Adetty perez de miles final dissertation

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School School of Visual Arts DIALOGIC ENCOUNTERS: THE SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN UNREST A Dissertation in Art Education and Women’s Studies by Adetty R. Pérez de Miles © 2011 Adetty R. Pérez de Miles Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 The dissertation of Adetty R. Pérez de Miles was reviewed and approved* by the following: Karen T.

Keifer-Boyd Professor of Art Education & Affiliate Professor of Women’s Studies Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Department Head of Graduate Program Patricia M. Amburgy Associate Professor of Art Education Simone Osthoff Associate Professor of Art Mrinalini Sinha Professor of History *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This dissertation is a theoretical investigation of the nexus between Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and Pablo Helguera’s The School of Panamerican Unrest (2006). The School of Panamerican Unrest (SPU) was an extensive public art project that involved an intercontinental road trip throughout the Americas. At each stop, which included traditional and non-traditional art venues, Helguera conducted artist workshops, round-table discussions, and performances.

I use Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism as a lens to analyze the discourses that developed in-situ at the SPU performances. In this study, I bring Bakhtin’s philosophy of language (dialogism) into a new context, that is, a contemporary art practice, as (re)read and (re)written through feminist perspectives. I use a qualitative case study research design to analyze and interpret the data. The dialogue-interactions of SPU participants provide the case study in this dissertation.

The case study research design guides my effort to particularize, i., retell, cite, analyze, understand, and interpret, what is significant about the case’s or the SPU’s dialogue- interactions own issues in the time, place, and context in which the case took place. From the interpretive frame of Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism, I examine the kinds of dialogues and dialogic exchanges participants performed when they engaged with The School of Panamerican Unrest. In my analysis of the SPU, I use Bakhtinian theory to underscore that separateness and difference (autonomous-communion) are essential to the dialogues of the SPU. Throughout the dissertation, I analyze Bakhtin’s theories of iv dialogism in relationship to reciprocity, difference, and situated knowledge.

Though these ideas align with feminist theory, this study is not a feminist analysis of the SPU. Dialogue in the work of Bakhtin and Helguera means much more than language or communication. Dialogue is not simply about verbal exchange between people but about philosophy of communication. Bakhtin’s theories and Helguera’s artistic praxis advance the notion that dialogue is a way to understand and create the self in relation to another person, and a practice of active listening and responsive understanding and action.

Bakhtin’s and Helguera’s approach to dialogue and voice encourage complex and multifaceted theoretical engagements with language. Accordingly, their theories can assist educators and students in challenging superficial, under-theorized, and uncritical notions of dialogue. Bakhtin’s and Helguera’s inquiry can be used as a methodology through which artists, educators, and students, can critically examine and challenge practices that regulate and restrict dialogue in public spaces, including art exhibitions, classrooms, and other learning environments. The research findings of this study suggests that a dialogic approach to communication and pedagogy creates spaces for open-endedness, difference of opinions, ambiguity, critical reflection, and the possibility for learners to develop their own voice in relationship to social others across difference.

Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and Helguera’s artistic praxis facilitate insights that can be used to envision dialogue or dialogism in pedagogical spaces that embody relational, participatory, and responsible acts. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE POTENTIALITY OF BAKHTIN’S THEORY OF DIALOGISM AND HELGUERA’S ARTISTIC PRAXIS FOR ART EDUCATION. 1 Reciprocal Encounters Between Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogism and the Dialogic Exchanges of The School of Panamerican Unrest. 2 Statement of Problem.

12 Significance of the Study: A Case for Dialogism in Art as Pedagogy. 13 Limitations of the Study. 21 Overview of Chapters. 22 CHAPTER 2: BAKHTIN’S THEORY OF DIALOGISM.

25 Introduction to Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogism. 26 Polyphony: A Theory of Multi-Voicedness, Creativity, and Authorship. 28 An “Unsympathetic” Reading of Polyphony. 39 Heteroglossia: The Diversity of Social Speech Types and Dialogism.

