Author: Ama Niang
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Futures Thinking
For me including nature is important because its the start of everything and in a sense is everything. The natural state of the planet is slowly changing and parts are starting to disappear.
Thinking about nature in terms of how it would feel in my placement is a bit difficult. With the Conversations On Conflict program NSI runs I have seen multiple of the archive pieces from the young people talking about climate and nature preservation, however it’s not really something there is a big emphasis on. Based on that I think nature would want more conversations to be had about how it relates to conflict.
Taking a value-conscious approach would involve seeing ways of including nature into the conversation around conflict, however for our exhibition we are choosing to look at a different theme that is very important to us so nature won’t really come up.
I honestly can not think of a way to introduce nature into my placement, NSI is charity that helps give young people a voice through art on the topic of conflict and war, I don’t see a way of including nature because that’s not the focus of my placement provider.
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Theme, Narrative, and Branding
Right now our exhibition ‘Unity Without Uniformity’ is still a big work in progress.
So far we’ve:
-emailed venues
-decided our theme
-applied for an Art England grant
What we want to get done this month:
-decided number of pieces to display
-email Chelsea for printing quote
-branding
-exhibition statement
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Settled In
4th week of placement done. It’s been going well, I’ve gotten use to my roles and responsibilities. Currently working on the competition entries, outreach email, and the exhibition SIP.
I asked for more tasks, preferable creative ones as well since I am able to do my current tasks pretty quickly. I was given some more to do so that’s good. I do feel like I could do with more more but I understand that they only have x amount of tasks that need doing.
I think I have felt just a little down about my dps colleague getting the creative tasks and me not getting any, I feel a bit unsure about how much I will be able to get out of the placement. I do like the placement and the people, I just don’t feel very challenged right now. I am looking at other opportunities as well just to see if there is are any other placement opportunities that I could do alongside this one. I consider myself to be a pretty creative person so with how busy I am currently, I am not able to make or create anything which has been hard for me.
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Unity without Uniformity
My SIP is going to be an exhibition I am putting together with another DPS student who I am doing my placement alongside of.
We are doing holding an exhibition for UN Social Justice Day, 20th Feb. It is going to be a 2 week exhibition. We have chosen the theme of Unity Without Uniformity. The exhibition will display work from the Never Such Innocence archive.
So far we have come up with our idea and emailed multiple venues that we are interested in. I have applied for a grant from the Arts Council England, if we get this grant we will be able to hire a venue, otherwise we have to try and get one for free.
Next up we have to work on strengthening the exhibition narrative, creating a statement, and out branding for the promotional material.
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Design Values
Competition Flyer by Never Such Innocence
During my placement I am working on competition entries and outreach.
The competition is for children aged 9-18, this is part of their program Conversations On Conflict. This program aims to uplift the voices of young people and children through art on the topic of conflict and war.
The outreach I have been tasked with is to get in contact with music/choir teachers. In hopes to get more children aware of the song category.
The competition has a different yearly theme, this years is in someone else’s shoes. The winners are chosen in their own age categories, its divided up 9-11, 11-14, 14-16, 16-18. This way it is fair for all the participants and they can get a equal amount of winners of varied ages.
The reason behind the Conversations On Conflict program matches my values. I am interested in exhibition design because I think it’s important to uplift artists, their voices, and their experiences. This allows us to be more open minded, considerate, and caring towards others we may feel different than. Its an important way of discussing social issues and bring awareness to them.
In terms of adapting it to include some other values of mine, I will be able to do this with the exhibition they have put me (and my fellow DPS intern) in charge of. We have decided to look at the theme of Unity Without Uniformity: the importance in accepting and understanding cultural diversity.
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Positionality Statement 1st Ver
The reading we were set was very interesting, especially where she touched on how everyone has unconscious basis and how our perspective centres our experiences and interactions with our work.
It was important and made me take a step back and reflect on how a lot of my work resolves around addressing the same root issues.
100-200 Words Positionality Statement
From the quick brainstorm we did during the DPS session these where the more relevant aspects of the positionality wheel task for me:
Languages I speak and why – French, parents
Race and Ethnicity – White and black African, Senegalese and French
Age – 22
Gender – woman
Family – eldest child, one brother one sister, both my parents moved to England in their twenties and they met here.
Parental status – 2 parents, married and I live with them, Mum charted accountant owns business, my dad worked security (had a stroke so can’t work anymore)
Level of education – Undergrad
As someone who has always been interested in finding ways to address elitism, exclusion and xenophobia/racism in their work, I plan to apply this to my work this year as well. I am very interested in expanding my knowledge when it comes to exhibition design, as this is a career path I am considering choosing. I like that exhibition design allows you to work with artists and uplift their voices and art. I have done projects before about uplifting the voices of under-represented and overlooked groups in the art space and would like to continue to do so. For me, it is very important to bring awareness to the ways in which systems of oppression affect minorities, and the art world is a great example of that.
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Monday B-day Shenanigans
On Saturday it’s one of our colleges birthday so me and Dagyum (another DPS student) were tasked with decorating her desk. She likes horror movies so we did that as our theme.
The rest of the week I continued with the tasks I had been given, competition entries and admin. On Thursday we started looking at our SIP, holding and designing an exhibition.
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First Day at Internship
How I looked vs How I felt
I started yesterday, I got to know everyone and they explained my roles and responsibility, how to use specific software and showed me around the office.
It was an interesting first day! I was very nervous on my journey there but I was worried for no reason. First day of full work in my new role tomorrow.
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ERORR
hehehe