Embed Yourself

author: Jessica Hammarlund Bergmann

Embed Yourself: The real world as an education tool

em⋅bed⋅ded /imbedid/ adjective 1 inserted as an integral part of a surrounding whole • confused by the embedded Latin quotations • an embedded subordinate clause 2 enclosed firmly in a surrounding mass • found pebbles embedded in the silt • stone containing many embedded fossils • peach and plum seeds embedded in a sweet edible pulp WoordBook.com

Why embedded research? Within the Social Practices at the WdKA, we encourage students to go into the reality of the city; with everything that this reality brings along. We want the students to develop through artistic (and not only scientific) research in the local context. We want to teach them to analyse informal networks, build relationships with strangers, collaborate with stakeholders, establish platforms, organise events etc. A mouthful. This is an important aspect of the new type of designer WdKA intends to educate; the Creative Pioneer, the Game Changer.

When do we use the term embedded? Is being 'embedded' connected to the amount of time we spend working on location, immersing in a foreign context - or is it about a specific intensity of attention? Until now, the term embedded was primarily connected to journalists traveling embedded with the military, most famously in the Gulf War. Becoming 'embedded' gave the journalists a possibility to get close to the battle field. However, it also creates a relation of dependency, which has been topic of debate in the media. Anthropologists are also known to conduct research by living on location. This has raised a debate about 'pollution': by inserting your self in a context, you change the context and therefore ‘pollute’ the research. Both journalists and anthropologists are expected to keep a professional distance to their story or research topic in order to assume an 'objective' point of view.

We are different. An artist or designer who works embedded can position her / himself much in a more subjective way. As opposed to a journalist, an anthropologist or even a scientist, an artist (in order to realise their project/artwork) is often aiming for a much larger and differentiated visibility or impact. Within the Social Practice, we teach students to interact and to change; be it the situation or the perspective on the situation. Temporarily or permanently. It is precisely this interaction that is interesting for everyone who works in the field of art and societal issues. We want to teach the students ways of studying the contexts, to enable them to analyse and interpret - and to use their artistic skills to make a creative translation or reframing of that context.
 Seeking a stronger interaction with society, we need to develop other tools and working methods than the traditional ones taught at art academies. What we at WdKA call Social Practices is far away from the isolation and autonomy of the artist's attic. When working embedded, you meet ungovernable contexts, with unpredictable dynamics: residents who won’t open the door, who don’t stick to agreements, who don’t respond the way you expected, who suddenly turn angry, fearful or extremely intimate - in short; when working embedded, you become part of something you can not control - and our challenge at the WdKA is to teach students to creatively position themselves in this chaos.

Working embedded can teach the students valuable lessons. About curiosity, empathy and courage. About meeting the 'other'.

My interest and experience in embedded research stems from my work with the artist collective Pink Pony Express (PPE) and from my teaching for the last three semesters at WdKA's Social Practices (Cultural Diversity). From this experience, I have distilled a number of important aspects, that, translated into didactic methods, can have a great impact on the artistic and personal development of any art academy student who looks outward for inspiration and challenges.

Living with the natives getting close and professional

Living and working long-term in the context that you are investigating, is an intense way of working. The research organ is active 24/7 and everything you experience has the potential to turn into interesting phenomena: the way the street looks (# Drawing on Farnsworth), or the fact that all the people wear to big shoes (# Okina Kutsu). Even garbage on the street can be the beginning of a project (# Supernatural). (See illustrations).

To conduct this particular kind of artistic research, you have to leave all preconceived ideas behind and continuously adapt to changing circumstances. Embedded research invites you to get very close to people and to explore foreign environments. It is therefore not only a rich professional working method, but working embedded almost always raises fundamental questions. Questions about giving and getting; when you insert your self in a social context, you build personal relations of trust. Relations that will not develop if you are not prepared to give (at least a part) of yourself. Then the questions arise: can you get close to people and still keep your independency and integrity as an artist? Are you obligated to maintain those relations when your project is finished? With the PPE we used to call it ‘Giving back to Rome’, arising from a discussion we often had in Detroit. When you work in Rome, with all its splendour and history, you don’t consider what you can give back to the city. But working in de dilapidated neighbourhoods of Detroit this topic was center of the discussions between the visiting artists and the residents. Detroit at that time was a ruin hype, large groups of artists and architects settled temporarily in the city working on or realising a wide variety of projects. Just as their stay, many projects were also ‘only’ temporary. So does that mean that we exploited the city or did all these activities also contribute to a permanent change? Does temporarily means non valuable? Keeping your integrity as an artist sometimes means that you will develop a project that will piss people of. People who have let you into their homes, people who confided in you. In the midst of all these fundamental questions you as an artist will have to find your way and how you want to position your self (personal as professional) - making embedded research an ideal method for an art education.

The group the gift of interdisciplinarity

At the PPE we had four different designers from three different disciplines; two graphic designers, an exhibit designer and a urban planner. We also had three nationalities: Dutch, American and Swedish. This meant that each step in the process was viewed from multiple angles and specialisations. Therefore every step was enriched. Interdisciplinarity also occurs in the minor at WdKA, because students come from different directions - and potentially a variety of nationalities. Since conducting research embedded within the Social Practices is very time consuming and demands a certain variety of different qualities (social interaction, strategy, analytic and intuitive skills), working in interdisciplinary groups can stimulate the individual student and widen their horizon.

The Social Worker working embedded doesn’t mean always play nice

Most students begin at the Social Practices thinking they have to help someone. That social design is all about getting people together, organising neighbourhood bbq or platforms for elderly citizens. Sometimes perhaps it is. But in my view the Social Practices is also about asking questions, starting the debate, changing perceptions. And sometimes the only way to really get people’s attention is not to play nice, but to provoke, to move the public out of their comfort zone. As artists we are not social workers and the aim within the Social Practices is still to develop the artistic intuition and language of the individual student. To keep the capacity to artistically react to and translate societal issues into projects. To follow your personal intuition, fascination - to find that fire and to keep it burning. "What I see in all the talented artists who make beautiful, good projects, is the ability to listen well" says Steve Elbers from Stichting Doen. "It's a quest with a lot of trial and error, so you should be prepared to engage in dialogue and at the same time know who you are as an artist and how you want to position your self - so that they do not run away with you. It is so much more than organizing fun activities and hold someone's hand. The inherent struggle between the artist and the context is interesting. How the artist interpet and translates the given situation in a way that has an impact”.

The power of the image crossing all borders

My work with the PPE evolved around the power of an image in circumstances of friction and societal tension. The PPE always worked on locations in transition. The transition (economical or political crises, social exclusion or massive urban alterations) often caused a friction between the citizens and their government. Using the image as medium enabled us to offer new perspectives on the situation, without having to choose sides in the conflict. Everyone can relate to an image - no matter what your cultural background, education or religion is. Although an image has multiple layers, it has the power to transcends all these borders and the stronger the image is - the stronger the emotion or reaction to it. With the PPE we used image in the broadest sense of the word; sometimes it was an installation, sometimes an app (Raduga), sometimes an election process (Golden Rock).

Fulya Erdemci, the former director at SKOR (Stichting Kunst Openbare Ruimte) once told me what in her view made a successful piece of art in public space: “ Good work always has multiple layers, multiple meanings. In this way the work can tap into a wide variety of different people, and mean something to them all.” You can only add these layers after understanding (having experiences with) the multiple layers of a context. So. Go and embed your self.

noun: curiosity plural noun: curiosities 1. 
a strong desire to know or learn something. 
2. 
a strange or unusual object or fact.

noun: empathy 1. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

noun: courage

     1. the ability to do something that frightens one.