Artwork for podcast PowerPivot
liminality and pictures
Episode 2929th August 2022 • PowerPivot • Leela Sinha
00:00:00 00:13:15

Share Episode

Shownotes

Transcripts

Leela Sinha:

Hi, everyone, thanks for tuning in. This

Leela Sinha:

morning, I'm thinking about an article I read about photography

Leela Sinha:

from an indigenous perspective, and the language of photography:

Leela Sinha:

of taking, capturing, shooting, and the gun-like violence

Leela Sinha:

embedded in that. And I'm thinking about one of my oldest

Leela Sinha:

friends, who when he talks about creating photography talks about

Leela Sinha:

making a photograph. I never really thought about that. And I

Leela Sinha:

don't know if he learned that at art school, or if he learned

Leela Sinha:

that inside himself. But it would fit his deep gentleness.

Leela Sinha:

Making a photograph. And in this article, they talked about the

Leela Sinha:

ways in which indigeneity has had to re-encounter photography

Leela Sinha:

in this modern context, in this colonized world. And what it

Leela Sinha:

means to decolonize photography, starting with the definitions of

Leela Sinha:

decolonization, and the definitions of photography, and

Leela Sinha:

how we do it, and what we do it with, and what it means to make

Leela Sinha:

a photograph about a thing. And liminality. And they talked,

Leela Sinha:

there was this one sentence where they said, that "men and

Leela Sinha:

women and LGBTQIA plus people" as though that was a whole

Leela Sinha:

separate category And I felt this click in myself, and

Leela Sinha:

thought, yes, yes, that to me, queerness is a word to describe

Leela Sinha:

personal liminality. But it's also more than that it's a...

Leela Sinha:

it's a... it's its own place. I talk about being genderqueer.

Leela Sinha:

But even using the word gender attached to queer makes it feel

Leela Sinha:

like I have to somehow genderize my queerness; like there's a a

Leela Sinha:

way that I have to describe myself as tugged between two

Leela Sinha:

bodies, when in fact there is no "between two" to be tugged. I am

Leela Sinha:

all of those things that people think are masculine and

Leela Sinha:

feminine. And I am not many of the things that people think are

Leela Sinha:

masculine and/or feminine. And... and. And. It is the most

Leela Sinha:

embedded part of my identity in the way that I know men who say

Leela Sinha:

that they are "so men," and women who believe that their

Leela Sinha:

whole me-ness is wrapped around womanhood. And I never

Leela Sinha:

understood that. But I do understand my whole self being

Leela Sinha:

queer. And I'm thinking about the way that queerness and the

Leela Sinha:

concept of queering things which came into common usage, just

Leela Sinha:

about the time I was coming through college. I was

Leela Sinha:

privileged to be able to be at a college that offered some of the

Leela Sinha:

first formalized Queer Studies classes. And I was privileged to

Leela Sinha:

be able to take them, and to start to reconceive my entire

Leela Sinha:

academic and intellectual journey with this centeredness

Leela Sinha:

of queerness. And now, of course, I sit and try and queer

Leela Sinha:

everything around me because otherwise it doesn't fit me, it

Leela Sinha:

doesn't suit me, or it doesn't interact with me, like it's

Leela Sinha:

okay, that some things around me aren't queer. And some things

Leela Sinha:

are truly neutral. They don't, they don't need queerness

Leela Sinha:

embedded in them in order for them to be for me. But so many

Leela Sinha:

things need that element of me in them somehow; need to know

Leela Sinha:

how to talk to being not just outside the lines, but outside

Leela Sinha:

of everything normative and expected and simultaneously,

Leela Sinha:

deeply normative and expected. Like this is a thing that has a

Leela Sinha:

place in our culture, and I belong here. And when I take

Leela Sinha:

this idea, this thought, this practice of queerness into work,

Leela Sinha:

I can't help but remember my internship supervisor, Brian

Leela Sinha:

Kopke. I hope he's resting and painting and walking and playing

Leela Sinha:

his flute well, by which I mean deeply and without any regard

Leela Sinha:

for what other people think of it.

Leela Sinha:

I think of my internship supervisor, and how he

Leela Sinha:

introduced me to the idea of doing our supervisory meetings

Leela Sinha:

at this sandpit that had been converted to a dog park on the

Leela Sinha:

edge of town. And so we would take his baby Golden Retriever

Leela Sinha:

puppy and get in his car and start talking as we drove to the

Leela Sinha:

sandpit. And then we would walk and walk through the trees and

Leela Sinha:

up and down and through the gorse. And talk and talk and

Leela Sinha:

talk and laugh at the dog as she got muddy, and got curious and

Leela Sinha:

scrambled in and under and over and around things. And we would

Leela Sinha:

walk and talk. And then when we were done, we would walk back to

Leela Sinha:

the car and towel off the dog and get back in the car and

Leela Sinha:

drive back to the beautiful church building, and go back to

Leela Sinha:

the rest of our work. But what I learned from that, more than

Leela Sinha:

that I like walking in the woods with a dog, and that that's a

great way to get things, moving:

:

thoughts and ideas and feelings

great way to get things, moving:

:

and practices that maybe aren't moving in the stillness of the

great way to get things, moving:

:

office, it's also a great way to get actual privacy. And it's

great way to get things, moving:

:

also a great way as it turns out, for someone with ADHD, to

great way to get things, moving:

:

get a lot more focus on what his intern is saying. He made no

great way to get things, moving:

:

secret of it. What I learned from that is that sometimes the

great way to get things, moving:

:

work is better done interleaved with other things in the world.

great way to get things, moving:

