integrating design arts and the individual’s relationship with his community
design arts
and the individual’s relationship
with his community
Noni R. Avital, Avital Designers, Israel
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ICSID, KOREA, INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION DESIGN CONFERENCE
SPEAKER + PAPER
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ABSTRACT
Key words: Identity, design, Ethiopian youth
This paper presents a field study of a design workshop with Israeli-born youth, members of the Ethiopian community in Israel of recent immigrants. These Ethiopian-Israeli youths are confused and embarrassed about their origins, with a sense of alienation and distancing from home and community traditions.
In an erea in which immigration is a common phenomenon, immigrants face serious problems of adaptation to a new country and culture. This process involves confusion in self-identity, flight from tradition, and breakdown of the nuclear family.
The method described in the paper emphasizes the great value of design as the link cultural value self. This article deals with the non-physical object: the internal image containing the unconscious processing of personal contents and values.
Link between the personal condition of the distant memory, the experience of being uprooted, of tradition, uncertainty, survival and adaptation and between emotions and feelings – both personal and collective helps form identity. Participants learn to recognize personal differences and the conflict between Ethiopian and Israeli identities. These personal aspects have a reciprocal relationship with integrated arts activities as sculpture, product, drawing, graphic, through design processes.
The process is based on research by psychologists, such as Breakwell, who studied personal identity; Boulos, who studied the self as an object; Winnicott on the self; and Storr, who dealt with creativity; Gardner, who described the multiple creative-intelligence skills making up the hidden full potential of each human being; and Papanek, who was involved with design processes as they interacted with technology.
Youth participating in the design workshop created an object - multi-media presentation - resulting from a process in which functional and visual values are linked to semamtic emotional values, following the preparatory activities of research, study, storytelling, visual design. The end-product raised the youths’ self-esteem.
Personal identity, the self and the object
Personal identity within the cultural context creates a framework for values of art and society integrated within it. These, in turn, are based on belonging to the family unit, tribe, community, society and state. The arts represent a sine qua non of social interaction, since Man has both spiritual and physical needs.
Invididuals interact among themselves, with their community and with technological means, which they use for creation and creativity. Man makes objects both for survival, such as table, basket, spear, clothing - and for spiritual expression, things that can be replicated, are accessible, transferable and possess artistic qualities. There is an ongoing cultural dialog between art and craft that relates to Man as an individual and as part of a community.
This article deals with the non-physical object: the internal image containing the unconscious processing of personal contents and values. The personal object has a deep to the individual; this enables us to use the personal object to connect to the deeper world of the child with an unmediated link. Such an intimate dialog is loaded with emotion.
Through design, we can solve inter-disciplinary problems; results may be judged by their functional solution, or on aesthetic grounds. The object represents the encounter of the symbolic inner world of the individual in a combination of the physical and the non-physical. Thus, we developed the unique method of the self-esteem workshop by using tradition and community as the bridge to the integrative processes and increased cutural self value through the appreciation of uniqueness. We based the process on the following theoreticians combined with Noni Avital’s rich practical experience as a Educational and products designer over more than 20 years.
Brakewell (1986) stated that personal identity is not a passive product of the social environment, since individuals take concepts of identity from the social world and adapt them to their needs. He used the model of a biological organism operating in a social context; its identity is composed of structure plus feeling alive combined with an awareness of self-worth. Identification, assimilation, adaptation and valuation of self, all operate on a base of uniqueness, continuity and self-worth. Identity development depends on a relationship continuum between social identity and personal identity, with traits bonded to negative or positive values. Contents and values are separate dimensions of the identity structure, which is liquid, dynamic and reactive in a goal-oriented manner to the social context.
Boulos’s view of identity is used here as the understanding of the features that differentiate a particular object from others; and the conflict between the desire to be exclusive and belong to a group that shares cultural values. Each person has his own language in time and space, with unconscious associations to the external. Thus, when choosing an object for the arts workshop process, participants project personal desires onto the object to help overcome the conflicts between self and environment (1996).
