And for those who weren’t able to attend our Feb 3 session, Max’s PDF can be found here: Max_Kan_Fotofika_2021

This week: ASU School of Art JEDI lecture series will host Sarah Lewis this Thursday February 18 at 4PM (Arizona Time) 6PM Eastern Time.

John Anne and I are all crazy busy right now– like so many of you. But we also realize how important it is to keep these connections and conversations going as we approach the 1 year– geez–one year anniversary of, it doesn’t even really have a name or an exact date–but that time during March of 2020 when our lives changed.  We are all in some ways waiting for things to get back to something, but I think everyone knows there is no going back so the conversations have gradually been shifting towards addressing more long term issues that will continue beyond the pandemic. As John, Anne, Becky and I negotiate launching the 2020 All Star Cards Kickstarter campaign, I am aware of how time has moved forward and how it hasn’t. We are also realizing that the Class of 2021 is also facing a compromised and different spring semester of their senior year– their whole final year of college or even for some more than half their graduate school experience, is radically different from what they expected. So first, we are thinking about that, about the difference between the emergency situation for last spring, and the much more long term adjustments and changes that we are all facing now–and yet, and still, I for one find it both difficult and inevitable to try to plan for something a bit more normal.

I wanted to blog here to highlight the upcoming Kickstarter launch for the cards, to get people ready for our idea for the Class of 2021, and to highlight some of the recent and upcoming FotoFika sessions as well as highlight some other related conversations.

Two weeks ago FotoFika hosted Annu Palakunnathu Matthew and Max Kandhola in discussion about expanding the canon and really examining what we need to consider as we make our classrooms and our field inclusive of all experiences and perspectives, particularly in relation to ethnicity and race. A discussion which barely begins to scratch the surface and something that is not easy, especially for those of us who have made our way, who have established a way of being in the world, who stand in front of a classroom and get authority from our educations and tenure– This conversation that they graciously agreed to help us start by bringing us into their experiences and lessons  started by asking people to examine and be willing to reinvent–must continue.  And we must be willing to constantly examine what we think we know, from methods of teaching, to the set of slides we show, to how hard we work to correctly pronounce unfamiliar names to how we gain our authority. It is not easy. And some of us will have to give up power so that we can fairly share it.  Opening up places to talk about it and being willing to question what we think we know is essential. And not easy. Much more to come on this topic.

This week we will take a slight, but related turn and discuss mental health in the classroom, in academia and in art. Like all college educators, we have students at a particularly vulnerable point in their lives during a particularly difficult moment in history and this has exponentially increased the stakes for our behavior in the class room and our responsiveness. As we all know the art classroom is not like a science classroom. Tangents are at the core of the experience and fluid boundaries are often the point. Subject matter weaves itself in and out of our personal lives and our work. Many of us take pride in nurturing openness and expression of the inarticulable, dark and painful.  Its not all Covid related– but somehow it for me at least seems overwhelmingly intense– and I am someone who thrives on intensity. How do we talk about this? How do we take care of our students–what are the resources for the students? What are limits of our responsibilities? And how do we pay attention to our own mental health? This Wednesday we welcome Marianna Chiokan as we begin to address these questions and more on FotoFika.

We really hope to see you this Wednesday  at 4PM (EST) and stay tuned for our All Star Cards Kickstarter Launch!

Betsy

Online, Hybrid and Traditional all have their challenges and advantages and I am hopeful that once Covid no longer dictates our teaching we will emerge with more ways to teach than ever before. And while FotoFika began as a place s is help us develop coping strategies, we are hopeful that it can become a place where we all continue to grow as educators, students and artists.

So all are invited to come and share your experiences from the last year, to talk about different strategies and resources and ways of approaching darkroom in the age of Covid or if you wish just come and listen. We will share resources and assignments, we will build on ideas and talk about ways to approach this coming semester and beyond.

Here is a short list of possible launch points for the 2 hour session.

• What is essential in a darkroom class?
• How do you cover what you deem to be essential in a darkroom class?
• The challenges of teaching darkroom without a common meeting area.
• Different strategies for remote teaching? For socially distanced teaching? For hybrid?
• Alt processes? At home processes?
• Approaches to using PhotoShop for black and white post-production.
• Specific tools?
• Discussion about object-ness and engaging physically and over distance.

Any other ideas or strategies are welcome. See you on Wednesday January 6.

https://vimeo.com/161259012?fbclid=IwAR3tgZ3ykRhKLzT01ICCmYd-OPs_r8YvX-wuVOHJObfC3EeYMuuBUzRyx0k

The second thing was well, the semester itself. Teaching in person small classes spaced out with no darkroom time, no close time and a mid-level asynchronous class with 30 students known by name only– I began to get frustrated by the lack of deep engagement. No one it seemed could say anything even slightly critical or negative about each others work. So when I do its sounds like I’m just out of it or adhering to old ideas.

And then a former student sent me this Tik/Tok by Ghost Honey–which is funny and was funny until I realized that as much as old school art school critiques drove me crazy– the only thing that still happens is that people say “I like the colors”–

https://twitter.com/tylergaca/status/1313308793237721088?lang=en

And then someone posted Terry Barretts tips for running a critique and that launched a discussion on the Photography Professors page that made me realize that I do not use silence well, at all. And I wondered what I could do to get better at this thing I’ve been supposedly good at for the past 20 years. 

And well, I have a lot more to say but its Wednesday and FotoFika day and I am looking forward to hearing what others are thinking as well.

Looking forward to beginning to dig more deeply into this issue later today.

Betsy 

Out of  respect for the continuing momentum behind BLM political movement over the past month we have pulled back on FotoFika both in promoting the All Star Cards as well as the planned workshops.

Today’s workshop was to focus on workers rights and unionization and it was the title Solidarity that made us reconsider the subject in the midst of the protests. We strongly believe that this movement is something that is vitally important and that it was the time for us to stand back a bit. This is not to say that the urgency of planning and adapting to remote, hybrid and online teaching is not an essential and continuing task. So while we will not be having the planned FotoFika Workshop today. We are continuing to work on the All Star Cards and I would like to offer smaller, more informal 2 hour working sessions starting July 15 to those who wish to sign up–please fill out this Google form if you wish to participate in any working sessions or panel discussions.

NCAC Calls on Zoom to Defend Educators from Chinese Censorship