Adolescence: the Art of Performance by Karyn Sandlos

A R T E D5 2 2 0 S P R I N G2 0 1 4

Adolescence: The Art of Performance Identity as performance is not solely the achievement of a single, cohesive self, durable and immutable across different contexts; rather, it is also, at least in part, a contextderived and context-driven representation of who we are at that moment for that particular setting. Understanding identity in this way allows us to make visible the factors that shape how we see and represent ourselves, and it illuminates how adults and adolescents co-construct and position one another in every interaction in which identities are performed. (Nakkula and Toshalis, 2008, p. 121)

This dictionary of adolescent development was created in spring 2014 by graduate students in the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program in Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in the course ARTED 5220: Psychological, Sociological and Phenomenological Approaches to Teaching (with Professor Karyn Sandlos).

Adolescence: The Art of Performance Table of Contents

Confidence by Megan Spicer

Cracking by Mollie Greenberg

Crew by Alex Flores

Performance by Hoyun Son Richter

Roughness by Miriam Dolnick

Trucha by Maria Ambriz

Zag & Zig by Mark Myers

Confidence

Megan Spicer

Confidence is a word that some people cringe at and others relish. If I think back to my own adolescence, I can tell you that a lot of my actions revolved around confidence, or lack thereof. I always thought that the typical definition of confidence was the same as the one in the dictionary: “a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something” (Merriam Webster, 2014). For me it was the sentence that follows, “a feeling or belief that SOMEONE or SOMETHING is good or has the ability to succeed at something.” I was fairly “un-confident” throughout my adolescence. I always believed you either have confidence or you don’t. And, more specifically, you had to act a certain way in order to have it. For example, the way a person walked and talked, how they presented themselves to others, and the subject matter they talked about, all said something about how confident they were. The more I learned about the ‘dictionary definition’ of confidence, the more I felt trapped by it. And, I can’t help but think this is how a lot of adolescents must also feel about the word. I want to create a new definition of confidence, one that might help adults and educators understand the role of confidence in adolescent identity development. Instead of having a definition of “confidence” that defines the adolescent, how might adolescents shape their own definitions of “confidence”? Waddell (2002), in her discussion of human development, suggests that adolescents often struggle to find their identity: “Simon was looking for something. It was with intense earnestness and courage that he undertook to explore and sought to understand aspects of himself, which many would prefer, at this age, to not look at or to know about” (2002). Simon was first introduced as having had a bizarre dream in which he engaged with a hermaphroditic snail. But you see in that unconscious struggle how he was trying to explore hidden versions of himself. During adolescence, often “confidence” is a shield for this struggle. Lesko’s (1996) article, “Denaturalizing Adolescence” explores the historical construction of adolescence through the media, peers, and the family. Lesko writes, “If adolescents are portrayed as universal and ahistorical, then their characteristics are immutable. Consequently, they must be constrained by adults rather than by the changes in the social and organizational practices that helped create them.” “Confidence” might be a place for the adolescent to live more freely, outside of the constructs that shape and constrain. Take a chance; make a mistake. Learn from it. I want my students to be able to make a painting, finish it, then paint over it. Or to have a conversation and ask questions. To be uninhibited. The short film trilogy, My Beautiful Woman, helps me redefine the word, confidence. The film shows three women making sacrifices and going beyond expectations to do what they believe is right. The third film is based on a high school student who is a mother, who loves her child and works hard for her child despite what others think about her. Her willingness to take chances is the basis of her confidence. Waddell, M. (1998). Inside lives: Psychoanalysis and the growth of the personality. (5th ed., Vol. eBook). London: H. Karnac Books. Lesko, N. (1996). Denaturalizing adolescence: The politics of contemporary representations. Youth in Society, 28(139), 139-161. Wacoal Tailand. (Producer). (2014, January 23). My Beautiful Woman. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeAjOimUHOU

Cracking

Mollie Greenberg

Cracking is defined as breaking (something) so that there are lines in its surface but it is usually not separated into pieces. – Merriam Webster Dictionary

