Belinda Kwan:
Hey everyone, my name is Belinda Kwan. My pronouns are she and they and I'm the Research and Development Manager at InterAccess. To give you a visual description of myself, I'm an East Asian person, with my hair tied back. I'm wearing gold circular earrings that are mismatched and in my background is a mix of real and fake plants on a bookshelf.
This event has CART captioning and note taking available. To turn on the captions, please locate your participant controls toolbar in Zoom. This is located at the bottom of your screen when you're not screen sharing. On this toolbar, you can click the icon with the letters 'CC'. Sometimes if your window is minimized, you can also click the ellipsis for the captioning.
For your convenience, I have posted a link in the chat about how to use the participant controls in Zoom.
Today's panel will also be recorded for accessibility and knowledge sharing purposes, and CART captioning and note-taking will be available throughout.
Just a heads up that there is a 10 minute break scheduled for the middle of our time, which is 3pm Eastern Time, and we will be taking questions in the chat throughout the event, but we'll also give a little bit of time at the end around 3:45 for additional questions.
So I'm giving you all a warm warm welcome to today's event titled 'From Self-Teaching to Community Teaching: Critical New Media Perspectives'. Today's conversation will delve into innovative community-led learning models, examine the intersection of traditional and emerging educational paradigms, and highlight the role of intersectionality in shaping dynamic knowledge and skill development.
This event is co-presented by InterAccess, FEZIHAUS™, and Tangled Art + Disability.
We're pleased to have Samito of FEZIHAUS and Heidi Persaud of Tangled Art + Disability with us here today.
I'll pass it over to Samito to talk about the programming context for today's event.
Samito:
Thank you Belinda. My name is Samito, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I work in music and I'm also the founder of FEZIHAUS™.
So about the event, this event is presented jointly as part of two projects, Terra Firma and Conversas.
Terra Firma is a project co-led by InterAccess and Tangled Art + Disability, dedicated to strengthening the technological mediated relations between arts organizations and Black, Indigenous, and Disability Justice-centred communities. It seeks to support, amplify, and learn from the stated communities, techno-cultural knowledge stewardship, accessibility, and harm reduction models.
It aims to apply such learnings by prototyping and implementing organizational tools in close consultation and collaboration with the stated communities, distributing resources, and sharing knowledge through artistic, cultural, and technological ecosystems on Turtle Island and beyond.
"Conversas: Who’s Missing In This Room?” is a project by FEZIHAUS™. Supported by the Canadian Arts Council, Strategic Innovation Fund, this series of conversations aim to address pressuring issues in the arts sector throughout 2024. Given current challenges, including scrutiny on DEI investments, understanding equity within the context of decolonization is crucial. However, defining equity beyond compliance measures remains a challenge. To address this, "Conversas: Who’s Missing In This Room?”, delves deeper, unpacking the multifaceted nature of equity across artistic practices and organizational structures, fostering a more inclusive and equitable Canadian arts sector.
So I forgot to make a [chuckles] visual description. So I'm a Black African of Mozambican origin, so I also speak Portuguese. I'm wearing a, wing-shaped earring on my left ear. I'm wearing glasses. I think that's about it.
So about the presenting partners now, FEZIHAUS™ was founded in 2020, and it's a Montreal-based enterprise that utilizes music to bring creators together, focusing on exploration, fairness in ownership, and well-being. It's often described as a label-inspired workroom or civic effort. The creative workroom draws from various industries and fields of practice to bring its projects to fruition, counteracting the idea that Canadian arts, artists of colour, should be limited to certain genres, disciplines, and narratives. With each project, FEZIHAUS™ continues to evolve, pushing the boundaries of what is possible through its pluridisciplinary approach, making it a unique player in Montreal.
At FEZIHAUS™, we acknowledge that the land on which we create, is a traditional unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation. This area, known as Tiohtià:ke, has long been a site of meeting and exchange among various Indigenous people, including the Haudenosaunee and also the Anishinaabeg. We recognize Kanien'kehá:ka as the custodians of the lands and waters on which we live, work, and create. We honour the enduring connection to this land and the vital contributions that continue to make to our community. We are committed to learning from and supporting Indigenous communities, acknowledging the ongoing impacts of colonization, and actively working towards reconciliation and justice for Indigenous people.
Our efforts reflect our respect for this land and its original inhabitants, aiming to embody the same principles of equity, justice, and inclusion in all we do. By grounding our work in these values, we hope to contribute to a more inclusive and respectful arts community that honours both the past and the future.
Belinda Kwan:
To introduce InterAccess, we're a gallery, educational facility, production studio, [chuckles] festival, and registered charity dedicated to new media and emerging practices in art and technology.
Our mission is to expand the cultural significance of art and technology by fostering and supporting the full cycle of art and artistic practice through education, production, and exhibition.
I'll now pass it over to Heidi to introduce Tangled Art + Disability.
Heidi Persaud:
Thank you Belinda, for that and thank you Samito for that as well.
So I'm going to start off with a visual description of myself. I'm Heidi Persaud and my pronouns are she and her. I have curly black hair. I'm of Indo-Caribbean descent. I have brown skin, what I call babysitter-chic glasses, [chuckle] and I'm wearing a, a khaki shirt and in the background, I'm on my bed, acknowledging that I am tired [chuckle] and I am from the neurodiverse and spoonie community.
I'm going to introduce Tangled Art now.
So, Tangled Art + Disability is dedicated to connecting professionals and emerging artists and art community, and diverse public through creative passion and artistic excellence. Our mission is to support Disabled, d/Deaf, chronically ill, neurodiverse, k/crip, Mad, sick, spoonie artists to cultivate Disability Arts in Canada and to increase opportunities for everyone to participate in the arts. And we do this by developing and showcasing, promoting, and employing disabled artists, creating partnerships and collaborations that increase opportunities for Disabled artists, empowering d/Deaf, Mad, and Disability identified people to embrace and explore their own creativity, publicly showcasing rich diversity of talent from the Disability community, arts community.
We want to acknowledge, the land that we operate is unceded land and that has been the home of Indigenous peoples and nations long before colonial documentation of time, specifically the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabeg, the Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit, people who continue to live and work here in what is currently known as Toronto or Tkaronto, where we are hosting this event today.
The land here being made in connection of the waters and the lakes and have always been a gathering space for relation, ceremony, trade across nations. It is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, Métis people, and as well as the meeting ground for urban Indigenous and Two-Spirit Tkaronto community.
We want to ensure that the work that we do today and onward honours the original peoples of this land and ensures that the spirit of radical decolonizing throughout here in Toronto, and we are under the Treaty 13 and operate under the Dish with One Spoon Treaty Wampum Belt.
