The IdeaFest Gallery

Insignia at from of Dispute Resolution Room

I know about Rebecca’s Christmas holidays. 

They are spent in a quiet room, marking test papers.

The first few take an hour or so each. And then succeeding papers can be marked faster, sometimes getting up enough speed to do 2 per hour, and at the end, maybe even three per hour.

That process seems normal, since I get faster on repetitive tasks as well.

But she has different kinds of papers to mark and I wonder about the speed of those.

John Smith

Just the question of how to mark an essay or a project seems like an odd place to begin a post.

But I didn’t have a way to enter the problem that is perplexing to me. That is, how Rebecca marks the projects as opposed to the papers she receives.

Maybe the question I should be asking myself about the projects I have seen that have been handed in by law students is why have some of the the projects I have seen, made such a profound impact on me? So much so that I have only begun to write my engagement with some of them one week after the close of the show they were in.

The Beginning Over the course of the last few years there is an option in Business Associations Class to write an essay or do a project on the student’s response to Take Back the Economy: an Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities by J.K. Gibson.

Last year I picked up the book, just out of curiosity. I made my way half way through the book, even thinking of what I might do if I took up the idea of making a response to the book, as she was asking her students to do. Unlike the students, I have been in the good position of seeing the efforts of others, since the projects often end up in Rebecca’s office after they are marked.

Motherhood
This may look like a figure in stirrups.
It is.

Gillian Calder and Sara Ramshaw give similar assignments in their classes. The same question is asked to the whole class. Some students write a traditional essay and others become creative. The three professors decided that they would showcase work that have been handed in over the years, and decided to do it during UVic’s IdeaFest week, inviting the students and the public to come and see what students had done.

They hired a someone else to curate their show.

I got to see behind the scenes at how this was done.

 One Saturday morning the three women gathered at the law school to do 2 things: to look at the space where the show would be held and to show the curator what objects they thought should be displayed.

 So in that order, they went about their tasks.

Are You My Mother

The book has pull down figures
underneath which
is the story if written
by a man who is a mother.

All of them walked around the Dispute Resolution Room first. 

One of the long sides of the room has full-length glass windows in it – good for looking in, but not really a perfect place to hang displays.

The rest of the walls are done in beautiful oak paneling and only the white boards lend a place for work to be displayed vertically.

At the front of the room is a judges’ bench and a witness box, both raised and on platforms.

And behind the judges’ chairs there is a large insignia that tells us this room is about “the law”. The room was full of tables and chairs when we first looked at it. It would be an easy task to take those out.

A Book made of Paper Bags

An insert is inside each bag
which goes with the story on the bags.

The next job was to bring all of the projects out of the three offices and into a large room, place them out on tables and then figure out which of the 66 projects should go in the show.

I had only seen the projects in Rebecca’s room so now I had a 200% idea of possibilities.

 The curator needed the projects numbered. Sticky tags were attached to each.

 Lorinda Fraser, the curator, took pictures of each object now that it was numbered.

 The professors went around the room describing each numbered project: giving the project a name, and naming the course for which it was produced. I offered to type this into an Excel sheet as I sat there. On the second time around the room, each professor looked again at the works that had been produced choosing what she thought definitely should go in the show, and then they picked out projects that they thought wouldn’t work.

What were chosen shown were not all “A” projects. Some were selected for their fabulous creativity, or because they represented a type of project that could be attempted, more than the best project of all projects marked.

Painting: Take Back the Economy

To further showcase the works there were four events during the week: there was a grand opening, four noon-hour presentations and the closing event offering some bling as door prizes.

That Saturday morning preparation was overwhelming to me. I love being in museums and art galleries, all the more when the show has been curated and there are signs that help me see what is going on in the show. But this was more than that. I was getting to see all of the objects gathered and watching the creativity of how a show is pulled together, what is to be shown, as well as getting a glimpse of how space is organized.

Billboard
Common Knowledge

This was a low budget event.

These professors didn’t have any big funders backing them.

For weeks I had been telling Rebecca that the dress that was to go into the show should be put on a dress form.

