Writing as Collaborative Social Practice →Worlding academic course entity: E7 Activity
Class E7 Activity is used here to model an educational course or programme which consists of many courses. The scope note of E7 Activity only references human actors. It is also implied that an instance of E7 Activity results in change. Some communities consider that change of an educational character occurs through intervention by non-human actors or non-living entities. An example is the educational programme of Devenir Universidad. This University is seen as a growing organism, a living collaborative assemblage of different actors. It is defined as a lifeline to the territory where entities like plants, animals, rivers, forests, mineral deposits and the weather have agency and play an active part. Also the friction between the passive and the active within a learning process as well as intentional and unintentional that exist in the idea of change are not fully unpacked in the scope note and examples. Therefore, the limitation of E7 Activity about change which is witnessed in a material sense, fails to capture inherent elements of an instance of E7 Activity such as passive contributions and intentionality in the learning process. The examples in the class description are largely from historiography in the West.
Writing as Collaborative Social Practice (appellation in English) →Worlding appellation entity: E41 Appellation
Class E41 Appellation is used here to model names of things including places and people. The scope note of E41 Appellation explains that names are not considered as meaningful but as conventions. A name is used by convention even if there is a meaning attached to it. It is possible that names mentioned in the WPC database also hold a meaning which is significant for the thing they refer to as part of its identity. If this is the case, then this class and content type cannot capture that meaning.
Course description:
A few things are taken as givens in this seminar: writing is a material practice; there is no such thing as bad writing; writing and collaboration are fertile and imaginative actions. It also takes a baseline that writing is inherently collaborative, and by exploring the social in this work, we build worlds inclusively and mindfully. By considering experimental approaches to group and solo writing, installation and in- class workshops, we will explore the granular and grist of how language aligns with creative practices across digital and analogue platforms and in live and archived capacities. Some areas of inquiry will include positionality of the author and auto-ethnographies as bridging community, land and site specificity in relation to language, tonal and linguistic translation, writing as gesture, spatial and material dimensions of wor(l)ds, relationships between artist-writer and viewer-reader. In addition to conceptual approaches to word play, we will look at vessels and circuits of language from mail art, love letters, recipes, scripts, neon lights, banners, vinyl and invoices. We will pursue prompts that centre collaborative writing across the following verbs: beginning, bridging, engaging, caring, carving, breathing, worlding, composting.
LocationWorlding database field "Location"
P7 took place at → E53 Place: Class ‘E53 Place‘ is used to model a geographical place. Property ‘P7 took place at’ is used to model the fact that an educational course or exhibition took place at a location. ‘P7 took place at’ cannot convey the individual character that the course or exhibition may have because of the physical location that it is held. As such this property only describes the location in terms of plotting it on a map - which itself is a colonial practice. The property can also be used for online activities which take place simultaneously to the geographical places of all participants, however, this does not convey the significantly different type of interaction or the technological barriers for inclusion when one, for example, needs to be “present” at online meetings.
Masters Program, Department of Studio Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University →Worlding place entity: E53 Place
Class E53 Place is used here to model geographical areas and locations. Mapping this content type to this class only models place based on the immaterial, mathematical area as defined with a frame of reference and as such it is not appropriate to express the physicality of space which is important. Also this class does not include temporality of places which is critical in a cultural context. A different model could make use of class ‘E27 Site’ which relates to the mathematical notion of E53 Places through property ‘P156 occupies’. That alternative solution is more complex but models place more accurately albeit using more than one class. Another problem with the concept of geometrical place is the fact that boundaries which do not exist in the physical world are needed to define it. This brings up questions around the agency of the people creating these boundaries, naming them and the problem of abstraction in maps which is reductive.
1395 René-Lévesque Blvd W
Montreal QC
Canada