Mike Blockstein
Raised Questions from Mike Blockstein (January 5th, 2006)
Hello Folks,
Veronica has finally pushed me to post to this blog. I have been reading it avidly and in a way I’m happy to say that it has left me with more questions and head-scratching than anything.
A few things have struck me the most.
* The concept of mythology and the “approach” to L.A. vis a vis the approach to Civic Matters (project and concept). It is fascinating to me how everyone has grappled with the questions of figuring out what they both are about. All I can say and hope is that we do, as been suggested, keep an open mind, eye and dialogue as there is of course no easy answer to either. They are works in progress.
* The fact that the mythology/mystique of L.A. is in a funny way analogous to the mystique and stigma of how and what an “artist” is (perhaps more so in the States, perhaps not). Both carry a huge shadow that arrives long before the actual thing gets a chance to walk in the door. It seems so much of the blog (and the project) has and will be devoted to conversations about understanding and debunking just what L.A. “is” and to the notions of how artists, designers, organizations operate, how they grapple with questions of the public and the public realm and its relationship to their work.
* The notions of exchange, of hosting and meeting points.
* The question of hybridity.
By way of introduction all of these are central elements to the work I do and to my interests. My work is place-based. It is about how I as an artist, but perhaps more so as a creative thinker, can create projects that engage a neighborhood, a community across generations in ways that allow people to explore, interpret, better understand and ultimately influence their areas. I know that’s vague and my temptation is to leave it so. What it does mean is that I am interested in urban areas, in cities, in their histories (both recorded and primarily undocumented) and in using art and artistic practices as a springboard for these explorations. Further I am interested in how place and culture shape one’s way of living, their practice, attitude, mythologies, commonalities and differences. It has been pointed out how different not only the work of so many of the L.A. people are versus the Scandinavian people are how different the funding systems are. The two obviously are connected.
To get back to the introduction and the question of hybridity, I am an artist, an educator, I have run a non-profit artists organization that is akin to LACE, I have curated and organized. I tend to work these days in “new media” but my training is in drawing and printmaking. I also have a Masters degree from a school of government. To me, being an artist means being multi-lingual and multi-functional. It is a choice and it is a survival strategy. Personally however, I am also intensively interested in the intersection between art and civics, between art and community development, and in the role artists have to play in the public/non-art realm. I am on the cusp of some other form of self-reinvention. My focus is shifting towards developing some type of consulting-type group that brings together artists, educators, community developers and people in new media that develop neighborhood-based projects that connect all these areas. My work is all about working and collaborating with others, yet the realities of work as independent “community-based” artist that has to partner with outside agencies to fund and sustain projects is getting old and tiring. I am thrilled to have the chance to discuss the questions of how everyone’s practice has evolved together and to learn from you all.
I have long grappled with the idea of making a proposal for this project. For one, I feel there are more things going on already that we can possibly all get too. I also have to say that I am much more interested in moving outside of my own comfort zone and practice than I am in presenting or doing something that is line with what I already do. This project and the general notion of civic matters to me is about working together towards common goals and not towards individual ones.
That said, since I know that there was interest in a project that I’m wrapping about called “Custom Mobile Commerce” about the role, contributions and lives of street vendors in Los Angeles, I hope to organize a tour of Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles with students from Roosevelt High School. In my fantasies we would all actually go to Roosevelt HS and listen to student presentations as I think that would go so far to both debunk the mythology of L.A. and at the same time inspire everyone about L.A and public practice. Yet the realities of bringing up to 30 people into a Los Angeles public high school probably will make this impossible. We’ll see.
I am also just plain interested in being a participant of this project. I want to work, listen, question and learn from you all. Towards those ends I have told Veronica and Irene that I’m interested in helping to shape the panels and discussions that are in play. I’d like to see one lead to the next rather than have them be one-shot conversations. For instance the conversation about community redevelopment and Hollywood should connect to the conversation about starting points for creative production which should lead to the discussion about social practice and public art, etc. etc. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes about this, but I simply want to offer my help and experience here.
Finally, above are a couple of images from projects. I found it ironic to send images of “my work,” because my work is really about working with others. One of these images I took, the other I didn’t. It brings up many interesting questions about authenticity, ownership and also about public art as a process vis a vis a practice that I hope we will get to discuss.
The first image is from “A Chinatown Banquet,” a community-based public art, education, leadership development project about the forces that shape and continue to shape Boston Chinatown. I have been working on this project in various stages for 6 years in partnership with the Asian Community Development Corporation. The project has involved work with high school students who worked in a curriculum that blended art, design, and new media with urbanism, history and leadership development. It has forged interdisciplinary partnerships between organizations that stretch from art to eduction to community development to activism both inside and outside of the Boston Chinatown. This spring a series of short videos about the social history, character and “meaning” of Boston Chinatown will become a permanent landmark in the neighborhood. This has the dual goal of both effectively allowing a community to represent itself and of bringing new interest and understanding of Boston Chinatown. Many student projects and a general framework of the project are at http://www.chinatownbanquet.org.
The second image is from “Custom Mobile Commerce.” For this project I formed a partnership with urban planners, oral historians, architects, Los Angeles Trade Tech College (a community college) and Roosevelt High School. We worked with students at LATTC and Roosevelt to explore, document and interpret the role of street vendors in L.A. All vendors are technically illegal in L.A. Yet they are clear contributors to the culture, economy and vitality of L.A. They are also indicators of what the city is and continues to become. We worked in a left brain/right brain format. Students worked in photography, learned to conduct interviews, explored street vending as an architectural and design question and used GIS (Geographic Information Systems), a spatial-database program to analyze the economics, demographics, location of realtors, density etc. in vending areas.
Looking forward to meeting you all soon.
Mike Blockstein