Claudia Blanco García Module 3 Cultural Studies 2020/2021
Partim Assignment 6: Failure within participatory art practices
(morning session)
Central question during webinar: in which different ways could failure become a new
beginning?
During this session I thought about what failure actually means and what it implies. In all the
stories that I heard we could identify mainly two feelings, which were embarrassment and
anxiety. However, apart from these feelings there was another thing that was common to
some of the people: that moment of failure was a turning point for them, in the sense that
they changed their mind or their behaviours regarding that situation after they failed. This
makes me think how necessary failure is to be successful in the end - which is a paradox -
because, if you never fail, you never try anything new.
When we talk about failure we talk about reflection and questioning, about moments of
evaluation and redirection. Normally people try to hide their failures because in our society
this word has a negative connotation and we are ashamed of showing other people that we
were not good enough at doing something. Ultimately this is a vicious cycle because the more
people hide it, the more we think that we are the only ones who fail. But if we changed our
minds about it we would be able to see failure as it is, an opportunity to learn from our
mistakes and find better solutions, because these moments give you a lot to think about and
encourage you to change. If we think about relevant people in history, we can’t think about
anyone who didn’t fail at some point of their careers, and without those attempts they
wouldn’t have achieved what they did.
When you fail you are more likely to see your mistakes, and this is the first step to fix them.
This means that you have another opportunity to start again and, eventually, to grow. Failing
is a sign of trying and a sign of being persistent, and this is why we should accept it and not
try to avoid it of be scared about it.
What is the most important insight that you keep after today, concerning participatory art
practices?
In this session they used failure as a connection between people. This made me think that, in
my opinion, there was a clear link between the session and the social value of arts in terms of
socialization: (participatory) arts serve as to build networks between communities, and here
they tried to engage all of us in the task and share our reflections to later on build a
conversation based on our experiences. This shows perfectly what participatory arts are and
their aim: this type or art invites people to participate in the creation of the message, instead
of passively show them the result, because in participatory arts the process is more important
than the result. This active participation has an impact on people in the sense that it’s an
opportunity for them to exchange information and also for breaking barriers.
The importance of these kind of practices goes beyond how many people passively participate
in it, but more about the impact of it on each individual. In this case, I think mental well-being
and personal growth was the key of the session, and this is actually one of the values that we
expect from (participatory) arts.
1
Partim Assignment 6: Failure within participatory art practices
(morning session)
Central question during webinar: in which different ways could failure become a new
beginning?
During this session I thought about what failure actually means and what it implies. In all the
stories that I heard we could identify mainly two feelings, which were embarrassment and
anxiety. However, apart from these feelings there was another thing that was common to
some of the people: that moment of failure was a turning point for them, in the sense that
they changed their mind or their behaviours regarding that situation after they failed. This
makes me think how necessary failure is to be successful in the end - which is a paradox -
because, if you never fail, you never try anything new.
When we talk about failure we talk about reflection and questioning, about moments of
evaluation and redirection. Normally people try to hide their failures because in our society
this word has a negative connotation and we are ashamed of showing other people that we
were not good enough at doing something. Ultimately this is a vicious cycle because the more
people hide it, the more we think that we are the only ones who fail. But if we changed our
minds about it we would be able to see failure as it is, an opportunity to learn from our
mistakes and find better solutions, because these moments give you a lot to think about and
encourage you to change. If we think about relevant people in history, we can’t think about
anyone who didn’t fail at some point of their careers, and without those attempts they
wouldn’t have achieved what they did.
When you fail you are more likely to see your mistakes, and this is the first step to fix them.
This means that you have another opportunity to start again and, eventually, to grow. Failing
is a sign of trying and a sign of being persistent, and this is why we should accept it and not
try to avoid it of be scared about it.
What is the most important insight that you keep after today, concerning participatory art
practices?
In this session they used failure as a connection between people. This made me think that, in
my opinion, there was a clear link between the session and the social value of arts in terms of
socialization: (participatory) arts serve as to build networks between communities, and here
they tried to engage all of us in the task and share our reflections to later on build a
conversation based on our experiences. This shows perfectly what participatory arts are and
their aim: this type or art invites people to participate in the creation of the message, instead
of passively show them the result, because in participatory arts the process is more important
than the result. This active participation has an impact on people in the sense that it’s an
opportunity for them to exchange information and also for breaking barriers.
The importance of these kind of practices goes beyond how many people passively participate
in it, but more about the impact of it on each individual. In this case, I think mental well-being
and personal growth was the key of the session, and this is actually one of the values that we
expect from (participatory) arts.
1
