VLVC wk 7 - Cultural Relativism

Lesson 7 – Cultural Relativism

Readings:
1) Hall, Edward T. Chapter Nine: “Space Speaks.” The Silent Language. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.

2) Semiotics  Text Chapters 3 & 13: (Smith-Shank, Deborah. Semiotics and Visual Culture: Sights, Signs, and Significance. Reston: National Art Education Association, 2004.)

Thoughts as I go: 
Holy moly. Now I know why my kitchen is driving me crazy. It's not mine. It lives by my husband's rules. That drives me crazy. In fact, my whole house is that way. Areas may start out under my control, but eventually fall to the whims of either my children or my husband. This explains my wanderlust and my aggravation!

Discussion Board Assignment:

   Adrienne Salinger compiled an interesting photography collection in the 1980s entitled My Room: Teenagers in Their Bedroom. The project immediately came to mind when putting together lessons and readings for this week, and so I thought it might be fun for us to replicate the experiment!

   Take (or obtain) a picture of a room that is not your own. [Possible ideas: a co-worker’s classroom/office, a son/daughter’s bedroom, a friend’s kitchen, etc.] Make note of your immediate individual reactions to the visual space. Then, briefly interview the individual who “owns” the room to ask about his/her rationale for constructing the visual elements in the manner they appear. Include both conscious aesthetic choices (décor, color, etc.) and seemingly unconscious decisions (physical space, orderliness, etc.). Finally, consider what an outsider from America might say about the room. 

   Post any significant “cultural relativism” findings (and the photo) to the Discussion Board.

Z's Room -
South West Corner

Z's Room
North East Corner

I have chosen a co-worker's teenage daughter's room to look at. I was very curious as it has recently been redecorated and I had seen it five years ago in its previous incarnation. I met "Agent Z" (obviously a pseudonym for my young friend) when she was just 9 years old. She is now a freshman and 14 years old. Quite a time of development for anyone. I was very curious to see how she conceptualized herself in her own space.

As I waited for the photos from Z, I wondered how she had chosen to design her space. What would she pick? How independent would her decisions be? I've worked closely with her mother for the last 5 years and gotten to know her and her daughter. I wondered what parts of her mother and her opinions and her aesthetic would creep onto the walls and into the "new" room. How strong would Z's voice be? What parts of her that I already know would I see? What new would I learn?

Agent Z's Room

Z's room has been recently redecorated to reflect her shifting identity from child & preteen to  hip teenager. The impetus was the need for a larger bed ( to full from twin) and how to make that happen in such a small space. The solution was the loft, placing the sleeping space above the action down below. The room is decorated in bright, acidic colors. The western wall is painted bright blue and the eastern wall is bright green with white walls dividing them. Previously her room had been painted in stripes of pale mint green, pink and black with a girls Parisian theme.

Her furniture has a clean, modern industrial feel to it. The decorations revolve around her color palette of fluorescent pink, green, orange, and blue and a circle motif. Around her room you can pick out her artistic influences and style icons such as Audrey Hepburn as well as many musical references and awards. Scattered around under her loft are her devices: an iPad, a laptop, an iPod, and tv remotes. She is definitely a connected iKid. Somewhat orderly but what I think of as typically teenager, there are piles of stuff pushed to the edges here and there. I spy a stocking from Christmas (even though it is now March), a stuffed animal, an errant clothes hanger, binders, notebooks, and other school like items.