43 Heteroglossia, Where Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces Collide. 44 Centralizing and Decentralizing Discourses, Heteroglossia and Monoglossia. 50 Is Dialogism Politically Regressive and Monologism Politically Progressive?. 53 Counter-Approaches to Monologism: Bakhtin’s Theories of Dialogism and Critical Interrogations of Saussure’s Linguistics.

56 Diachrony and Synchrony: Historical and Structural Perspectives in Linguistics. 58 Sign, Signifier, and Signified (Cat, Sat, Hat). 60 The Microlinguistic Level of Heteroglossia: Bakhtin’s Philosophy of the Utterance. 63 Feminist Counter-Point Reclamations of the Utterance.

68 The Unfinalizability and Dialogicity of SPU Encounters. 71 The Addressivity and Answerability of the Utterance. 73 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS. 85 Qualitative Research Methods and Case Study Research Design.

85 Selection of Research Respondents. 90 Research Data Gathering and Management. 91 Data Collection from Observation. 92 Data Collection from Interviews.

95 vi Data Collection from Archival Records. 96 Trustworthiness and Credibility. 97 Framework for Analyzing the Data. 104 Presentation of the Final Case Report.

106 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF THE NEXUS BETWEEN BAKHTIN’S THEORY OF DIALOGISM AND HELGUERA’S SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN UNREST. 109 The Centralizing and Decentralizing Forces of Heteroglossia Relating to the Discourses of Public Art, Helguera’s Dialogue-Interactions at the Inauguration of the SPU in New York. 110 Hidden Polemics: Intentions and Contentions of the SPU, and Wright’s Heteroglossic Dialogue-Interactions in New York. 116 Dialogue Across Difference.

119 Polyphonic and Polyvalent Ideological Positions and Authorial Speech that Open Up to The Other. 123 Transformation Signals a Moment of Crisis: The Fracture Lines of Monologic and Dialogic Speech Acts. 127 Unfinalizability: The Centralizing and Decentralizing Forces of Heteroglossia in Micro and Macro Perspectives of Transformation, and the Unfinalizability of the Utterance (Heteroglossia) as Theorized in the Dialogue-Interactions of SPU Participants .130 The Unfinalizability of the Utterance in the Dialogue-Interactions of SPU Participants: Echoes, Crisis, Renovation, and the Rebirth of Pan-America .132 Unfinalizability: The Pathos of the Artist as Revolutionary Subject (the Micro-Linguistic Repeatability of the Utterance) .136 Unfinalizability: Micro and Macro Perspectives of Revolution/Transformation in Education.138 The Relationship of Power: Living and Acting Answerability Inside and Outside the Art Institution .141 The Centralizing and Decentralizing Forces of Heteroglossia: The Fluidity of Fiction/Reality and Representation in Public Art .149 Answerability, the Indifference of Art’s Autonomy in its Refusal to Answer, and the Signature as Ethical Performative Inquiry and Way of Being, and Being Unindifferently .164 Answerability, Autonomy’s Monologic Twin (Heteronomy), and More than the Sum of its Parts or the Ground Where Agency Emerges .173 vii CHAPTER 5: REFLECTIONS ON THE SPU AND DIALOGIC ART PEDAGOGY. 183 The Nexus of Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogism and the Dialogue-Interactions of Helguera’s SPU.

185 The Meanings and Functions of Dialogue in Relationship to Pedagogy. 189 Dialogue as an Instructional Method: An Instrumental Approach to Dialogue. 195 Dialogue as Conversation (Inclusive-Divergent). 196 Dialogue as Inquiry (Inclusive-Convergent).

198 Dialogue as Debate (Critical-Divergent). 198 Dialogue as Instruction (Critical-Convergent). 199 The Meanings and Functions of Dialogue in Relationship to Pedagogy: Findings, Implications, Limits, and Possibilities. 201 The Antidialogicity of Consensus and Awakening the Student’s Internally Persuasive Discourses.

213 Appendix A: Abbreviations of Works by Bakhtin. 243 Appendix B: Implied Consent Interview(s) (No Signature-Letter Format). 246 Appendix C: Implied Consent Interview(s) (Signature-Letter Format). 247 Appendix D: Research Recruitment Letter.

