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MA ADA 2007 > articles > Rolling Roles

Rolling Roles

May 4, 02:56 PM · Susan Agnew

Flickering Signifiers, a light installation by artist Ken Rinaldo, focuses on the hypnotic, rhythms of light emited from our televisions sets. Marshall McLuhan said that content often blinds us to the character of the medium (McLuhan, 1964, p.16). By removing all images, Rinaldo draws attention to the addictive and manipulative power of the flickering light, which renders the viewer inactive.

Television brings advertising into our private homes and mass media is increasingly our main source of information (Sheller and Ury, 2003). Following staging, screening is the new threat to democracy (Sheller and Ury, 2003, p.119). However, screening adds new layers pushing the event further back; events can be staged then screened.

Natalie Jeremijenko is critical of accepting given ‘facts’. Her Feral Robotic Dogs roam the countryside unearthing harmful chemicals used in their own manufacture.

The project directly involves young people in transforming the toys to raise awareness of the environmental impact of consumerism. This direct experience of transformation shows that there are other possibilities and more active choices than accepting what is presented.

Such a project, which encourages the questioning of authorities, is contrary to an education system which in many ways promotes identities that are easy to control (Enslin, 1999, p.108). The questioning of facts and values naturally leads to a questioning of the authority of the teacher. This gives way to a transaction between teacher and pupil (Pring, 2004, p.114). Regarding computer technology, Sherry Turkle has noted that young people are leading the way (Turkle, 1999, p.288). There is therefore a blurring of teacher/student roles.

The ability to question given facts is not something to be installed – the method is the content.

References:
Enslin, P. (1999) “The place of national identity in the aims of education,” in Marples, R. (ed.) The Aims of Education, London: Routledge
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: the extensions of man, London: Routledge
Pring, R. (2004) Philosophy of Educational Research (2nd Ed.) London: Continuum
Sheller, M. and Ury, J. (2003), “Mobile transformations of ‘public’ and ‘private’ life” in Theory, Culture and Society, vol.2 no. 2, pp.205-228
Turkle, S (1999), “Identity in the Age of the Internet, in Mackay H. & O’Sullivan, T. (eds.) The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation, London: Sage

 

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