My first impression is that it definitely captures that teenage aesthetic. Slightly rebellious with the industrial feel, yet minimalistic in style. So many of my students also seem to have selected similarly styled furniture for their rooms. The catalogs such as Pottery Barn Teen carry different variations of this industrial chic furniture and accessories.  I find myself thinking back to this same time in my life, when I was choosing to redecorate my room as a teenager and I, too, selected this look. Does this speak to a time in our lives? Although each of us vary with differences in opinions, looks, styles, preferences, and future paths we choose an aesthetic that is so much the same. The furniture is clean, bare, sharp, functional, modern, youthful, bright. Is this because this is how we see ourselves at this time in our lives? It mirrors where Z is at this time in her life. Bright, youthful, sharp, and like a clean slate begging to be drawn on, to be filled with experiences, with work to be done, and dreams to be drafted. In a way this industrial chic doesn't quite define itself, it has a feel but doesn't commit itself to a full on personality - much like teenagers figuring out what they want from themselves and life. Z is trying on aspects of her own personality. Tacking them to her bulletin board, putting them on display to analyze them, moving them around, and determining how much they fit who she wants to be.  

When asked about her room, Z had this to say:

1.) My room used to be very light and childish and had stripes all over the walls (which were extremely hard to paint over) , and I figured it was time to change it. I got to decorate this current room.

2.) I really like bright colors, and I needed some that would cheer me up. The circular lanterns and mirrors matched the comforter I got for my bed, so I sort of took that theme and ran with it.

3.) The opposite colored walls looked really cool when I was checking out some things online about room designs, and the white walls in between those made my room look a lot bigger than it actually is.

4.) I decided to use a loft bed because I wanted to have something different than just a normal bed. I originally had a twin bed, but I had to get a bigger one, so we got the idea from that. I really like it, I think it's something unusual and all my friends love it. The only thing difficult about it is climbing up and down the ladder when I'm super tired.

5.) I have a lot of different things in my bulletin board. I have a few posters of my favorite bands, some artwork that I have done, and pictures of friends. Most of the things I have up there deal with music, so I guess there is a pattern now that I think of it.

6.) I actually do have a desk (it was out of the frame), but I don't use it often. I usually do my homework on my couch, where I do mostly everything else. :)

7.) I multitask a lot under my loft, mostly listening to music and going on the internet. If I'm using my tv, I use it for movies, mostly Brave or something I recorded on the DVR.

8.) My room is almost NEVER clean. You can even ask my parents. It's extremely rare to even see the floor in there. I have a hamper, and I've tried to use it, but I forget a lot.

9.) My room definitely reflects myself, especially my bulletin board. I just have so many pictures and posters underneath my bed that I can't even remember all of them!

10.) The Audrey Hepburn poster I have in my room was the first thing I ever got to hang up on my wall. I remember searching for something that I would definitely not get rid of to hang up, and that was perfect, especially because of the pop art style and my love for Audrey. I have always been told I look like her...

11.) If I could rearrange it, I would! There are just no other spaces that I can put my loft since my my door would knock into it if I put it on the opposite side of my room. I have switched my desk and my couch multiple times, but it wasn't enough change for me, so I kept it the way it was.

It's really hard to get into my drawers, especially when I'm taking them out to clean them out for a new season. Trust me, I don't know how in the world I do it, but it just happens. I have another dresser for pajamas and such in my closet, so sometimes I use that one.

Thanks for interviewing me! I love talking about my room!

I wonder if an outsider (a teenager from somewhere other than America, or heck somewhere other than the sprawled out Midwest) would read the color choices and space any differently. Would the colors be garish as opposed to energetic, modern and youthful? Would the room feel spacious as opposed to cramped? Would that same modern industrial aesthetic translate to a different culture? How would adolescence look in another culture?

Thinking about these questions I decided to ask a couple of cousins I have in Australia to also share their rooms with me. One is female and an older teenager, just starting University (which they go to school Jan - December so ages to grade levels are a little off of ours). The other is a 16yo male. Although Australian culture is closer to ours than say Chinese, or perhaps Ethiopian, or numerous other  countries with differing cultures, I was able to access this alternative point of view. Unfortunately, I haven't heard back from them any details about what they think about their rooms. So, I want to open this up to you all, my class mates. What would you ask either of them about their rooms?

Cousin 1 (female): 

Cousin 2 (male):