249 Appendix E: Implied Informed Consent Form. 251 Appendix F: Itinerary of the SPU’s Scheduled Discussions. 254 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Group of students about to perform The Panamerican Address of Tegucigalpa, National Gallery of Art, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. 154 Figure 2: Pablo Helguera singing the Panamerican Anthem, National Gallery of Art, Tegucigalpa Honduras.

154 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest gratitude goes to family members, professors, and friends whose advice, insights, and patience have guided me through this study. I would like to thank my committee members: Karen T. Keifer-Boyd, Patricia M. Amburgy, Mrinalini Sinha, and Simone Osthoff for their encouragement, feedback, and support.

To my dissertation advisor, Dr. Keifer-Boyd: your support has made every difference to me at every single step toward finishing this dissertation. I can only hope that you have some sense of how much I appreciate you. Your responsiveness to my concerns, and the generosity with which you shared your time and knowledge with me have been great gifts to me.

I offer gratitude to my daughter Michelle Lee Abeyta and my son Randy William Miles for the infinite love they give me. I am grateful, too, for the joy that Sophia Michelle Abeyta and William Alexander Miles bring to my life. And, I will always value the support I have received from advisors, friends, and family: Dr. Marnina Gonick, Dr.

Michelle Kraft, Dr. Elizabeth Leal, Dr. Mary Cain Fehr, Maryellen Murphy, Ece Akdeniz, Ana and Andres Esparza, Sean Patrick Abeyta, Jennifer R. Miles, Violeta Ramos, and Elena Paura.

I honor and give many thanks to my mother, Maria Elena Pérez, who has always been an inspiration in my life. And, I must also thank the Alumni Association at Penn State, which recognized and supported my work with the Alumni Association Dissertation Award—a boost that provided me with much needed financial support and encouragement. x Finally, it is a pleasure to thank Stephen Wright, Alicia Herrero, and Bayardo Blandino for their willingness to work with me, and for sharing their insights about the SPU. This study would have not been possible without the generous support of Pablo Helguera.

xi Para el gran amor de mi vida, Billy G. Miles CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO THE POTENTIALITY OF BAKHTIN’S THEORY OF DIALOGISM AND HELGUERA’S ARTISTIC PRAXIS FOR ART EDUCATION In this study, I bring the work of Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin to bear on the work of Pablo Helguera, a prolific1 New York– based artist whose work includes performance, installation, and various experimental formats such as symposiums, phonographic recordings, opera arias, and intercontinental road trips. Specifically, I use Bakhtin’s philosophy of language, i., his theory of dialogism, and its attendant concepts: polyphony, heteroglossia, monoglossia, polyglossia, and the utterance, as a lens to analyze the discourses that developed in-situ at Helguera’s different School of Panamerican Unrest (2006) performances. I participated in these performances as an observer2 in New York City; Tempe, Arizona; San Francisco, California; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Santiago de Chile, Chile; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Ultimately, the purpose of the study is to envision, through a Bakhtinian lens, the nexus between dialogism and art in a contemporary public art practice, namely, The School of Panamerican Unrest (SPU) or Escuela Panamericana del Desasosiego (EPD). I consider these encounters and intersections for their implications, that is, their limitations and possibilities for art and pedagogy. The School of Panamerican Unrest was an extensive public art project that involved an intercontinental road trip along the length of the Pan-American Highway, from Anchorage, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. At each stop, which included traditional and non-traditional art venues, Helguera conducted artist workshops, round-table 2 discussions, and performances.

The topics and ideas for each site unfolded in relation to the specificity of each location, including such factors as socio-political history and culture; and in collaboration with the interests and visions of local organizers, artists, and participants. At each location, Helguera collaborated with artists, curators, and audience members who created art manifestos and performed civic proclamations. For Helguera, the project sought to generate inter-cultural dialogue, to forge “connections between the different regions of the Americas through discussions, performances, film screenings, and short-term and long-term collaborations between organizations and individuals” (P. Helguera, personal communication, May 5, 2006).

Dialogue in the work of Bakhtin and in the work of Helguera means much more than language or communication.