Eu, como homem branco, de 29 anos, queer e homosexual, pertencente a uma classe média. Reconheço o meu particular interesse em temas como ambiente, ecofeminismo, sociedade, comunidade e des-colonização. A escolha das imagens motivou-se em referência aos temas referidos acima e a minha relação com estes foi-me motificando ao longo do workshop, reconhecendo o meu lugar na história, mas também as suas possibilidades no desenho de novos imaginarios. // R. Bo
This activation was prompted by the exercise telling an image. By the time this exercise happened, the group had already been in contact with the overall set of images from the previous workshop day but it was the first time they engaged with a singular image individually. The idea or mode of working through fragmentation of an image, that is central to this exercise, was introduced by the previous exercise estou vendo.
- Each person was invited to choose one image from the spread out archival materials.
- In the first phase of the exercise, the image should be studied with the support of a worksheet of questions that would guide or aid that process. This set of question derives from a visual discursive approach in the study of images. It is a selection of questions that accompany and guide me in my research process. Some questions might be more difficult to answer in the time frame that the participants were given to work on the image but I have decided to include them because I think that even just through posing the question, some worthwhile reflections can be made. It was also given the opportunity to raise their own questions. The participants were asked to focus on one or two questions that seemed relevant to them regarding their chosen image. The study phase lasted about 20 minutes but mixed with the following phase of drawing fragments.
- This second step, linked to the previous exercise of "estou vendo" where the choosing of certain fragments of an image was employed as a technique to comment on an image, to desconstruct it and allow for different and unexpected perceptions and narratives to unfold potentially. With that experience and the studied image, the participants were ask to pin a semi-transparent paper to their image and draw on that layer fragments which they wish to tell the image through.
- They would tell their image - the possibility of a more storytelling (rather than descriptive) approach was implied but not elaborated in the workshop - to a partner. The partners would sit back to back and tell each other their images, first one, then the other.
- When both partners had told their images, they wourld turn towards each other and have a conversation about how the dispositive of choosing and describing just a small section of the image affected the way they spoke about the image; how the imagination of the listening partner was different/similar to the image; the potentials to challenge an image through fragmenting it.