Freud defines a type of fracture, a cracking, not of a physical object but of the mental and emotional state. According to Brook, Freud defines 3 groups: split off psychic groupings, splitting of objects and affects, and splitting of the ego. Freud identifies one type of splitting as, the “…splitting of objects and affects into good objects (or part objects) of affection and bad objects of hostility.” The self splits into two parts resulting in a binary perception of objects in the world. This occurs in infancy and later on in adolescence. According to Brook, this splitting, or separation process, is associated with “the phenomenon of repression.” When splitting occurs in infancy it acts as a coping mechanism that helps the child to handle the difficult emotional states that come with separation from her parents. Cracking, in my view, is much like splitting, but instead of the separation being complete, there are often remnants, or traces of distress. Cracking is not a clean split. The traumatic affects remain behind. Waddell (1999) suggests that splitting serves the function of “splitting of experiences and perceptions of the self and the world into extremes of good and bad” (p. 1153). This process of splitting the emotional self is central to the adolescents’ process of forming an identity. Splitting can occur when adolescents believe that there is an unacceptable part of themselves. While the adolescent splits off this part of the self, the internal world retains the traces/visible cracks of internal distress; for example cracking can be seen in how adolescents deal with emotional trauma; for example, often times they shut off and try to separate from distress. The tension from the cracking can result in coping mechanisms like self-harm (cutting, eating disorders, drug/alcohol abuse, etc.) or pseudo-adult behaviors. Additionally, adolescents might also experience cracking within peer groups through their constant experimentation with identity. This can be seen in the continual morphing of peer groups; in particular, the development of “frenemies”, where adolescent relationships continually oscillate between friends and enemies. The phenomena of cracking can be seen in Marcia’s stages of identity development in the Diffuse Identity Stage (Nakkula and Toshalis, 2008, p. 32). Diffuse Identity is the stage where identity takes many varied forms and undergoes change. It is as if the adolescent is all over the place, fragmented, in pieces. This continual cracking and re-cracking can “…result [from] shifting identity performances across various contexts. Conflicts may develop between peers, leading to the questions: ‘Why are you like that with them but like this with me? Which is the real you?” (Nakkula and Toshalis, p. 33). Parts of the adolescents’ self-identity attempts to be split off, projected or hidden away. But the stress of this attempt to hide creates tension in the adolescent, leaving marks or cracks on the surface. The unwanted parts of the self can thus never be truly disclaimed. They become, at best, compartmentalized. The openings that result from the cracking process might also lead to creative forms of development by letting the internal, emotional self leak out to be expressed to the outside world. Brook, J.A. “Freud and Splitting.” Carleton University. http://httpserver.carleton.ca/~abrook/SPLTTING.htm. Nakkula, Michael and Toshalis, Eric (2006). Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators. Cambridge: Harvard. Brook, J.A. “Freud and Splitting.” Carleton University. http://httpserver.carleton.ca/~abrook/SPLTTING.htm. Waddell, Margot (1998). Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality (Kindle). Great Britain: Karnac. Retrieved from amazon.com.

Crew

Alex Flores

CMK, Two Two Boys, Brickheadz, GBE, and Sour Apples. What do these names have in common? These are the names of crews in Chicago. The Crews are associated with graffiti, parties, breakdancing, or rapping. These crews are all different and individuals come together in the crews for different reasons and interests. The word crew, sometimes spelled cru by teenagers, has a different meaning to adolescents than to adults. Adolescents hear the word crew from their peers and the media and see the goods out of it. For example, a popular song by Drake and The Weeknd titled “Crew Love” sings and raps about the pride of their own crew and how important it is for them to stick together. To adults, the word crew might have a negative connotation, and they might associate it with gangs and troublemakers. However, adolescent crews are more complex. Adolescents are forming their own self within a crew that offers a safe space to form their own identity; at the same time, they are using that identity to be part of the crew. Furthermore, unique learning experiences happen within crews that are not attainable in educational institutions. In the book Inside Lives, Margot Waddell (1998) talks about groups, which are similar to crews, in relation to identity. She claims, “Adolescent group life, which is often so troublesome to adults, may offer something of a haven for the confused young person, extending both a challenge and respite until he is able to hold disparate feelings together within a single self” (p. 136). Waddell suggests that groups offer an identity that adolescents can hold until they start forming their own identity. Teenagers join crews because they share a common interest and feel like they have an identity that belongs to the crew. Waddell also suggests that groups can be a safe place where adolescents can be themselves. Waddell offers us the idea of how groups help teens form their own identity. Michael Nakkula and Eric Toshalis’ (2010) book Understanding Youth offers us a different approach to thinking about the role of friends and groups in adolescent ‘identity crisis’. They state, “This crisis results from the pressure placed on adolescents as they attempt to construct an identity that will meet the support of their friends” (p. 21). Teenagers sometimes act different with different groups of people; for example, a teen might have a different personality with his or her teacher than a classmate or their group of friends or crew. Nakkula & Toshalis help us understand how adolescents navigate their identities in different contexts while also keeping an identity that meets the criteria of their crew. Crews are important to adolescent development because they offer youth a form of identity and group belonging, and the opportunity to learn outside of school. Crews are unique because adolescents come together for a hobby or a particular interest like partying, graffiti, breakdancing, or rapping. A study in graffiti crews by Avramidis and Drakopoulou (2012) praises the learning that happens within crews: “For the first time, a generation of young people became part of an empowering network and had the freedom to control their own education and career outside of schools.” While some educators and adults look at the negatives of adolescents joining a crew, they might also look at the learning, confidence building, and creativity that happen within crews. Adolescents who join crews start developing their own identity within those groups. At the same time, adolescents project their identity in order to be part of the crew. As teenagers, their identities are not fully established and are working out who they are. Being part of a crew can support adolescent identity development because the interests they make in crews may stick to them after their teenage years. Moreover, adolescents have a unique learning experience within their crews. And for some, their identity within their crew is only a phase of their adolescent years. Crew Love. Avramidis, K., & Drakopoulou, K. (2012). Graffiti Crews' Potential Pedagogical Role. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS), 327-340. Waddell, M. (1998). Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality. New York: Routledge. Nakkula, M. & Toshalis, E. (2010). Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development For Educators. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Performance (of Identities)

