Spaces & Exchanges

The Idea of Progress

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Notion: Spaces & Exchanges

- The First Thanksgiving, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1915)
- A cartoon: "Plymouth Rock" Jeff Parker (2006)
- Personal Document: The Rocket's take-off

Notion: The Idea of Progress

- Illegal Gender Selection in India
- A Long Journey
- Personal Document: A computer

LVA

To illustrate the idea of progress in the field of mentalities and societal progress, I will comment upon the following document:
- A Long Journey, which is made of three pictures telling about the story of Afro-Americans and their long fight to get a similar status to that of White Americans.

Picture 1: represents black people, slaves actually. What is awful in this picture is that they are chained to one another by the neck, like animals.
We can guess that they have been beaten by their master, they look preoccupied.
The black slaves were taken to work as field slaves on big plantations. For example, tabac or cotton plantations in Southern America. Or maybe they works as servants in the big houses of their masters.
We can notice that the young man on the right of the picture keeps a garden tools on his hand.

Picture 2: deals with a demonstration. We can see a lot of Black people in the street holding placards to get a job like White people. So it is obviously a demonstration against job discrimination. Among these Black people and in the front we can see Martin Luther King who was one of the most famous Black activist in the history of the USA. So the scene is supposed to represent the long march of Black people that took place in Washington, D.C, on August 1963 when they claimed jobs civil rights for all of them.
On that day Martin Luther King made his famous speech: "I have a dream". He was a very charismatic character, a lawyer as well as a Baptist minister.
At that time Black people were strongly discriminated, especially in the southern states of America. A lot of places: restaurants, buses, schools, universities were forbidden to them. (It is Jim Crow Laws)
So they wanted to be treated equally with the Whites and during the 1960's there was a vast movement which led to a lot of changes in favour of black people.
Besides that, among those Black people, there is a white man, a clergyman too, who is walking next to Martin Luther King. So, there was also White people who participate at that march.

Picture 3: shows Barrack Obama during a political meeting there are people who hold placards whith his name on it. The scene takes place during his presidential campaign in the year 2008. The fact that a black man could be elected as the President of the USA is proof of a change in American mentality. As we said previously, 40 years before in the South of the US most Black people were not allowed to eat, drink, sleep or study in the same buildings or rooms as white people. In this picture, Black people as well as White people are supporting him and trying to check hands with him. They believe in him and support him.

To come to a conclusion, so as we have seen those three pictures sum up the evolution of mentalities in the US. The long journey that Black people have made from the time they arrived in America as slaves to the moment when a Black president was elected, represent in the better way the idea of societal progress.
That long and tough fight has led to a fantastic rise of their social status.

LVA

(Doc: The Computer)

To illistrate the notion of progress, I have chosen The Computer. In my opinion, it is the invention which demonstrates in the better way the evolution of technologie and the way to work.
With a computer, in few seconds we can get informations about everything, so thanks to it we can work more faster than before.
Plus, thanks to the computer we can also do other things, it is not just to work. We can listen music, to play videogames, to share photos, to watch movies and to talk with our family.
In deed, with a computer we can talk with people who live in a different counrty, around the world. This invention makes people closer. For example, my uncle who is a soldier when he was in Afghanistan, I could talk with him with Skype. So, it is an invention which helps people to stay together in a certain way, even if there is the distance.
Furthermore, in the same way the computer cans separate people. This tool influences some people to stay alone, we can call that the "bad aspects" of this invention. For example, there is an awful expression to talk about that. The "Hardcore Gamer" who are people who play videogames for hours. They play 20 hours and the rest of the time they sleep. So this invention cans also be destructive for some individuals.

To come to a conclusion, we have seen that the computer cans illustrate the notion of progress. On the one hand as all inventions it brings some goods things, as I have said: to work faster, to stay closer with our familty, to have fun and on the other hand this invention cans seperate people and to ruin some lives.

LVA

(Painting: The First Thanksgiving)

To start with, I would like to introduce the notion of Exchange because it can be dealt with in various fields. Indeed, when we pronounce the word "exchange" it calls forth a continuous movement of circulation of goods, business, trade, etc... But that notion of circulation can also be illustrated in the movement of people going from one place to another, one country to another: Emigration for instance illustrates that notion very well.
That's why I have chosen to focus on a document called "The First Thanksgiving" by Ferris because it represents the first step of emigration and exchanges from the "Old World" (England), to the New World...