This is a treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabeg and the mutual agreement between nations for sharing the land and resources and importantly, we are responsible to care for the land and for those who live here, to honour both the past, the living, traditional caretakers and land that we must firm a sense towards Indigenous sovereignty.
It is up to all of us, settlers and non-settlers, to remain vigilant and understand the context in which we make land acknowledgments in 2024.
Acknowledging that we should be the first step into awareness and action when discussing disability, we must realize that we are living through a mass disabling and this disproportionately affects the marginalized Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island and actively facing disabling violence, trauma and wrongful imprisonment of water protectors that face continuous construction of nuclear waste sites adjacent to Indigenous claimed territories that cause long-term health issues and also face the brunt of COVID-19, receiving unsatisfactory government and despite actively sharing vaccination resources with settler communities.
Decolonization is actively happening around us, both here and in a global sphere around us. We cannot sit in this moment without talking about the unacceptable violence occurring in Palestine as we speak. As workers in the arts, we do encourage you to get involved with local organizations, such as No Arms in the Arts, and to speak out and encourage organizations using banks, such as Scotiabank, for funding endeavours of defund.
We cannot k/crip without remaining in conversation with the complex concept of colonization, and part of working towards that means being accountable to systematic relationship, we all have with one another in the arts and what power curating stories of our culture and its heritage has.
This is the approach we hope to take with access, as well, and ensure that the work of access and decolonization remains deep, in relations, and we hope everyone participating today recognize the interconnected ways decolonization has impacted disability.
Access is an act of no resistance and that's how we hope to approach access. Thank you.
Belinda Kwan:
Thank you so much Heidi. I won't, there's a lot of overlap in our land acknowledgment so I'll just, if I may add some comments on behalf of InterAccess, supporting also the land acknowledgments our partners have given.
InterAccess continues striving to provide support and advocacy for individuals and communities who actively face the most entrenched systemic barriers across historical, cultural, socioeconomic and political realms.
We also acknowledge all displaced communities who are not settlers and those whose ancestors and community members were forcibly displaced in order to work on these lands.
We acknowledge the Black communities that have been and continue to be central to community building, anti-racism and anti-colonialism here and beyond.
Since this is an online event, we encourage attendees to share their own land acknowledgments in the chat and to reflect on the ways that digital infrastructure and territory have specific relationships to land in the past, present and future dynamics of colonization and decolonization.
And so without further ado, please give our guests a warm warm welcome.
We're pleased to have Ari Melanciano, Emi Aguilar, Fotar Tunteng, Johann Diedrick, and Tristan Sauer with us here today.
I'll pass it over to Tristan who is our moderator.
Tristan Sauer:
Hello everyone, thank you Belinda and Heidi for the acknowledgments and the introduction.
Yeah, hi my name is Tristan, I use he/him pronouns. A visual description of me is: I am of Caribbean and European descent.
I have light brown skin and short black hair with sort of blonde tips. I'm wearing a white shirt and sitting in a white room with some posters and a window in the background.
A little bit about myself, I am a new media artist and curator working in digital media, wearable technology and anti-capitalist approaches funnelled through an Afrofuturistic lens.
Yeah, and I'm very excited to be talking with all of you today.
I'm going to pass off the first prompt of the night to each of the panelists to give them a chance to introduce themselves so that you can get to know them all a little bit better before we dive into the rest of the prompts.
And I know Belinda mentioned it earlier before, but if anyone has any questions that they want to ask the panelists at any point during the conversation, though there is a Q&A portion geared towards the end of our conversation, do feel free to drop them into the chat at any moment and I will try my best to bring your question to the panelists' attention. Yeah, So don't feel a need to wait till the end.
And with that we'll get right into it. So the first question to our panelists as I mentioned will be if you can introduce yourselves and share your expertise in new media knowledge seeking and skill building.
At this time also feel free to mention any past, present or future works you're doing that you feel are relevant to this conversation. And I'm going to hand this over to Johann first.
Johann Diedrick:
Great, thank you so much Tristan. Hi everyone. My name is Johann Diedrick. I use he/him pronouns.
A visual description of myself, I'm of Afro-Caribbean descent. I have brown skin, I'm wearing a black hat, I'm also wearing black headphones and a black shirt.
Behind me is blurred, kind of hiding [chuckles] what's going on behind me.
And, I'm transmitting to you from Brooklyn, New York, which is the unceded ancestral homeland of the Lenape People, known as Lenapehoking.
And I am an artist and an engineer. I work primarily in sound, audio and music, making performances, sculptures, and other kind of interactive and immersive media works, allowing people to experience the world through sonic encounter, and have these new sonic experiences off the grid, as I sometimes say.
Both the grid of digital audio workstations and the tools we use for sound and audio production, but also the sounds and experiences from that, that are less common or grow a bit unnoticed.
In the context of this panel around self-teaching and community teaching, my own practice and work evolved through self-teaching related to sound and audio, teaching myself how to build audio circuits and electronics, which led to devising new kinds of digital music interfaces.
This eventually led me to attending the ITP (Interactive Telecommunications program at NYU in New York City), where I currently teach sound art classes to graduate students.
So yeah, that's me. Thanks so much.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Johann. I'll pass it over to Emi next.
Emi Aguilar:
Hi, I'm Emi. I am, my pronouns are she and they. I'm calling in from our traditional homelands in what is currently known as Central Texas.
My appearance is, I have light brown skin and dark hair, and my background is blurred.
As I said, I'm Coahuiltecan and I'm based on our homelands here in Central Texas, which spans from here down through northern Mexico in Coahuila.
And my background in this topic is as somebody who is an educator, who's taught in various interdisciplinary ways how to use media with the arts and to sustain home culture stories.
One of the ways that that happens is through digital storytelling, where I teach people how to use digital media to sustain their home culture, as well as to share and disrupt narratives about their home culture within dominant society.
And I will pass it to, well back to Tristan, you can choose who to pass it to.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Emi. I'll pass it to Fotar.
Fotar Tunteng:
Hi, I'm Fotar Tunteng, currently located in Montreal, which was better known as Tiohtià:ke or Mooniyang.
I am of Black African descent. My parents are in Cameroon. I have, let's say, black hair, I have some extensions, they go a bit just below my neck, white shirt, long sleeve, but a black collar.
Let's see … my relevance for being here. Well, I model and I DJ, but most importantly, I'm a programmer and designer. I do lots of app development. I'm working a lot in the realm of social media, prototyping apps using different types of mediums, video, other things like that. And right now I'm working on a project that is called “Emolo”, that focuses on allowing people to express themselves using colours and emoji, hopefully making more of a safe, open space for expression.
I'm also involved in another project called “Applied Archive” with two friends of mine, Michael Wasiak and Jean-Julien Hazoumé. And the three of us are just really interested in design and wanted to find a way to use design to have social impact and also to help educate people about different figures from the past to hopefully allow people to feel more positivity about what we can do to try to move things forward.
