spw

SPW is an international development charity working in eight countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

SPW mobilises young people, by recruiting and training 18-28 year olds to serve as volunteer peer educators living full-time in rural communities for 7-9 months, and leading health, environmental and education programmes. SPW currently has over 800 volunteers, 85% of whom are from the host programme countries who work in partnership with volunteers from Europe, North America, and Australia.

Youth to youth education is at the heart of SPW’s methodology. SPW volunteer peer educators use interactive non-formal education methods, such as music, drama and dance to engage children and youth, and promote healthy living.

SPW volunteers directly reach 400,000 young people each year with health and environmental education at a cost of just £5 per child.

SPW programmes work directly with local and national government and civil society partners, tackling the underlying causes of poverty whilst building local capacity.

my next stop.

clarity has been shown to me. my heart is broken. and my next destination is here.......

back to reality.

first assignment questions.


NAME: Kean O'Brien
MEDIUM/MEDIA IN WHICH YOU WORK: video and photography
STUDENT ID#: 2192082
TELEPHONE #: 773.469.9005
EMAIL ADDRESS: kean.obrien@gmail.com
 
 
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF ART?

To communicate through a shared visual language.
 
WHY DO YOU MAKE ART?

To create a dialogue of communication with myself. To share my knowledge and personal experience through creation.
 
WHAT IS YOUR INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT OF THIS CLASS?
 
Through video I explore my personal tension between desire and impairment, the lose of connection and enable a place for that contact to be found. Previously I have made performances based upon my struggles with identity and my attempts to find balance within that battle. This classes exploration of theoretical problems related to performance is a necessary examination for my work. I am also interested in using photography as a mode of documentation for my performances and I am in the process of figuring out how a different medium can operate with and for my work.

WHAT DO YOU PERCIEVE TO BE THE BIGGEST ART TABOO?
 Taboo; challenges social norms and is directly oppositional to our culture. I believe that honesty and emotion is the biggest taboo in art.
 
WHAT IS POLITICALLY INCORRECT IN THE ART WORLD?

Views on pornography.

Pornography is a testimony of the expression of human sexuality. I believe that censorship of erotic work is the supervising denial of certain elements of human sexuality, and a tool to control selective portrayal of “expected” sexual ideals. Representation and consumption of material depicting of any sexual or nonsexual act between consenting human beings is essential to a free society.

A work of art that remains only because of its aesthetic value can be viewed as less significant, or even insignificant, and when something lacks a value as important as that, the merit of the piece obviously decreases drastically. Within this method of judging art, it appears that one could go a step further and decide on whether art with “offensive” messages (messages that are generally regarded as outside what is widely acceptable in our society) are more important and successful then art which plays it safe and stays within the ethical realm of what subjects our society is comfortable with.
 
WHAT IS POLITICALLY INCORRECT IN THIS SCHOOL?
 
SAIC is solicited as a conceptually based school with liberally minded artists and teachers. My experience with making videos about sex, identity, gender and pornography has proven that this school is lacking in its progressivist language and education. I am not sure what is politically incorrect about the school itself but i do believe that the language taught here by some is politically incorrect and in ignorant thought.

 
ARE THERE IDEAS YOU HAVE WANTED TO PURSUE BUT HAVE BEEN HESITIANT FOR FEAR OF BEING POLITICALLY INCORRECT?  IF YES, EXPLAIN?

No.
 
ARE THERE IDEAS YOU HAVE WANTED TO EXPLORE BUT HAVE NOT DONE SO BECAUSE OF ANOTHER REASON?  IF YES, EXPLAIN.
 
Violence has been a reoccuring theme in my work. Specifically dealing with sexual violence. I have had a hard time exploring that out of fear of what i will find on the other side of my exploration... How i will emotionally be effected by the product of my work.
 
DEFINE “ARTIST’S RESPONSIBILITY.”

It is hard to quantify an artists responsibility. I believe an artists responsibility is simply to be honest with themselves and create good work based upon that. To make honest work one must be well educated and have a comprehensive consciousness of what they are trying to say with their art.
 
 
DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR RESPONSIBILITY AS AN ARTIST?  IF SO WHAT IS IT?
 
 Because I deal with gender and sex i feel i have a responsibility to acquire knowledge and educate myself on these topics so i can clearly articulate what i am trying to say. I try to keep in mind that the topics i deal with in my work are sensitive and perhaps politically incorrect which means that my pieces may be the only thing on these topics that people see, therefore i want to make an accurate appraisal of my ideas.

DO YOU FEEL THERE IS SUBJECT MATTER THAT IS COMPLETELY OFF-LIMITS IN REGARD TO ETHICS, ARTIST RESPONSIBILITY OR GOOD TASTE?  IN OTHER WORDS, IS ANYTHING SACRED?
 
