Graphic Recording for Peace Work in Popular Culture

Originally, this post served as my final research paper for the course ‘Popular Culture as History’ which I took while on Nordlys exchange at Uppsala University, Sweden. I had been looking into graphic recording for some time in the framework of my thesis (see the previous post), and wanted to consider this novel practice in the context of both popular culture and peace for that course. The text is unchanged from what was submitted as the final assignment. (By the way, I got a “VG” for the course – meaning “pass with distinction” - in that case the highest grade one can get.) The course was offered by the History Department of Uppsala University. It consisted of a series of weekly seminars (no lectures!), where students critically discussed ideas from weekly readings. More often than not, the weekly reading task would be to read a whole book (perhaps with small written tasks or other short readings). I vividly remember discussing my idea for the final paper with a group of enthusiastic students. It always surprised me what they were busy thinking about with regards to popular culture (and other matters). It turned out, hardly anyone had heard about ‘graphic recording’ before the discussion. So I decided to share….

Graphic recordings from the 2nd International Young Women in Mediation Forum. Created by Rebian Atieno and Seise Bagbo. Photo taken by Yelyzaveta Glybchenko in Nairobi, Kenya, January 2020.

Graphic Recording for Peace Work in Popular Culture

Graphic recording is a visual artistic activity, whereby an artist creates live illustrations of ideas and discussions while speakers present them. Graphic recording, or otherwise live illustration, has been on the rise in the recent years in the spheres of event organization and management. I have attended several events where graphic recording was used: TEDxTampereUniversity 2019: Realizing Utopias, 2^nd International Young Women in Mediation Forum 2020: Women in Arts for Peace, and the World Youth Assembly on Road Safety 2020. I was intrigued by graphic recording, its role in the events and most importantly its potential to contribute to the ideas developed in the course of those events. In this research project, I analyze graphic recording as part of peace work in popular culture using as an example one of the illustrations created during the 2^nd International Young Women in Mediation Forum 2020.

Introduction: What is graphic recording and how does it relate to popular culture?

ImageThink defines graphic recording as “the real-time translation of conversations or presentations into text and pictures” (2017). This way, audiences have a chance to absorb information in alternative and complementary visual forms. And the live illustrator performing graphic recording appears as a master of multi-tasking: “they listen for key ideas, synthesize them, and document them in visual form” (ImageThink, 2017). The term ‘graphic recording’ is sometimes used interchangeably with the term ‘graphic facilitation’, which is conceptually erroneous. Graphic recording is about visually capturing the content presented otherwise (ConverSketch, 2017). It could be understood as a means of altered documentation. Graphic facilitation, however, implies more than recording of information. The process co-designs the event it is part of, presupposes a closer relationship with the client in articulating their goals, and works toward achieving the overall aims of the event (ConverSketch, 2017).

Practically, graphic recording is done either digitally or by hand on a large surface (white board, paper sheets, etc.) and displayed right next to the source of ideas sketched – the speaker or a panel of speakers. The drawings and techniques vary according to the content of the events as well as the preferences and styles of the live illustrators. The ratios of text to images also differ from one process of graphic recording to another, depending on how the live illustrator sees the event illustrated in the most efficient way.

Websites of graphic recording projects and teams overall claim it to contribute to ideation and creativity, engage audiences better, aid memorization, reduce complexity of information, serve to create associations, foster accountability and provide a visual reference (ImageThink, 2017; The Visual Catalyst, n.d.; Visuality, n.d.). According to Fuselight Creative (2012), graphic recording becomes especially beneficial in fostering new ideas when people arrive to meetings with their mind already made up or prepare their answers while others are speaking, thus failing to listen. While this may be a drive to advocate for the complementary effects of visualization, graphic recording as a new practice has not featured in academic research to prove those statements right or wrong.

