Lego my politics!

With the emergence of the Tea Party and Occupy, American politics has undergone a renaissance, for lack of a better term, centered on direct action and live protest. Regardless of what one thinks of either movement, both have had an impact on political discourse and practice. This unexpected revival has ushered in emergent and resurgent forms of creative engagement with the people, which is to say that form is as important as content, especially in an age of ubiquitous media.

In line with this reawakening, students in POLS385: American Politics were asked to select a contemporary socio-political issue and articulate the discourse surrounding said issue utilizing a lego mini-figure. The choice to use legos for this project has as much to do with an Occupy LEGO Land protest as it does with Rancière's claim that "Politics itself is not the exercise of power or struggle for power. Politics is first of all the configuration of a space as political, the framing of a specific sphere of experience, the setting of objects posed as 'common' and of subjects to whom the capacity is recognized to designate these objects and discuss about them" (Rancière, 2006).

As Rancière observes, politics has everything to do with the aesthetic experiences, including legos, and sensory provocations. In the spirit of creative engagement, each student will post a picture of their minifigure as well as their paper. QR codes, which will be posted on the back of each mini-figure, will provide a link to their paper. 

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated, so post your comments and/or please email me if you would like to learn more about the class or Political Science at UHM.

with much aloha,

john

johnswee@hawaii.edu