No. If anything I am most interested in work that deals with difficult subject matter that may be considered restricted or uncharted.
 
DESCRIBE WHAT A GOOD EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE IS FOR YOU.

A space that facilitates an open exchange of ideas during critiques and classroom discussions. I find that readings given in class are most beneficial and absorbed when they are discussed in class thoroughly. I relate well to visual examples of the art being discussed. The best classes I have been in have provided me with many visual examples broadening my knowledge of artists' and pieces of art that relate to my work...that inspire me to create. Being pushed intellectually by have demands put upon me and what i am bringing to the table is the most important element of my educational experience.
 

i want to go home....

its 4am. on our last day in cambodia.

5 days ago i got a cold. the next day i threw up all night. i dont remember being that sick. and now have a sinus infection. i need to seek out antibiotics tomorrow.

lindsey has been throwing up all night.

we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to the top of a mountain and watch the sunrise. due to lindsey's sickness she cant go....and i do not think its the best idea to travel 1.5 hrs alone in a tuk tuk, up a mountain.

two days ago we shot guns and then immediately went to the killing fields....i am nowhere near ready to articulate that experience. yesterday we went s-21 and then to the markets.

the right sinus is going to explode in my head. i need medicine and a nice airplane to take me home now. i'm so done. my body is physically exhausted and pushed to its max. my mind is mushy and cant fathom anything i'm seeing anymore. i miss home and i miss my bed. i want to hug my parents and thank them for this unbelievable experience.

im just so ready to be home.

i shot an AK 47.

we arrived in phnom penh, cambodia today.

a tuk tuk took us to our hotel. which is the nicest hotel here. i didnt really realize how expensive the hotel was in relation to other hotels here or what money means here versus in the US. anyways, we are ending our trip in style.

we hired a tuk tuk guy to drive us to the killing fields. on the way he asked us if we wanted to to a shooting range. i immediately said yes. lindsey was really upset. we talked about it. i felt it was a once in a moment oppurtunity. something that was being shown to us that we may never see again. an experience, even if tramatic, i would want to have.

on the way there we realized that our guide was a rebel. for about five minutes i was 90% sure we were going to die. driving down a red dirt road. men with scarves on their heads...huts with hammocks. no police. nobody to ask for help. we turned down a tiny bumpy dusty road...where i could not see much of anything ahead of us. other than men wading in a milkey river next to the road. starring at me with "you're going to die" eyes. i meditated and had faith.

we got to the shooting range where there was a manmade body of water and a hut fenced in with brick walls. three cambodian men. a wall of guns. and two white boys that looked 18...talking about how they wanted to throw hand grenades. through a crack in the wall i was able to see that there was a field of brown grass and mounds of dirt. they sat us at a wooden table and handed us two menus. at the top was a cartoon of a man with a gun. the bottom a giant clip art text that said "DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH MENU" the first thing on the menu was...the types of guns, how many bullets you got and where the gun was manufactured. then there were a list of beverages. coke, sprite, water, etc.

i went to the wall of guns. held the AK 47. and said "I want to shoot this one please" so we walked toward a wooden red door and he had me put on a camo jacket....as if i was trying to replicate a soldier. a US soldier at that. i immediately felt threatened and uncomfortable. i told lindsey to come in and take pics. she was very nervous and i could sense by her body language she and i both thought we might be in for more than we could bare to handle. we put on earprotectors. and he sat me down and forcefully showed me how to shoot it. upon sitting i look down a very long hall where at the end were 20 black tires and in the middle a target. he said."hit the target" he loaded the gun. with a real magazine of bullets. and cocked it. i shot. i almost died. my heart was racing i felt the shot everywhere in my body. i had twenty nine bullets to go.
he was being extremely demanding and hurrying me along....as if he had no comprehension of how utterly horrifying this was for me already.

i shot 20. i told him i was done. i was going to vomit. i told lindsey she really needed to try it. she did. 2 bullets. then i finished it off.

i got up abruptly paid him his thirty dollars and asked the tuk tuk guy to take us away. now. i told the canadian boys they should try the AK 47. i made a couple really tastless jokes about america and guns and felt even worse.....then i reminded them that the guns they were going to shoot were probably used to kill somebody at some point...

next stop. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

On April 17th, 1975 the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group led by Pol Pot, took power in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. They forced all city dwellers into the countryside and to labor camps. During their rule, it is estimated that 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution. 2 million Cambodians represented approximately 30% of the Cambodian population during that time.

The Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia to year zero. They banned all institutions, including stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion, and the family. Everyone was forced to work 12 - 14 hours a day, every day. Children were separated from their parents to work in mobile groups or as soldiers. People were fed one watery bowl of soup with a few grains of rice thrown in. Babies, children, adults and the elderly were killed everywhere. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they didn’t like them, if didn’t work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they showed sympathy when their family members were taken away to be killed. All were killed without reason. Everyone had to pledge total allegiance to Angka, the Khmer Rouge government. It was a campaign based on instilling constant fear and keeping their victims off balance.

