Four Years of Color Up Peace: Practical Reflections and Scientific Premises

I started Color Up Peace in 2016 as part of my graduation project at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. The university had a program for students to design their own secondary majors - write a program proposal to the faculty explaining the reasons why the area of their interest cannot be studied through the existing programs and develop an effective curriculum of courses (at AUBG and possibly at exchange destinations). Within my self-designed major Identity and Peacebuilding (my primary one was Political Science and IR), I was, among other topics, exploring the political aspects of graphic design. I read lots of books relating to the topic and took online graphic design classes from different organizations and institutions. Then in October 2016 I came up with the idea for Color Up Peace. What started as a student project in Bulgaria, has by now grown into an international platform for collaborative art-making and dialogue about peace and peace values. I have learned a lot myself, conducted numerous workshops for others, developed three coloring books based on Color Up Peace, presented the project during numerous events and trainings, and received grants and awards for further development of Color Up Peace. Throughout these years, my experience with the project developed rapidly and deeply – sometimes in practical ways, sometimes in theoretical ways, and often in both simultaneously. Originating from my study experiences, the project always stayed directly connected to what I was doing further in my studies, especially to my undergraduate and graduate theses. In this post, I wanted to reflect upon the connections between the practical experiences within Color Up Peace and its theoretical premises – based on almost four years of continuous work on the project. To do that, I will first explain how the project works and provide several examples. Then I will explain what I mean(t) Color Up Peace to work for.

Color Up Peace invites people from all over the world to submit photographs of what peace represents to them (some elements which inspire thoughts of peace, something which may symbolize peace, something potentially crucial for peace efforts based on the experiences of the photographers). I turn these photos into coloring pages and make them freely available on the Color Up Peace website. Someone else (or the photographer, or me) colors the coloring page and so continues the transformation of the original vision of peace. All photos and the associated coloring pages are posted on the Facebook page of Color Up Peace. The photographs are always posted together with the explanations by the photographers of why and how these photos relate to ideas of peace. Below, I include examples of such visual artistic transformations...

A photo I submitted myself, taken in Oslo, Norway. (I share my own vision first out of ethical considerations: to support all the participants who showed their courage and vulnerability by sharing photographs and engaging with the project.) The interplay between the heavy architectural lines (from the inside of the Oslo Opera House) and the lightness of the sky and the people walking on the roof, to me, is a metaphor for the ‘moral imagination’. This kind of imagination, according to John Paul Lederach, is vital in conflict transformation.

Original photo by me

I created the coloring page by drawing the outlines digitally

Colored by one of the participants of the workshop for the FLEX CRs of Western Ukraine

Marina Danoyan in Helsinki, Finland:

“The ceramic cup on the photo is made by the locals of one of the borderland villages in Armenia, which is only 1,5 km away from the Azerbaijani border. Despite being in constant danger because of the ongoing Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, many people in the village are full of optimism and believe in the power of peace: they believe that the conflict can be solved peacefully. While the level of distrust and hate is high in all societies affected by the conflict, people living in borderland villages could challenge this perception, if they are given the voice and agency to express their personal opinions... Also, the place where the picture is taken is symbolic: the picture is taken in Finland’s capital Helsinki, a country which is known for its constant efforts in mediation and conflict resolution.” (The other side of the cup has an inscription in Armenian, which translates to "for the better" - shared Marina)

Original photo by Marina

I drew the outline digitally to create the coloring page

Colored by Anna Kichula

Ehab Badwi in Braga, Portugal:

“Peace begins from the inner peace of the heart from the stability of life. When you live a happy life within your family, homeland, culture and your mother tongue. Peace is when you feel that you are in this life only seeking life without wars or weak or poor or homeless. Peace: when I can express my opinion and defend the weak and support the oppressed. Peace: You can also find it in a hobby that can express all the inside of you and support you to complete the way in this world.”

