Communication Art!

[* Originally published within the electronic publication, The Drum Beat - click here for archives.]

Well, after a series of Strategy Drum Beats that one friend described as helpful if a little grumpy [great to have friends isn't it?] and at the beginning of a week in which we are hearing mainly very bad news about HIV/AIDS [more infections up in more countries], let's focus on some good news for a change. And that good news is [trumpets sounding] local creativity! In the face of overwhelming problems, with very little money but with an abundance of ideas, skills, energy and motivation, local and national groups can creatively make a real difference with their communication. But this good news comes with a little tension - a tension that has considerable implications for development communication. Before highlighting this 'wrinkle' let's enjoy the creativity with a small selection of recent initiatives we have been honoured to communicate through The CI process:

• Computers with solar with short-wave!
  The People First Network in The Solomon Islands have established a system that permits remote locations to have Internet and email access using a computer, short-wave radio, and solar power. Aims to facilitate equitable and sustainable rural development by enabling better information sharing and knowledge building among and across communities forming the Solomon Islands.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Cookies for nutrition!
  The Cookie Cart initiative in Minneapolis, USA, communicates with young people how to plan, cook, and serve nutritious meals - and cookies! - to their peers with a focus on strengthening the entrepreneurial skills of low-income Minneapolis youth. Cookies for nutrition!
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Pyramid selling on HIV/AIDS!
  In the Garífuna community in Honduras 10 AIDS awareness promoters from the community recruit volunteers known as "multipliers" from different social and age groups. Those children and teenagers and others who were trained would continue to train others of the same interest and same age." AIDS awareness meetings are held for groups such as teenage girls, young men, and concerned mothers.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Postcards for Pay!
  In Queensland, Australia, the indigenous Aboriginal community launched a campaign encouraging their community members to send postcards featuring black-and-white photographs, as well as campaign slogans, advocacy messages, and information to employers, media and government officials. The set of 3 cards tells the story of what organisers describe as "the missing, unpaid, and underpaid wages belonging to Aboriginal people who were forced to work over the past century".
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Condom Art!
  In Brazil, Adriana Bertini, an artist living in São Paulo, Brazil, transforms expired or defective condoms into raw material to be used to make pieces of art. These frames, sculptures, and brightly coloured women's dresses are intended to raise awareness and inspire reflection about condom use.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Body and Conflict!
  El Colegio del Cuerpo (College of the Body) is an artistic and educational centre located in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Contemporary dance classes for children and adults, art and dance festivals, and a resource centre are activities designed to bring people, especially children, from challenged communities together for learning and healing. The focus is on the use of the body to reconstruct the social fabric, which organisers say has been torn apart by war and socioeconomic differences.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Watching Sand!
  The Sandwatch Project in The Caribbean is a 3-year beach monitoring programme that is designed to draw on the energy and knowledge of schoolchildren, and their communities, to reduce pollution. A central project strategy is training participating students in basic scientific observations and measurement, providing data which can then be analysed using mathematical, computing, and language skills.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Virtual Circus Time!
  The Sapiens Circus in Brazil is working to develop a human-centred technology (HCT) project called Sapiens Circus. A team of researchers in Brazil is designing a technologically advanced physical space for learning, the sharing of experience, and the stimulation of creative thought. The main goal of this project, which is in the early stages of development, is to "generate unforgettable experiences through the use of technology", to the end of educating people and stimulating interest in learning.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• Computers on Wheels!
  Launched in 2003, Computers On Wheels (COW) is a grassroots project that brings Internet services to rural, illiterate villagers in Mahboobnagar, Andhra Pradesh, India. COW is a mobile information delivery system involving a trained provider with a laptop visiting villages on a motorbike to provide support for agriculture management and health. The project has so far reached over 8,000 people in 7 villages: Parvathapur, Appareddy Palle, Almaipalle, Mohammad Hussain Palle, Surai Palle, Uppara Palle, and Anthai Palle.
  Click here for more details on this project.
• mobile.culture.container!
  In 2001, the Fund In Defence of our Future launched a traveling media project designed to engage people between the ages of 14 and 21 throughout the countries of former Yugoslavia. In response to mayoral invitations, mobile.culture.container spent 4 weeks in each of 14 cities, where it addressed the subject of media responsibility by itself becoming a medium. Young people were encouraged to reflect on their political and cultural environments and their own futures by producing media (newspaper, radio, and television) to be published or broadcast at the local level.
  Click here for more details on this project.

There are many more examples - this is only a brief selection.

I have no idea how many of these programmes developed. My instinct tells me that they came from a creative idea - someone thought it up and did it with very short processes like: Why don't I strap a lap top on my bike? Hey - let's send postcards to all employers. Can we explore resolving conflict through dance? I am going to draw on condoms. Now if we can just link the solar power to the shortwave and the onto the computer - bingo - email in one of the most remote parts of earth!

The very fact that they are very imaginative raises an age old question - is communication art or science? And by extension is development communication art or science? It is an important issue for the way in which our field develops and decides what activities and strategies it will undertake.

Presently in development communication the strong trend and pressure is towards treating communication as a science. There are considerable pressures to engage in formal planning processes, agree evaluation indicators, recruit trained staff and root our work in acknowledged change theories. [Including such suggestions from these pages on many occasions!]. Deliberation and detailed planning seem to hold sway over instinct and creative insight. You are much more likely to get a project approved and launched [not to mention funded] in a development organisation if the "correct' planning processes have been followed than if you walk into someone's office and say 'any chance of helping me to do art with condoms or work on a learning circus for the mind or strap a lap top on the back of my motorbike?". The correct planning processes are of course designed to instill thoroughness and ensure relevance, sustainability and efficient use of resources. But you do have to wonder if sometimes [often?] those processes do not squeeze the art - and therefore the resonance and power - from much of our development communication. Perhaps we have gone one focus group or one Performance Based Results form too far?

The evidence [to use that word very loosely] that we may have left too much art out of development communication is all around us in our personal experiences. The songs that you hum [or sing if your voice is better than mine - not difficult] did not go through a development communication planning process. When I was on the beach in my home town in New Zealand and heard John Lennon sing "you may say I'm a dreamer" and all that went before and after those words, I did not know that he did not have a focus group to test those words. Actually the thought never occurred to me! But that song had real power and influence. Here you can now insert your own recollection from your culture. When I was in ....and heard....it....We can do the same game with film and art, TV shows and poetry, books and theatre. They manage to move people emotionally, inform and crucially spark debate, dialogue and discussion. Those three components of emotions, information and debate/dialogue are vital aspects for effective development communication. When you think of great art it has those qualities.

Of course we do not all have John Lennons in our neighbourhoods and communities. But there is an abundance of creativity and talent. And there is lots that people want to voice through their art. Much that they want to contribute to the emotions, information and dialogue/debate around them. Perhaps an important part of our jobs as development communicators is to ensure that that artistic talent gets it's space and time - without being squeezed by the procedures and policies of international development. Not every effort will be successful [what ever success may mean - this will be the theme of a future strategy Drum Beat]. Of course not. But then not every properly planned, thoroughly designed, focus group tested, performance based results completed communication intervention will be successful. In fact many seem to struggle. It is not like we have made a final discovery about the best way to "do" development communication.

So, maybe we should rebalance a little bit - give the artistic insight and power a little more development space. Drive on motor bike lap top. Boot up virtual brain circuses. Stage front modern dance and conflict. Roll on condom art.

Warren Feek

wfeek@comminit.com

November 28, 2003