Liminal Spaces
2021-09-26
This creative expression began when we held class on Landis Green.
It seemed to me that the groupings of people were a moving visual representation of "liminal spaces," through which onto-epistemological explorations occurred through centripetal and centrifugal mechanisms.
I watched as people sat with their friends, experiencing life through another in a way that recognizes the truth of society and place. And still I saw others who sat with friends but remained inwardly focused in search for their truth. I saw people alone, exploring the same with the backdrop of the 21st-century college experience playing out around them.
I experienced all three in my time on Landis with the class, in my head beside them, and in my head watching as I experienced the ever-changing landscape on the green.
This experience resonated with me as being central to A/R/Tography, and felt like an exercise in the subject matter we've been exploring as I thought through my various roles: researcher-observer-teacher-artist.
In the shared Google Doc that Yatil created for his facilitation, I found new ways to think about the content we've been learning as I read through thoughts others had. When the discussion began, I started fervently typing everything I could capture.
Part of my mind still feels like a slave to documentation after years of living hell. The fear is that without it, I didn't experience it – or worse yet I did but that I won't remember.
Neurosis aside, sometimes the poison we swallow leads to coping mechanisms that serve us fairly well in other arenas.
Now I can go back and reflect on the beauty of the stream of consciousness we created together as we examined the concept of liminal space put forth by Springgay, Irwin, and Kind (2007) when they wrote, "[A/r/tography] is an inquiry process that lingers in the liminal spaces inside and outside—the between—of a(artist) and r(researcher) and t(teacher/therapist).” (p. 84).
LIMINAL SPACES CAN BE INTERSECTIONS, BUT THEY’RE NOT CUT AND DRY. THEY CAN BE INHERENTLY DISPARATE, BUT THEY ALSO COMBINE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS ENVIRONMENT OF ABR. THERE’S ALWAYS GAPS IN RESEARCH AND AND IDENTITIES. ALWAYS QUESTIONING WHERE THOSE SPACES ARE AND WHAT WORK CAN BE DONE TO BRIDGE THE GAPS AND LEAVE SPACE TO AMBIGUITY. – YATIL
LIMINAL SPACES: LEAVING SOMETHING BEHIND, NOT FULLY LETTING GO. – KIERA
EMBRACING THE FACT THAT YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO ARRIVE. EMBRACING THAT YOU’RE NOT THE EXPERT, AND YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO GET WHERE YOU’RE GOING. IT’S A JOURNEY. – ELIZABETH
LIMINAL SPACE:L WALKING TO WHERE WE WOULD SIT AND LEARN, THE SPACE BEFORE SPEAKING (HEARING THE WIND, AND THE SOUNDS, ETC). SOMETHING REAL IS HAPPENING, BUT YOU CAN’T ALWAYS PERCEIVE IT. – AMBER
THE SILENCE THAT YOU LEAVE LINGERS, AND IT’S LIKE A MAGIC SPACE. – ELIZABETH
BE AWARE OF THE PAUSES AND MOMENTS SO YOU CAN FEEL AND BE AWARE OF THAT WHEN A MEMBER CHANGES AND YOU CAN BE A PART OF THAT. SO IT’S UNDERSTANDING THOSE MOMENTS AND NUANCES THAT HAPPENS. – SUZANNE
IT BELONGS TO EVERYONE AND NOT ANY ONE PERSON. – ELISABETH
REFLECTIVE SPACES- THE SPACE IN A MUSEUM WHEN YOU’RE AT THE END OF AN EXHIBIT TO REFLECT ON ALL OF THE THINGS YOU JUST SAW: LIKE WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH THIS? WHAT DID I JUST LEARN? – YATIL
LIMINAL SPACE JUST HAPPENS, AND IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE TOTALLY CONTROLLED FOR A SPECIFIC OUTCOME. BUT IT CAN BE ORCHESTRATED TO PROVIDE THE SPACE FOR SOMETHING TO EMERGE.
SO IT’S ABOUT SETTING UP THE ENVIRONMENT. DIRECTORS WILL USE PAUSES. THEY DON’T SAY WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN, BUT CREATING THE MOMENTS TO ALLOW THINGS TO HAPPEN. – SUZANNE
THAT’S CREATING A LIMINAL ENVIRONMENT TO BE OUTSIDE AND INTERACTING WITH EACH OTHER AND THE BEINGS AROUND US. HOW DO WE RELATE TO OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EARTH AND LAND. – AMBER
And surprisingly, someone else captured a thought, "Rebecca: Liminal spaces are doorways to reconstructing knowledge and allowing space for something new to emerge through unstructured learning spaces." And I feel validated because I lived it, and I was right: I don't remember that moment.
But fortunately, I know my mind is alright, because I remember this one another person captured, "FROM A 2D VISUAL ART PERSPECTIVE, IT’S LIKE THE CONCEPT OF WHITE SPACE. -- REBECCA." We need these spaces to help our mind breathe ... so we can think ... so we can know.
This coming week I look forward to learning more about literary genres in and outside of class. I also plan to dedicate more time to personal, creative non-fiction writing projects.
References:
Knowles, J. .. G., & Cole, A. L. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu
Etherly, Y., Ward, A., Karatas, S., Lucas, S., Stephan, K., Odom, E., & Sage, R. (2021). Cumulative reading discussion for Module 2 (3/3) facilitated by Yatil Etherly. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hFzyaUTFNp6s57wcQ2tInjuJUp1CFv_7fOwPOE8_twU/edit?usp=sharing