aboration in Animation:

magine growing up in a
remote mountain village
with no running water, where
solar batteries provide the only
electricity and only a handful of
families own televisions. After
completing your studies at the
local middle school, you may be
one of the lucky few who travel
several hours south to attend a
boarding high school where you
have access to the Internet and
other media that was all but
nonexistent in your home town.
You discover that even this
expanded range of accessible
media typically demonstrates
little interest or understanding of
the culture, concerns, or contributions of your village or its people.

Working Together to
Empower Indigenous Youth
BY M E L A N I E G . D A V E N P O R T A N D K A R I N

How do underrepresented populations,

with little exposure to global media
discourse, begin not only to develop a
critical stance toward dominant messages in
the media, but also to assert their own voices
and perspectives in unfamiliar formats? How
can a school with a mission to develop
leadership skills for members of indigenous
populations empower students to honor and
preserve valued traditions, languages, and
practices while adapting to the challenges of
thriving in an increasingly media saturated
society? Perhaps through media literacy
programs like the one that my collaborator
and I have offered for the past 3 years at the
Centro Rural de Educacin Superior (CRES)

'

Eleobardo Benjamin de la Cruz de la

Cruz animates figures for the story of
Why Corn Has Many Colors, 2007.

ART EDUCATION / September 2009

GUNN

in Estipac. Mexico. In this article, we will

describe the goals, processes, and outcomes
of our animation and technology workshops
at CRES, and will offer insights into the
teamwork that is integral to this ongoing
project.
For the past several years, Karin Gunn
and I have been working together to present
animation workshops in a variety of settings.
Since 2007, we have traveled yearly to the
campus of CRES-Estipac to work with high
school and college level students. Over 150
students are enrolled in the high school, and
approximately 98% are indigenous,
representing nine different language groups
from throughout Mexico, although the

Karin and
Melanie pose on
the steps of the
school with our
participants
from 2007.

majority of these are Huichol from the

mountains north of Guadalajara. Tlie collegelevel teacher training programs enroll
another 150-200 students, many of whom are
also indigenous, or intend to work in rural or
indigenous settings.

indigenous knowledge on a more equal

footing with that of the dominant cuiture
creates opportunities for different populations to learn more about each other, directly
from each other, which is the key to
intercultural education (Rockwell, 1999).

The director of this school welcomed us

because she recognizes that the workshops
we proposed would not only foster in
students a more critical perspective as
consumers of media, hut also empower them
to creatively express their own unique
perspectives. An important aspect of this
school's mission is to promote a more just
and equitable social order hy preparing
leaders and educators who will work to give
indigenous populations greater voice and
visibility within the larger society. We feel
that our workshops contribute to this
mission because learning how to use the
means of production for media that can
reach mass audiences is beneficial not just to
individual students but to their communities
as well. We believe, along with Turner (1992),
Ginsburg (1991), and many others in the
indigenous media movement, that as
indigenous populations become empowered
to assert their perspectives to a wider
audience, perhaps the disinterest and
ignorance commonly illustrated in mass
media offerings will begin to wither. Placing

In our Animation and Technology

Workshops at CRES-Estipac, we have
encouraged participants to explore different
aspects of their own emerging identities as
young adults, students, future leaders and
teachers, global citizens, and members of
indigenous communities. We have engaged
them in production of various means of
visual communication, such as low-tech
optical devices, cut-paper, low-relief, and
three-dimensional animation, as well as
theories and strategies in animation
pedagogy. Three of the six workshops we
have offered at CRES focused primarily on
working with indigenous youth to record
stories from their own communities, in their
own languages, through stop-motion
animation. Ihe first 2 years, participants
animated stories from the Huichol tradition:
Why Corn Has Many Colors (2007), and 'Ihe
Drum Festival (2008). 'The third year, 2009,
students animated a story from the Totonaca
culture of Puebla, about their marriage
tradition. (Eor more information and
examples, see Davenport and Gunn (2007),

and www.teachanimation.org/estipacmenu.
html.) Because we want to respect and honor
the voices of the participants, they have
complete ownership over the stories they
choose to tell. The students themselves select
the topic, write the scripts, and create the
storyhoards prior lo filming, so we are
confident that they are comfortable with the
depictions of their community traditions.

