Elvia Vasconcelos. ‘A Close Reading of Sara Ahmed through Making’. Articulations (August 2024): https://articulations.temporal-communities.de.

Contributions

A Close Reading of Sara Ahmed through Making

Elvia Vasconcelos

Published August 2024

🌝 Cake is layered. 🌚 Life is layered

🍰Cake is layered🍰
🌝 Life is layered 🌚

Online essay created by Elvia Vasconcelos in March 2024. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sketchnoting + Citational practices // A close reading of Sara Ahmed through making. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six pieces of fabric are shown hanging on a white wall. From top left, the first piece is a grey fabric
with white stripes, with the following sentence embroidered 'Research methods can be brics. What kind of
house do you want to build?'. The second piece, on the top middle row is a white cotton napkin that has
been painted with black ink. It reads in wavy bulky outlined letters'Food as a social construct' and shows
four figures holding and extending food. One of these figures is annotated with a speech bubble coming from
their open mouth that reads 'Hunger is also gendered'. This same figure's wavy hair is annotated with the words
saciation, hedonics, homeostasis, and cuando cuando cuando. The third pice on the top row, on the right far corner is
a black and white squared patterned kitchen cloth with the sentence 'my research methods form a politics from whaty
they questions. What about yours?' painted with black in. On the bottom row, the first piece on the left shows a
mixed media collage on a white kitche cloth and is annotated by the following sentence surrounding the collage:
'A sentence that encapsulates a story larger than itself. Mariana Pestana.' Next to it,in the middle bottom row,
there's another mixed media collage with the sentence: 'A space where all your needs are met. Hand holding, dancing,
laughing, eating, doing, being, together. Mas interdependencia.' The final piece, bottom-left, is a rectangular light
blue little table cloth, with blue embroidery trimmings, and flowers. The sentence 'Viver um presente sem necessidade
dum futuro que o redima' (translation from portuguese: To live a present without the need of a future to redeeem it)
in black ink.

What’s on my wall

Close reading and diverse making-based knowledge production strategies? Sara Ahmed’s book ‘Living a feminist life’ is engaged with via a material exploration of sketches,fabric, paint, embroidery, annotations, lists and digital perrengues. A journey of different articulations and explorations as material commitments. What do these making strategies allow for as a distinct kind of engagement with reading theory? How do material commitments determine the engagement and the knowledge that is generated?

Self-portrait ~2016

Hand drawn sketch with black pen on white paper. 'Power is the necessary condition for any digital technology'quote by Hito Steyerl can be read in big fonts.

A little intro

‘Those sorts of questions were my sort of questions’3

The political struggle then becomes to 
  find a better way of answering the questions, 
    ways of questioning the questions, 
      so that 
        the world that makes some beings into questions
          becomes what we question.

photo of page x of Sara Ahmed's book: Living a feminist life

      This 
        is 
          not 
            optional

      The texts
        assemble a politics
          from what they name.

 Instead, 
  I cite those who have 
   contributed to the intellectual 
    genealogy of feminism and anti-racism
     ...
      work that lays out other paths, paths we 
       can call desire lines created by not following 
        the official paths laid out by disciplines.

      My citation policy
        has affected
          the kind of house 
            I have built.

Hand drawn sketch with Title: Question. Questions: by who, for whom, what for, in what way, to whose benefit, at the cost of who? What are the power dynamics at play? What is obscured?

        Question
          Tell me what you think about me (...)
        
        Question
          Tell me how you feel about this (...)
        
        Question
          How'd you like this knowledge that I brought?
        🎤 1

Hand drawn sketches against black paper.

About my research

              ≋layers and layers≋
                       ≋stories and stories≋

     A space where 
      all our needs 
       are being met.
        Hand holding. 
         Dancing. Laughing.
          Eating. Making.
           Together. Together.
            Again, and again, and...

Animated gif showing detailed work around the question: Sketching as a collaborative design research tool?

To reframe sketchnoting as a research tool has meant thinking about sketches as conversation sites that in the to and fro between people create common ground on which shared understandings emerge. -----> <----- ----->

Sketching as a collaborative design research tool?

But, who is speaking in these sketches?

      It is not clear      
      who is holding the pen, 
        who is speaking, 
          who has a voice
            and 
              most importantly
                who does not.
      
                                     A ausência. 
                                     A lacuna.  
      
      Whose voices are present 
      and 
      Whose voices are absent or obscured
      in these sketches?
      
      What else is obscured in these sketches?
       What is the context in which the sketch is 
        situated and what power dynamics at play here? 
         Who spoke first? 
          Who spoke longest? 
           Who took more space? 
            Who was silent/silenced?

      👀 How to make my own subjectivity visible
 and addressable in these sketches?
      ✍️ I am holding the pen. 
      📣 I am speaking, it is my own
 subjective interpretation that is emerging. 
      💬 It is my voice.

Más interdependencia. Deep, thick, intentional and ongoing movement. A call and response that creates conditions for things to transform. An act of will. An ongoing exchange where our yearnings, intentions and actions are expressed. From ‘What if’, 2022 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ adios ~~~~~~~~ tchau tchau ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hasta luego ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ gracias por venir ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ que les vaya bien ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~mucho mucho amor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Online essay created by Elvia Vasconcelos in March 2024.
@materia_relacional
@sketchnotes_are_awesome

Citation

Elvia Vasconcelos. ‘A Close Reading of Sara Ahmed through Making’. Articulations (August 2024): https://articulations.temporal-communities.de.

About

Author(s)	Elvia Vasconcelos
Contribution Type	Spark
Published	August 2024
Author's Tags	Citation Making Materiality Sketching Visualisation
Licence	Reuse Prohibited
Version	1.1