Together, the three of us have a space in where we live, in Montreal, where people come to learn about DJing and other kinds of creative activities there.
And I'm working on now how we can help people learn more and feel more connected to social activism and projects locally.
Tristan Sauer:
Amazing. Thank you, Fotar. And finally, I will hand it over to Ari.
Ari Melanciano:
Hello. Excited to join you all. My name is Ari Melanciano, joining in from same land as Johann, Lenape land in Brooklyn.
A visual description of myself is: I'm in a relatively white walled room surrounded by some art books and flowers I just got from a grocery store yesterday, and a painting behind me, and my skin is brown and my hair is pretty curly and fluffy and worn out. She/her are my pronouns.
And, a background of my work is that I am an artist, technologist, a researcher, a theorist. I like to write a lot about my research. And, my explorations in new media have been pretty lifelong and starting from a kid and just loving the possibilities of emerging our in tech and not necessarily seeing them being combined, but feeling an inkling that it's possible.
And then going off to grad school, and at the same school as Johann, ITP and being mind blown at all the possibilities and so excited.
And then while I was at ITP, a lot of my work also considered, race and culture. I'm a Black and Dominican woman, and so I think a lot about how people of different backgrounds could feel more invited into the tech world. And so, while I was there, I created this, sort of institution organization called “Afrotectopia”. That was an environment that brought together, created a stage for Black artists and technologists through so many different lenses, whether it's through law, education, environment, et cetera, and really kind of giving people a very comprehensive lens to look through.
Since then, I've taught a lot at different universities, mostly in New York City, and have worked, inside of Big Tech and done a lot of development inside of there and, really have my own, right now [I’m] currently focused on my own art practice. So I'll hand it back to Tristan.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you very much, Ari. Wonderful to have all of you here and to be sharing the space with you.
Yeah, we're going to get into some more questions.
You all come from a background in new media or creative technology, and that's why we're here today talking about teaching, so I wanted to ask how everybody personally defines new media or defines new media in relationship to their practice.
And then more importantly, why you find it is important or valuable for artists nowadays to acquire these skills or to have access to education on these skills.
And I'm going to throw it back to Ari first to start us off.
Ari Melanciano:
New media, I really don't think about that term [chuckle] at all, but I would say for me what it means, I think it's, it's kind of like the term contemporary, it's always going to change with time, so it's really kind of, what is the more recent possibility with doing, sort of like digitally possible, art, I would say.
And I think it's important for youth, was that the question, youth? To...
Tristan Sauer:
Just artists in general, the importance of having access to acquiring skills in the field of new media.
Ari Melanciano:
Okay. I think for me, what drew me to it as an artist was, how it felt like it allowed for my art to no longer be this sort of monologue, like I'm creating something and everyone's now witness to it, but instead it's a potential dialogue, where now the way that someone interacts with it is kind of, they're contributing to the art in their own way. So, there's one, that's one way that I've looked at it.
I also think it's generally just important to, know how technology works since it's becoming so much more pervasive in our daily lives. And so I think when you kind of just have a gist of what's happening, it allows you to feel more informed and also make decisions more intentionally as far as how you want it to contribute to the way that you live.
Tristan Sauer:
I'll throw to Emi to answer next.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, adding to what Ari was saying, I think one of the roles of artists too, is to be able to reflect what's happening in the culture and push those boundaries. And also I think that that's true of educators too.
And so when we're thinking about the ways that people are accessing various art forms and media forms, then those things should come together, those things should be woven together to make us question what's happening in the world. What is the function of a certain technology or of a certain form and does it have to be that way?
I think new media invites us to question what is real, what's not real, what is important or what is aligned with our own values or not, and also as a way to sustain and further our values. So I think that's something that's coming up for me with this question and then also, just thinking about, the future.
And, I think that oftentimes when we're mixing various technologies, I think young people too, young artists are doing this in ways that are constantly making us question and push our thinking.
What I'm really thinking about is Indigenous futurism and the ways that we can weave together traditional ways of art making and sharing with new technologies. And so, thinking about, for example, what Jeffrey Gibson does, who's a Choctaw artist. And so, that's what's coming up for me.
I'll pass it back to you, Tristan.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Emi. Yeah, I think I was thinking a lot about futurisms in this question as well. I'll throw it over to Fotar next.
Fotar Tunteng:
When I think about new media, I do initially think about it in opposition to painting or writing, things that you can produce without electricity to make something in the first place.
If you want to take a video or so, or if you're doing anything involving code or a computer, there is this need of electricity in a sense somewhere throughout the production. So that's … more defining it strictly.
But also I think of new media for myself as … of the possibility, and being able to reach people and connect with more people, have them engage with your work is really exciting, and something that really draws me to new media and that kind of realm, definitely future possibilities.
I often think: “I have a computer, I can code a bit, I can make a lot of things,” but, even to have a computer sometimes—or let's say you want to be interested in processing power, whatever it may be, or need access to do this thing or that thing—tech-wise, there are still barriers there, that at times, also create the creativity [through us] working around them.
So it's very exciting. It is very futuristic in [glitch] we could do, but there are a lot of issues too in terms of actually thinking globally, “Okay, you can reach people, but could people globally have access to new media as well to produce their work?”.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Fotar, absolutely. And we'll get, and yeah, we'll channel into a conversation about exactly what you were mentioning there in our next prompt, but I'll throw it to Johann first.
Johann Diedrick:
So yeah, I define new media as emerging technology with creative applications. I think that's one way I like to think about it. At one point in time, photography was new media, video was new media. And now, I'm not even sure what's on the bleeding edge these days, but VR, AR, chatbot.
So, similar to what Ari was saying, it's always, it's contemporary, it's always changing, it's always going to, there's always a frontier that's being pushed.
And, sort of quoting a bit from what, something that gets said at ITP a lot, that new media is, what is, has become recently possible, so thinking about, these emerging technologies and what new possibilities that they offer.
So new media, I feel like is coupled with whatever is at the edge of technologies process. And I think that that's one place often where we might look to see where new media is.
And I think for artists, in relating to new media and thinking about the value that it brings to them, I think about how this facility gives artists not just these new abilities to use this technology and see what's possible, but to create their own new possibilities with it.
And the further down this stack you go, you're able to have a bit more agency around what this new media even is and what these new possibilities can be.
With the value that I think it brings to artists, I think we are increasingly moving towards a more technocratic world where technology is all around us, inside of us, surrounding us. And so to know new media as much as one can, I think it returns power and agency back to the creator in determining what they can make.
As we are moving towards a more technocapitalist world, I also think about just the ability to even access some of these technologies. And so, I feel like as it becomes more and more prohibitively expensive to access new media technologies at a certain scale, it also means no way to access a certain kind of means of production or your work.