Inviting a live illustrator to an event has been popular in the recent two or three years, which may be telling of the developments within the popular culture these days. Reflecting on the tenets of cultural studies, John Storey referred to culture as “the texts and practices of everyday life” (1996, p.2), thus making the term all-embracing. Popular culture becomes part of those everyday practices. Important within popular culture and culture in general is negotiation of meaning. The same phenomena and actions of the everyday may carry different meaning for different people, making culture a sight for possible conflict (Storey, 1996, p.4). Meanings are negotiated also through the processes of production and consumption of cultural elements. On the one hand, a produced text is consumed by a person reading it. And on the other hand, the meaning of that text is to a degree produced by the reader which is also a consumer (Storey, 1996, p.5). What is becoming ‘popular’ in culture is therefore is the topic and the result of the conversation between the consumers and producers - essentially producer-consumers – of cultural elements. Graphic recording may thus also be seen as part of popular culture in the way speakers, organizers and audience reflect on its role in the events where it is present, which has resulted in the growth of the practice.

Historical Perspective on Graphic Recording

Graphic recording as such is a fairly new practice and trend. According to Visual Facilitators, it formed as a method of visualization about 40 years ago.[1] There is some conceptual confusion around graphic recording as to a method of what exactly it actually is: illustration, visualization, facilitation. Nevertheless, if one looks into what is happening in graphic recording without advocating for its effects (as graphic recording companies cited so far have a tendency to do), it of essentially an act of illustrating key ideas from speeches and events.

As an act of illustration, and even live illustration, graphic recording could be as old as human communication (although it was not called so until recently). A renowned art-therapist Frances Kaplan, in reflecting on the process of art-making, states that art became a separate activity relatively late into the societal development (2007, pp.95-99). Before that, art had been a fundamental and mainstreamed way of interacting with the world and making sense of it. According to Kindler (2003), people since early history have developed a need for imagery as a tool to represent ideas, emotions and thoughts. Exercising this need led to the development of visual literacy, i.e. understanding of the rhetoric of visual communication, and visual vocabularies (Feldman, 1976). As such, people can be considered ‘visually intelligent’, namely able to look for constant meanings behind images and interpret the world on their basis (Kindler, 2003). As old as visual art-making is, its manifestation in the form of graphic recording presents more of a return to art-making as central to being human than an emergence of an entirely new artistic practice.

According to de la Fuente (2012, p.169), art is central to meaning-making, human relations and acquisition of knowledge. Kaplan states that art-making still fundamentally influences human activities and relations, because of how important it has been in the process of evolution (2007, pp.95-99). Evolution is essentially a history of conflict: between species, ideas and peoples, which has continued until today. Visual art-making has also played a role in the escalation and resolution of conflicts throughout time. And graphic recording, in particular, may be put to work for the peace cause.

Negotiating values: From popular culture to peace work

Graphic recording can relate to peace work in two ways: through its nature and through its content. To understand how exactly, one first needs to define ‘peace work’. Johan Galtung provides the following definition: “Peace work is work to reduce violence by peaceful means” (1996, p.9). And as the ultimate objective of peace work, peace is “nonviolent and creative conflict transformation” (Galtung, 1996, p.9).

Visual art, undoubtedly, has been used in different and contradicting ways with regards to war and peace. As such it has served as war propaganda, but also advocated for cessation of hostilities (McCarthy, 2007). A particular place in promotion of violence belongs to photography. War photography has been a profession since the Crimean War (1853-1856), and the field has produced a massive body of imagery depicting and arguably perpetuating violence (Sontag, 2002, p.86). At the same time, no such professions as ‘peace photographer’, ‘peace illustrator’ or ‘peace videographer’ exist. Neither can one point to a distinct body of imagery that could be considered to depict peace (Möller, 2017). This, of course, is partly due to how elusive the concept of peace is and how many different meanings it could have depending on who negotiates that meaning. Anyhow, Galtung’s definition of peace as “nonviolent and creative conflict transformation” (1996, p.9) could embrace lots of visualizations.