:

Sometimes two things do go together, even if they don't

great way to get things, moving:

:

look like they do. Sometimes, you don't know what wisdom is

great way to get things, moving:

:

waiting for you in the middle. Which, you know, actually, I

great way to get things, moving:

:

knew I had known for a long time. This was not unfamiliar. I

great way to get things, moving:

:

did an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree. I was

great way to get things, moving:

:

constantly connecting and reconnecting one subject matter

great way to get things, moving:

:

area to another until finally I just made it official. And the

great way to get things, moving:

:

reason that this is up for me now is that I think it is time

great way to get things, moving:

:

for us to think about what we need to interleave what we need

great way to get things, moving:

:

to mix what we need to weave together what we need to

great way to get things, moving:

:

uncompartmentalize. As leaders, it is very tempting to expect

great way to get things, moving:

:

and hope that people will compartmentalize themselves and

great way to get things, moving:

:

their lives, that they will leave their feelings out of the

great way to get things, moving:

:

workplace, that they will leave their work at work and go home

great way to get things, moving:

:

to things that are not related to their work. But if you have

great way to get things, moving:

:

ever stayed up late tossing and turning about the passion of

great way to get things, moving:

:

your life, which is also your livelihood, you know that that

great way to get things, moving:

:

is not a thing. And so we just try to pretend that it's a thing

great way to get things, moving:

:

for some reason that I can't figure out. And instead, what if

great way to get things, moving:

:

we recognize the deep integration of everything with

great way to get things, moving:

:

everything, which is how life works. When people get pregnant,

great way to get things, moving:

:

humans, our bodies swell, and change and rewire to favor the

great way to get things, moving:

:

fetus over the health of the gestating parent. And what does

great way to get things, moving:

:

that mean concretely? It means that if your fetus wants to, it

great way to get things, moving:

:

has the power to kill you. And that is one of the reasons why

great way to get things, moving:

:

we only carry our fetuses for nine months. Because it would be

great way to get things, moving:

:

a lot more logical developmentally, if we carried

great way to get things, moving:

:

them for twelve. But if we carried them for twelve, they

great way to get things, moving:

:

would take so many of the resources from the parent that

great way to get things, moving:

:

the parent would die before the fetus was born. And so our

great way to get things, moving:

:

compromise is kind of like a kangaroo. We carry them around

great way to get things, moving:

:

on the outside for the next three months. We are wired

great way to get things, moving:

:

deeply with our environments, into our environment. And it is

great way to get things, moving:

:

true that we extract resources from our environments, but we

great way to get things, moving:

:

have to do it in a way that doesn't kill them or us. And we

great way to get things, moving:

:

are wired deeply into our businesses. When we found

great way to get things, moving:

:

something, we are integral to it and it is integral to us at the

great way to get things, moving:

:

beginning. And yes, our goal is to create something independent

great way to get things, moving:

:

that can run around the world without us. That will

great way to get things, moving:

:

potentially carry on after we're gone. And in order to create

great way to get things, moving:

:

something that is truly sustainable, we have to remember

great way to get things, moving:

:

our deep interconnection with it and it's deep interconnection

great way to get things, moving:

:

with us and that is on the macro and the micro level. So in

great way to get things, moving:

:

addition to that deep interconnection out there, the

great way to get things, moving:

:

big one, the what is the purpose of your business? And is it

great way to get things, moving:

:

destroying the world? Or is it nourishing it? question. There

great way to get things, moving:

:

is also the small question, the set of small questions, the

great way to get things, moving:

:

question of how do we make our lives and our being and the way

great way to get things, moving:

:

that we are in our business, be sustainable, be deeply

great way to get things, moving:

:

integrated? How do we change from sitting in an office where

great way to get things, moving:

:

we could be overheard, and we can't really sit still. And we

great way to get things, moving:

:

can't really have our feelings, to going to the sandpit where we

great way to get things, moving:

:

can walk, and talk and shout and cry, and throw the stick for the

great way to get things, moving:

:

dog. Sometimes that is literally the solution. Sometimes you need

great way to get things, moving:

:

to take meetings off site. Sometimes you literally need to

great way to get things, moving:

:

take meetings in an unexpected environment. Sometimes you need

great way to get things, moving:

:

to do things for one another, that don't fall strictly inside

great way to get things, moving:

:

the bounds of what we think of as appropriate for business.

great way to get things, moving:

:

Sometimes we bring someone lunch or dinner. It's not your job,

great way to get things, moving:

:

but we are all each other's business. Sometimes you can't do

great way to get things, moving:

:

that. Sometimes you don't know what their needs are. Sometimes

great way to get things, moving:

:

it's just going to make it worse. Which means you have to

great way to get things, moving:

:

know each other well enough not to do that. And to leave the

great way to get things, moving:

:

space where the spaces belong. And sometimes, sometimes it

great way to get things, moving:

:

means giving someone agency and independence. Sometimes it means

great way to get things, moving:

:

explaining your reasoning so that you can give them agency

great way to get things, moving:

:

and independence. Sometimes it means admitting that there's a

great way to get things, moving:

:

little bit of a black box to the way you're running things. And

great way to get things, moving:

:

that's on purpose. And explaining what you're doing and

great way to get things, moving:

:

giving people the freedom to come or go as they need to.

great way to get things, moving:

:

Sometimes a lot of things. And sometimes it means asking

great way to get things, moving:

:

yourself what should be shared? What should be sacred and quiet?

great way to get things, moving:

:

When it is appropriate to capture something? And when you

great way to get things, moving:

:

are simply going to make a photograph.

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube