FINALLY

Hey Dr. Haefeli!  At long last, we finished our political action art project!  Today we headed outside with our darts, poster boards, and paint-filled balloons, set them up, and invited the public to come over and "pop a stereotype."  We had a beautiful day for it, and we received a great response from people who were passing by.  IC students, faculty, prospective students, and parents alike were enthusiastic about participating.  People were attracted to our concept of "turning hate into beauty," which ended up being the unofficial name of the project.

Right about now, I'm feeling all kinds of relief: relief that the project is over and I don't have to stress about it anymore, relief that it wasn't a total disaster like I thought it was going to be, and relief that it actually ended up being rather enjoyable.  I had actual nightmares about this project failing miserably,  and honestly I'm surprised that it didn't.  I was preparing myself to be totally embarrassed by the outcome of this project, but in the end it was fine.  I still think we failed in the sense that we did not create something that had much of an impact on our audience.  Our idea didn't even have the potential to be meaningful.  However, we were successful in a different way.  People who participated seemed to really like the idea, and several said that they felt empowered after they threw the dart.  It was such a silly idea; it was not political, it was not action, and it was not art, but it still managed to make people feel empowered.  We ended up with this beautiful angry splatter paint explosion (pictured above), and you know what?  It was pretty cool.  I think everyone was able to identify with at least one stereotype, microaggression, or derogatory term that was put up on the board, and by popping the balloons these people were all united.

Most of all, I am relieved that this project is in the past.  I hated every minute of the planning process.  Yes, "hate" is a strong word, and that is why I reserve it only for group projects.  I've always hated group work; the bigger the group, the more nightmarish the experience.  I've always been told that group work is good for building teamwork skills and that these kinds of collaborative experiences are just a part of life, so for years I've been hoping that I might eventually start to like group projects.  But instead, in my experience, each group project that I've been forced to do has been further proof of my theory that group work is the root of all evil.  Which is not to say that I don't know how to be a team player.  I do.  And I'm a great collaborator.  I'm a musician, so I know how to work with people, whether it's one-one-one, in a small group, or in a large ensemble...I've been a part of many different teams, and I always contribute positively and pull my own weight.  But group work?  It's completely different, because with group work, there's no guarantee that everyone's going to be invested in the project.  With group work, everyone is forced into it, and force is not a good start for art.  I've come to the conclusion that group projects are not really about teamwork, and that it's impossible to get a group of people the size of our Creativity & the Arts class to be on the same wavelength and agree on something.

Part of the problem is that everyone has their own unique ideas that don't necessarily complement one another, and beyond that (the even bigger problem) everyone thinks they're a leader. In life, everything goes so much more smoothly when someone is appointed as the official leader.  Leaders initiate concrete ideas, mediate progress, and ultimately bring the work to a stable conclusion.  With group work, there is ALWAYS more than one potential leader in the group, and as soon as more than one of them steps up and tries to lead everyone else, the project is doomed to fail.  Take our class, for example: We were throwing some great ideas around, all of which had their problems, but there was potential for us to create something truly great.  However, as soon as the balloon idea was conceived, a few of the self-described "leaders" in the group became attached to it and were too stubborn to allow the discussion to develop any further.  I have had to deal with this kind of attitude from at least one person in almost every forced group I've ever been in, and I've concluded that it's unavoidable.

My point is that some projects are destined to be mediocre, and this was one of them.  We followed the recipe for failure: the work was involuntary, we had no say in who we would be working with, we had no leader, and we had no guidelines.  Have there been situations like this that resulted in success? Yes, I have indeed heard of such sorcery.  But it all depends on the people in the group.  The people in this Creativity & the Arts class are wonderful.  They're all creative, smart, and all-around-good people.  But we were simply not meant to work together.  There was nothing that could have been done about it; it was just the wrong project with the wrong mix of people.