To paraphrase the poet John Donne, no one is an island, entire of itself; everyone is a piece of the continent, a part of the main1. While this may be true, in our globalised, creative field there is often a desire to be distinct, to be different. In a world dominated by the ideology of individualism, how is a sense of community redefined?
As writer and social activist bell hooks wrote in All About Love2, ‘there is no better place to learn the art of loving than in community’. Both social and operational, the community provides comfort and space for shared experience. However, to quote bell hooks once more, ‘solidarity is not the same as support’. Community demands a sense of generosity and meaningful engagement.
The distinction between ideologies of connectivity strengthen and splinter over time. While the gaybar, once a predominantly white male environment is evolving into a more inclusive queer space and feminism becomes increasingly intersectional, the Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist appears to disrupt the peace. It is difficult to quantify this ebb and flow in real time but we can use our knowledge of what came before to study and reappraise networks in preparation for the future.
The archive and oral histories hold the power to create these connections across time, the internet and international exhibitions across space. In a world striving to reimagine what connectivity truly means, we need creatives to guide and re-establish a true sense of togetherness by communicating these stories far and wide.
Over the past few years, and particularly during our graduating students' time at the College, modes of engagement have warped beyond recognition. Students in this theme are recalibrating the notion of connectivity to manifest a new sense of closeness.
- John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. Originally published in 1624.
- hooks, bell. 2000. All about love: new visions. New York: William Morrow.
