Last Month, Thinking About My Own Public Art Practice, I Toyed With The Idea Of Inserting English Into

Last month, thinking about my own public art practice, I toyed with the idea of inserting English into the lives of my students like I've done with art. I wanted English to be something they bumped into around their homes, rather than just a subject that existed purely within the school building. From those thoughts, I came up with a fairly conventional scavenger hunt. Through English clues posted in the school, students search for 14 clues spread out over Kawaura (an area of 119 square km/46 square miles). We're in the third week of the hunt, and just more than half of the clues have been found.

For prizes, I made mix CDs. To emphasize the international nature of English, I chose musicians I liked from a variety of countries, including some where English is not the native language. In Japanese I explained the main phrase or general meaning of each song. Also, it turned out that three of the singers on the mix (Janis Ian and Tegan and Sara Quin) are queer and two more are rumored to be (Elly Jackson of La Roux, and Janelle Monae), so I made sure to include a note about that as well.

Font: 806 Typography by Leonard Posavec (a cool, Croatian teen)

A business card I whipped up for an international festival I'm presenting at at this weekend.

The eighth piece in a photo series I’m doing on group identity. On Saturday I set up at the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival. Prepping for it is getting more and more hectic, but it's exciting at the same time.  More info on the series at the project site.

The fifth piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity. 

More info at the project site.

The fourth piece in a new photo series I’m doing on group identity.  More info at the project site.

The ninth piece (and second Brit) in a photo series I’m doing on group identity. Last Saturday I exhibited the project and photographed attendees of the Minamata Cultural Exchange Festival. Photos of that soon. More info on the series at the project site.