This class gave me a space to allow the messiness of my research process to unfold without judgement. My anxiety about the lack of clarity I had around what I was researching in my art practice and in my scholarship gave way to an acceptance of the complexity of the process and the unfinishedness that will never really be resolved. Norah joked that every draft of my research paper was completely different. I felt comfortable to keep experimenting, to try to say what I needed to say in ways that felt real. Every draft spoke to different threads, in different ways that were necessary for me to unpack and articulate what is really important. I have a lot more confidence in my own work and more trust in my research interests after this class.
I will take forward the tools of noticing what you notice and finding what has heat and energy. These two methods have served me really well throughout the semester. Leaning into what I am already interested in and seeing research as everything I do has been very generative.
I developed an awareness of methodology and the power of understanding and defining my own tools and techniques in my research and art creation. A few methodologies that I employ are emergence, friending, and jostling. Emergence acknowledges the intricate webs of association and the ever-changing nature of the work. Friending is a practice of noticing my environment with benevolent and humble curiosity and reminds me to treat all beings, things, ideas, and bodies with respect for their own intelligences and agencies. Jostling is a term I use to describe the literal and figurative need to mess things up, disturb, shake, and rattle in order to create meaningful change in myself and in the world. my methods include creative writing, dance improvisation with and without scores or parameters, the creation of visual art images and objects, dream journaling, conversation as spiritual practice, and many more.
The digital literacy portion of the class gave me a cultural, historical, and theoretical knowledge of digital and analog technologies that I did not have before. It muddied my assumptions of certain technologies being inherently good or bad and brought me to a more nuanced understanding of our agency in how we use and develop digital technologies and technologies in general.
In many ways this class was a practice in self-awareness and contexting. We had some form of a check-in at the beginning of every class and that space to share and bring in the rest of our lives made so much room for the research, I think. I was really able to see the context within which I was working and living in new ways by bringing my full self into the class every week. I look forward to continuing my research and continuing to learn and play with the tools and knowledge I gained over course of the semester.