wiggle the provide that. SO much so that I now have on the wall of the classroom a sign that says, “Chairs are not carnival rides. Chairs are not modes of transportation.” I have a large classroom and they really are the fastest way to get from here to there but, unfortunately, they have been used more for thrill rides.
I have a few easels but I have really only had one student want to work at one. I think the table is a “safe” place in a room that many of my students are at first a bit intimidated by. They are familiar and they each get an art bin that slides in underneath the table top. Do not underestimate how cool that is to the average 6th grader! 
I am curious what furniture you would choose for a middle school art room?
Hey Kelli,
Thanks so much for your comments. I can totally see how the chairs can be and are a thrill ride. I often find myself doing similar things when the mind needs a new place to be. I’m working from my own perspective from having been through elementary, middle, and high school to a college setting. In having gone from a more formal setting to one with more freedom, I see the difference and the effect that the space and those elements within it control behavior. And I think that’s part of my point. I don’t teach and don’t have to deal with middle school children, even though some of my colleagues and faculty behave that way at times. This is what our lesson this week is addressing.
The elements in the room control the environment, as well as, the rules assigned within proper behavior within your school setting. I would like to see a mixed setting dictated by the working styles of the students in the classroom. Students can work at a table, stand, work on the floor, have it taped to a wall. How does the feeling of creating match the work that is being produced? I’d like to see options. I’d like to see a section for the kids who want to sit at a table individually or in groups, a section for the kids who are more active and expressive to have the room to throw their body into making marks, etc. I feel that the setup is similar to other classrooms where they are to receive lecture and consume.
It also relates to my own working environment where I both love and detest my desk. I use a graphics tablet for my work and mark making at times is limiting. I have this rectangle where I’m supposed to emulate a gesture and it isn’t the same. Big movements. A continuous line. It’s a compromise. It’s more point and click digitally than a sweep.
I don’t doubt for a second that there are other pressures on a classroom other than the tasks at hand. My sister is both an instructional support teacher and a classroom teacher. A couple of years ago, 17 out of 21 students were on medication. She just wants her students to have opportunity and restrictions give her classroom order.
So my design for a 6th grade classroom for art would depend on the assignment and the working styles of the students in the class. Give them options. However, it’s easy for me to say from the outside.
Thanks again for your comments, Kelli!
Michael
Perhaps I should use the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit and design an art room? We’ll see how the rest of the week goes.
http://www.designthinkingforeducators.com/
Micheal,
Thank you for your insight and feed back!
I hope I did not come across as defensive. That was not my intent at all. I just wanted you to know those chairs are super fun!
Thanks, Kelli! I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t offend either. Designing a classroom setting would be an interesting challenge. I’ll see if I can squeeze it in to the semester.
Michael