And so, again, to become more familiar with new media technology allows you to produce a certain kind of work that may be inaccessible to you both from a technical knowledge standpoint, but also a capital standpoint.
So, I think, in the work that I do, which I'm sure we'll get more into for all of us, I think a lot about learning new media as a way to break out of the constraints of technology, or I think technology is becoming even more and more obfuscated, and this black box that people are becoming adept at using, but maybe don't really understand the internals and how they might want to modify or customize it for their own purposes.
So that's one side of it.
And I also think, as one becomes more familiar with new media technologies, things related to capital and costs become a bit more … manageable, I guess, if one could say? Where you can start to learn how to build your own tools and build your own technologies and not rely on this technocapital system to determine what you can or can’t have access to, and therefore what you can or cannot make possible.
Tristan Sauer:
Absolutely. Thank you, Johann. A lot of great points to jump off from here.
Kind of running on the conversation right now about the potential inaccessibility of new media tech [throat clearing] and the inaccessibility to incorporate that into one's own practice, in sort of a trend of how new media works and in looking at it as sort of a resistive method, I'm going to open this up to all the panelists, but …
How can self-directed learning—that we see being an omnipresent force in new media evolving in the digital age with the abundance of online resources and other forms of free knowledge sharing—shape the future of accessibility in new media?
Feel free for anyone to jump in, but I can throw to Fotar first, as you brought up a beginning of this question in your last response.
Fotar Tunteng:
Yeah, for sure.
I think, in terms of self-directed learning, the abundance of resources make it easier to get started in a way.
When I think about taking on any kind of challenge, in particular, a creative challenge, there's often that initial internal conversation you have to have with yourself that's like, "Okay I'm going to get started. I've been thinking about this thing, I want to use this new tool, I'm going to get started now. I'm going to learn it, I'm going to do this on my own, at least to show my initiative", and with lots of the online tools, lots of information, it's a bit easier to do that.
I think the problem then gets to getting started and learning about things and actually to production, depending on what you want to do. There could also be limitations in terms of how far you can get even in learning on your own.
I've done a lot of self-learning in terms of programming. I did take some courses in university, but essentially I've learned most of what I'm doing on my own.
I had many times when I was stuck, and I'm lucky that I persisted and had some support, but still it's quite normal and natural to be working learning on your own, or doing something on your own, feeling a bit down about it, looking for resources, not being sure what to do or what's next, and maybe letting go, stopping something, or just feeling sad about it, right?
That's, that's still the case, there's just more information that's still hard to find information, my findings were too advance, maybe you have a very specific idea making something novel creatively and you need a resource that isn't out there yet, maybe the one to make that resource, and maybe the best case scenario, and maybe a worst case scenario.
You may pause your project or feel a bit disillusioned about these new possibilities, right?
So, I think that it's really cool that people can get started but, we have to remember that it's important that we consider: what are the actual learning tools and platforms we have, resources people could access, just [so] that people could complete stuff and actually create projects.
So, when I talk to people that are artists, friends of mine, so often you hear they have ideas and they're in motion and they pause, just because of money oftentimes, right? And we're in situations where we—let's say, for lots of the tools [and] the people that I know—often can get to the tools if [we] could get the money.
But in some cases, it's even beyond that where … they need to get these tools and maybe you live in a city where it won't be very easy to, I don't know, access … let's say VR headsets or so … and even if you have some money for it, where could you set it up in a space and that kind of thing?
So there's still a lot of barriers in terms of, how to actually allow someone to go through the learning process supported, and to produce something, but it's still very beautiful that people can get started more easily with what's out there.
Tristan Sauer:
Absolutely, thank you Fotar.
And Johann, did you want to add anything onto that, specifically in relation to your comments earlier about how as one's knowledge in the new media field increases the accessibility [and how] barriers may become lowered, in terms of things like hacker culture and more DIY approaches?
Johann Diedrick:
Yeah, I'm just thinking, I don't know if this is somewhat related, but maybe not exactly what you're asking, but I do think, it's part of this feedback loop of creation so I feel that because of, the ability to do self-directed learning and the abundance of options and resources—which … I don't know, also might be a little, there might be some assumption there, around, whether or not we have tons of resources and information—I still think there might be dominant forms of that information that prevent people from finding these other things kind of off on the fringes, so what is the long tail information look like and how do we get that in front of people?
But in any case, I think there's this tighter feedback loop around learning and making and sharing, and so I think the iteration cycle of creation and making, with not just the learning information but also the way that people can find community and share their working on and then self-promote that work makes it so you can kind of get this, I don't know, this quicker flywheel going around making the work that you want.
So, that's one thing I'm thinking about in relation to that comment.
Ari Melanciano:
I could also contribute something.
I think another big thing in self-directed learning is, whether or not you know what questions to ask.
And so I think that's a big barrier as far as people getting into the tech, new media art tech world is, you want to create something but you have no idea what software it is, what you should ask for so they know what you should search to learn how to use it.
There's just this a gap of knowledge in that way, at such fundamental level, so I think with this era of things like chatbots and just so much more access to the work of people in tutorials on YouTube, and those sorts of resources, I think it's lessening that barrier of … even I've used a chatbot recently just to ask,
"I'm interested in creating this sort of work, I want to do something, like maybe motion tracking and sound. What kind of technologies would be best for me?", and then it gives me a whole list of things.
So I think, I feel like the level of access to just getting these fundamental insights and as far as what questions do we need to ask or to even get from point A to point B is a lot better too.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah, that's all, yeah, very... yeah, very fascinating discussions about just the hidden doors that tech puts up in front of the knowledge that is already on its own, often inaccessible.
And I think there's a lot, a lot to be said there about how we can continuously work towards creating more transparency at a base level for tech and new media so that, I think people, more people can get their feet in the door and hit the ground running on these things, without being scared away by the fact that so much of this knowledge is gate kept and locked behind both financial knowledge and community barriers.
Another question, for everybody at large in relation to what we were discussing but, why is addressing accessibility and cultural specificity vital, especially for individuals facing intersectional barriers in new media education?
And I’m going to pass that over to Emi first.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I think, primarily for me, I'm concerned about, what's happening with Indigenous educators, Indigenous artists, and that's, those communities are the ones that I'm focusing on, and, largely, people do not know about us, and so largely there's this constant need to, educate first before we're even sharing something, so I need to teach you about my history and that I exist before I'm even teaching you about what this new art form is that I'm sharing or this new pathway that I'm trying to create.
So I think it's really important to continue to interrupt that invisibility in that active erasure that is very, has a lot of money behind it.
As folks mentioned earlier, there's a lot of money behind just trying to erase certain communities actively presently right now. And so, how are we using our own art forms both traditionally and weaving them with these new technologies to be able to make sure that people know that we are not only here but we're pushing things forward as artists, as culture makers, right? And that we have a lot to contribute when it comes to these conversations.