Original photo by Ehab

I drew the outline digitally to create the coloring page

Colored by me

Now, what did I mean the project to work for when I started it? What do I still mean it to work for as I develop the Color Up Peace activities further? I state the objectives of Color Up Peace below and analyze them against the existing scientific ideas around peace and visualization of it…

1.                 Color Up Peace aims to present the participants with the opportunity to develop visions of peace.

I have learned that participating in Color Up Peace may not be easy. I keep emphasizing that no photography skills are needed, that photos of different digital quality work, and that whatever peace means to the photographers – it has place in the discussions within Color Up Peace. In other words, there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ submissions. Yet, I have had many personal conversations with the contributing photographers, where I would do my best to clear any doubts regarding the validity of their thoughts and the visual expression of those thoughts. I would always do my best to encourage thinking about peace and analyzing what others think of it.

Unfortunately, peace is not one of those subjects that explicitly cross our mind on a daily basis or those represented in the media or the popular culture. On the contrary, as a leading visual peace researcher Frank Möller points to an “obsession” of the media and the popular culture with images of violence (2020, p.29). Under such conditions, I felt, Color Up Peace could encourage the very thought process that disrupts the fixation on violence and counteracts it with strong visions of and for peace.

 

2.                 Color Up Peace aims to encourage dialogue between the participants – through collective visual art-making.

Color Up Peace aims to facilitate an exchange of ideas about and experiences of peace among its participants. The format of the project facilitates this exchange: those coloring have the opportunity to explore and transform the visions of peace by the photographers – adding to, taking away from, and re-imagining the visual expressions of peace. My experience has been that the photographers deeply appreciate and are excited about the colored versions of the outlines based on their photos. When one of my own submissions was colored by a participant of one of the Color Up Peace workshops (they did not know I was the photographer), I learned a lot and absolutely loved the final piece of collective art. That participant and I sebsequently had an exciting discussion about how and where the photo was taken. One of the most active 'question & answer' sessions out of all my workshop experience followed that discussion. 

 

3.                 Color Up Peace aims to employ visual artistic expressions to build peace.

The processes of collective visual art-making within Color Up Peace reference the concept and the practice of the moral imagination. John Paul Lederach (2005), recognizing the need for both technical and artistic approaches to peace work, referred to the moral imagination as the capability to recognize the opportunities for constructive change within the conflict realities. Taking such an opportunity, one would create an arrangement for peace which, while rooted in the context and realities of the specific conflict, would also reach to what does not yet exist (peace). This arrangement would enable the stakeholders to build a network of relationships where all former sides of the conflict would live peacefully and be able to enjoy their life.

At the same time, peace is not a destination, but a process. As Lederach stated, peace is "a continuously evolving and developing quality of relationship" (2003, p.24). A photograph, by the way it is made, is retrospective: it depicts what was a second ago – when the photographer pressed the button. This way, a photograph depicting the past may contradict the idea of peace as a forward-looking continuous process. For this reason, I thought of making the process-like nature of (visions of) peace within Color Up Peace explicit. And so a photograph (original vision of peace) is turned into a coloring page (second vision of peace), which is later colored (filled in with a third vision of peace).

Looking into Color Up Peace and the moral imagination simultaneously, I built the following parallels:

-  The original photograph can be considered as the realities in which a vision of and for peace is rooted. It is not necessarily the same as the conflict realities Lederach talked about, since the project from the start asks for photographs of what peace represents to the photographers. Yet, building references this way highlights the fact that depicting peace is challenging and that an attempt at depicting it, due to the process-like nature of peace, would reflect upon only a certain step towards peace or an aspiration of it. Important is to continue peace work. Furthermore, such visions of peace could still in some ways refer or even depict elemnts of cultural and structural violence, which may be challenging to recognize and identify as destructive.

-  The coloring page then is a platform for the moral imagination to roam visually. The outlines (manually drawn to be very similar, but purposefully never identical) represent the roots in the reality of the photograph, and give the coloring artist plenty of opportunities to add visual features, delete some of the existing ones and transform the outline through the choice of colors. This visual transformation may be considered a metaphor for and a part of the comprehensive process of bringing about positive change.

