rachel hernández pumarejo

2009-12-07T07:12:00.001Z

Visual documentation

2009-06-05T13:50:00.006+01:00

07506509271

Elecciones en la colonia
(13 November 2008) One of the two projects I'm working on simultaneously (I'm still wondering if this will actually end up crushing the rest of my back discs) deals with the Puerto Rico elections, which took place on November 4th, same date as the US elections. The interface of the information gathering phase of the project took place in Facebook. This should not be surprising, I am currently obsessed with it, I even second thought about actually linking the name...

So far, I've got about 400+ screenshots of status, comments, photos, groups, events, and notes concerning the PR and the US elections, not only because they took place the same day, because of the relationship Puerto Rico and the US share. I've omitted names and faces in order to maintain an empathic state of mind, taking the empathy method as framework.

This is an example of what a screenshot looks like with the editing:

I'm planning on do a mental map linking the images by category (I've spent all day categorizing and dividing just 30% of the material... exhausting) for the upcoming MA Graphics Work in Progress exhibition in the MA Studios, in Wilson Road Building, Camberwell. If you happen to be around, you're most welcome to join us. Refreshments will be available!

Lee Thomas Carpenter

Plural

all i want 4 xmas is u

The Youth

yo soy tú tú soy yo / i am you you am i

(15-16 April 2009) The video was recorded at Escuela de Artes Plásticas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the part of "yo soy tú soy yo". The sound piece was recorded throughout Old San Juan, taking 35 different voices from people from all ages.

Credits:
Camera - Rachel Hernández-Pumarejo
Lightning - Arthur Asseo
Sound - Jeshua González & Rachel Hernández-Pumarejo
Model - Lorna Asseo

the empathic contract

i am you (before i am that other)

Presentations

2009-06-05T13:48:00.001+01:00

Practice presentaton Dec 2008 (Graphics)

Mid-point review Jan 2009 (TrAIN)

MA TrAIN Symposium Apr 2009 (TrAIN)

Research and context

2009-06-05T13:47:00.001+01:00

2008

2009

Reflective Journal

2009-06-05T13:45:00.007+01:00

2008

September

October
31
The empathy method opens as an attempt to conceptualize on what empathy means.

November
11
I could certainly do this. The process of getting "something done", and making the "thing", as Heidegger would say, "visible", has been utterly new to me. While dealing with a new country, a new continent, and a new circumstance, for the first month (or so) nothing practical was really happening, except perhaps for a scrap of an idea regarding digital numerals.

Afterwards, (not immediately) I decided to break the huge creative block by getting the appropiate resources to just do some technical junk. An introduction to Flash workshop didn't seem to fulfill the task in its entirety. Taking the camera out and recording crap worked a little better, even editing on Final Cut Pro was a little liberating, while at the same time, recycling my only microcassette on my Dad's old recorder, which he doesn't know I took with me, and recording sounds on the Tube, the bus, wherever. All of this wasn't really getting me anywhere.

Then I discovered letterpress, and a metallic paper. It somehow changed something in me. I wasn't blocked anymore.

I wrote something about the design process which was more of a self therapy session, but nonetheless it was helpful to understand my current position towards my own practice. Eventually, and after the help of my friends, I got to work. Got deeper into the digital systems, tried making connections, and then it hit me. A rough idea for a video concerning violence and how it relates to the empathy method.

23-30
Last week was very important for me in several levels. The "moaning" was finally over, as I got a wonderful guide who sorted it out, and freed me from a burden that had struck me for these past three months. Everything was falling into place (finally).
Within the project as is, both practice and theory were benefiting from what should have had happened two months earlier, a dialog was occurring, and ideas were flowing.

I assisted to a lecture by Neil Cummings, as I was mesmerized to see work I hadn't seen before, work I could identify myself so much with. It was amazing. After the lecture, I did some networking, met some very interesting people and discovered links with people I already know which could be useful for my project was well.

I also did some research at the Royal College of Arts library; I felt this measure had to be taken in order to enjoy pure concentration (the kind I'm having right now without distractions), which was quite successful, to be honest. I could have taken some books out, but I didn't want to risk it. I did get a lot of perspective on what I thought could be frameworks for my project proposal methodology.

Another thing that really worked out for me this last week was getting to see the exhibition "Edge of Arabia" at Brunei Gallery, on Friday. I have to submit an exhibition review contextualized from the first unit of my program's reader, and I was almost going to start on the Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, but after seeing Edge of Arabia, writing about Annie seemed a little vain.
The weekend wasn't as productive as the week days, but after some self torture, music and wine, it wasn't that bad. It's way too cold for me to concentrate.

December

2009

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

Project Proposal

2009-06-05T13:35:00.003+01:00

Note: The project proposal has changed vastly. The dissertation still deals with empathic methods and processes, but with a different theoretical approach. It will be displayed when finished, on mid-June 2009.

Last revision: 4 December 2008

Research question:

In my recent professional and academic experience, I’ve engaged in several socially focused projects, both as an artist and designer. This opportunity has made me aware of groups of people that are invisible to the powerful, of situations where bias and discrimination are accepted and reinforced upon, as well as issues that haven’t been assessed as problematic to communities within specific societies.

It is in my interest to assess one specific issue within my practice. This issue has to do with an apparent lack of empathy in power-based, structural and hierarchic relationships, as well as personal, intricate and horizontal relationships as well.

Empathy could be taken into account in the decision-making process, especially among those who hold positions of great power. There shouldn’t be a special category, in a “semi-intangible” world, in any designated power system, or a supranational world, as Toby Miller and George Yúdice would state in their book Política Cultural (Ediciones Gedisa, 2004).

In the verge of the supranational world, an empathic method could be integrated into the artistic production, as a standard tool, as the norm for the completion of projects that are able to show fairer ways to live, and at the same time, using art as a strategy to reinforce its way into a sociopolitical context with vast intensity and meaning, as Miwon Kwon states in his text One Place After Another (MIT Press, 2004)

Would it be possible to communicate an empathic method as a tool for the artistic production, as it would to its didactic resources and the structures assuming power over it? Can individuals and communities benefit from communication of an empathic response that doesn’t rely itself on the solemn course of a crisis? Could an everyday possibility of empathy and compassion coexist in this particular historical moment, where the age of information is slowly depriving us to express any emotions towards others? Can empathy be taught, and can its lifelong confusion with sympathy be overruled?

The context:

I’m interested on showing how the possibility of empathy is implemented in the present historical moment, the post-industrial society (also called “service society”, “information society” or “knowledge society”), where network based subcultures become more real than tangible relationships with communities and groups. Within this context, various scenarios and invisible connections are played out between horizontal and hierarchic relationships.

In a transnational standpoint, we are able to read about a myriad of tragedies and crisis elsewhere without having to empathise, or even sympathise. We are even witnesses of national crisis with the capacity of being oblivious to it. This probably happens when we’re not experiencing the crisis ourselves. Even so, there are resources to “cope” with these crises, like call centers and help lines.

But what about the everyday non-emotional scope of interaction with a world that doesn’t recognise us and we don’t even recognise as our own, as part of us? Why are we failing to recognise the infinite networks that exists within us, that we can take part of?

Methodology:

Taking art as a base framework, and design as a secondary framework, I want to show the possibility of empathy within different structures of relationships, engaging in acts that show how this possibility is implemented in contrasted scenarios of crisis periods (more specific circumstances) and regular periods, on an everyday basis (more general circumstances).

Nicolas Bourriaud explains that “the incredible growth of the world wide web, but also a growing need for bonds and contact, frustrated as this is by an abstract, individualistic society, have prompted artists to explore the field of the inter-human. They are thus inventing models of sociality or modes of communication, drawing, more or less, immateriality on the fluxes that tie us to one another.” Technology as its best can offer a valuable opportunity to understand and empathise with others. This virtual network can be translated into an emotional network similar to an extended family. The idea of the next of kin modulates certain permissions, which allow us to help, and be helped as well.

Victor Papanek talks about the spiritual in design, by stating that if design can ease pain, or can make life easier for some group that has been marginalised by society, or if it will help those who are poor, disenfranchised or suffering, amongst other ways in which design can enter spiritual values, its important to note the benefit of using these and other references in design as a background content on the exploration of empathy.

Documentation of these acts is paramount, in order to create a virtual record, so it can be accessed as educational material to a better understanding of what empathy really is and how an empathic model can be applied onto these acts, creating a dialogue towards the contextual, theoretical and practical aspects of the project.

Time plan:
The theoretical and practical development of the project will be run simultaneously. Several practice-based research projects have been working from the beginning of November, and they will have a continuous process and methods of research.

Resources:

In order to have a successful research and practice, its paramount to have feedback on primary and secondary references relevant to the project. It is important to have feedback on the development of the practice, citing artists, exhibitions, events and specific historical moments as references and schematas.

In terms of equipment, I would need to access equipments such as video cameras, tripods, recorders, microphones, sound systems, mixers. I would need the relevant editing programs for video and sound. For the ongoing projects, I need a mobile phone, printing facilities, laser cut facilities for stencils (used for promotion), and staff.

Bibliography:

Daniel Bell (1976) The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting, New York, Basic Books, pp. ix-xxii.

Victor Papanek (1998) Toward the spitirual in design in Beauty is nowhere: ethical issues in art and design, Ed. Richard Roth and Susan King Roth, Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture, Overseas Publishers Association, Amsterdam, pp 37-48.

Toby Miller and George Yúdice, (2004) Política Cultural Ediciones Gedisa

Miwon Kwon (2004) One Place After Another, MIT Press,

Nicolas Bourriaud, (2004) Berlin Letter about Relational Aesthetics in Contemporary Art: from Studio to Situation, Ed. Claire Doherty, Black Dog Publishing, London UK, pp 44-49.