Visual art has nevertheless been found to indirectly contribute to peace. Mitchell (2019) explored the ways in which peacebuilding has been depicted in visual art. He argues that despite the complexity of the phenomenon, depictions of peacebuilding are possible and depicting peacebuilding is a peace act in itself. Such visual art inspires the viewers to think differently and imagine realities other than conflict, thus changing the terrain of ideas (p.61). Whether such change in thinking would result in peace work is a different question, which the scholar does not take on in the scope of the article. However, Möller (2020) argues that searching for images of peace ultimately contributes to establishing peace. Visualization adds legitimacy to what is visualized (Möller, 2020, p.29). If violence has been visually legitimized for centuries, visualizing peace is an act of resisting violence as a symbolic visual landscape.

Peace work and long-lasting peace are about dialogue, as the International Peace Institute highlights (n.d., p.3). And ‘dialogue’ can be understood in metaphorical terms. The dialogue can take place directly between two conflicting parties as well as indirectly between groups of people within a society or between societies. The latter may also unfold in popular culture. As such, visualizations of violence and peace may be regarded as a dialogue between the values and cultural orientations of those who contribute to the dialogue. And structurally, the dialogue is uneven. Images of violence are produced professionally and distributed, for instance, in news reports via television as well as digital and printed press. Following Storey’s logic, audiences ‘consume’ the depicted violence through these communication channels. Yet, a number of grassroots initiatives have emerged to counter such depiction and visualize peace to show what communities value over violence and what they aspire for. Examples include such organizations as Creativity for Peace and Artolution. The non-governmental organization Creativity for Peace employs visual art to promote dialogue and healing between young women from Israeli and Palestinian communities with the ultimate aim of establishing peaceful relations between the communities (Creativity for Peace). And the international public art organization Artolution uses participatory and collaborative visual art-making to connect diverse communities for the sake of working towards common goals and solving common social issues (Artolution).

Organizations like Creativity for Peace and Artolution work with certain communities, although the work of the latter spans across many countries of the world. The art of the participants of Creativity for Peace may be too personal to share with others as it may contain dear to heart or traumatic experiences that are better kept confidential and used for self-exploration. And even if the murals of Artolution are photographed and so spread online, the distribution of the pro-peace imagery is not as far- and wide-reaching as the organized distribution of violence-related imagery. And the contents of the murals may still be not so well understood outside of the context where they are created. At the same time, various events in support of peace happen all the time in different parts of the globe. If the content of those could be visualized and distributed, the ideas of peace may become more popular and perhaps translate into actions. The next section examines an attempt to visualize the discussions that unfolded during the 2nd International Young Women Mediation Forum: Women in Arts for Peace in Nairobi, Kenya, during the period of 27th – 30th January, 2020.

Graphic Recording for Peace: International Young Women Mediation Forum 2020

The first edition of the aforementioned forum was organized by International Center for Peace, Human Rights and Development-IPHRD Africa and GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit  in January 2019.  It became the first in the world platform for aspiring and senior women mediators to meet, exchange experiences and devise strategies of strengthening the presence and role of (young) women mediators in peace processes worldwide. The participants of the first forum formulated recommendations for better integration of (young) women into mediation processes, for enhancing mediation processes and for future discussions of the topics. One of the recommendations concerned increasing the employment of creative capacities within mediation processes (IPHRD-Africa, 2019,p.34). Even though the recommendations connect creativity to technology and social media, the organizers decided to focus the second forum on the potential of art across disciplines to contribute to mediation.

Important is to highlight what mediation is (and is not). According to the United Nations Guidance on Effective Mediation (2012, p.4), mediation is:

“a process whereby a third party assists two or more parties, with their consent, to prevent, manage or resolve a conflict by helping them to develop mutually acceptable agreements”.

