Holding the Line And Then Crossing It

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Hilevaara, Katja; Orley, Emily; Chard, Jo; Henry, Susannah and Roche, Gilly. 2024. 'Holding the Line And Then Crossing It'. In: Midlands Conference in Critical Thought (MCCT): Gentle Gestures Stream. Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom 5 - 6 April 2024. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract or Description

We presented a performance-paper in 5 voices that gently challenged how power is held in higher education arts institutions. Playfully exploring with the metaphor of the line, and using string telephones, we staged a 5-way conversation, made up of speculative questions and silences. We considered what a radically gentle learning environment might look like, all the time interrogating the real connotations of the word ‘gentle’, and how it might sit alongside terms like discomfort, tradition, privilege and opacity. How can listening happen in a way that matters? Drawing on thinking about response-ability (Haraway 2008, 2016, Stengers 2014), care (Puig de la Bellacasa 2017, Baan Hofman 2023), complaints (Ahmed 2021), engaged pedagogy (hooks 2003), and the current social justice work of Tema Okun, as well as our own institutional experiences, we offered fabulations of alternative spaces for art-making, sharing and educating. We asked, how might a Higher Education Institution which prioritises listening, slow work and transparency fit within today’s society? More importantly, how might educators and learners, communities and publics, who experience being listened to and who have been allowed to co-imagine their futures, then begin to shape and reconfigure society more broadly?

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Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Additional Information:

Bad Documents is a collective of women and non-binary artists and academics working across Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Goldsmiths, University of London. Originally convened by Emily Orley with the invitation to create a collaborative artistic presentation for MCCT's Gentle Gestures stream, the collective's work is rooted in decolonial, queer, feminist, anti-ableist practice. We are Jo Chard, Susannah Henry, Katja Hilevaara, Gilly Roche and Emily Orley.

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