After the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge, 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border camps. Ten million landmines were left in the ground, one for every person in Cambodia. The United Nations installed the largest peacekeeping mission in the world in Cambodia in 1991 to ensure free and fair elections after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese troops. Cambodia was turned upside down during the Khmer Rouge years and the country has the daunting task of healing physically, mentally and economically.






i am going to be visiting The Tuo Sleng Museum which was a school that Pol Pot's forces converted into a security prison called S-21. This was where more than 20,000 people were imprisoned and tortured in barbaric ways.. most people were killed in an extermination camp at Choeng Ek, just outside of Phnom Penh. Each prisoner was photographed before or after their torture. The images above are some I found online of victims from S-21.


please check out this website to learn more.

http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com



on this trip i have seen faith in action. i have felt culture shock. i have witnessed poverty in depths unknown. even the idea of seeing the killing fields in cambodia changes my ideas of humanity. i am looking foward to that change. constant change is something i strive for. although i fear this change could be negative. i am cynical and hard already...seeing this can only develop that more.

i know one thing. i will come home with a whole heart.

guangzhou, china.

heaven.

the ocean hotel.


wood paneled walls. computer in the room. free internet. flat screen tv. shower the size of my bathroom at home. comfortable.soft.beds. evian. warm.

heaven.

tomorrow a few of us are taking the day off from the group and going to spa. massage, pedicure, manicure. this event will be much deserved. no words can describe what we all have been through the last 10 days. ha. the school in no way prepared us for what this trip actually was.

i am glad i was able to see the remote villages that i will never see again. it was an experience i will never forget. i am grateful that we are in cities again.

evian is wonderful.

yongshou, china

the last 9 days have been really hard.

i feel good today

we have been here for two days. i have spent a lot of time sleeping. and taking hot showers. riding on the back of motorcycles. day dreaming about my life at home. and moving to paris in june.


this city is the most exciting, stable, and fun place we have been so far. cobblestone streets. western food. mountains hovering over the streets. red motorcycles for taxis. open air meat markets. good shopping. endless amounts of pizza and pasta. internet cafes. friendly english speaking people. thai chi lessons with masters. nice hotel rooms. beautiful scrool paintings.

we fly to canton, china tommorrow.

i miss you.

jumbled journey of images. clearity.

china

5days with a group of 26 students. most of which have never traveled.

one night in each hotel. 5 hr bus rides to different villages. each village has been amazing. each one very different.

we stumbled across a village where a celebratory funeral was happening. we danced. and lindsey got married off to some man. haha. it was amazing.

rice terraces. green mountains. gravel roads. a tour bus bouncing back and forth. motion sick all over the place.

i have a rash. um. the worst rash ever actually. i think i got it in thailand. red dots on my legs. they look like bites. or a reaction to bites. i am uncomforable. and itchy. i went to two herbalists and what they gave me didnt work. last night my teacher took me to a real doctor who gave me western medicine cream that seems like it may be working. no worries though. im tough.

today we are in the capital of mau province. we are cold. no heat. as we walked through the village we saw a pig about to be slaughtered. there was a funeral and here they sacrifice a pig for the perosn that has died. some people watched it be killed. i wish i was brave enough. i really wanted to be part of that experience/tradition. but could not stomach it. once the knife got sharpened and hit the throat. i ran down the stairs quickly. humanity.

i miss home.

i am lonely and also feeling suffacted by these kids on this trip. i am trying to stay focused and realize that i am here for a purpose. to study. learn. experience and grow spiritually. which i feel like i am doing.

i am so grateful for this experience. its amazing.

my project for my studio class is coming along great. i have meditating everyday i have been here but two days when we had traveled all day and there was no way i could stay up another minute. i am excited to continue this project when i get home.

every village we go to they host a celebration in our honor. they force you to drink rice wine. it has been really difficult to refuse them. i have no desire to drink it and have to literally cover my mouth with my hands. it is extremely insulting to them for me not to take it.....

coming home seems so far away. weeks feel like forever.

there is so much to say...i dont know how to explain my experience. i wish i could upload pictures but these computers do not allow it.



i love all the children in these villages. lindsey and i bought pens and notebooks to give to them. we draw them pictures. share with them our art. and they share with us theirs. those moments are the most important and awesome for me.

plan as of today

Jan. 4 fly to Guiyang

Jan. 5 Guiyang

Jan. 6 Overland to Kaili

Jan. 7 Overland to Zhenyuan

Jan. 8 Overland to Xijiang enroute visit Langde Miao village

Jan. 9 Visit Xijiang Miao Village

Jan. 10 Overland to Zhaoqing

Jan. 11 visit in Zhaoqing, to a Dong village

Jan. 12 Visit Xiage Dong village and Zaotang'an Dong village

Jan. 13 Overland to Sanjiang

Jan. 14 Overland to Longsheng visit Longji Rice Terraces

Jan. 15 continue to Guilin and take Li River cruise to Yangshuo

Jan. 16 Yangshuo

Jan. 17 Drive back to Guilin

Jan. 18 fly to Guangzhou/Canton

Jan. 19 Overland to Foshan

Jan. 20 Morning ferry to Hong Kong

Jan. 21 Fly to Phenom Pehn, Cambodia

Jan 22 Cambodia

Jan 23 Cambodia

Jan 24 Fly to Hong Kong

Jan 25 Depart Hong Kong for Chicago

guangzou

dirty.

we took two flights to get here today.

woke up at 430am. taxi from phuket best western to the airport. flight at 725am to bangkok. arrived in bangkok at 9am. flight boarded at 910 to guangzou. arrived in gaungzou at 2pm. took 35 min to get to the china hotel, marriot. during that ride our driver took us out of our way to drop off his buddy that was mysteriously sitting in the front seat our whole ride. then while in the most horrifying traffic i have ever seen we saw a stray, hungry, dirty dog beg for food from three men eating and talking on crates. they ignored him. then the dog followed a man with a cart of food into traffic. the man turned around and kicked the dog in the head. twice. the dog walked away with his head down.

this city is an overpopulated hell hole.

we want to go back to paradise island.

koh yao noi. correction

i spelled it wrong on the last blog.

today is the last day on this fantasy island.

spent the morning exploring the whole island on the moped.

swong from a hammock for the last 2 hrs. day dreaming of a life here. what the would look like...and how if i had 5,000 dollars i could survive here for a long long time.

first. i would build a hut. out of bamboo and string. i would get metal tin scraps and build a roof. i would build it on stilts over the water. i would have two hammocks...(one for me and one for you...) on the back porch overlooking the sea. i would construct a pirate boat. which most of you know is my dream.
a tree house would suspend over the main hut for reading and relaxing.

second. i would find a means of income. perhaps i would take pictures of tourists on the beach and sell them the prints....or make jewelry and sell it in the market.

i figured two people can eat for 15 dollars a day here. and i would need a cell phone which would put me back 100 a month. then internet fees. so we are looking at 500 dollars a month.

i would create amazing art and then move to paris. get a loft and live forever.

thats my new life plan.

what do you think?

koy noi

koy noi is the smallest of the islands off of phuket, thailand.

not developed other than the few small bungalow tourist resorts.

we are staying at the Holiday resort. where we have a wood/straw bungalow with two twin beds, air conditioning and a porch that over looks the sea of thailand.

we woke up at 445am this morning. fell back asleep. got up at 730am. and hurried to the pier to catch the boat to krabi. we rented a moped. for two days. this way we dont need to pay for taxis that are hard to come upon. we took the moped on the long boat with us so we had transport in krabi..

little did we know that the dock we were being dropped at in krabi was so far from krabi city that we rode in cool wind on our moped for an hr and half before realizing/me allowing lindsey to attempt to ask for directions. we then turned around and headed back to the pier....

here is what we saw as we drove through the countryside of krabi.

lush green rubber trees, rainforests filled with enchanting creatures and mythical beings...ok i just made that up..but that's what i imagined in them. i fantasized while driving off allthe mythical things that live in the trees. red/orange limestone cliffs. brown/gray wooden houses on stilts. beautiful weathered men hanging on hamocks underneath their houses. stray cats and dogs hungry and lonely. children. the most beautiful dirty children i have ever seen. we saw lots of smiles for these people rarely see white people. the children would run out of there "tree houses" i mean...houses and scream "HI HI HI".

we rented kayaks and rowed 500 feet before i not suprisingly got tired and layed down. haha. we floated. the man who rented the kayak asked us.."where you come from"
we answered "chicago" he said "mmmm. big city. you lucky" i responded "yes. very lucky". then he said, "study?" i said "yes" he said "mmmm. you lucky." and i repeated "yes. very lucky" and it hit me...like it should be hitting me every second i'm here and it's not....we are insanely lucky. then i started thinking about what luck means. what does he mean by telling me i'm lucky. lucky implies that we were chosen somehow to have what we have and people who dont have it are unlucky. i guess i never thought about it like that. i have always thought about it as fortunate. that my parents worked their butts off to have what we have....but we are priviledged enough to even have the oppurtunity to have been able to work to get what we have.


now...we will ride our moped more and enjoy feelign full from an amazing meal we just ate.

oh. and i'm ditching all my pants that i brought and only wearing these thai wrap pants that are light and dry quickly. i have been loosing things as i go. loosing...meaning i am donating them to thai people.

thats all for now.

love.