The former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon referred to mediation as “one of the most effective methods of preventing, managing and resolving conflicts” (UN Guidance, 2012, p.1). Art has not been part of mediation processes. However, art has been present and arguably has had a considerable effect in the field of peace work, which mediation can be considered part of. The second forum’s concept note refers to the work of Craig Halliday (2017) who makes an overview of peacebuilding processes through visual arts that unfolded in Nairobi, Kenya, during the election-related outbreaks violence between the years of 2008 and 2013. Halliday suggests that visual art-work served as a way to express hopes and aspirations of young people distressed by the violence and changed the physical landscape of ruined slums of Nairobi (para.8). Without providing citations, Halliday opens his article claiming research has shown arts to contribute to peacebuilding by fostering healing, aiding in self-expression when words fail, creating safe spaces and serving as “transformative learning experiences” (para.2). Halliday’s words may be a mix of personal experience, observation and reading. However, such scholars as Noam Latar, Jerry Wind and Ornat Lev-er (2018) in their pioneering study of the experiences and opinions of 100 artists across disciplines have explored how art can bring together disagreeing communities and foster dialogue. Among many experiences and explanations, stands out the potential of art to shape the political discourses toward conflict resolution and foster society-wide political conversation, including through artistic means (pp. xxi - xxvii). Such premises prompted the organizers and the participants of the forum to look into possible connections and intersections of art and mediation.

The 2nd International Young Women Mediation Forum: Women in Arts for Peace brought to Nairobi expert mediators, artists, curators and researchers as well as 30 participants from around the world to explore the roles art could play in mediation. The forum was mostly a platform for brainstorming, with the ideas being graphically recorded during all three days of the forum by two live illustrators Rebian Atieno and Seise Bagbo. They created a considerable number of illustrations, one of which is included below.[2]

 

The illustration concerns the introduction into mediation conducted by two senior mediators Stella Sabiti and Florence Mpaayei. As someone who was present in that session, I can say that the illustration captures the main points about the structure and principles of mediation as well as the important aspects and choices mediators need to make in designing mediation processes. In highlighting the principles of mediation, the illustration refers to the United Nations Guidance on Effective Mediation (2012). The UN Guidance highlights such principles as preparedness of the mediator, which includes conflict analysis, studying of any previous mediation efforts and conflict contexts, and its voluntary nature from the side of the conflicting parties. It further suggests impartiality as a “cornerstone” of mediation (p.10) and stresses the importance of inclusivity of a variety of stakeholders into the process. The UN Guidance proceeds to advice keeping mediation processes in line with the international legal frameworks and ensuring national ownership of the process. In conclusion, the UN Guidance stresses the importance of high-quality coherent peace agreements that would be effective when implemented. The illustration also highlights the importance of venue choices, timing, gender balance of the mediation team, separation of the mediation process into stages. The session was a very quick overview of the theoretical and practical aspects of mediation, and so is this paragraph about the illustration’s content. The discussion on mediation can continue almost endlessly beyond the scope of this assignment. However, the analysis included in this paper was mean and hopefully has contributed to the reader’s basic understanding of what mediation is and how it could work.

Compared to some other illustrations I have seen being created in the process of graphic recording (in this event and in others), this piece has quite a lot of textual elements. Considering the artistic fonts as text, I would argue that most of the illustration is textual. This may be due to the fact that the session was information-heavy, key to the forum and that the illustrators themselves are not experts in mediation. Similarly to how preparedness if a principle of mediation, I would consider preparedness and knowledge of the discussion to be vital for illustration. As an aspiring illustrator myself, I would argue that a thorough knowledge of the topic makes it easier for the illustrator to create pictorial material. Not having a sufficient understanding of the topic, a responsible illustrator would include more text to highlight the main points for clarity, precision and for the sake of the audience’s understanding. Text brings the illustration closer to the speech, so reducing the effect of the illustrator’s own processing of information.

