PROJECT TERAKOYA
Community Creates - creative mentorship & multiliteracies
THE JOY OF CO-CREATION
Intergenerational learning and collaboration is a unique approach to bridging the generational gap. Students (high school to university) and older adults will get a chance to form connections through shared experiences and projects. Older adults will play a vital role by sharing their wisdom and life stories, while students will learn valuable practical and emotional skills from working with older adults, such as group co-leadership, self-confidence, and emotional maturity. The older adults may also learn social networking skills and etiquette from the students.
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BACKGROUND
Intergenerational Connection and Learning Across Many Different Cultures
A SOCIETY FOR ALL AGES
The United Nations introduced the concept of a society for all ages in 2007. They emphasized the importance of stronger intergenerational solidarity, which can be achieved by encouraging a ‘reciprocal, fruitful exchange between the generations, which is focused on the elderly as important social sources’ (United Nations, 2007: 2). The movement toward a society for all ages assumes policies and practices that would strengthen each individual’s life-long development alongside the development of families, neighborhoods, communities, and institutions.
PRODUCTIVE AGING
The term "productive aging," introduced by Robert Butler, MD (1927-2010), stresses the importance of active roles for older persons, adding significance to their daily lives. This includes involvement in intergenerational programs and activities, paid work, volunteering, and familial assistance. Such activities have clear psychological benefits for older persons. "Human beings need the freedom to live with change, to invent and reinvent themselves a number of times through their lives," Dr. Butler wrote in his 1975 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Why Survive? Being Old in America.
THE WAY OF TEA
One of the pillars of the "way of tea" is sharing with loved ones and friends, or in Rikyu’s words, harmony. Rikyu sought to achieve not only friendliness between multiple people, encouraging harmony between the host and the guest, but also harmony with humanity and nature. The following are some of the verses of Sen-No-Rikyu:
Flowers of hill or valley.
Put them in a simple vase
Full or spilling over.
But when you’re arranging them
You must slip your heart in too.
Put your heart in it
PHASE ONE: COLLABORATIVE RESIDENCY
A SMALL GROUP
(APR 2021 - AUG 2021)
Art-based residency for seniors and youth to explore a state of intergenerational learning pedagogy/play, and co-create and design cultural change
Goals
1) Experimenting with innovative, non-conventional forms of communication and learning to enhance mutual understanding and recognition between generations;
2) Creating learning opportunities, based on participation and creativity, to be shared and utilized by the old and the young, preserving and sharing cultural memories (e.g., traditional songs, folk art, and crafts) as well as engaging with the digital era (social media, etc).
In short, we will explore modes of expression much broader than language alone, including the visual, the audio, the spatial, the behavioral, and so on. We will address the question of how we can ensure that differences in culture, language, gender, and health risks are not barriers to learning success.
MULTILITERACIES STUDY GROUP
"See One, Do One, Teach One"
Multiliteracies is a pedagogical approach and theoretical framework, originally developed by the New London Group (1996), that embraces cultural and linguistic plurality, technology, and multimodalities (combining modes such as visual, audio, gestural, and spatial, to convey meaning).
What are multiliteracies? What does it have to do with intergenerational learning? Why should seniors be concerned about it? Where to start?
Learning new things and sharing your learning becomes especially important in the senior years and may be closely linked with one’s identities. Let us explore, as a group, why developing multiliteracies is so important as we age. Group study provides opportunities to talk through ideas with and teach others and, consequently, better master the material oneself.
FOCUSED WALK & AFTERWORDS
Writing How Place Feels
In this program, we will enable seniors and youth to engage with the natural and architectural worlds in their community through focused walking. The activity can be done alone or in small groups (with social distancing). Each walk will have at least one imagination-focused question, challenge, or activity. This activity is intended to enhance participants' relationship to the place where they live.
After focused walking, participants will write a poem or "haiku" (composed of only 3 lines in a 5, 7, 5 pattern - a short-form originally from Japan). Archived writings by participants will be shared in the Wabi Sabi Map (GIS map).
EVOCATIVE SOUNDS
Improving aural awareness
in intergenerational relationships
The broad premise of this residency is to use music education techniques to improve listening and aural discernment abilities when youth and seniors are connecting with each other. Borrowing from the field of acoustic ecology, it aims to provide the opportunity to focus on the sound environment, which we would otherwise take for granted, for the development of ethics, aesthetics, and personal knowledge. The ability to listen effectively and be conscious of our interpretations of the information from our sound environments are universal and could provide keys to developing cross-cultural and intergenerational learning.
GRAPHIC MEDICINE ON AGING
ConTEXT Connection - Thinking through study drawing of gestures
This program will allow senior and youth participants to engage in social and emotional learning through copy drawings of human or non-human primate gestures (drawn by many great artists, like Goya). Gestures, since they are kinaesthetically close to both kinetic action and the symbolic level, can change how we (and others) think and speak, and may have played a central role in developing the human ability to think and speak.
After copying the drawings, participants will explore their experiences with ageism or productive aging. They will add texts and make graphic medicine (visual memes) as a way to communicate and learn about aging, ageism, and productive aging. This is designed to enhance their awareness of the connection between action, gesture, and thought.
QUESTION CRAFTING
Developing Your Ikigai & Intergenerational Literacy
What is your Ikigai, a Japanese concept that means "reason for being"?
It is important to begin conversations between seniors and youth, and between local government and the community, to gather ideas on how to make their neighborhood or city a better place to live.
Participants will create an Instagram-like feed of pictures, quotes, articles, and opinion pieces to help educate themselves and others in becoming activists in their communities.
A NEW LITERACY
A conversation with Oliver Hockenhull
Oliver Hockenhull, a filmmaker, theorist, and media artist, will host a series of community conversations on digital transformation.
ESSAY COLLECTIONS PUBLISHING
VACS Director Daniel Conrad
Our Director, Daniel Conrad offers editorial support for publishing the essay collections of Project Terakoya.
STORYGAMI
Stories help us understand and discover more about the world around us. Origami, from the Japanese words oru (to fold) and kami (paper), characterized by open-access folding patterns and sequences passed down orally or anonymously from generation to generation, is being used today as a form of art as well as a more interdisciplinary investigation into creativity in both art and science. We will document some great examples put forth by the artists and scientists in our circle.
SUPPORT
Funding & Community Collaborators
