PORTFOLIO




              PATHOGEOGRAPHIES


Feel Tank Chicago’s Lecture on Pathogeographies (or, other people’s baggage)

by Shannon Schmidt
July 10, 2007

The Illinois Humanities Council hosted a panel lecture featuring Professors Lauren Berlant, Debbie Gould, Rebecca Zorach, Mary Patten and Therese Quinn as the moderator at Gallery 400, which houses the current exhibit by Feel Tank Chicago, Pathogeographies (or, other people’s baggage). The June 26th presentation featured a variety of individual artists and collectives interested in "relational aesthetics," asking “what is a ‘feel’ tank (vs. a ‘think’ tank)? How do you carry your political feelings? And, why should complex political feelings be explored?”

The ideas surrounding the four year collective known as Feel Tank Chicago were introduced by Lauren Berlant, a professor in the English Department and the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Chicago. Berlant spoke about the relationship between affect, emotion and politics and how emotions are linked to political depression, a term used by Feel Tank Chicago as "a range of emotions: rage, fear, ambivalence, despair, apathy; that could be linked to the political."

Berlant stated, “Feel Tank Chicago wants to slowdown the noise of the politically incoherent.” Berlant's own project, “I Think about Iraq Every Day,” a title taken from a quote by George W. Bush, asks participants to watch five minutes of various footage of political speeches given by Bush and then read the same speech from a teleprompter. Berlant's interest lies in the disruption of chaos and the personal feelings of the participant as they absorb another’s language. The performers--gallery patrons choosing to interact with the artist and the process of creating art--select from anger-inducing speeches such as the State of the Union Address or speeches discussing the deployment of troops in the Iraq War. As the performers become the vehicle for this speech, the participants occupy the role of the politician, the “leader of the free world”, and the rhetoric and language itself.  Berlant stated "Emotion resides at the heart of the political."  In her project as well as at the lecture, Berlant asked and continues to ask, “What does it mean to have a political passion?”

The second panel lecturer, Debbie Gould, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh , presented on “how the political horizon comes into being, and what are the factors that propel it.” Gould discussed the concepts central to the Feel Kit, a web based lexicon of key words that reveal emotional language and place it in a political context by allowing the sited to be used by gallery patrons through the computer set up in the gallery.  Sinmply by clicking on the easy links, the Feel Kit allows the navigator to search, add or edit the list of language to expand the complexity of relationships between the texts. “We live under an emotional straight-jacket,” Gould commented, regarding the state of activism in our society and the backlash against the tactics used by activists. Critics of social change or activism often speak of the ineffectual or the aspect of the spectacle, one example given by Gould was in responses to Act-Up (a collective started in 1980's active in promoting AIDS awareness and activism) where demonstrators were criticized for tactics that only claim publicity  in order to “distance the mass of the public and distance our desire for a different world.” By expanding our dictionary beyond the binary, Feel Kit reveals the ambiguities, intricacies, and paradoxical situations existing within the body politic and our boundless ability to feel.

Following Debbie Gould, Professor Rebecca Zorach of Art History at the University of Chicago broke down the name of the show: Pathos- feeling, suffering, experience; geo- the world; graphy- describing, writing, drawing (mapping). She then, proceeded to ask “Where is your outrage? How do you locate it?” Rebecca explained that the fluid transition of space throughout the gallery, named: “Moving Company, Left Luggage, Raw Material, Slow Feeling, and Body Politic” evoke sentiments related to movement and travel. Rebecca spoke of how artists incorporated movement within the walls of the gallery and beyond them to discuss experiencing the world, interacting with the public and creating something based on this interaction. One of the “relational aesthetics” pieces in the show, Left Luggage, created by Material Exchange, a collective of artists interested in using and resuing materials, provided packing crates left over from the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Massive Change exhibit. The crates house suitcases and act as tables on which audience members can explore the contents of the suitcases. Each piece of luggage contains directions for the participant to follow. The baggage symbolizes the self, the body, the feelings and ideas we carry. It encapsulates concepts related to “containment, abandonment, history, trauma, and memory”, furthermore, it asks “how do we express or not express” these thoughts. How do we reveal the interior of our personhood to make connections with others?

baghdad
from the Baghdad Poster Project

The fourth speaker, Mary Patten, focused on time, specifically urgency in our society and how this affects peoples' emotional relationship to politics.  A professor and artist in the Film, Video, and New Media Department at The School of the Art Institute, Patten warned of the imagery and language “that sanitizes war” and leaves numbness in its wake.  By slowing down and extending the duration of an image, possibly into a state of stillness, we are hopefully able to experience and empathize with others.  The Baghdad Poster Project (excerpts) by Friends of William Blake, a collective of artists including Paul Chan, was originally posted days before the invasion of Iraq from December 2002 to February 2003 in New York City, around the 5 boroughs.  The photographs have been available since 2003 for people to print and post around their neighborhoods, offices or whereever they decide to post them.  The photographs depict smiling families, friends, and strangers living in Baghdad. The photos speak of moments shared between people that are simultaneously fleeting and yet, consistent.  Men and women stand close together looking at the camera; children are hugged by relatives; and women wave or smile, their poses are relaxed and friendly.  The moments captured  invoke a presence that lately has been absent from the newspaper, television, and media coverage of Baghdad: friendship and conversation. The photographs recall a time before; a time before the invasion, a time before Abu Ghraib, a time before 100,000 (London, UK; estimate) Iraqi civilian casualties. They remind us of our own humanity and how that is conveyed or depicted through imagery; they say, what is done cannot be undone. They remind us of who we are.
 
The moderator, Therese Quinn, an Assistant Professor of Art Education at The School of the Art Institute, opened up the event for questions. One of the questions posed by Professor Beth Nugent, from The School of the Art Institute for the panel was “What makes people act? They can’t tolerate a situation anymore?” The question was in response to the state of political depression that was spoken about earlier by Professor Lauren Berlant. The Director of The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, Alice Kim, expressed her feeling that at times people act when they feel empowered not just angered. Professor Lauren Berlant responded that there is also the question of the “right action” and went on to ask “What is intolerable?” - noting that she found our current situation intolerable. One audience member later commented about “when we leave this room,” how “loneliness” and the “separation” of the collective will ensue. Debbie Gould followed up the comment finding a parallel between the statement and some AIDS activists involved in Act-Up. When some of the members of Act-Up where asked, “Where is your anger?” The response was there is only a sense of despair; Gould went on to say, “at times anger and despair can’t really speak to one another.”

The exhibit, Pathogeographies (or, other people’s baggage), ran from June 15th to July 7th.

 

 


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