This coming Friday we are hosting an art exhibit at Dana Commons at Clark University with food provided by One Love Cafe. Live music, street photography, graffiti, food, dialogue.

Here is a Flash and HTML gallery of the photos that will be featured at the exhibit.

See full Flash or HTML gallery.

“Art –like the Self– is a dialogue between the Self and the Other.

How Did We Get Here?

We started back in September, 2007 as two groups, struggling to find a connection. One was a group of Clark first year students taking a seminar on Communication and Culture. The other was a group of students at the Worcester Boys and Girls Club, who signed up for something unclear like “Street Photography Project.” Mike Harris, one of the Clark seminar students, describes our progress this way.

I remember the look of curiosity on one young boy’s face when he saw me holding a camera. He approached me after our boys and girls club meeting, and told me he wanted to take a picture. I walked him and another boy outside and into an abandoned field, all of us strapped with toy (cheap-o, disposable) cameras. At first he snapped a few pictures in a row without thought, but as the remaining pictures ran out, he began to take it more seriously, carefully inspecting his picture through the viewfinder and showing his world in the way that he saw it. That’s kind of what this experience has been all about. In the beginning, we all were just going through the motions. But as the film ran out and our time with kids ran out, our efforts become much more focused. The kids of Main South started looking at their world and reproducing it to show us their view and we started paying more attention to the strengths of these kids as they took us and their work to heart.

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What Does it All Mean?

For the Clark seminar students, academic readings and studies became ironically empowering tools to analyze experiences. Empowering because they found new uses for theoretical tools with which to address reality; ironic in that those very tools hindered gut instincts and clouded judgment. Over analysis often ends in fruitless discussion. Yet, this highlights the distinction between academic theory (doctrine) and practice – idealism and reality – speculation and actualization.





Clark students made as many connections between the abstract and concrete as they did between “Clark” and “Main South.” Art became the link. Photography around the neighborhood and spray painting with Ali brought kids together. This connection is the basis for both the theory and practice we are trying to engage with: representation.

Project Goals

One of the many goals of MainSouthSpeaks is to promote self-representation. We hope the effort that brought together this exhibit will help bring together Main South and Clark. Main South Speaks aims to speak with Clark not at Clark. It aims to create speech by and for local kids, not speech about them. We aim for a two-way dialogue.

Whose Art is on Display?

The Clark students have spent a great deal of time wondering just how mutually beneficial this relationship truly was. When does a helping hand become more than just “help”? Motivation and ownership are underlying principles that must be considered to understand the purpose and effects of this exhibit.





One of goals of this project, and of MainSouthSpeaks is to promote representation, but “promotion” can have several effects, not all of which are beneficial. Here’s one example of this. The goal of this project was to support, encourage, and result in equal representation. And even though all the participants — Clark students and members of the Boys and Girls Club —were out taking photos of the same neighborhood, side by side, the playing field was not even. Several of the Clark students brought their own digital cameras which produced higher quality photos than the throw-aways the Main South students were using. As a result, a higher proportion of the photos selected for this exhibit were taken by Clark students.





When does promotion become a repressive force? Ownership is one answer, and so we must first ask ourselves: to whom does the project belong and to what extent? How much should both parties be involved? Should everyone involved in the project be represented, or should only the “best” pieces be chosen?





When does promotion become a repressive force? Ownership is one answer, and so we must first ask ourselves: to whom does the project belong and to what extent? How much should both parties be involved? Should everyone involved in the project be represented, or should only the “best” pieces be chosen? We’ve tried to balance representation with artistic quality in terms of whose voices get heard. Were we successfully in this respect? Perhaps, but it isn’t something that can be easily measured.

The Nature of Art: Graffiti as beautification or vandalism?

The nature of the art must also be addressed. Negative connotations associated with graffiti conflict with positive generalizations of art overall. Some call it beautification; some call it illegal vandalism. Yet, personal perceptions are irrelevant when considering the nature of the art itself: the message is promoted through the fact that it is art. Regardless of the context of each painting or photograph, the decontextualized art signifies that cooperation took place. These pieces represent a cooperative, communal process.

The Subjectivity of Photography

The photographs in this exhibit are powerful tools of representation because they are not obscured through subjectivity as paintings are. While graffiti is an embodiment of the artist’s mental concept, a photograph is a direct and perfect representation of the reality it presents. This way, photographs taken of straight-forward objects, such as trash, will have a similar effect on its viewers.





The photograph of trash on the street below a STOP sign is about trash. We took it because we want to spread the word about recycling and littering. Anyone who views the photograph will realize this, and, hopefully, recognize our message. But trash is not the only thing we photographed. Pictures were taken of fences, people, old buildings, streets, and the list goes on.

Each photograph has its own original perspective on Main South, and Main South is exactly what it attempts to represent. While photography does nave a straight-forward aspect, there is the artistic side as well. In this case, it functions like a painting; it is the photographer’s unique perspective of reality. Street photography serves not only to represent ourselves, but to demonstrate our values and break down barriers through the connective and transformative properties of art.

Final Thoughts

Despite our skepticism, the pieces exhibited here cannot be denied. Progress was made. Although art itself signifies progress, the context of the art is important as well. In this case perception is of the utmost significance. Beautification and illegality conflict with one another, and it is this conflict that we explore.





Creating a solution to this conflict is not feasible within the limitations of time, manpower, and resources within this semester alone; but analyzing the complex, interconnected processes which create tension and conflict are within our capabilities. At the core of perception, the way we see and interpret things, are the theoretical tools the Clark students learned in class.




But it is more than just a class. It’s more than just a name and it’s more than just a technical identification (CRN 23428, if you really must know) used to simply designate a set number of credit hours to yet another course within the Clark curricula. It, the Clark students, involved community members, youth from the Boys and Girls Club, have become an integral part of MainSouthSpeaks.




Main South SpMainSouthSpeaks is more than the folks who are a part of it – and its more than a website. MainSouthSpeaks is a cumulative attempt at fair representation, and the pieces that are displayed here attest to this. But who are we to say what Main South Speaks means, what Main South Speaks aims to do, and what and where Main South really even is?

Look at the exhibit, log onto the website, and speak for yourself.