Winnicott’s developmental studies noted that the creative process is part of normative child development as the infant begins to explore the environment outside of the mother. Early childhood and Ego formation stage are critical periods for later development and personality, resulting in an explorer/creator or a fearful person.
According to Winnicott, communication facilitates nurturing of the self, mediated by an object, thus shaping the Ego. One can send messages through the object without harm to the self. Thus we can use the object to overcome negative self-image in the youths, since adolescence is very similar to early childhood in terms of being a crucial stage in personality formation. The adolescent is searching hope, security and vision. Winnicott states that this search occurs when the subject allows meaningful change to take place. The adolescent can imbue objects with emotions; the physical activities are added on later (1986).
Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences, including linguistic, visual-spatial, musical, physical-motor (kinesthetic), interpersonal and intra-personal intelligences, showing us that people think in other, non-linear, and non-verbal ways. Learning opportunities should rely on all of the senses, not only on book-learning. Positive educational experiences enrich children’s and adolescents’learning skills to give students the feeling of competency and self-confidence.
Integrating the arts is firmly anchored in this outlook, expressed in providing a wide range of stimuli during the learning process. This opens up many more learning opportunities for the young people, thanks to the conscious development that has taken place in this sphere. There is now more emphasis on emotional-physical and musical-social skills, with cross-fertilization between the various intelligences so as to enrich learning skills even more.
Storr has described how painting teaches us to know external reality through contemplation and visual communication. Design arts can combine the written word and image to produce a visual language. The object is suited to a wide range of emotions, and can help youth cope with adaptation problems. Body-language, too, encourages research into the “self-object,” leading to the breakdown of emotional barriers and the stimulation of the creative senses beyond the verbal.
Low and high tech as a process
The pre-Industrial Revolution craftsman created “artifacts” through his technology – each object was one of a kind, designed and crafted individually. We would like to revive the emotions that existed before the age of industry and restore the emotional commitment and the discipline of the singly crafted item, and its value and weight to maker and user.
The modern age of technology changed human beings’ relation to time and space, at times merging past, present and future. New tools combine sound, motion interaction and time elements. We have taken advantage of the new simulation tools of technological media for our workshop, using the digital camera, scanner, full color printer and network communication both to Internet and other system computers. But here the media is not the message; it provides a vehicle for visual language, cognitive processes, design elements about reciprocal relationships.
Papanek’s theory explaining design as an integrated matrix is useful in this connection, as the learner influences the environment and vice versa (1992).
There are six aspects to the functional complex: method, use, need, telesis, association and aesthetics, indicating the soft-hard, feeling-thinking, intuitive-intellectual mix determining each of these evaluative criteria. Method - The ability to dedefine, isolate, recognize and solve problems. Use takes means and symbols and uses them to emphasize and isolate certain insoluble states. Need fits the use to the situation as required. Telesis is goal-oriented utilization of natural and societal processes. Association brings about more concrete expressions to certain stimuli, while the aesthetics relate to society and behavior on a level one step up.(1992)
This article discusses design methodologies as applied to healing identity problems in youth faced by the cultural gap as Ethiopians in their encounter with veteran and native Israelis. There are many large discrepancies between the groups: socio-economic levels, self cultural values, skin color and even religion, one of the most important components for acceptance into Jewish Israeli society. Our workshop applies the design elements to work with objects to the individual form identity of self and higher self-esteem. The case study describes how the object and experiences taken from the Ethiopian heritage can help with the strengthening of personal identity.
Ethiopian immigrants and Israel
The typical new immigrant is always in a difficult situation, no matter where he comes from or where he ends up, since he must cut himself off from his roots and customary links as he tries to survive in the new country. The new immigrant must usually limit his social world and culture, since he has been uprooted. He loosens his link to the old, and has not yet taken on the customs of the new society. He experiences a social and psychological vacuum, expressed in low self-confidence and the loss of social significance in a great deal of his activities.
