Seminar 0 - Go or No Go!
At Seminar 0 I took the jury through my proposal and explained to them the reasons I thought the Ritual of Disguise was a relevant idea to my practice as mastery and in the context of education. The methods and elaborate processes that were undertaken to arrive at the study were described in detail. An action plan of how the next few months will be used was also presented.
The jury feedback post the seminar was as follows -
Proposal: Aparna’s inquiry stems from her desire to understand how Indian performative traditions offer methods that could serve as tools to develop a more egalitarian pedagogical environment, between a teacher and student.
The feedback given to her pointed out -
- What does “unschooled” mean in terms of Indian performative traditions?
- As you inquire between Eastern and Western paradigms of experiencing art how do you slow down and enquire into that 3rd space/ transformative powers/time/understanding of the experience?
- What is the purpose of shedding and donning personas in a pedagogical environment? How does a method 'plucked' out of its context work in a different situation?
- Focus on applying the chosen tool of masks in a teaching-learning environment, to understand how it may work, and the questions it will generate regarding power dynamics, projections of identity, etc.
I recognise the questions raised by the jury as an important pointer to keep in mind during the process of my inquiry. I would like to add a few clarifications.
Unschooled / Informal
While my study classifies the Indian Performative Traditions as ‘unschooled’ methods, my understanding of ‘unschooled’ does not ignore the rigor and deliberate focus through which knowledge is generated in these traditions. I might alternatively define such spaces as places of ‘informal learning’. My study is also interested in unraveling the nature of the relationship between the teacher and student (guru and sishya) within these settings. I am curious about the characteristics of these learning environments where balance is sought between creating an experience and upholding traditional treatises. Through the course of my primary research, I hope to gather an understanding of the methods of knowledge creation followed in performative traditions and understand how they are different from mainstream classrooms interventions. I see sites of Performative traditions as informal spaces of knowledge creation, however, it is only after my primary research that I would able to articulate a new definition ( if it arises) to this space.
Context
Performative traditions pay attention to ‘how something is experienced’ and ‘what is experienced’. Within a pedagogical environment I see this steadfast focus on experience generation being a useful tool. My analogy of ‘teacher as performer’ allows me not see similarities within the contexts and not separate them. It also emboldens my belief that an exploration of these art -based methods could result in expanding and inclusion of new methods of experience dissemination within learning spaces.
Application
My study intends to understand the nature of experience, crafting a good experience and tools of experience, for which I draw inspiration from performative traditions. At this juncture I don’t want to limit / commit application to a mainstream school environment alone. I see the application of this study being relevant to varied sectors where learning occurs. In my proposal I have mentioned the potential application as ‘Disguise Forums’, I hope to have more clarity on the users of these forums in the coming months as the study progresses.
The jury feedback post the seminar was as follows -
Proposal: Aparna’s inquiry stems from her desire to understand how Indian performative traditions offer methods that could serve as tools to develop a more egalitarian pedagogical environment, between a teacher and student.
The feedback given to her pointed out -
- What does “unschooled” mean in terms of Indian performative traditions?
- As you inquire between Eastern and Western paradigms of experiencing art how do you slow down and enquire into that 3rd space/ transformative powers/time/understanding of the experience?
- What is the purpose of shedding and donning personas in a pedagogical environment? How does a method 'plucked' out of its context work in a different situation?
- Focus on applying the chosen tool of masks in a teaching-learning environment, to understand how it may work, and the questions it will generate regarding power dynamics, projections of identity, etc.
My response to the clarifications was as follows -
I recognise the questions raised by the jury as an important pointer to keep in mind during the process of my inquiry. I would like to add a few clarifications.
Unschooled / Informal
While my study classifies the Indian Performative Traditions as ‘unschooled’ methods, my understanding of ‘unschooled’ does not ignore the rigor and deliberate focus through which knowledge is generated in these traditions. I might alternatively define such spaces as places of ‘informal learning’. My study is also interested in unraveling the nature of the relationship between the teacher and student (guru and sishya) within these settings. I am curious about the characteristics of these learning environments where balance is sought between creating an experience and upholding traditional treatises. Through the course of my primary research, I hope to gather an understanding of the methods of knowledge creation followed in performative traditions and understand how they are different from mainstream classrooms interventions. I see sites of Performative traditions as informal spaces of knowledge creation, however, it is only after my primary research that I would able to articulate a new definition ( if it arises) to this space.
Context
Performative traditions pay attention to ‘how something is experienced’ and ‘what is experienced’. Within a pedagogical environment I see this steadfast focus on experience generation being a useful tool. My analogy of ‘teacher as performer’ allows me not see similarities within the contexts and not separate them. It also emboldens my belief that an exploration of these art -based methods could result in expanding and inclusion of new methods of experience dissemination within learning spaces.
Application
My study intends to understand the nature of experience, crafting a good experience and tools of experience, for which I draw inspiration from performative traditions. At this juncture I don’t want to limit / commit application to a mainstream school environment alone. I see the application of this study being relevant to varied sectors where learning occurs. In my proposal I have mentioned the potential application as ‘Disguise Forums’, I hope to have more clarity on the users of these forums in the coming months as the study progresses.
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