Expressing Ourselves
Mycelium - Racialized Migrants’ Resistance to Systemic Discrimination and the Promotion of Cultural Connection and Knowledge: Building Solidarity and Cultivating Collective Resistance through Photovoice
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jennifer Ma, Minju Kim
This study focuses on how racialized migrants build communities and cultivate collective well-being, using the Photovoice methodology as an anti-racist and decolonial practice. Particularly, this study focuses on the ways in which communities resist systems of oppression while promoting cultural identity and knowledge, which is fundamental in supporting the well-being of racialized migrants. This study repositions racialized migrants as productive disrupters of mainstream narratives, using participatory action research as a tool that can effectively intervene into hegemonic understandings and scholarly traditions. Three themes emerged from the images and stories created: 1) the importance of informal networks and collective action for belonging and resisting systemic discrimination, 2) food, stories, and art as conduits for physical and emotional connection within and between communities, and 3) the need for systemic changes to address language barriers, unemployment, limited access to services, and physical and mental well-being. The findings suggest that organizations that work with migrants should increase opportunities for cultivating social connections with each other in order to engage in collective healing and action. The women underscored the importance of these relationships as newcomers. Additionally, community building and well-being occur through engagement with food, stories, and art as the women expressed creating deep connections within their communities and other communities through sharing their culture. Lastly, there is a need for systemic changes to address barriers that prevented them from leading healthy lives, including the recognition of credentials, translation services, tailored employment services for women, and increasing access to services and mental health support.
Railway Station Architecture: International Artistic Poses View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Liviu Gabriel Baicu
The concept of "station" has two meanings in common parlance: either just the building where passengers stop, or the complex consisting of several buildings with strictly functional functions - passenger station, goods station, control tower, water tank, open and closed platforms, toilets - or commercial - station hotel, station café, various shops, other facilities. In some cases, the concept also includes urban aspects - the street, the market or the station area. This 'variety' of the scope of the concept is mainly explained by the fact that the railway station is usually an urban centre of interest, creating economic and commercial activity around it that meets the requirements generated by rail transport, which at city level means 'boosting urbanity'. As a rule, the names used for rail activity were naturally adopted from the water transport sphere, moving from 'land port', 'embarkation point' or 'disembarkation point', 'platform', to the expression 'station', which originally meant the possibility of parking ships." Whatever the architectural style, whatever the size of the building, railway station architecture is evoked in all the arts, and it in turn facilitates the evolution of the arts further on in history. Thus, as this paper explores, it is only through the artistic expression of these buildings that we can override concepts such as space and time and transcend into moments captured with great skill by architects, painters, directors, actors, dancers, screenwriters, playwrights, writers, sculptors, and musicians.
Japanese Manhole Covers: National, Prefectural and Local Art for Sustenance View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jean Sebastien Mayrand
Japanese manhole cover designs are very unique public art pieces. This country is most probably the only one that has such a diverse palette of designs with thousands spread from north to south. Contrary to what one might think, the covers’ representations of local characteristics have been conceived for a societal purpose first and foremost. This study describes the origins of such a strategy, how it evolved and where it currently stands. By showing his Shikoku Isshuu Experience, the presenter demonstrates physical, mental, intellectual and creative benefits these metal cast designs had on him. By extension, he introduces a new project that aims at stimulating slow tourism outside popular centers like Kyoto and Tokyo with the help of local municipalities and the manhole covers of their precincts.