Hoyun Son Richter

According to Nakkula and Toshalis (2006), when an adolescent student enters your school, classroom, or office, she brings with her the layers of historical and cultural experience that have shaped her identity. What she presents to us as “me” is the most recent iteration of her life experiences. Because of context-based roles and assumptions, the identity she presents may look very different from the one she offers to her peers, family, or other adults at school. And also there are various tensions around this notion of identities: tensions among the various identities within her and/or tensions between how the adolescent sees herself and how others see her. Some adults may see the adolescent as being inconsistent and untruthful. Nakkula and Toshalis (2006) explain that, “conceived in this way, identities can be understood as performances, which are strategically constructed by the adolescent to provide the best chances for personal safety and ever attentive to feedback from her various audiences” (p. 121). An important aspect of identity as performance “is not solely the achievement of a singular cohesive self—durable and immutable across differing contexts.” The identity performance is also “a context derived and context-driven representation of who we are at that moment for that particular setting” (p. 121). Understanding adolescent identity in this way allows us to make visible the factors that shape how we see and represent ourselves; it also illuminates how adults and adolescents position one another within interactions and co-construct the interactions in which identities are performed. I believe this is where adolescents can practice empathy and imagination, and can wiggle around the boundaries of their identities. Adults and educators can facilitate this practice by providing as broad a variety of rich contexts as possible in which the adolescent can freely experience various perspectives, understand themselves and others with a multitudinous attitude, and allow themselves to develop a complex identity. A good example of performance (of identities) in contemporary art would be “Projects" by Nikki Lee. Lee begins her work by identifying a subculture that interests her. She researches the group and begins to adopt their dress, customs, and mannerisms. She then approaches the group, tells them about her project, and asks permission to begin "hanging out" with them for a period of 3 months or more. Once she has successfully assimilated herself into the group, she asks a passerby to take a snapshot of her with her new clique. (Allison, 2009) The fact that Lee is able to move fluidly among subcultures and assimilate herself into different ethnic, sexual, socioeconomic, and age groups suggests that our social and cultural boundaries are permeable. Her notion of identity is not static, but rather fluid, defined and shaped by the relationships she forms during her projects. She says her work is an inquiry into parts of herself she has yet to uncover. Adolescents can benefit from learning about Lee’s methods in a research and performance context. It would allow them to experiment with this fluidity without the risks involved in committing to authenticity outside of an art-making context. Nakkula, M J and Toshalis, E (2006). Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press (pp. 120-121). Allison, A. (2009). Identity In Flux: Exploring the Work of Nikki S. Lee. Art Education, 62(1), 25-31.

