Building and making through 3D printing
In reading the article, DIY Prosthetics Digital Fabrication and Participatory Culture by Aaron Knochel, I learned how it is important to establish create an atmosphere of questioning and problem solving in the classroom experience. Giving students technology and apps to create is a great first step but giving them real world problems to help solve, creates a culture of lifting up a person's self-efficacy.
For me, this is crucial and at the heart of what teaching is about. If we are teaching we need to think beyond the basic concept of student/teachers perspective and see students as people with valid contributions to our communities. Often, many people will see school as something to get by and move on to the next level of life. I know this, because I experienced this as a young student growing up in Highland Park, California. The attitude was, get through school, and then get on with life. What if we flipped this thinking and see that this collective mind power (students) are ready to add and learn from each other and get busy on solving issues that need help, right now? How much more interested and engaged would we be if we brought in city hall to the schools and worked with people directly? How much more involved would people be to community and not feel there was limitations? These were some of the idea that came to mind when I thought of learners being connected to what is normally deemed the "grown-up world" vs the student/practice world.
Knochel's article addresses this need by showing students how to take technology and apply it directly to the need of people who have need of affordable and useful additions to physical limitations especially in regards to the art making process. As I read the article, I could see how involved and inspired the students were to the process of making useful items for seemingly normal every day tasks. Instead of making items for monetary gain, or pleasure, people create items that would help those who had some limitation such as an injury to their hand and unable to grasp items and perhaps, those who were born with limited mobility. What this did was help me see is, if we are thinking of people in terms of helping and solving issues for people who need some aids, we are liberating ourselves from preconceived notions that people who have an injury/birth issue are limited but rather are people that need some extra adaptations. This is especially important because there has been historically, a push to, keep genetic lines and human populations controlled by forced sterilization and a mass of dehumanizing of people based on no other reason then one's skin, or economic status or mental ability. Maybe it's a big jump from a classroom setting and how things are taught or not taught, but by giving people new ways of seeing the arts and one another, we see each other as people.
My feeling, after reading the DIY Prosthetics, is we have a history of education and a history of negatives and a reality that there is still a lot of oppression and injustice. However, for me at least, one of the main ways we can bridge that gap is by seeing each other as part of the human experience. My feeling as an artist and teacher is we can create positive change and action through putting those who are in greatest need on the top. In so doing, we will raise each other up, collectively, and make our society stronger and give a sense of purpose to our works.
