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Performing freedom, equality and responsiveness “With-in III Acts”.

Photo credits: Pilvikki Lantela.

Photo credits: Pikka-Maaria Laine.

Act I, performing free flow and restraining resource. In the two picture the performers dressed in all black are moving a semi-transparent white fabric between them and spinning it around their bodies.

Photo credits: Pikka-Maaria Laine.

Act II, performing denialism and standpoint feminism. The performers dressed in all black are showing two postures. In first picture one performer attempts to hear while the other attempts to deafen her.

Photo credits: Pikka-Maaria Laine.

In the second picture, the performers have a hold on one another to change their places synchronously in the circle to adapt into each other’s standpoint.

AECED-researchers Pauliina Jääskeläinen and Joonas Vola created and performed together a choreography ’With-in III Acts’ for ”Possible, Real and Imagined” academic event 24th of June in Helsinki. The event was arranged by Susan Meriläinen and enabled by the grand from the Foundation for Economic Education, gathering together a number of Finnish and international scholars of organization studies with a great variety of expertise. The choreography aims to demonstrate how academic discourses can be transformed into movement and expressed through an aestheticised performance. The topics touched upon the use of natural resources, to modes of production and labour, and ethical encounters. The last of the three acts ”Three wisdoms” builds directly on the democratic values and principles of AECED project: freedom, equality and responsiveness.

Since the performance did not have vocalizations, any message that came through relied on the gestures and expression, and how it was received and interpreted by the audience, consisting of around 80 persons. This means that in practice around 80 different kind of stories took place through the acts taking around 12 minutes. Yet, the inspiration for establishing the choreography had societally motivated themes and storyline behind it. These where divided to three sections, following organically one another.

Act I,” Three Fates” derives from a community development and natural resource, illustrating a fatalistic and linear preconception of development dependent on resource extraction. Represented natural resource for the performance was a river, which movement was imitated by 10 meters long see-through fabric. This spun cloth was then measured, in handfuls, cubits and foots. After the measuring, the faith of the river was bound for human consumption, to enhance its power, restraining its freedom, while also binding one’s own fate to it inevitably.

Act II,” Three –isms” embodied at least three doctrines, from fordism to feminism and denialism. Where fordist line of production not only builds with highly specified and efficient movement, it also disciplines the humane bodies to the level of disembodiment, making them into parts of the machine, extending the approved mode of actions, production and consumption beyond the 3 times 8 hours division of the day (for rest, work and leisure). Where the body of flesh and the mechanical body collide, a second ism will emerge. The feminist standpoint is performed by physically stepping to the footprints of another person, and viewing the world from that, and then comparing it to the earlier worldview. Yet, making this into equal space for speaking for one another, showing something, or reaching out for another, are in vain when the third ism denialism emerges. The other’s situation comes too difficult to hear, too brutal to see and too hard to touch. It becomes an attempt to break free and to smother, where the parties make fences around each other’s senses.

Act III, “Three wisdoms” ends these senseless actions. This is a moment of pure encounter, and serenity. In this act the parties, in terms, speak and hear one another, show and see one another, and reach, touch, hold and accept one another, becoming us. They are both equal, free and responsive together. For the performers this is an act of joy and relief, where the restrains, labour and repetition, and almost violent gestures of silencing, blinding and deafening the other are left behind. This is a sort of act where the acceptive gaze lands on the faces, the bodies and the gestures and responses.

Together the three acts reach out for what we have within, or rather with and in, with-in, to pair up the inner feelings and how they share the same space and movement with the other. It also plays with the idea of the AELD-methods (Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy) and AECED-projects pedagogical framework claiming certain values through which the democracy is perceived.

Reflections on the “Strengthening Democracy Through Education: Conceptual and Practical Perspectives” conference

Pauliina Jääskeläinen, University of Lapland, Finland

It was a pleasure to attend such a well-organised conference by our ‘sister project’, DEMOCRAT at Tallinn University on 27-28 February 2024! Our AECED project was presented by the Principal Investigator, Professor Susan Meriläinen (University of Lapland, Finland). In addition, Professor Susanne Weber from the German team attended the conference and presented her work in one of the parallel sessions.

My main impression was that all of our sister (and brother) projects are working around very similar issues related to democracy in education. It soon became clear that all our projects are needed in these times, where such phenomena like populism, fatalism, polarization and conspiracy theories threaten democracy as Gerry Stoker (Professor and Chair of Governance, University of Southampton) mentioned in his keynote speech. However, Stoker reminded us to stay realistic about what it is possible to achieve, as we might face counterforces to our actions, like a lack of interest, which in the worst scenario leads to apathy diminishing agency and participation in any democratic processes.

