Reflective Analysis on The Interplay of Human and Nunhuman Realities in Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia (Ionescu, A. 2010)
I chose to do my reflective analysis on this article because I feel comfortable relating to the concept of objects due to my work in museums, and my time in early childhood learning spaces. My work in museums introduced me to the cultural importance of collecting, and my work with the Reggio Emilia method has led me to an appreciation of material culture both highlighting the importance of aesthetics and presenting the objects in ways that showcase their importance and elevate their significance. For the rest of the articles we have looked at thus far, my knowledge has been fairly limited, but with this article I am better able to analyze its content and it’s purpose. I was excited to begin my analysis, but I hit my first roadblock: Where is it? I read these articles yesterday, and closed my computer, now I am completely lost – Where are they? They are not in “communication” they are not in “resources”, not in the “audio lectures” I remember it was a downloadable google doc. BUT WHERE?!?!?! After an hour, I found it in the “discussion” section. My nerves and my feelings of defeat led me to an uncontrollable giggle fit the next 45 minutes -recalling what we had learned about how Derrida and other derridians gather information from many different places. Their discombobulated method of presenting information is a reflection of the message itself – information needs to be gathered and disseminated and understood under different contexts. This was particularly funny, as I just moved – I am exhausted from reorganizing my own life in a new city and my new apartment, tired of looking for the things I need when I need them. I am having the same struggles with this website and I am wondering if this is a lesson, most of the articles we have looked at in class have been long winded and (thorough? maybe thorough). We discussed how Derrida and derridians slowly meander through a topic. I see the website for this class is much the same and that lesson has made me laugh.
Back to the article, I am tempted to write about the similarities between the lessons in the article about post humanist my own struggles beginning with the lessons on interspecies empathy (the Academics: my professor and my classmates, and the non academic: Me.) particularly the description of one species having an “(in)capasity for language”. I feel so distant from my classmates that we might as well be different species! The points in this seccion expand to focus on animals and this point no longer applies..
The next lesson in the article was about objects having “thing-power” – this was the most relevant for me and the work that I do. I enjoyed the connections between the mundaneness of the everyday objects, their juxtaposition with the elements and illustrations in the book and their message about our world and our human need to connect to objects, or “non human elements”. The revelation that someone out there is studying material culture and children’s literature in this fashion (its connection to posthumanism) is making me want to explode with joy. My undergrad began in psychology, educational psychology and finally fine arts and art education. I was never able to study the theory of children’s literature, it just did not come up. What a revelation! Prior to reading this article I thought I knew a lot about our human connection to objects, but this is an entry point that I had yet to discover! When I started MAIS I was sure I would walk out with a briefcase in hand and march my way to a corporate office to do institutional learning. Maybe there is more in my future and I don’t have to end one chapter to start a completely different one.
Ionescu, A. (2021) The Interplay of Human and Nonhuman Realities in Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia. Configurations 29(3) 267-287