So I think the, the main point there is just making sure that folks have our voices in the room and being able to see what we have to offer and the pathways that we're able to create and how that pushes barriers as well.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Emi. Ari can you speak to this as well?
Ari Melanciano:
Yeah, I would say I think it's culture, culturally specific education which then goes into technology I think is so essential because it opens the door for people in a way that some people just automatically have for them.
And I think, it's necessary for people to be able to see how naturally their culture ties to technology because everyone's culture does, so that they can see themselves in the technology and then feel more agency and feel more empowered to engage and make it what they want it to be.
So a lot of my work has explored how to teach, even working consulting with the New York City Department of Education, and there was a CS4All initiative where, it was very important for them to make sure that middle schoolers within the New York City public school system, which is, as a very diverse demographic, can see themselves culturally and even through sexuality and through all sorts of identities of making sure that these technologies are not something that feels exclusive and, but feels inviting.
And I think for me, I know how important that is because I even went to a magnet school during high school that was tech focused, and the way that it was taught, it wasn't culturally specific at all.
It felt very, I felt very incapable the entire time while learning it, until I got older and went to grad school and felt more agency myself to just bring my own culture even though that wasn't necessarily something that's introduced in the classroom, so I think especially for young minds, it's really important to do that for them, they don't, most of them don't have that kind of confidence to bring it in themselves, but it's there, and so I think it's really important for them to be exposed to, how they can, how welcomed they really are in the tech world.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, and to add on to Ari was just saying, I feel like there's this idea that exists in dominant culture that then prevents folks from marginalized communities from accessing certain technologies too, like we almost self... we put up barriers there because we're like, "Well this isn't for me", when it, I really want folks to be empowered and acknowledge our communities.
Communities of colour have been creating technologies that are extremely advanced since the beginning of time.
So I'm thinking about, in my community you have this rock art painting that has been in existence in the same location for millennia. It has been there for thousands and thousands of years, and archaeologists today and artists today will study this rock art painting and try to figure out what is the exact paint that was used that these people created to make it so that it would stay here for millennia, and they still can't figure it out. That is a technology, and so even when we're talking about the word technology, what counts?
We count in that and our technologies have been super advanced since the beginning, so I just want people to be able to see themselves in that.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Emi. That was a really fantastic point, and kind of segueing off that for the panel at large, I wanted to ask, when we're speaking about culturally specific teachings in new media, how can we as educators ensure that culturally specific teaching methods for learners facing intersectional barriers are effective and that we are treating them with the respect and care that's necessary to facilitate them effectively?
I'll pass that off to anybody … but Fotar, if you want to start, feel free.
Fotar Tunteng:
Yeah, for sure. I think it's important to know who we're working with or who we'd be teaching as a very basic starting off point.
I think very often with, with education, it's very cookie cutter or this is the most optimal way for people to learn, like who's the, who's this person we're trying to optimize, right?
And that means we need to have flexibility in terms of how we approach things or, if we use tools like storytelling and try to bring in histories from the past when we're trying to tell to someone, talk to someone about new technology, then we have to think about a bit about their background, or we could use our personal narrative as well and our experiences.
So, it's important to, at least in my opinion, look at technology as not just being this box that's separate from maybe other more emotional or arts-based ideas, even in terms of learning beyond just in terms of the practice of it.
And I find that the storytelling part is really really important and to help people feel a bit more interested, whether it's people, figures from the past or whether, like—Emi brought up the story with the paint and the technology—that's so true, right? How words are defined and to even try to have people think differently about these words and these ideas.
And yeah, and the confidence part is true, I think that is very very true. I've worked with some people before on trying to teach people different tools, and the confidence thing it's, it's massive.
I think if you don't have any confidence or, some swagger coming in to learning something, like, “Yeah, I'm made to do this, I learned this", it's very hard to continue on, to find a way to instill that in someone, right? Or, or hearing them out. I think that that emotional part is really essential in terms of trying to teach people about new media.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I also think … language too, right? Like making sure that, of course that folks can access the technology in their language, but not only that, that perhaps the technology in the art form itself is being used to sustain and push boundaries of those languages so there's that immediate cultural tie-in investment there and confidence there because you are, as a speaker of your language, an expert on that language, so that's an immediate confidence builder as well.
Ari Melanciano:
And I think this would tie into Fotar's point of knowing who's in the room.
I think as when I educate it's really important for me to make sure that my students feel like we are coming together and co-interrogating, that it's not me just filling their minds, but it's, we're exploring this together, and so, things that I - and also as kind of like the guide within this experience, as a teacher, I really want to get to know them and what excites them, for one because I know that that's been the best way for me to learn anything that's difficult, is if I'm doing it in a direction that makes me very excited.
If I'm not, then I'm not going to invest as much time and I won't push past as many barriers.
So I think for one it's really important for me to know, what do they like to do? What are their hobbies? What are they interested in?
And then also, a way to diversify the curriculum is, I don't take all the ownership and doing that myself. I think it's really important to also delegate that to the students.
So one thing that I do is have them, each of them will present an artist that they really admire or, whatever we're doing, whatever subject that the course is being taught in. If I'm teaching a sound class or a sculpture class it's, “Who's something in that field that is, that you admire?”, and they naturally bring in people that reflect their culture or just their interests.
So, yeah, I think it's, for me it's really important just to spread the load in a way where students also feel just more empowered to bring their interests in every possible way in the classroom.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you Ari. I wanted to pick up on the discussion point that Ari was just speaking on with our next prompt, which is about collaboration in the education space, and how can collaboration amongst educators, technologists, artists, students, et cetera, advance accessibility and cross-cultural innovation in new media education?
And so, I'm going to throw that to Johann first to start us off.
Johann Diedrick:
Yeah, you know, I was actually thinking about this question before the panel, and I think panels like this are one way of this happening.
I think us panelists hearing each other's stories, and anecdotes, is one way that we come together to advance accessibility and cross-cultural innovation in education.
And just hearing how we all approach these topics in ways that are very contextual, and depending on our past experiences, will offer different kinds of solutions or strategies.
So, as much sharing and knowledge transmission as possible, I think is really one of the biggest ways to make that happen.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah. I think sharing, yeah, knowledge sharing I think is absolutely key to what we're discussing here today.
Ari, do you want to come in next as you've had sort of touched on this in your previous response?
Ari Melanciano:
Yeah. Also, my name is 'Ari'. The R is like a trill. It's like a D almost. [Tristan Sauer: Good to know] Yeah.
Collaboration, I love what Johann mentioned … And I think it's really important to look at collaboration as something that's, it's so wide and various and the potential forms that it could exist within.
