From August 2006 to June 2007 I was a guest lecturer at The Society for the Humanities Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Had met the then director of the Company, Brett de Bary, a year earlier, when Igor Ayora Diaz and I had been invited to present our work the research seminar of the department of anthropology at Cornell. She and I immediately started talking about theory, the aesthetics of manga, computer software and music. She told me about some projects that had taken place at The Society for the Humanities and I pointed to music related to these ideas and themes. Later, when I was already in The Society, invited me to give a concert of my music. Brett de Bary was, during my stay there, one person told me repeatedly "you are completely synesthesia." I investigated what it means "synesthesia" and found out which is actually a type of disease in people who suffer are the notes in color, displaying images with words and usually have trouble finding the boundaries between various forms of expressive encoding. I have not got this disease.
The fact, however, is that for me there are few boundaries between the terms 'academic' and the terms 'art'. Many of the concepts that I am and I have applied then worked with the help of my guitar. A concept, a story, a feeling, an ethnography or a landscape can be expressed through music, and painting, of dance, literature and theater. Perhaps the post-structural theory, which is my current favorite theory has helped open the door to the perception that all forms of expression are related, and break the boundaries between philosophy and literature, or indeed , philosophy and anthropology.
I thought it was a relatively rare thing to make music with theoretical concepts, but Cornell found that it is no big deal. Delicious spent a year making music, thinking, writing and meeting artists who came to The Society to present their work. Upon returning to the University Autónoma de Yucatán decided that henceforth the fluidity between the texts and other forms of representation have to be part of my teaching. As I repeat to and students in my classes, if I can do them / as well. Now my students in my courses are in addition to written assessments (I'm never completely eliminated), evaluated by means of representations of other types, including stories, music, web sites, escenarizadas choreography, and performances of skits.
So far I have called this new form of courses 'teaching holostésica' because it implies a potential for all the senses, and requires the application of academic theory, sometimes of ethnography and usually some kind of expression outside the written text. In other words, is to think in a holistic manner involving all the senses.
I do not know if this type of teaching can really thrive in fields other than anthropology, or outside environments such as the Yucatan, where students and are always willing to contact to explore their artistic skills. I do not know if this type of teaching can be fruitfully applied beyond the Masters level, as doctoral programs and to prepare students for very specific contexts. For when what we do is happening is that both my students and I are really enjoying the courses, and have fun while learning together.
In September 2011 I will see if this model can be extended to other contexts or not. The historian Patricia Seed and I teach a course at the same time, she at the University of California - Irvine, and I in the abattoir, anthropology and history of performance. We are working together in the course syllabus, design sessions, requirements, and the way in which students and / as my work together in teams.
hope that the ideas but also showered us umbrellas find suitable for conversion into interesting ideas.
0 comments:
Post a Comment