Lisa Erdman
Pushing pills with public pedagogy: Satirical pharmaceutical advertising as a site of political dialogue in Finland
This paper addresses the question of how we might understand and discuss interventionist art as a site of public pedagogy. The discussion centers around “Finnexia®” a performance-based multimedia advertisement campaign for a (fictitious) medication that helps people learn the Finnish language. The Finnexia® intervention aims to generate public dialogue about the acquisition of the Finnish language and the experience of the foreigner in Finland. The project also presents a satirical commentary on medicalization and the popularization of pill-based methods for the treatment of ailments.
This paper looks at the pedagogical possibilities of Finnexia®, through its use of satire and performative methods of social engagement. The author situates this intervention as an art event that became a form of public pedagogy. The theoretical framework for discussion draws on what Elizabeth Ellsworth calls, “anomalous” place of learning, (i.e. public art, museums, architectural sites), or spaces of learning that are not easily categorized pedagogically. In such spaces, Ellsworth defines pedagogical experience as experimental; as a radical relationship “to one’s self, to others, and to the world”. As a result, the pedagogical experience becomes one of knowledge “in the making”, rather one based on fixed or pre-determined curricula. The paper also discusses what Jack Richardson calls “contingent communities” in which an art intervention generates a unique, temporary community centered around the very discourse it creates within an existing site. These contingent communities, I argue, hold the potential for transformative dialogue between artist, performers and public.
Through this discussion, the following questions arise: 1) What are the criteria for the creation of critical moments of learning within interventionist art? 2) Who is the teacher and who is the learner within this environment? The analysis includes a visual and textual first-hand reflection by the author and participants (performers and audience), on interventionist art as a site for political dialogue.
Bio
Lisa Erdman (U.S.A) is an artist and doctoral candidate at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture in Helsinki. Using corporate parody and satirical humor, her multimedia work explores the politics of gender, race, and cultural identity. Erdman is interested in examining the internal and external mechanisms that shape our personal identities and sense of cultural reality. Her work borrows from surrealism, political satire, science fiction, and absurdist performative strategies reminiscent of Dada, Adbusters, and the Situationist International group. Lisa Erdman's holds a Bachelor of Science in Dance, Interarts & Technology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. For more information on Erdman's earlier works, see www.lisaerdman.com.