WORDS FROM A SPECTRUM
THE GUMMY BEARS
Theme of CI: Social Norms Theory
This Curriculum Integration, the theme was Social Norms Theory introduced by H.W Perkins and A. D. Berkowitz. The theory describes situations in which individuals perceive the attitudes of the people surrounding them to be different from their own, out of misconception. These misconceptions cause an individual to make choices or lead a lifestyle that affects their health. They end up having behavioral problems, lose rationalization and disturbance of expression is caused. This theory was applied for the first time back in 1986, to address student alcohol use patterns.
The approach with Social Norms Theory has also been used to address a wide range of public health topics including tobacco use, driving under the influence prevention, seat belt use, and more recently sexual assault prevention. The hypothesis expresses that remedying misconception of perceived standards will undoubtedly bring about a lessening in the issue conduct or an expansion in the ideal conduct. Although it is gaining a lot of attention and people are working for the betterment of the society, we have a long way to go.
Our Chosen Topic
As we were assigned to create an art installation that represents the Social Norms Theory, we thought of bringing the LGBTQ+ community into light. The name of our installation was “Words From A Spectrum” which I initially wanted to call “Letters From A Spectrum” but Raisa suggested to replace “Letters” with “Words”. We all agreed upon it and to me it had the perfect essence. A spectrum can be easily associated with the representing colors of LGBTQ+ community all across the world. All of the members of the team have friends and family from the community and support them wholeheartedly.
As for me personally, I belong to the LGBTQ+ community myself. Not only do I identify myself of a different orientation, but I am also attached to a particular Bangladeshi community of all LGBTQ people. It is like a family to me and I literally can express a lot of myself around them. With the choice of this theme for our group, I was excited to do my own research, engage in more people and contribute from my own experience.
The other team members wanted to show more support to the humans of different orientations and gender. All of our main goals were not just to bring in the struggles of LGBTQ people but also valid points of what they simply dream of, how they perceive the world, and what they expect from us. We wanted to bring their exact words and emotions to the public eye, anonymously and respectfully.
From what I understand, the LGBTQ community always gets shunned down, especially in a society like that of Bangladesh. There is always someone watching or waiting to pass off homophobic jokes in our friend circle, or there will be an internet warrior in the comments section to make us feel poorly about ourselves. Keeping that in mind, we wanted to give the community a safe platform. They could write with their own choice of ink, use whatever words they want and state their sexual preferences and wishes without any judgement from anyone else. The letters were not words to bully the heteronormative society, but rather to give them a context, explain and share a little. At the end of the day, we are all humans and should not be discriminating against each other, regardless of race, religion, gender and sexuality.
Layout and Plan
Now that we have discussed the actual theory and about our theme and why we have chosen it, I want to proceed towards the actual plan and layout.
Once we landed on the theme and shared our point of views about the whole idea, we came up with the actual layout of the installation art and created a demo visual.
The actual installation is a wall corner filled with 110 envelopes of the colors of a rainbow, holding the letters. The envelopes were planned to be put up in threads tied to upright poles standing in numbers of three. The idea was to simply put up the installation, no matter how simple it looked, with a very strong message that can be perceived based on an individual’s context. People would see a corner filled with beautifully arranged rainbow envelopes, come and bring out a letter or two and just read. I also thought that even if a person does not feel comfortable reading a letter, they will still have seen the rainbow color scheme across the corner of a wall. It would retain it in their memory, and this would be a small initiation of thinking about the LGBTQ community. The action process of experiencing the art installation was very simple, but was intended to be moving and empowering.
We divided up the work throughout the team members. The boys took charge of managing the poles that would hold up the basic structure. Raisa, Shamprity and Archi wanted to source envelopes and other materials that would be needed for the installation. We all decided to ask around among our LGBTQ friends, acquaintances, family and others for collecting letters. I took to speaking openly about this installation art and my intention with the theme to my LGBTQ family.
Production
Like I mentioned, the concept, the structure of the art installation and exhibition participation was intended to be as simple as it visually looked like. However, once everyone set out to source materials and communicate with people to contribute to the project, we learned that not only was it time consuming and breaking the bank but it was also quite an overwhelmingly hectic task. Our budget had surpassed as sourcing the material became increasingly difficult. We were required to travel back and forth multiple times in a day.
The materials we used were envelopes, paper (colored to make at least 50 envelopes from scratch), pvc pipes, spray paint, thread, plant pots, masking tape, hot glue gun, scissors, clay, sand, small bricks and some other small stationery. Sourcing the pipes, rainbow themed envelopes and finding the proper way to make the poles stand were the toughest of obstacles. They were also costly overall because we had to make them look seamless.