What we do
To facilitate the development of an
audiovisual program at CRES, we provide
equipment, materials, instruction, and
support for workshop participants to learn
the fundamentals of animation and produce
their own work. We have secured funding to
provide the school with a new iMac
computer; a video camera; a digital still
camera; tripods; sofiware; an external hard
drive; necessary accessories such as cables,
cliplights, and cords; as well as art materials
and tools. We travel to Estipac for a week in
late January or early February, immediately
prior to the start of their regular classes, so
we can work intensively for several hours
every day with a self-selected group of
interested students. Afier viewing and
critically analyzing examples of animation
from various sources, the participants
develop the story, build scenery and
characters, animate the scene, capture it

September 2009 / ART EDUCATION

Collaborating

Karin and Melanie work together to introcjuce workshop participants to fundamentals

ofanimationatthe startof a workshop, 2007.

frame by frame into the computer, help edit

the footage, and record and insert soundtrack. Participants take responsibility for
every part of the process, while Karin and I
introduce and reinforce concepts and
proce.sses and provide technical support as
needed.

How we do it
Karin and I team-teach these workshops,
with each of us taking the lead at particular
phases of production. The structure of our
workshops involving indigenous storytelling,
for example, begins with the introduction of
basic animation concepts and discussion of
several examples of three dimensional
stop-motion animation, especially shorts
produced by other groups of indigenous
youth (see Black Gum Mountain Productions
at www.blackgummountain.com, for
example). I demonstrate simple optical
mechanisms for the students to make, while
Karin explains the concepts behind them.
Then, Karin organizes the students to work
together to negotiate the creation of a
storyboard. The next step is building all of
the sets, characters, and props from

ART EDUCATION / September 2009

plasticene, paper, natural objects, and other

available materials. Because of my background in scenic production for television
and theatre, I enjoy working closely with the
participants on this aspect of the production.
Karin takes charge during the next stage,
when we teach the students how to use the
cameras, computers, and software, so that
they can animate the story as well as
document each other during the process.
Finally. Karin assists with recording the
sound and editing the footage to create both
a fiiiisiied animated film and a "behind the
scenes" video. The final evening of our visit
features a public viewing of these shorts in
the school library Typically, about 400
people attend, and the participants take great
pride in their accomplishments! Many of the
participants from previous workshops
returned during our most recent visit Eo
share with us how they have used these
videos, devices, and animation pedagogy
techniques with their current students or in
other classes. At least one of the graduates of
CRES has gone on to University to study
visual communications as a result of our
workshops.

Key to ihf success of our collaboration is

the fact that both our individual skill sets and
our individual professional goals are
complementary, not competitive. As we often
joke, I do the writing and she does the
talking; in other words, we each make unique
contributions to our projects based upon our
own experiences, interests, and capabilities.
For example, the rationale for our work with
indigenous students is informed by research
that has been the focus of my academic work
for many years. I initiated the development
of these workshops and arranged for access
to this school site. However, I knew I could
not do [hese projects alone. Realizing these
workshops required Karins ability to deliver
complex technical instruction in Spanish, as
well as her passion tor animation and
cross-cultural experiences. We coordinate
our efforts during the production process,
and also in the preparation and follow-up
stages. Typically, I write Ihc grants and the
curriculum, deal with paperwork, plane
tickets, and other logistics, as well as take the
lead on writing articles and presentation
proposals. Karin coordinates the technological component, secures equipment,
translates correspondence and curriculum,
documents the projects, and posts them to
her website: www.teachanimation.org. She
also keeps me organized and on track
throughout the planning and writing process.
These workshops are helping each of us
grow professionally, in similar but distinct
ways. My goal is to gain insight into
processes for teaching media literacy and
visual culture art education to young people,
particularly indigenous youth, who may have
had very limited opportunities to experience
media production. I want to explore the
intersection between social justice and visual
culture, and put into practice the curricular
ideas inspired by this investigation.
As a high school art teacher, Karin engages
with each individual workshop participant,
pushing them to explore their creative talenis
and learn new means of expression. She
agrees with Buckingham (2003) that by
becoming producers of media, young people
also become more savvy consumers of the
media that increasingly inundates their lives.
We both feel strongly that the perspectives of
indigenous populations are underrepresented
in the global media discourse and hope that

What did we expect

when we first started?

our work will help to empower our students

to assert their own voices, identities, and
opinions in their lives beyond school.
Recently, Vie Drum Festival was screened at
the Cine las Americas Film Festival in
Austin, Texas, in the Youth Category, and
Why the Corn Has Many Colors at the ASIFA
Atlanta "Roll Yer Own" Film Festival in
Atlanta, reaching audiences far beyond the
student animators' own communities.

use of the equipment we provided in the

months between our visits. For us, working
with teachers at CRES provided insights into
the school's unique curriculum, as well as
into the broader priorities and objectives of
the educational system of Mexico. The
primary benefit, however, has been the
cultivation of new personal relationships
with motivated and talented teachers across
national, cultural, and linguistic borders.