Lack of object is the project

2008-12-11T12:51:00.005Z

Almost finishing the proposal, awfully exhausted but determined to organise and clear my mind. I've been doing some research, and I found the work of Rachel Whiteread. It is impressing, I must say, but looking at it, I realised how much I don't want to create an object within my practice-based research. It would limit everything I'm trying to achieve. Still, I want to point out the maturity of Whiteread's work:

"Untitled (Orange Bath)”, 1996, Rubber and Polystyrene, 32 x 82 x 43 in.

"Ether”, 1990, plaster, 35 x 80 x 43 in.

"House”, 1993 concrete (destroyed)

reflection day (23-29 november)

2008-12-02T15:34:00.000Z

Last week was very important for me in several levels. The "moaning" was finally over, as I got a wonderful guide who sorted it out, and freed me from a burden that had struck me for these past three months. Everything was falling into place (finally).
Within the project as is, both practice and theory were benefiting from what should have had happened two months earlier, a dialog was occurring, and ideas were flowing.

I assisted to a lecture by Neil Cummings, as I was mesmerized to see work I hadn't seen before, work I could identify myself so much with. It was amazing. After the lecture, I did some networking, met some very interesting people and discovered links with people I already know which could be useful for my project was well.

I also did some research at the Royal College of Arts library; I felt this measure had to be taken in order to enjoy pure concentration (the kind I'm having right now without distractions), which was quite successful, to be honest. I could have taken some books out, but I didn't want to risk it. I did get a lot of perspective on what I thought could be frameworks for my project proposal methodology.

Another thing that really worked out for me this last week was getting to see the exhibition "Edge of Arabia" at Brunei Gallery, on Friday. I have to submit an exhibition review contextualized from the first unit of my program's reader, and I was almost going to start on the Annie Leibovitz exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, but after seeing Edge of Arabia, writing about Annie seemed a little vain.
The weekend wasn't as productive as the week days, but after some self torture, music and wine, it wasn't that bad. It's way too cold for me to concentrate.

free falling

2008-11-19T23:31:00.005Z

There comes a time when form and content engage themselves in a timely manner quite harmoniously. Last Monday was not the case with my current projects. I didn't really expect it to be, specially when I just started working on them less than three weeks ago.

The MA Graphics exhibition in progress, which is actually put up at the Graphics MA Studio, has the work of my fellow classmates who have been working on their projects for two and a half months, almost three months. I, on the other hand, with my particular circumstance (I thought these would end sometime, but it keeps being a constant in my life), hadn't work with my practice until three weeks ago... I did have some rough ideas, based on my proposal (which is too big, too broad, and gets me confused) but nothing concrete. The "thing" is not there yet. It needs some time. But I'm looking for it, even though I put pressure on myself to be at the same point as the others in the practical phase.

Having said that, the following pictures are what I presented at the exhibition. The project "elecciones en la colonia" was severely modified today because even though the "thing" isn't there, its past form was just unacceptable for me. I'm hoping I was able to communicate my ideas effectively. That would satisfy me at the moment. Enjoy!

(I apologise inmensely for the bad quality of the pictures, I was afraid of staying without battery in my alkaline battery camera and I just kinda drifted out... will put retouched pictures soon)

The modified version of the project "Elecciones en la colonia/Elections in the colony"

Detail of the mental map of "Elecciones en la colonia/Elections in the colony"

Process of making the map.

Working on the project on Monday.

Both projects (07506509271 & Elecciones en la colonia) shown in my allocated space at the exhibition room.

time has come today

2008-11-16T13:05:00.000Z

The projects are finally on self mind schedule. This means that I've finally come to terms with them, and not feel afraid of execution anymore. They are being assessed. For the 07506509271 project, I'm preparing screens of possible promotion venues, while at the same time, preparing the design elements for a presentation (logotype and printed applications).

For the "elecciones en la colonia" (elections in the colony) project, the paragraph that states "our situation", found on a website (reference put up soon) will be the central item of the map put up in the wall. The categories I've worked on yesterday and the day before will be printed, and an example of each categorization will be printed and tested both digital and analog.

Being organized somewhere is bliss. I'm also preparing the props for a video I've conjured up in my sullen head this morning. I even got the costume on, but I'm charging the camera, so it had to be postponed.

elecciones en la colonia / elections in the colony

2008-11-14T00:01:00.000Z

One of the two projects I'm working on simultaneously (I'm still wondering if this will actually end up crushing the rest of my back discs) deals with the Puerto Rico elections, which took place on November 4th, same date as the US elections. The interface of the information gathering phase of the project took place in Facebook. This should not be surprising, I am currently obsessed with it, I even second thought about actually linking the name...

This is an example of what a screenshot looks like with the editing:

going backwards two and a half months...

2008-11-13T23:44:00.000Z

I could certainly do this. The process of getting "something done", and making the "thing", as Heidegger would say, "visible", has been utterly new to me. While dealing with a new country, a new continent, and a new circumstance, for the first month (or so) nothing practical was really happening, except perhaps for a scrap of an idea regarding digital numerals.

Then I discovered letterpress, and a metallic paper. It somehow changed something in me. I wasn't blocked anymore.