I had spotted a sequined one for $50 at London Drugs.

 No, she told, me, she thought her friend, Stacy might have a dress form for free.

Stacy did, but Stacy’s was crafted to fit Stacy’s form. Serendipitously, Sara found two forms at the Bay that weekend – $15 each. Good enough for two items of clothing to be displayed.

Mobile
Where does fabric come from?

The curator of the show knew that her mother-in-law had some crates on which objects could be places, since she exhibits in craft shows.

And so the women figured out between everyone, who had anything at home that might work, trying to pull together ideas of how to make the show best displayed. I can tell you that nobody was more excited than I was about the project.

 The curator had a week to figure out categories of works and how to link them together. There were broad categories already defined: games, art work, video, audio, various kinds of books, museum boxes, and framed works. Of course, there was one category called objects which just defied description but these were going into the show.

Morven's Dress Project
... the tag at the armhole says purchased for $3 ...

What didn’t work for me is that I didn’t get enough time in the gallery during the week of the show.

When the noon hour presentations were going on, I was interested in listening to the living words, and unable to concentrate my attention on the projects.

... underneath the skirt are its hidden costs ...

In retrospect, I think I should have taken half a day, locked myself into that room and just looked at the books and ignored the objects.
 My regret is not reading all of the literature that had been gathered together and displayed on the judges’ table.

I picked some up and half read them: scrap books, published poetry, children’s books, a zine, photograph albums – one about a gay marriage.

I just didn’t get enough time there – and maybe that is the mark of a good show – to want to go back again and again.

When Rebecca gives this assignment, students are told they have to hand in a paper along with the project. The paper is to tell the process of the project and if the object fails there can still be an “A” for the purpose is to engage with the book, and that is where the learning occurs and where the mark is really situated. Can the student demonstrate an ethical way to engage with the economies of our community?

There is another kind of reading the project as well. One of them was about the games that were displayed. People were invited to sit down and play the games. I wish I had done that.

Two Spirited Figure

Both sides of the figure
should be viewed.

I think curators must grapple with the problem of where to situate the gallery walk on the programme when trying to figure out how to do the special presentations around a show. I hadn’t thought of that before. If the gallery walk is on the day of the opening, patrons haven’t had time to look at anything. If it is on the last day, then there is no time to go back and linger at something, and now have a deeper understanding of it.

And where is there a chance for any interested person to read what went on in the gallery walk. Reading the text of the professors talking about the student work will give you a taste of that lovely hour. I will make a link to their presentation – much more interesting than mine.

The Quest for Gay Fatherhood Game

One of the students in Sara Ramshaw’s class did a dance performance for the class as her project. I saw her do some of the dance at the Gala Opening. But on the last day, I heard her talk about the experience of performing a dance as her project and now I want to go back and see her do the dance again. So remarkable. Transforming, really.

I always have the question, how do you mark these projects, Rebecca. I have heard the students ask this question of her. She tells them to test the limits of her power to understand the work they will turn in.

Metis Mask
 ... with audio for a niece ...

Rebecca makes me laugh when I ask her the same question in private.

Rebecca has a degree in music, an MBA, an associate degree in speech arts, a JD and has probably seen more Shakespeare, opera and NT Live than the regular person from the street.

 But her background isn’t what matters.

 The paper that comes along with the project tells Rebecca a lot about how the student has engaged with Take Back the Economy. That is where the mark is. So it is not if Rebecca has the qualifications. It is does the student engage with the problem that the book asks them to think about.

Beaded Feathers
one beaded during leisure time
the other beaded in hours after a 12 hour day of work

I heard her tell the students that the co-authors have written another book about taking back the economy, but the other book has high theory in it.

Half of her law class will love it: those who can hardly wait to read hard theory. 

And the other half just don’t get it. Sometimes theory doesn’t connect. So the book she assigns leaves out the discussion of the theory and gets right to the point of engaging with the economy.

I have yet to get the pics up in this blog, but I am just getting the words out there for now.

Arta