During the transformational period, the group’s traditional relationships and symbols cease to denote the cultural values of the group, since many of its members now find themselves in a new social group. This occurs even if some of the ethnic group manages to preserve their emotional discipline. Edega describes abrupt the transition from the warm family atmosphere to a complete change (1984). New social situations resulted in Israel as the group struggled with identity problems. They had to deal with several challenges to their identity:
The Ethiopian Jews are an ancient people who trace their lineage to the biblical King Solomon ‘s reign; by the 14th century, Jews were already mentioned as being part of “Prester John’s Kingdom”, and by 1867, the link had been renewed with the rest of the world following the traveller Joseph Halevy’s visit to try and save the community. The Ethiopian Jews kept apart as a separate ethnic group, and managed to keep to their faith despite much suffering, since they felt that their Judaism was their link between them and the Jewish people. The Ethiopian Jews kept to themselves, living mainly in about 500 villages in northwest Ethiopia, but were at the lowest rung of the social ladder. In 1984, Jews began to attempt the long and painful trek through the Sudan with the hope of reaching the Promised Land, but many lives were lost through hunger, thirst, plunder and robbers. Those time the Israel goverment decided to airlift the Jews out of the Sudan. About 15,000 people reached Israel by 1989, and today there are about 74,000 members of the community in Israel.
The Jewish-Israel model form the central axis around which the identity of members is being constructed,and contitutes a firm card in negotiating their identity.
Identification as the “other,” the Ethiopian Jewes, rather than as an integral part of the Jewish people; a religious challenge to their Jewish purity from the official Rabbinate, and the demand that they convert again; Western civilization with its new types of housing, plumbing, electricity – when they arrived from straw huts with no running water; unemployment, due to agricultural background and lack of technical training; different skin color, coming from a dark-skinned society, suddenly they were the “blacks” within a “white” society; change in family hierarchy and loss of respect for parents as head of family, since the Hebrew-speaking children often had to take charge when their immigrant families could not cope.
On a personal level, there was much experience of being different; sadness; distress; disappointment; pessimism; humiliation and depression. The average veteran Israeli, with his overbearing ways, treated the Ethiopians as if they were retarded, using simple words, repeating slowly in a loud voice. There was no way to cope with these negative feelings, nor to feel mastery over the environment.
Focus on youth from the Ethiopian community showed much social and personal disruption, inter-generational tension, crime and dropping out. The relationship to the parent is complex . Most of their parents were unemployed dropouts, some had manual labor jobs.The young people are undergoing and identity crisis and their values are very comfused. They do not want to lose their family but do not trust the parent’ abilities to meet their needs.
The case study
Can the methodology we propose answer community needs? We feel that our work with about 20 young men and women aged 14 – 16 did help them re-form their identity with links to their community, despite their lack of cognitive and expressive skills absorption difficulties, to talk about their conflicts with the parents We tried to have them to talk about their Ethiopian folktales and proverbs, music, arts, jewelry and painting, and about their heritage and culture. We wanted them to use the traditional style of Ethiopian activities so as to form a group feeling to work together. (Traditional Ethiopian style avoids direct eye contact…). We also tried to talk about objects in connection with uprooted ness, the family, inner spaces, being different and more topics, within the process.
We wanted to have a journey into the self through personal family stories; planning tasks that were emotional; conduct a dialog with participants and group facilitators, and receive support to go on. We wanted to nurture the “I” not just the group “we.”
Principles The Self-Esteem workshop method.
The method of the self-esteem workshop links the four main issues: identity, the self, design and the arts. The reciprocal relations between them creates an applicable dialectic with six stepped activities. Each activity deals with a sphere of implementation, which in turn serves as the creative stimulus bringing another reaction in response.
The activities can be extended to 10-14 sessions of 3 hours each. Each activity-circle can move independently, clockwise or counterclockwise. Thus are many options provided for activities in accordance with each group.
The outer circle involves contents dealing with the overall identity of the young person and his/her link to the past, to Israeli society, his own identity, recognizing the differences and more.
2) The second circle involved through the self. –personal and collective and between Ethiopian and Israeli.