So, I remember, Are.na used to, for me, and with, I used to see Are.na pop up a lot more of people sharing resources on that. And so I think things like that, of Pinterest-y resource sharing online, is also a really important way to kind of just knowledge share, and people share resources.
Collaboration for me also, can take … I think one thing that I've learned when it comes to collaboration though, I think as an artist is that, sometimes we kind of jump into collaboration too soon. And so I think it also is something to be explored: when are you really ready as an artist to jump into collaboration? Because I think, in order to be a successful collaborator, you really need to know yourself, and your skill set, and what you're bringing to the table, and what the other person brings to the table.
And I think sometimes, we can look at collaboration as kind of like a, "Let's just distribute skills and take advantage of other people knowing how to do this, and not be more intentional".
I think there's also just an intentionality that comes when … that's necessary within collaboration, that really allows it to be very successful—where everyone walks away feeling like they've benefited from this and it's been mutual in its exchange.
But yeah, I would just go further with Johann's point of, how many forms it takes and being open to, not necessarily being in direct conversation with someone, but that you can collaborate by just, admiring what they're putting out into the world or supporting their work and, supporting their work in a way where, especially as an artist, so much of it is energy-based, like to not, it's really important that artists feel that they are supported by a community.
And so I think even in collaboration, in that way of just making sure that artists feel lift up and like they have people around them that are excited about the things that they're doing. So, yeah, collaboration takes so many forms.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah, absolutely. And, Emi, I'd love to hear you speak on it too.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I'm thinking about, the ways that Instagram does this, to be able to access resources, collaborate, share ideas, build on what other arts educators are creating and making and sharing, and co-creating with their, with their students. to be able to access resources, collaborate, share ideas, build on what other arts educators are creating and making and sharing, and co-creating with their, with their students.
So, through the way that I've used this, I've created an online platform on Instagram called @indigenizingartsed. And through, that sharing resources for educators, specifically folks that want to disrupt colonialism, disrupt colonialism in their own teaching, as well as make sure that it's a space for Indigenous arts educators to be able to share resources with their, with one and other, and build.
So I feel like, that's one of the ways that, that that specific technology, of social media has been really helpful, as well as responding too, and utilizing social media in the classroom too, and I know a lot of people are doing that in really interesting ways. So that's what I'm thinking about.
Tristan Sauer:
That's really interesting. And I had a prompt here that sort of jumps off that, where exactly in relation to what Emi was talking about, if anyone has any successful initiatives that promote accessibility in new media education or beyond, for individuals facing intersectional barriers in new media education that they would like to share with the panel at large.
Yeah, if anyone has that, and I'll throw that to the panel, generally. --
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I can share one. I just wrapped a program that I was leading with an organization called MindPOP. And, this program was for emerging teaching artists.
So, artists that want to teach their art form or want to teach through their art form.
And, that was specifically for artists with disabilities and artists of colour, that want to become teaching artists.
And, so that, that program with MindPOP is one that I would recommend for folks to look into that is offered virtually and in-person.
And, really is an opportunity for folks to have mentorship. They're paired with an active teaching artist in their community, somebody who's been doing the work for a long time.
And they get access to workshops every week and readings, resources, a cohort of people that are going through that program with them.
So that's one that I, that I've seen that has been really successful and really impactful for teaching artists specifically.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you so much. Does anyone else have any other successful initiatives they wanted to share?
Johann Diedrick:
I don't know this is a initiative per se, but I've been engaged with experimenting a lot more with one-on-one mentorship, which has been really successful.
I find for folks that, perhaps see what I'm doing and want to be able to do it, but for various reasons, don't have access to the kind of tools and resources that I might already be, just experiences for, so, being able to carve out some time to work with people individually and keep up, a kind of individualized mentorship relationship has been really successful for me more recently.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah, I think there's a real power in mentorship, which kind of all comes back to community as a whole.
But yeah, absolutely. I think there's, there's real power there and it's one of the, most one-to-one ways that we get to share knowledge, with our communities and with people around us.
Kind of going back onto a conversation of community and community-teaching, it’s the topic of this panel.
We touched earlier on self-teaching and the availability of open resources for self-teaching.
And I wanted to ask everybody, what they feel the relationship between self-teaching and community-teaching is, and how one can move from self-teaching to community-teaching, be that as a learner or as an educator?
And I'll throw this to Fotar first.
Fotar Tunteng:
Yeah, I'm very much into the self-teaching.
I must say I've, I think at times found difficulty, to naturally orient myself towards building community in terms of my learning and teaching things.
I think oftentimes, you have your interest, you may not find people that around you that have the same interest as you. I can definitely relate to that as being a Black person.
There's so many stereotypes of what I'm supposed to be doing, and I've gone to school and it was often very science-oriented schools and through elementary school, elementary not as much, but even a bit there, high school, university and on.
And, already just to be in certain classes and certain spaces where there are not many people that look like me, or have my interests, or maybe have my mixed interests in terms of art and technology.
I veered towards, maybe working a bit on my own to explore what I like.
So I think, it's important to, have a desire to want to actualize what you want and what you like, but to not give up on finding other people that have those interests that you collaborate with, even in one-to-one, and not necessarily has to be a mentorship type of situation, but could be one other peer that you might connect with, whether it's online, or ideally even in real life.
If you just touch base with that person, hang out, talk about your projects, I think that's really nurturing.
That is collaboration, doesn't even have to be actually collaborating on making something, it could be just having conversations with someone that you might relate to.
And, I find that, I have a bit more of that now—I find, at least—in people that their mentality-wise we’re in line, in terms of, let’s say mixing and arts and technology and design, that kind of thing.
But it wasn’t always very easy and natural to do.
And, I think it’s important to find yourself a bit, kind of like what Ari was saying, to find yourself and your direction and what you like, but to not give up and to finding people you could work with and collaborate with and even just talk to.
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you for that. Yeah, and I wanted to throw it back to Ari as well, and as in relation to what you were talking about previously.
Ari Melanciano:
Could you define what community-teaching is?
Tristan Sauer:
Mhm. So I guess in this context it would be, both providing knowledge to community but also learning from a community.
So, yeah, in juxtaposition to self-teaching where one might seek knowledge and information on their own from a one-to-one source or centralized sources from the internet, or books, or personal research, versus community teaching, where one, yeah, will look to their community or look to members of their community for knowledge sharing and, other things like that. And yeah, maybe Belinda can...
Belinda Kwan:
Sorry to have put you on the spot with that question, Tristan, because I was the one who planned this event, so, I kind of coined, not coined but I put that term in.
But it really comes from, I think at InterAccess, thinking about peer-to-peer learning.
And, with the onset of COVID, we used to do these open studio drop-ins at InterAccess, and people would teach each other stuff in-person, but then, I think with the onset of COVID, everything moved online and it felt very individualized.
