Those were my sort of questions

Hand drawn sketch with Title: Question. Questions: by who, for whom, what for, in what way, to whose benefit, at the cost of who? What are the power dynamics at play? What is obscured?

Hand drawn sketch with black pen on white paper. 'Power is the necessary condition for any digital technology'quote by Hito Steyerl can be read in big fonts.

        Question
          Tell me what you think about me (...)
        
        Question
          Tell me how you feel about this (...)
        
        Question
          How'd you like this knowledge that I brought?
        🎤 1

Hand drawn sketches against black paper.

      Layers
        Intentions
          Multitudes
            Attention

Sketching as a collaborative design research tool?

Animated gif showing detailed work around the question: Sketching as a collaborative design research tool?

To reframe #sketching as a collaborative research tool has meant thinking about sketches as conversation sites that in the to and fro between people create common ground on which shared understandings emerge. -----> <----- ----->

Hand drawn sketch on notebook around the topic of Sketching as a conversation interface

Who is speaking in these sketches?

      It is not clear      
      who is holding the pen, 
        who is speaking, 
          who has a voice
            and 
              most importantly
                who does not.
      
                                     A ausência. 
                                     A lacuna.  
      
      Whose voices are present 
      and 
      Whose voices are absent or obscured in these sketches?
      
      What else is obscured in these sketches?
      What is the context in which the sketch is situated and what power dynamics at play here? 
              Who spoke first? 
                Who spoke longest? 
                  Who took more space? 
                    Who was silent/silenced?

      👀 How to make my own subjectivity visible and addressable in these sketches?
      ✍️ I am holding the pen. 
      📣 I am speaking, it is my own subjective interpretation that is emerging. 
      💬 It is my voice.

‘Those sorts of questions were my sort of questions’3

      The political struggle then becomes to 
        find a better way of answering the questions, 
          ways of questioning the questions, 
            so that 
              the world that makes some beings into questions
                becomes what we question.

photo of page x of Sara Ahmed's book: Living a feminist life

      This 
        is 
          not 
            optional

      Instead, 
        I cite those show have contributed to the intellectual genealogy of 
          feminism and anti-racism
            ...
            work that lays out other paths, 
              paths we can call desire lines
                created by not following the official paths 
                  laid out by disciplines.

      My citation policy
        has affected
          the kind of house 
            I have built.

      The texts
        assemble a politics
          from what they name

Next -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hand drawn sketch with sketches and titles Profundidade, Intencional, Multitudes, Atencao

What you give attention to grows

≋layers and layers≋
                                 ≋stories and stories≋

----------
References
1 - Independent Women Part I, Destiny’s Child, 2000
2 - Sketching as a collaborative design research tool? & sketches as a relational tool in design research processes 3 - Living a Feminist Life. Sara Ahmed. 2017.Duke University Press Books.

----------
Online essay created by Elvia Vasconcelos in June 2022.
@materia_relacional
@sketchnotes_are_awesome