3) The third circle integrates the experiences through the integrated design arts.
such as painting, graphics, sculpture, storytelling, drama
4) The fourth circle represents activities shared by all of the topics and the importance of the audio/visual documentation, since it is all-inclusive of the workshop activities. It both creates new materials for thinking and doing, which are personal and private. . The digital camera was the mirror reflecting introspection – the ultimate latest computer-oriented technology.
The central circle is the creation of the non-physical self-object that mediates between closure and new beginning. The culminating presentation of the CD-ROM to an audience is a very important part of the design methodology’s practiced stages.
The course in practice
I would like to present three examples from the 12-session workshop, describing each session’s topic/activity/mode/process/technology.
Session No 1: Interpersonal Communication
Focus: The students did not know each other, and did not like to open up. None had art backgrounds. Through “telling” personal stories through visual means, descriptions of their immigration and absorption experiences (many involving severe trauma), we attempted to tap into the communication process, using personal/private/collective/human memories, both distant/recent/good/bad. Using as Tools - poster paper cut into “postcard” size, 22/29cm., oil pastels, pencils, erasers, paste, ruler, scissors.
Documentation- digital camera digital reflecting. ultimate latest computer-oriented Emotional goals of raising emotions that had never been discussed to a conscious level, and set up a dialog with those memories.
The social goal was to have group members get to know each other, to form links and a communication process.
Cognitive goals were to perform a defined act, distinguish between back/front for writing/drawing.
The design goals were to understand planning and generating ideas, while working up enthusiasm and desire to create.
Project implementation began with the development of the methodology of planning out space, selecting one topic from how to generate associations from the personal story to a graphic docoment.
End of the session, students displayed their postcard “messages” and related some very emotional experiences while showing the visual images.
Results were extremely moving stories never heard before, about hardships on the painful journey through the Sudanese desert. One boy spoke about being lost for 4 days; another drew her grandmother’s grave, having witnessed her death on the way to Israel…
Session No. 5: Getting to Know our Differences
This activity used a banana as the metaphorical object to cope with feelings of being different because of skin color. The activity emphasized personal uniqueness vis a vis the group; what people share beyond race, religion, sex and ethnic origin. Close examination of the metaphorical object opens up the educational dialog on similarities and differences. The result was a discussion of the formal sculptural and colorful aspects of the metaphorical object as well as its semantic meanings.
Materials were one banana per student; plus packaging materials, such as raffia, string, balsa sticks, metal wires, beads, and more.
Emotional goals were to raise questions about conflicts, emotions of rage and aggression vs. desire to compromise, fit in, pride in home and tradition. We tried to have the students experience the expression of personal feelings;
Cognitive goals were to understand the object as bearing meaning, with all the implications of identification and personification.
Design goals were to transform the fruit into an object with inner qualities,
through 3-D symbolization.
The activity involved choosing one banana from a heap on the table, verbally describe its outward physical qualities through all the senses, and the attempt to describe the differences between the bananas. This led to a dialog about “the Israelis vs. me.” The activity resulted in exposing conflicts for discussion, by means of the metaphorical object. Each participant’s “semantic banana” carried the opinions of its creator. As one student said, “Just because I’m quiet, doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I’m just not common, like the Israelis!” Another girl spoke out loud about “her” banana being unique inside, although black outside. Let us note that the Ethiopian community is extremely quiet, refined and polite, and usually refrains from expressing bold views in a loud voice, in contrast to the usually loud and very outspoken mainstream Israeli society. At the end of the session – all ate the bananas – with a smile!
Session No. 6: Integration the past and the present:
Activity involved the container as the object mediating between heart/hands/emotion/imagination; the material was clay. Clay was perfect to attain these goals, as it could be molded and changed; it was the unmediated connection between primary material so familiar from the Ethiopian students’ natural environment (clay being the primary art-form that is sold as Ethiopian crafts).Students could make the form that the Self wanted to knead and thus deal with the 3-D form with all its dimensions, shapes and size. The students experienced very personal and emotional moments with the clay, as it connected to their hand muscles and heartbeats: they connected with their own powers of giving.