In the second day’s keynote, Leif Kalev (Professor of Political Science, Tallinn University) emphasized how in reinforcing democratic agencies, we need to also mediate the risks of polarization and radicalization by cultivating the responsibility a) towards oneself, b) towards others/community, c) towards democracy and d) towards nature and other fields. According to Kalev, we should also be able to resist emotional manipulations as well as radicalizing and polarizing impulses. Kalev’s thoughts echoed Stoker’s speech by agreeing that one of the major threats to democracy is that we become passive objects that are taken care of by ‘more competent’ depoliticized managers.

In addition to addressing the problems, there was also an emphasis on thinking about what democracy education and education for democracy could mean in practice and we heard some inspiring examples of good practice and cases during the conference. For example, Dr. Charlie Moreno-Romero told us a touching example of how they handled a very difficult case of discrimination by creating a reflective space for dealing with emotions through dialogical methods.

This was one of the many moments during the conference when I thought that there really is a lot of potential in our AECED project to provide insights into how aesthetic and embodied methods can help us go even further in engaging learners, educators and stakeholders in democracy-as-becoming at a personal, grass-root educational level. In our project, we concentrate on the experiential level of democracy in educational settings and ask such questions as: “How does it feel to be included?”, “What does it mean in practice to give space to the different other?”, “What do my reactions and emotions tell me about my ways of attending to different groups?”, “How do my personal ways of relating affect collective decision-making?” and so on. These questions and many others address the experiential level of democratic becoming and, from our point of view, it is in these micro-relations that possibilities for transformation unravel, one encounter and one educational situation at a time.

Most of all, it was refreshing to meet colleagues from the sister projects in person. It became (again) very evident how important it is to meet in person, to chat informally and to be able to interact, feel and sense the others through our whole bodies. Experientially, it is something completely different compared to the two-dimensionality of videocalls.

One thing that I was left wondering: How could we teach each other in these conferences by taking the embodied and aesthetic dimensions of our beings better into account? Would it be possible to engage with the concepts, phenomena and other content through arts-based, aesthetic and embodied methods and with that, co-learn about them in a more holistic manner?

At the end of the conference, Tallinn City offered us a guided, medieval tour of the old town, which was led through a storytelling method. The stories the guide told us were so engaging that they made at least me feel almost as if I was in Tallinn - or should I say in Reval - during medieval times. Thank you to the DEMOCRAT project and organisers, especially Leif Kalev and Maarja Hallik for this wonderful two-day conference!

Experiences from Workshop for University Teachers

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Continuing the movement of embodied excercises on paper.
Debriefing embodied methods in a workshop on the topic of equality.

In the University of Lapland, project researcher Pauliina Jääskeläinen facilitated a series of embodied methods workshop for the university teachers. The aim of the workshops was to familiarise the teachers with embodied methods by using practical participatory exercises, where the methods are first exercised, continued by reflection by using artistic creative approaches, and then debriefing with the group of participants by discussing about the exercises through these works of art. The first workshop on the series of three, the theme was one of the chosen democratic value, ”equality”.

The picture is from a drawing made by another researcher of the AECED project, Joonas Vola, in the role of a learner. The instruction was to choose two colour crayons, and continue the movement from an earlier exercise. Since the exercise felt empowering, the chosen clours where bright and warm. Instead of trying to represent any feeling or thought, he simply let the crayon travel on the paper as cycles of movement. First the individual circles started to overlap with one another. As it was highlighter, that there was no 'right' or 'wrong' way to draw, he tried out different speeds, and the circles became larger. Finally he let the crayon to settle, as the movement could have easily spontanously moved on and on, without any final expected result ... as the equality and equity, is in continous movement ... in its becoming.

Kehollisen liikkeen jatkaminen paperilla.
Jälkipuintia kehollisten metodien työpajassa yhdenvertaisuudesta.

AECED hankkeen tutkija Pauliina Jääskeläisen fasilitoi Lapin yliopiston opettajille kehollisten menetelmien työpajan. Työpajan tavoitteena oli tutustuttaa opettajat kehollisien mentelmien käyttöön käytännön harjoitteeln avulla. Kehollisten liikeharjoitteiden jälkeen osallistujat reflektoivat kokemustaan luovin taiteellisin menetelmin, minkä jälkeen syntyneen teoksen avulla suoritettiin työpajan jälkipuinti keskustelemalla. Kolmesta työpajan sarjasta ensimmäisessä käsiteltiin valittuna demokraattisena arvona tasa-arvoa ja yhdenvertaisuutta.