Roughness

Miriam Dolnick

While the word roughness carries many meanings, it most often connotes challenge and discomfort. While many might characterize adolescence as a rough or challenging period of development, the entry at the end of Merriam-Webster’s definition contributes the most to my thinking through this developmental stage. ROUGH: a: crude, unfinished <rough carpentry> b: executed or ventured hastily, tentatively, or imperfectly <a rough draft> <rough estimate>; also: approximate <a rough idea> In teaching figure drawing, one often begins with gestures. Making a gesture is the very first step in drawing, the lines made when the charcoal first hits the paper. It is loose, it is many marks, it is your hand moving while not looking at the paper, it does not look the way you think it should. Yet, instead of being characterized along the lines of “crude”, it is a crucial step. It is a beginning in which errors can be acknowledged as supporting and creating a rendering. It is a way into the drawing that is humble and open to change, yet still sincere. The sincerity lies in the intent of capturing the gesture of the figure. What is the movement in the pose of something that is standing still? What is its feeling? This requires an emotional reading and translation into movement, then into line. It requires the drawer to search for some sort of truth that they see in the model and go with it, quickly. It may change, but this is the start. Adolescence is also a moment of searching for truths. It is a time where the world is getting larger: there are friends, teachers, family, and school. Each new relation requires a different performance to fit in nicely. For the adolescent, making these rough connections is central to the process of constructing an identity. Nakkula and Toshalis (2006) describe this moment, Because so much is in flux in adolescence, the question “Who am I?” is asked with great passion and urgency. It is not a stretch to claim that forming the core of the identity is the pivotal task of adolescence, particularly in a culture that is as fixated on individual and unique representations of selfhood as ours. In fact, much of what adolescents choose to do, whom they relate to, and how they spend their time is contingent upon the self they are seeking to create, test, and revise. (p. 18) It is important for adults and educators to notice the urgency of this moment of creating, testing, and revising in adolescent identity development. During adolescence, this process is quick and rough. Much like the gesture drawing, its key is the movement of the hand and arm not stopping. There is no time to stop, to consider, to second guess. The sketch that serves as the best guide for the drawing is one where the eye has been fixed on the figure, not behind the easel, focused on what the drawing should look like. What does this mean for the adolescent? In describing the projective mode, Waddell (1998) explains, For if there is a certain degree of flexibility and fluidity in terms of the aspects of the self that are being projected, and then re-introjected, a degree of self-exploration can occur. Parts of the self can be related to in the other, and can then be owned or further disowned by the self. (p. 147) Adolescent identity development is fundamentally a creative process. The flexibility of the rough draft, the ease in the ability to own and disown, to mark a line and replace it with another, becomes a resource for the process of trying possibilities for becoming a self. Nakkula M. J., & Toshalis E. (2006). Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Rough [Def. 4]. (n.d.). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved March 20, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rough. Waddell, M. (1998). Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality. London, England: H. Karnac (Books) Ltd.

Trucha: [true-cha]

Maria Ambriz

Adjective part of Chican@ slang, meaning; to be shrewd, sharp, aware; to be a quick thinker. Trucha is a slang term that is widespread amongst Chican@ communities. I see someone who is trucha as a person who has a fine tuned awareness. A person does not choose to be trucha; life circumstances force a person to be that way. Young people, in particular, must be trucha if they are to navigate the uncertainties of adolescence. In Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators, Nakkula & Toshalis (2006) state, “As adolescents adjust to a changing body, develop abstract thought, acquire more complex interpersonal skills, negotiate new relationships with caretakers and significant others, reformulate a value system and set goals for future achievement, they are forming an identity” (p. 18). The attention and energy that must go into juggling all of these complex states requires adolescents to be sharp and quick thinkers. In Inside Lives, Waddell (1998) explains that the mother contains the young child’s fragmentary impulses. The mother and child form a “container-contained” (p. 34) relationship. Adolescents must learn to find other forms of containment for the social emotional toll that comes from having to juggle different states of mind. They must find ways to be trucha. In the forming of their own identities, youth may undergo different versions of identity development. According to Nakkula and Toshalis, adolescents may experience a foreclosed identity status in which their identity is an extension of others. They find security in peer and/or family relationships and conform to their norms. Youth may also experience a diffuse identity status in which they have not committed to any one particular identity while they are managing different contexts. This status can be very exhausting for youth since the way they relate to people in one group may be very different from the way that they relate to a different group. Oftentimes adolescents are in the state of an identity moratorium, in which they “are actively exploring roles and beliefs, behaviors and relationships without making a real commitment” (p. 29-36). This may force adolescents to seek stability in different ways through friends, idealizing pop-culture figures, etc. Adolescents, more than anyone else, must struggle with decisions about what they want from life and what kind of person they want to become while at the same time struggling with what others expect from them. This constant push and pull is what forces adolescents to be more sharp, more trucha, in order to invent ingenious ways to handle changes and relationships with friends from school, friends from the neighborhood, parents, family members, teachers, etc. Some adolescents that are trucha may also be dealing with difficult situations outside what most people think of as the norm for adolescents. Mosquita y Mari, a film by Aurora Guerrero, is a perfect representation of how youth “hustle”/are trucha to figure out who they are, what they want, and how they can get there. Mosquita y Mari is a coming of age story about two Chicanas from East LA. Mosquita is a smart but quiet student who listens to her parents. Mari is a new student at Mosquita's school who lives with her single mom and younger sister. Mari does not do well at school and must work to help her mom pay the rent. They become friends and over the course of the film they grow feelings for each other. Mosquita's grades suffer and Mari's engagement with school increases. They have a special relationship and must keep it hidden from their parents and friends at school. For Mosquita and Mari to explore their sexual orientations, figure out what they want from school, deal with conservative parents and culture, work after school to help with the home, and deal with pressures from other friends—all while experiencing the challenges of growing—requires them to be trucha. I think that if youth can navigate the challenges of adolescence by being trucha, they can carry this awakened, sharp, quick thinking mentality into adulthood. Blanco, A. C. & Burris, C. (Producer), & Guerrero, A. (Director). (2012). Mosquita y Mari (Motion picture). USA: Indion entertainment. Nakkula, M. & Toshalis, E. (2006) Understanding youth: Adolescent development for educators. Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press. Waddell, M. (1998) Inside lives: Psychoanalysis and the growth of the personality. New York: Routledge.