Returning to Galtung’s definition of peace as “non-violent, creative conflict transformation” (1996, p.9), I am wondering whether the illustration itself contributes to the process of transformation. A conflict within mediation, which in my understanding the forum pointed towards, is the lack of opportunities and acceptance of women to contribute to peace work as mediators. It is especially true for young women, who, as it was stated in the forum, are victims of both gender and age prejudice. The aim of the 2nd International Young Women Mediation Forum: Women in Arts for Peace was to highlight how much potential women (both mediators and artists) have to carry out effective mediation processes. This objective is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security which stresses the need to “ensure women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, the implementation of peace agreements and related decision-making” (UN Women, n.d.). That, in turn, is based on the premise that:

“When diverse women participate in peace negotiations, the quality and durability of peace agreements increases, and when women are signatories of peace agreements, they are more likely to be implemented.” (UN Women, n.d.)

Whether the forum as whole contributed to a higher degree of inclusion of women into mediation and generally peace work is challenging to estimate, especially just two months after the event. And whether the process of graphic recording contributed to mediation and peace work is an ambiguous question. However, as pointed out by Möller (2020), visualizations contribute to our understanding of the visualized, challenge the conventional definitions of it and ultimately have the potential to alter the ways in which we act upon and with respect to those definitions and understandings. Therefore, it makes sense to think that the visualized and shared illustrations have thus contributed to the way we see mediation, the potential place of the arts within it and the role of women as mediators and peace workers. However, how exactly they have contributed to that is yet unclear and would require further research and conceptualization. Using graphic recording as a popular culture activity has also contributed to the spread of the ideas from the forum in a fun and relatable way, which otherwise would have been highly specialized.

Conclusion

In this essay, I examined the potential of graphic recording in mediation for peace using the example of one of the illustrations created during the 2nd International Young Women Mediation Forum: Women in Arts for Peace. Although it is difficult to predict, estimate, or evaluate the effect of the forum itself or graphic recording within it as a new activity within popular culture, graphic recording may be seen as a tool of visual legitimization of what it portrays. By making ideas and phenomena visible, graphic recording alters the way we think about them and ultimately contributes to the way we act upon those understandings.

 Yelyzaveta Glybchenko

 Bibliography

1.    Artolution. (n.d.). Our Mission. Artolution. Retrieved from https://www.artolution.org/the-artolution

2.    ConverSketch. (2017). The Difference Between a Graphic Recorder and Graphic Facilitator (and When to Use Them), ConverSketch: Graphic Recording and Facilitation. Retrieved from: https://www.conversketch.com/blog/the-difference-between-a-graphic-recorder-and-graphic-facilitator

3.      Creativity for Peace. (n.d.). About. Creativity for Peace. Retrieved from https://creativityforpeace.org/about-us/

4.      Feldman, E.B. (1976). Visual Literacy, Journal of Aesthetic Education, 10: 3/4, 195–200. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/3332071.

5.  Fuselight Creative. (2012). What is Graphic Recording?, YouTube [video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIgcoc7Wqg

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7.  ImageThink. (2017). What Is Graphic Recording? A Quick Guide, ImageThink. Retrieved from: https://www.imagethink.net/what-is-graphic-recording-a-quick-guide/

8.      IPHRD-Africa. (2019). Policy recommendations for increasing capacities, roles and participation of young women in peace processes. Yong Women Mediation Booklet. Nairobi, Kenya, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

9.      IPI. (n.d.). Sustaining peace: What Does It Mean in Practice?. International Peace Institute. Retrieved from https://www.ipinst.org/2017/04/sustaining-peace-in-practice

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12.  Latar, N., Wind, J. & Lev-er, O. (2018). Can Art Aid in Resolving Conflicts? 100 Perspectives. Retrieved from https://books.google.se/books?id=yBfdswEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

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[1] The company does not cite the source.

[2] Photograph by Yelyzaveta Glybchenko (I myself attended the forum).