In this document, we can notice two groups of people. On the left hand side, a group of native Americans (Indians) are squatting on the ground. In the foreground, one of them is wearing a head-band with feathers. He is bare-chested and wearing pants made of deerskin. He may be the leader of the Indian Tribe.
In front of him, a woman dressed with a bonnet, a long dress and an apron is offering food to him. The Indian man is taking a piece of what looks like a turkey.
Behind this woman there is a clergyman with another dish in his hands. And on the right-hand side there's a group of white people. Among them there's soldier wearing a helmet and a sword, and there's a nobleman on the very left who seems to be holding a feather in his hand. He may want to write something about that day of celebration called Thanksgiving. It was meant to share a meal with the local natives to thanks them for their help.
The first celebration took place in 1621 after the settlers first harvest which was very successful.
These white people represent the first settlers who arrived from England in 1620 to settle in North America. They were called "The Pilgrim Fathers". They fled from their country of origin (England) because of religious persecutions and eventually crossed the Atlantic ocean on "The Mayflower" to build a new religious community in the English colonies (which became the USA in 1776).
There they wished to enjoy religious freedom and hoped to live according to their puritan beliefs. When they arrived there, the living conditions were very tough. Fortunately the natives gave them a hand and taught them to grow corn, barley, and to go hunting and fishing in this new environment. Thanks to that help, the colonists managed to survive and extend their community...

To conclude, I would say that this painting is a good illustration of the notion "Spaces & Exchanges" because it deals with the act of sharing food between two peoples who represent two different cultures. This act of sharing food also stands for an act of faith.
However, we cannot help remembering that this kind of exchanges linked to emigration has brought about major issues: the eradication of one culture for the benefit of another, the extermination of millions of people... so what at first appeared as a positive move (sharing food with the natives as a means of being grateful to them) ended up with the encroachment on their lands and a deliberate will to exterminate them.

LVA
(Cartoon: Plymouth Rock)

To speak about the notion of Spaces & Exchanges, we can also deal with this document called: "Plymouth Rock", dated from 2006 and drawn by Jeff Parker. It is a cartoon which tells about emigration and more precisely about the arriving of new immigrants (Puritans) on the American land. The first immigrants came from England in 1620 and fled from their country of origin. They were called the Pilgrim Fathers. They wished to create a new country where they could live according to their christian beliefs. They refused the beliefs of the Anglican Church (The reformed Church of England).
So they decided to go to America and they etablished a new community there which is referred to as the "Plymouth Community". Plymouth Rock is the symbol of the place where they decided to build their settlement.

In this cartoon, there are two parts:
In the foreground, we can see a canoe filled with people who are dressed like the first pilgrim fathers. They must be new immigrants from England who make up their minds to join the Plymouth Community. They represented the old world.
In the background, we can notice a few American natives who are building a high wall. One of them is standing. He is watching the canoe approaching and he looks rather aggressive. The natives are clearly reticent to accept new immigrants on their territory. This wooden fence stands for the border between two worlds. It is meant to prevent new immigrants from disembarking and from invading Indian territories.
The caption underneath the drawing reveals the thoughts of the natives towards the new immigrants. The natives reproach them for not assimiliting very well. They blame them for not learning their language. They accuse them of not assimilating into their culture. So, to sum up they deny this new culture coming up from the Old World and while building this high wall, they try to protect themselves.
Such an attitude is quite the opposite of the Indians attitude when the first Pilgrim Fathers settled on the American soil. As we saw before in the document named "The First Thanksgiving" the Indians were very helpful and kind with the first English pilgrims. They had helped them.
Ironically, in this document the natives are adopting the attitude of the current American authorities who have built a high wall at the American-Mexican border to stop the immigration from South-America.

As a conclusion, I would say that this document is a caricature of the attitude of today's US immigration officials.
Besides, the constant flow of people from Europe to the English colonies which originally were Indian territories, brought about the Indians wrath and rebellion. As a time went by more and more Europeans emigrated to America and although the natives tried to protect themselves, their territories were quickly invaded and confiscated. Indians were almost exterminated or sent to Indian reservations and their culture gradually disappear.
In this document, the cartoonist criticizes the positive vision that the word "exchanges" calls forth. He ironically alludes to all the problems triggered off by emigration, and xenophobia is only one of them.

LVA

To illistrate the notion of Spaces & Exchanges, I have chosen a photo of a rocket taking off.
Thanks to this invention we are able to travel in the universe and maybe in some decades our technologie will help us to travel futher and maybe to discover some new planets.
The reason of this choice is, according me, one day the humanity will be able to visit other planet and why not to make some exchange with the other occupants of the universe. It sounds crazy but we have to be optimistic.
We will be able to share our knowledge with them.
Moreover, if we can discover some new planets we will exploit them and may be live there.