Zag & Zig

Mark Myers

Zags and Zigs are any one of the turns or alterations in a zigzag path. They can be evenly spaced as in a chevron pattern or they may vary greatly in length and frequency. Life in general is full of many such uneven directional changes and this is especially true with adolescents as they actively seek to construct themselves. In Understanding Youth (2006), Nakkula and Toshalis write: “In this period, the adolescent attempts to find ‘the real me’ by playing many roles, by experimenting with possible selves, and by shifting back and forth between potential identities in different contexts” (p. 20). Starting with the initial developmental awareness of our separateness from our mother, then moving from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood, we continually examine the congruity between how we envision ourselves and how others view us. That is to say, teens are searching for what feels authentic as they sift through the many roles, relationships and beliefs presented by their families, schools and society. Noted American philosopher Nel Noddings (1995) said: “By planning, reflecting, choosing, and acting, people make themselves” (p. 62). In short, adolescence is an ever-changing period of determining “Who am I?” and “Where do I fit in?” As a father of three children now in their early twenties, I have witnessed this zigzag process of self-discovery and continue to see the importance of giving teens both the space and support they need during this period of making identity. That is not to say that adults must approve and encourage all types of teenage behaviors but rather we must recognize and remain open to their developmental process. Nakkula and Toshalis (2006) write: “If we do not provide them with safe spaces and rich experiences in which their fleeting identities can be engaged, adolescents will look for and find confirmation elsewhere” (p. 37). For a simplified example, if an adult reacts in horror to a teen with newly dyed pink hair and exclaims, “Why, that’s not the way you were raised!” the teen will find someone else to give him the affirmation that he is seeking. If the adult is able to authentically engage with the teen and say, for example, “Why, that’s an interesting change, how did you get the color to be so bright?” the teen may feel he is free to continue on his path of self-exploration: Blue hair one week, then lavender and then no hair the next. The role of a teacher and an adult is to help the teenager see firstly: that they have the agency to choose to follow different and varying paths; secondly: that their choices will carry various good and bad consequences; and thirdly: that it’s alright to change their path(s) at anytime and even to simultaneously take multiple and possibly contradicting paths. An adult’s role is to help teens know that it’s ok to Zig and to Zag. Nakkula, M., and Toshalis, E. (2006). Understanding Youth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Noddings, Nel. (1995). Philosophy of Education Dimensions of Philosophy Series. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Waddell, M. (2002). Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of Personality (2nd ed.). London: Karnac Books.

Adolescence: The Art of Performance was created by graduate students in the Art Education Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in the context of the course ARTED 5220: Psychological, Sociological and Phenomenological Approaches to Teaching, in Spring 2014. This course is taught by Professor Karyn Sandlos ksandl@saic.edu To visit SAICâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Art Education Department website, please follow this link: http://www.saic.edu/degrees_resources/departments/arted/index.html