Kuva esittää piirrosta, jonka on tehnyt AECED hankkee toinen tutkja Joonas Vola, osallistujan roolissa. Ohjeen mukaisesti hän valitsi kaksi väriliitua, ja jatkoi edellisen harjotiteen liikettä paperilla. Koska harjoite nostatti kyvykkyyden tunnetta, valitut värit olivat kirkkaat ja lämpimät. Tunteen tai asian esittämisen sijaan hän antoi liidun kulkea vapaasti paperilla tehden pyörivää liikettä ja kehämäisiä linjoja. Ensin yksittäiset kehät alkoivat ristetä keskenään. Kuten harjoitteen ohjeistuksessa korostettiin, piirrosken toteuttamiseen ei ollut oikeaa tai väärää tapaa. Kokeillessaan nopeampaa liikettä kehät alkoivat laajenemaan. Lopulta liity pysähtyi jälkipuintia varten, vaikka liikettä olisi voinut spontaanisti jatkaa loputtomiin, ilman jotakin valmista määränpäätä ... kuten tasa-arvo ja yhdenvertaisuus ovat jatkuvassa liikkeessa ... kehittyen ja kehkeytyen.

Continuing the movement of embodied excercises on paper. A drawing of overlapping red and orange circles dwan with crayon

Experimenting with University Teachers in a Workshop

A collective collage in AECED Workshop consisting of red thread, plastic figurines, shoe lace, paper cutouts and other small items.jpg

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Searching for the common thread of embodied methods through creation of a collective collage in AECED Workshop, University of Lapland /

Going through a variety of embodied excersises under the theme of responsiveness, the participating university teachers made the concluding reflection by creating a collective collage. The combination of exercises and their facilitation was planned and conducted together by the AECED researchers from the University of Lapland and professor Mar Pérezts from Emlyon Business School. The material for making the collage consisted of small figurines, magazines, trings and laces to name a few. As the interpretation of its meaning is open and continous, it had signs of connectedness and interrelations, acts of pampering, and the elements of danger introduced to it. What kind of details can you detect from the picture?

Kehollisten menetelmien punaista lankaa etsimässä AECED työpajassa yhteistyössä luodusta kollaasista, Lapin yliopistossa.

Usean erilaisen herkkyyttä ja reagointikykyä edustavan kehollisen harjoitteen jälkeen, työpajaan osallistuneet yliopiston opetushenkilökunnan jäsenet reflektoivat kokemuksiaan yhteisen kollaasin rakentamisen avulla. Harjoitteiden suunnittelu ja toteuttaminen tehtiin yhdessä AECED hankkeen Lapin yliopiston tutkijoiden ja professori Mar Péreztsin (Emlyon Business School) kanssa. Kollaasiin käytettävät materiaalit koostuivat pienistä esineistä, kuten muovisista hahmoista, lehdistä, langoista ja kengännauhoista, muutamia mainitaksemme. Vaikka lopputuloksen sisällön ja merkitysten tulkinta on avointa ja jatkuvaa, kollaasi sisälsi merkkejä yhteyksien luomisesta, huolenpidosta, ja myös vaaran elementeistä. Millaisia yksityiskohtia voit löytää kuvasta?

AELD Video Guide - Towards Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy

AECED AELD Guide YouTube preview icon.jpg

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Welcome to follow a video guide for Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy (AELD). This is an early application of the prototype being constantly developed further under the project "Transforming Education for Democracy through Aesthetic and Embodied Learning, Responsive Pedagogies and Democracy-as-becoming" funded by Horizon Europe and the UK Research and Innovation. The video presents early steps for educators to include aesthetic, art-based and embodied methods to their teaching to create sense of connectivity, freedom and responsibility, and to evaluate the level of democratic principles in their pedagogical practice.

Tutustu esteettisen ja kehollisen opettamisen keskeisiin periaatteisiin ja käytännön alkeisiin lyhyen englanninkielisen video-oppaamme avustuksella. Arvioi ja punnitse sen teemojen avulla, miten demokraattiset arvot ja käytäntö toteutuvat omassa opetuksessasi ja erilaisissa oppimistilanteissa, joissa olet itse ollut osallisena?

AECED - Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy