Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP - Archives

Photo by Bill Wingell for The New York Times
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

"Dinosaur" by 4-year-old Marla Olmstead

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: October 4, 2004
Latest Update: October 4, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Role of the Visual in Transforming Dominant Discourse

Look at the comparison of a 4-year-old's painting to that of the German artist Richter: Which Was Painted by a Child? in the New York Times article byMichael Kimmelman from October 3, 2004. Backup

Then look at Richter's painting:

Photo by Jean-Yves Trocaz/PMVP,
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

"Abstract Picture (648-2)" by Gerhard Richter

Then ask yourselves whether young Marla will outgrow this spark, and struggle once again as an adult to capture the magic of childhood sight. Ask yourselves why we encourage young children to dabble in art, and then classify it as meaningless play. Ask yourselves why we deny ourselves the pleasure of making art, in later childhood, in adulthood. How on earth did we turn art into a commodity?

Much of my emphasis in discourse in on expressing ourselves in multiple ways. That's why I wonder about all our laughter at Bush when he doesn't express himself articulatey in language. He does express himself. What ways do we leave him other than that at which college students excel? Remember that in governance discourse we must be self-reflective if we are to avoid the same unstated assumptions of privilege that those before us used to found their arrogance.

I don't have an answer, especially not tonight. But I think it's worth our thinking about. jeanne

---

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.