We chose to do most of the work and set up the demo at Raisa’s place as it was a central meeting point for everyone. We sprayed the pipes and took the time to set up the demo version on her terrace. It took us about 3 days to finish these particular procedures. Making the envelopes, attaching the thread to them and curating the letters after receiving them - all took about 5 days in total.
We all reached out to friends, colleagues, activists and fellow LGBTQ people and kept reminding them over a large duration of time. Getting timely feedback and the letters was quite a challenge. I attended a GayMeet and spoke to everyone from the community. A few backed out but the rest of them were on board. They were highly excited and wanted to visit our exhibition, even on the days we were not there. They felt empowered and I was showered with immense support and positive comments. Through them, more gays and transgenders reached out to me. As a result, I built more connections, bonded well and had intellectual discussions to learn more about my community. They also contributed their handwritten letters to us.
The letters that were sent to us over a Google Form (which I had created and posted in groups to assure anonymity and save trouble for anybody who wanted to hide their identity) were very articulate and very emotional as well. People really poured their hearts out. My team members and I wrote those out to keep the organic aesthetic consistent and it actually connected us more to the human essence of the community.
Exhibition
We exhibited our installation art last Saturday at Shilpakala Academy’s Gallery 2, in a noticeable wall corner. Although we had previously set up the demo installation successfully, I was anxious because on the actual venue the entire installation looked smaller than we had visualized.
However, it fitted perfectly, and was the ideal spot. We were happy with the venue. We made it look as organized and aesthetic as possible. We took most of the day to install the whole art.
The spectators not only included special guests, departmental head, honorable faculty, students from all subjects, but also friends, family and exhibition enthusiasts including both Bengalis and foreigners. Through their instant feedback, we got all kinds of reactions - both positive and negative.
Feedback based on interviews
I have interviewed an ex-ULABIAN, who is a supporter of LGBTQ community. She was eagerly reading several letters and calling up her friends to talk about it. Her engagement and support made me interview her.
My questions were:
1. What is your perception of this installation?
2. Do you think you understood the LGBTQ community better by reading the letters?
3. What could we have done better for this installation?
She loved the concept and said that more visual work needs to be done to represent minorities. She said she definitely learned more about the community. The installation was amazing according to her, and she specifically came to the exhibition to witness our work. That made me feel proud both of our group effort and as a junior ULABian.
Two of my interviewees were this gay couple who literally rested their backs on the wall beside our installation and read every letter word by word. Their reactions got me emotional. As they were of the community themselves, my questions were slightly different.
1. Do you think we could bring in enough letters for people?
2. How are you feeling about this theme?
3. What is your perception of this installation?
They were proud that the young generation is thinking of dynamic ways to reach out to the general public. They commented on how the social norm has caused them trauma and constant fear which makes it hard to be themselves in public. But they feel represented, and said that the letters speak diversity along with the spectrum.
Realization
The response from the spectators was a whole new dynamic. There were nods, there were tears, there were laughter of mockery. In its own essence, that was feedback. I have mentioned before that the ultimate perception depends on an individual. That is where art comes in. It creates inspiration and it creates chaos. Especially since Bangladesh doesn’t have an open-minded society, breaking the stereotype and the social norm was our main goal. Through the reactions that we got, I think we were able to achieve what we aimed for. Besides that, the comments and interview answers we have collectively gotten (deducting the anomalies) were what we hoped to bring out of people.
I would probably make this arrangement larger, and stamp on some sexual orientation statements on some of the envelopes. This would incite curiosity and help people to learn about those of the specific orientation.
If we could have attached the envelopes more uniformly with the threads, this could have been top-notch - both Shamprity and I agree upon that. If we were to do it again, we would have maintained that. Otherwise, choosing to install art in a wall corner with so many colors was eye catching and definitely a direct communication for most people. They could easily associate it with the LGBTQ community. This was definitely the first strongest point. We did not need to explain much to people. The entire engagement process of people coming in and reading letters, understanding in their own way - it was all neat. Another thing is that most people perceived it well and commended us for taking the step to represent the LGBTQ community.
This was a success for us. I have been approached online by a few researchers and people who want to create a documentary. They wanted to give team The Gummy Bears credit by taking in some of the letters. One LGBTQ activist, through Archi’s reference, wanted the letters to be sent to their nearest library archive.
This was my first time working with this entire team, and each and everyone worked hard. “Words From A Spectrum” is a successful team effort in my eyes and if given the chance, I would love to do this again with some more engaging factors on a massive scale. My community and I couldn’t have been more proud of this installation art!