Emotional goals were the integration of past and present with the sensations and feelings accompanying sweet memories from the past so that they could come to the aid of the “personal container/object” that symbolized belonging and sensing. The Cognitive goals involved the development of the process of creating the container, in a kind of birth process, as well as the understanding of 3-D, after they had worked on two-dimensional creation in so many sessions.
Design goals included planning stage in 2-D then moving to the 3-D so they could experience sculpture. The students were asked to knead their lump of clay well, then, with eyes closed, they had to divide it in two, to symbolize the past and the future. The future lump became a container, to be decorated with the clay adapted for the chunk of the “past.” The goal was to form a link between past and future;
The results were containers that related to the present with all its problems. One young woman stated that the “beauty of the container is due to the traditions in my family. This is how I am going to make my future home, and how I am going to make my own self. I am going to take the beautiful things from my traditions and my home.”
Presentation- self as an Object:
The culmination of the workshop was the presentation of the finished product made up of the the digital photographic output that was snapped during the workshop, thus facilitating a closer look at what the group experienced as well as a renewed study of the experience. This reflective activity also stimulated various different social interactions, such as the responses of the parents, who were invited to view the CD-Rom in a festive evening of traditional celebration.
The camera had documented the process while simultaneously investigating and constructing this process. The participant’s self-esteem rose through the feedback.
Materials were computer diskettes; color computer printer; PC for each two participants; digital camera.
The emotional goals were the expression of self through word, sound, picture, structured process; sense of belongingness to technology;
Cognitive goals: reinforcement of achievements; self-realization through encountering their own experience;
Design goals: finished product, integration of photography and other contents, processed through font, color, composition and other design elements.
The activity took place in the computer room, where the more than 100 photographs from the workshop were displayed. Groups paired up to work on a particular session, chose photos, and wrote captions, including description of emotions about the choice. Internet can be accessed for supplementary material. The last group takes all the material from the others, and organizes it into a general presentation after they concentrated all of the material in the software.
The process is the result of the methodology; the final product – i.e., the CD-ROM - is what sums up the structured process that had a beginning and an end. Thus, the workshop helps develop the feeling of self-worth, as participants see that the process is worthwhile – it is shown to parents and guests - and deserves consideration. The environment gives him the message that he plays an active part in the evaluation of the self.
About three months ago, I had the opportunity to re-examine the process in another community center with shy teenagers, amongst whom I could clearly sense social uncertainty, helplessness and confusion. Both through their observed behavior, and through their compositions with so much black and sharp, jagged edges, I could sense the overwhelming conflicts of young people from a culture of quiet, rural life thrust into the harsh, Israeli reality of the Middle East. We finally arrived at an integration of identities of “Israeliness” plus “the beautiful things from my culture,” in the words of one of the teens. Thus, use of the latest media technology aided the students journey into the roots of their personal and community identity; their feelings of success are now able to become an emotional catalyst, by way of their journey into the Ego, its transformation into a mediating object between their several identities.
Conclusion:
This case study challenges the traditional design view of the product as an object with physical presence. It crosses boundaries to new product goals, using design processes to solve self cultural problems. Design methodologies can thus deal with culture-shock problems faced by immigrant youth, whether native-born to immigrant parents, or immigrants themselves, experiencing alienation towards family, traditions and community. They experience adaptive difficulties in learning, work, language, perception of time, leisure activities, rituals and more.
We have proposed integrated arts activities to bridge the gap, culminating in the presentation of the multi-disciplinary project to a wider forum. The arts and crafts activities thus use both creative stimuli integrated with both personal and the collective memory. The use of a wide range of materials, both on-line and off-line, from clay to the digital camera, from paper to Internet and back, provided the students with many hands-on experiences through research, study, analysis, options, choice and final product.
It is this final product that is the innovation: it is a non-industrial, non-serial object: it is the personal object, for the personal emotional use of the individual, maintaining a dialog only with its maker. Whatever its final design, the design is the perfect design. Thus, the student-maker experiences success and increased self-worth as the maker of a perfect object.
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