So, I think peer-to-peer learning is maybe a better term for it, like learning from each other, sourcing from each other, and just mutual sharing, mutual aid in the educational aspect.
Ari Melanciano:
Okay, yeah, thank you. I think the relationship between self-teaching and community-teaching is, you have to know what you are doing before you can teach, for one.
So I think, self-teaching is definitely primary and, I think also what I wanted to say in an earlier question is, I think what works most successfully, and I kind of mentioned it in the question on education is, when you're moving in the direction that makes you very excited, and then, so I think, that's a great thing about self-teaching is that, usually people are creating work that they're already pretty invested in emotionally and they feel incentivized to complete enough where they would do it on their own.
So I think that is a signifier of an area that you are already pretty invested and excited about, and I think that's, one thing to not take for granted.
I mean, I think I'm still learning that even now, pretty decently into my career, is to not take for granted, the spaces, the things that attract me and the areas that I really like to move towards, and know that that's something that's very inherent within the way that I exist and that there's a lot of knowledge that I have within that and that it, it's something that other people could benefit from too.
So I think, yeah, self-teaching … it comes before community-teaching, and I think it also, as you teach yourself how to do something, you learn what's working and what's not working.
And I'm very reflective when I'm learning things of, "Okay, I like when the teacher does this or, I like when I have the access - this kind of resources", or, just learning my own learning styles and it's not that everyone is going to have those same learning styles, but it does make you a bit more empathetic to future students of what works and what doesn't work as far as a education kind of experience.
And, when I think of community-teaching, I just automatically go to art school.
I think one of my favourite parts of art school is that, professor can give you an assignment, and then, you may be in a class of 20 students, and every other project outside of yours, has a whole other way of interpreting that assignment.
And I think that's really important for people, just to have exposure to difference. Because it's really inspiring and it challenges your way of thinking it gives you a portal to new opportunities.
So, I think that's a really a great benefit of community-learning, is that you are in a shared mental space, exploring them something similarly, but everyone is doing their own thing.
And by them doing that, they learn new ways of thinking and they learn new ways of using that technology.
When I recently, I just recently wrapped up teaching a class called Creative Experiments in AI, and part of my design within that course was really very much my style in teaching, it's kind of turning it into a sort of research lab. And so, especially with us exploring AI, which is so robust, and, me wanting to make sure that all students had the opportunity to do something that made them very excited.
There's so many directions I could teach but I'm one teacher and we only have a few moments together a week. So for me it was really important to turn the last half of the semester into this open studio.
So students selected this, "These are the kind of topics that I want to explore within AI. And I'm going to self-teach myself these technologies in order to explore that", and then my assignment is “Okay, as yourself self-teaching yourself, also break down the entire process that you embarked on as you were learning this”, so now other students have all these, this whole repository of resources and ways of using all these technologies that they didn’t use that week, but can see that their classmates did it and broke down the whole process.
So, I think it's really important to, for me, I'm very much a byproduct person, it's not so much that where we're working from point A to point B, but as we move from point A to point B, there’s so many things that have happened, and those are resources for other people, and so I bring that up when I say how I taught that last class of, by getting students excited about what they’re already interested in, having them research it themselves, and then also break down the process.
We often in education don’t really pay attention to the process, but the process is a guide for other people to learn how they might do that themselves.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah [Tristan Sauer: Yeah], for me, I'm thinking about this a little bit different, it's like a yes and what everybody else was saying.
I think for me, it's more of, what I was taught is more of iterative, so it's like you learn something from your community and then you go and hone that thing on your own, and then you can teach it.
So to me it's like, you actually start with community-teaching, as in being taught by a community, by your community, and then you, you develop expertise on whatever that topic is and then you have the authority to teach it. Or the, if it's something culturally specific, you have the permission to teach it.
So I think, it's more iterative in that way, depending on if it's culturally rooted, or if it's something that's tied to a specific community, then, then there's that process.
So that's how I was thinking about the question.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah, thank you and I think it goes back to a lot of the earlier conversations we had even just about instilling confidence, the existence of a community to instil confidence into a learner and educator to then, as you mentioned, return to a more self-teaching position and then return back to community, can create the sort of beautiful cyclical cycle of learning and sharing which I think, we've all, yeah, seen in the communities that we operate in and it's a wonderful part of being in community. I will pass it off to Johan to finish it.
Johann Diedrick:
Sure. Everything that was said was wonderful. I mean, collaborating a bit or extending this idea of iterative learning, I think, as I'm self-teaching myself or learning about something new, immediately as I learn something, one new thing, I think being able to then teach that to someone else, starts to bridge that gap from self-teaching to community-teaching, and continuing this really tight iterative process between learning something and then practicing your learning by sharing it with others.
And so for a lot of the work that I've done in the past relating to new media technology, whether it's building an instrument or teaching a workshop on field recording, when I've, gotten to a place that I feel very satisfied with, I immediately thinking about how can I refine or deepen my understanding of this by teaching it to someone else, and that becomes my own way to both, stay within this self-learning mode, but also start to bring in a kind of community-teaching aspect to it and all that evolves over time with the things I’m learning about.
And, in the community-teaching context, I try to remind myself to de-centre my own assumptions around what I know and be open to learning something from other people within the community that I'm teaching in.
So I think that also helps destabilize this hierarchy, or maybe ego around knowledge acquisition and defuses that barrier that I might not be, accepting of other kinds of teachings from other people around me. So, that's primarily how I kind of think about self-teaching and community-teaching and their relationships. [background chatter]
Tristan Sauer:
Thank you, Johann. Yes, Belinda.
Belinda Kwan:
I have a question. [chuckles] Although, I don't want to take up too much space.
Yeah, I mean, I am currently in a time where I'm doing a lot of courses and trying to like learn more … And for the first time in my life, I'm seeking disability accommodations, which I've never done before and is, just, it's a whole new experience with mixed feelings, that's like, you feel a sense of accomplishment for going forward and requesting them, but also a sense of guilt because it's a position of privilege to be able to do that, and all of these sorts of things.
But, I … another level to that is, working at InterAccess, I think about what kind of accommodations I can offer when I'm running educational events.
And so I was curious to know how the panelists approach accommodations, and crip time, and accommodations for disabilities and different abilities in general, in their learning environments, whether that's like, you're the teacher or you're part of a learning community.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I think just normalizing, difference, normalizing that we all have, that a lot of us have accommodations that we need in the space, and that's a normal part of, just like it's become super normalized, I feel like in the past five years to give a land acknowledgement, it's become super normalized in the past five years to make sure that you share your pronouns.
Normalizing it that we share, what are the, what do I need from the group or what do I need from, the organizers, the educator whoever it might be to be able to participate in access what's happening? And that's just, and making that a normal part of every, and that there's, those will always change.