-   The filled-in coloring page is a product of the moral imagination: something that is rooted in what is and that reaches towards what is not there yet – expressing a collective aspiration for peace as a visual and social experience. If combining different visions, finding a common ground and expressing creativity is possible visually in Color Up Peace, it should be possible on the ground - in the communities where the participants find themselves. The goal of Color Up Peace is to show that peaceful change is possible - and that it can be fun and rewarding to work on, just like with the coloring pages. And I am a fan of creating opportunities for people to practice making peaceful and peace-oriented changes - through visual art and more. 

Some of the entries in Color Up Peace reference certain past or current conflicts explicitly –expressing a wish and readiness of both sides to act for peace. Because the person submitting the photo may be considered by others as belonging to a certain side of the given conflict, their vision of peace, even if uniting the feelings and experiences of both sides, may potentially be argued against  by someone identifying with the ‘other’ side. In other words, there is a risk that someone may see such photos as depicting something other than peace or making a statement against it. Would the photograph and the associated coloring page still be visuals of and for peace? In short, yes.

What makes the photographs be visuals of peace is the intention the photographer had – and in Color Up Peace the intention, by design of the project, is to express a vision of peace. This intention is manifested not only visually, but also through text. Throughout my work (especially in presentations, workshops and trainings for community leaders and youth workers who potentially may use the coloring books in their own work), I kept emphasizing the importance of not separating the photographs from the photographers’ stories of why those photos are of peace. The stories keep the photos grounded and reduce the chances for misunderstanding. Color Up Peace thus adheres to the ‘images in use’ approach developed by Matteo Stocchetti and Karin Kukkonen (2011). The approach holds that images themselves do not possess any power. Instead they are tools of meaning-making and negotiation of values. In other words, they transmit the intentions and the understanding of the world of their creators. In the case of Color Up Peace, they express the photographers’ understanding of peace.

The ultimate question is: can such visualizations of peace contribute to the establishment of peaceful relations?  And again, in short – yes! Frank Möller argues that visualizing something means adding legitimacy to it. This way, visualizations of peace contribute to the ways we define ‘peace’ through legitimizing the search for it (2020, p.29):

“Searching for images of peace aims at undermining appearances of violence as inevitable or legitimate, an important step in the search for more peaceful social relations in our everyday lives and in world politics.”

If the definition of peace changes and the aspirations for it become legitimate, the ways peace is enacted would ultimately change as well. The visualizations themselves play an active role: as legitimizers of visions of peace, they contribute to peace work as well.

I have not engaged in evaluation activities other than collecting feedback from participants. And so, I cannot provide evidence of Color Up Peace establishing peaceful relations in any given situation. Whether quantifying and so analyzing the potential and effect of visual art in peace work actually makes sense is also a question worth exploring (perhaps, in another blog post). So far, what I can share is the deep enthusiasm of all participants, their excitement to hear what happens to the photos and coloring pages, a myriad of invitations I got from people and organizations asking me to conduct workshops and webinars on Color Up Peace (I thoroughly enjoy that and would never refuse), and researchers reaching out to me for collaborations. As always, I would be very grateful for more feedback on the project and more ideas for its development, including from the readers of this post. 

Bibliography

Color Up Peace. https://www.facebook.com/coloruppeace

Lederach, J. (2003). The little book of conflict transformation . Pennsylvania: Good Books Intercourse.

Lederach, J. P., & ebrary, I. (2005). The moral imagination: The art and soul of building peace. New York;Oxford;: Oxford University Press.

Möller, F. (2020). Peace aesthetics: A patchwork. Peace & Change, 45(1), 28-54. doi:10.1111/pech.12385

Stocchetti, M., Kukkonen, K., & ebrary, I. (2011). Images in use: Towards the critical analysis of visual communication. Amsterdam;Philadelphia;: John Benjamins Pub. Co.

Some of the theoretical connections were previously fleshed out in my thesis:

Glybchenko, Y. (2020). A Visual Arts-Based Approach to Peace Mediation: Exploring the Conceptual Potential of Visual Art-Making in Peace Mediation. Tampere University, Finland. (forthcoming publication)