16 YEARS LATER... Finding ways to locate 'fear' at the center... and a new critical theory/pedagogy...
In 2002 I had done a series of 71 of these "platinum plates" for my arts-based arational component of my dissertation: "Fearless Leadership In and Out of the 'Fear' Matrix" (UBC). This particular plate/collage image I created from the standard campus map, and re-converted it to my own 'narrative' of the kind of liberational university I fantasized would be some day, with a "place" for Fear as central to the education and the buildings and support for fearanalysis etc.
So, my red circled building is the actual Education (Scarfe Bldg.) on The University of British Columbia campus... I attended most of my classes there in my masters and doctoral degrees in Education (1998-2003). The interesting thing I reflect on right now is that I actually was creating the first mapping (as an institutional imaginary) for an Institute of Fearanalysis... which, eventually since then has gone through several morphs and failures, and re-visions... blueprints... as I keep finding alternatives to the mainstream higher education that is going on and is so out of synch with the demands of the times, the 21st century, post-9/11 era, and so out of touch with the Anthropocene context.
The very earliest actuality of my vision for a Fear University of the liberational kind... based on fearlessness... etc. was my venture in 1990-91 in beginning, with Barbara Bickel, the In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute and center in Calgary, AB. Then the past 2 years I have had different images and blueprints floating in my imagination filled with desire to find a "form" that could sustain itself and work. The latest iteration is The Fearology Institute, now with four students, from around the world, and more in the wings interested to join. So, I wanted to share this 'map' above to show you sometimes how long it takes to bring a vision together, even in the most humble outcome, and most minimal impact on the world... patience is no. 1, I believe, on the path of fearlessness... and to be a true visionary.
p.s. oh, if you are wondering what the DCFV letters represent, they are my "big four" concepts that stand for: DOMINATION, CONFLICT, FEAR, VIOLENCE... upon which I began to formulate in 1998 in the early stages of my masters degree in adult education (also at UBC).
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