So maybe today I need this and tomorrow I need something different, and that there's always room for that to change, and to name that change and that that naming of change is normalized as well.
So like, I might have a student who today needs to sit in a chair with lumbar support, for this theatre workshop that I'm leading, and then tomorrow they need to join virtually, and then the next day they're totally fine to be standing.
And there is absolutely no judgment of that, there's no question of that, and that is a normal part of the process, and knowing that we all have different things that we need for our various access needs.
So I would just say, building that as a part of the, classroom culture, learning environment culture, that it is, that it is normalized, it is, there's constant checking in each time, that it can change each time, and that it becomes as normal as any of these other things that I become normal for us.
Belinda Kwan:
Thank you.
Fotar Tunteng:
Just to jump in, I think also, for the projects we work on, to think about how people will engage with those projects, and that that's also something that's ever evolving.
I think that's something that I try to think about too, in context of just working with software and making things very visual in terms of up building products I've worked on.
And I do, I'm aware of limitations sometimes and, I think rather than thinking about that as something that is impossible to fix, or to adjust, or to add on to, it's a possibility for a future.
I think also to be patient with ourselves, we don't have solutions, or the ideas are right at this moment, but to come back to them, there's always more possibility for creation as they're working on things, and that's also a fun space as well to be able to make something that more people can engage with.
There's more affection there, it makes it more interesting. We really want to be connected too, right?
I feel a lot of times and tech spaces, a lot of what's put out is put under this veil of it's for everyone, but it's not actually true a lot of times, right?
So we have different opportunities, like as creatives, that are more aware of this to play with these kinds of things and make accessibility really part of our process and, yeah, just make things that people can enjoy and engage with.
Emi Aguilar:
I would also add, if you're creating a classroom environment that is built in authentic relationships and reciprocity, that then, you're hopefully building one where we all feel, a shared ownership and making sure that everybody has access.
So it's not just on the facilitator or the, the formal designated educator to, make sure that folks are accessing, but if we are a classroom learning community, let's all take responsibility for one another as a classroom learning community.
So, maybe asking and modelling for folks how you're, how you're making things accessible in such and such ways, but then we all take ownership in that, making sure that we can all access it. And then we're all looking out for one another.
I approach, teaching the way that I approach organizing, I approach teaching as organizing too, like as radical work, and so, that needs to show up in the ways that we're showing up for each other as learners, as educators, and how we're, really holding it down for one another in the room too, in real way.
Belinda Kwan:
Thank you so much.
Tristan Sauer:
I have one small prompt that we can go forward with and then go from there, as it leads more towards a looking to the future, which I think is a good, a good spot to end it on. So I can, I'll ask this to the to the panel at large, but …
I'm kind of looking back, we talked a little bit about initiatives to share but, what emerging trends or innovations show promise in enhancing accessibility and cultural specificity in new media skill building for individuals facing intersectional barriers?
Things that you might see in your own communities or things you might be working on that, yeah, might be a shining light in moving forward in the world of new media education and accessibility at large.
And I'll throw that to anybody who has something to say.
Ari Melanciano:
I think one emerging trend that I'm pretty excited about … as soon as being in so deep in tech while generative AI had its first moment, like big moment, for me, what that signified was the opportunity for people, and to see how more and more financially accessible it was becoming for people to enter it in a way where they're not simply consumers, but they're creating their own technologies, creating their own models, creating their own systems for the way that these tools work.
I think for me, that was a really exciting moment because it seemed like this is an opportunity where people all around the world have greater, access to creating tools, especially with large language models, and just doing these robust outputs, that they could make it in a way that it's very signature to their culture, reflective by using a model that's steeped into their own content.
And so … thinking about how it feels like tech is moving from, not simply being reflective of a really small group of people, and within dominant culture in the way that they think and everyone else is consumers because … it can be so financially accessible to get in as a creator.
I think this, for me, has felt exciting as a moment. And even seeing I think, I saw some article, a group in Nigeria creating their own text to image-kind of technology based off of their own data.
So I think, this for me is what's exciting, of just how cultures now can champion their own ways of thinking and their own, content and media, and also, not do it in a way where, and also do it in a way where it's also thinking, holistically about the experience, using language in a way that feels reflective of people's background in a way that's not so based on, the English language or the way that we speak this kind of language, English, but people can use their own, speaking styles to prompt these technologies.
Tristan Sauer:
Yeah, thank you for bringing up, generative as a total, as a whole because I figured we would touch on it at some point, in relation to conversations around accessibility.
Belinda Kwan:
Belinda speaking here. Yeah, I guess ... I also wanted to say, in this project, that this event series is being presented as a part of, as huge question is how to balance knowledge stewardship and accessibility and know that those things are always … in tension with each other - or maybe not in tension, but in a relationship with each other, and they don't always move in the same direction.
And so, I'm wondering about some of the knowledge stewardship protocols that you folks have in learning spaces and teaching spaces.
Emi Aguilar:
Yeah, I think it depends on the actual form or what's being taught that determines the protocol. If it's something that is protected, right? And it's only supposed to be shared with certain people, then it should stay with those people, but if it's something that is allowed to be shared out and taught forward, then that's, then that's different, but just making sure to name what it is and make agreements too in the space with whoever is participating, and making sure it's really clear, and even with simple things like sharing a particular story or something, like if I’m sharing a story with you, naming before I share the story, "This is something I'm sharing with you and it's, you're welcome to share it for forward with other people", or "This is something I'm sharing with you and it should stay within the space", and just making sure that that's really clear.
Ari Melanciano:
I would say a big practice, for me, in knowledge stewardship, whether it's through organizing through “Afrotechtopia”, or teaching in classes in different universities is, again with this just making sure everyone feels empowered.
Even with “Afrotechtopia”, one thing that I started to shift from was, from panels to more of collective conversations because I felt like, oftentimes when we have people on a stage, everyone looks towards them as if they have all the answers, and they're obviously being called because they do have a lot of, ready information in that field, but I think also there's a lot of intelligence within the room, and making sure that people feel very invited to speak up and share what they know and, because they likely have something that is a blind spot for the people in on the panel, and so I think, trying to find, trying to uplift as many voices as possible is really important in knowledge sharing, of making sure that people respect the knowledge that they have and that they feel confident enough to contribute in the environment.
So even in a classroom, of just making students feel comfortable with that, in a way where it's, it's maybe it's gradual, some students are a bit more introverted and they don't feel as ready to share, but I think at least creating assignments where it's, the onus is on them of bringing their interests into the classroom, is really important because other students get to learn from them.
Belinda Kwan:
Thank you so much everyone, I think I'll just wrap up here.
And so I just want to take this time to thank our contributors so very much for sharing your thoughtful expertise and for all of your ongoing work.