Collaborating on this project has been

beneficial to both of us personally and
professionally Besides bringing us closer as
colleagues and friends, we have been able to
share this work at several conferences, as well
as publish several papers, while we pursue
options for expanding this work into other
realms. We are currently in the planning
stages of workshops tor schools in Oaxaca
and hana, and 1 am also working on a grant
to offer animation workshops to community
organizations serving Spanish-speaking
children in Atlanta,

We are gratified that the school administration has a solid interest in continuing
opportunities for students and faculty to
reinforce and further develop the skills and
understandings that we have introduced.
After our workshop in 2008, the School
Director arranged for two university-level
animation students from Guadalajara to
come to CRES every Saturday for several
months, to work on a longer, more complex
stop-motion animation project with a group
composed mostly of students who had
participated in our workshops.

Another aspect of collaboration that

deserves attention is the way in which we
engaged CRES faculty members in our
workshops. The art teacher worked closely
with us the first 2 years, assisting with the
creation of sets for both 2-D and 3-D shorts,
as well as participating in the teacher training
workshop. Two different technology teachers
offered their assistance and received training
during our workshops, and have made good

As we begin planning for CRES 2010, we

are motivated to reflect upon our experiences
and especially upon what this collaboration
has meant for each of us. Karin and 1 work
together very well, but have our own views
on how and why it works. Here, each of us
shares our own reflections to better illuminate the collaborative process.

Kann
When 1 was first invited to work in Mexico
with Melanie, I was intrigued and excited by
the many possibilities. 1 would have never
guessed we would be where we are today. I
had already vacationed in Mexico a couple of
times, but now 1 had the opportunity to
actually teach there. ! had no doubt about my
interest in working internationally, considering 1 was born and raised in Sao Paulo,
Brazil and love traveling. The minute Melanie
asked me to collaborate 1 had no hesitation
and said, "Yes! Of course!"
On our first "research" trip to Jalisco, we
interviewed several professional animators
from Guadalajara. Ongoing friendships with
many of these talented individuals have
offered inspiration in the career-oriented
possibilities of this field. But, it was when we
first heard about the boarding school, CRES,
in Estipac that we knew we had found our
site.

Melanie
My only aspiration when we began these
workshops was to follow up on the visual
curriculum that I had begun to develop for
the middle school in the Huichol village of
San Miguel Huaxtita in 2003. Originally, I
thought I might be able to arrange for Karin
to travel up there with me, to work in that
same school. But, logistically speaking, it
seemed just too big a challenge to Iry to do
animation in a town with no electricity. It
would have required much more support
than 1 was confident I could secure.
Fortunately, my friend at Universidad de
Guadalajara, Dr. Sarah Corona, told us about
this school in F-stipac, where many of the
children from San Miguel attend high school
and college. Because of this connection, we
were in fact able to follow up with many of
the same students I had met previously, and
build new relationships with many more.
CRES offered a great site, because of its
technology lab, accessibility, and support.

Workshop participant animates figures

for The Drum Festival, 2008.

September 2009 / ART EDUCATION

Has the experience

met our expectations?

Melanie

At first, 1 was nervous about this effort,

because I didn't know the school or the
students, and so we visited the site a couple
Karin
ol months before we initiated our workshops.
I would not be the same person 1 am today
U has turned out to be a wonderful ongoing
il I hadn't been through these international
collaboration, and we feel that the administeaching experiences. This collaboriUJoii has
tration of the school is very happy with our
definitely met my expectations because it is
efforts. So, in general, the experience has
still going al full strength, it is growing, and I
exceeded my expectations. I am pleased that
foresee much more to come!
we are able to continue working with
Not only are we inspiring young adults
succeeding generations of students while
Irom indigenous communities to tell their
helping the school to develop an audiovisual
stories through time-based media, we are
media curriculum and facilities. Tlie work we
opening up new options for them in terms of
have helped these students produce, in turn,
their future vocations. We have had the
has become a wonderful public relations tool
opportunity to invite several animators from
for the Director as she seeks further support
Guadalajara to present and share [informator her students and the school. It is mutually
tion] about their professional endeavors with
beneficial, because we too are learning so
the students participating in our workshops.
much about the students' communities and
I did not originally expect that these
their traditions, as well as developing
workshops would influence the career paths
personal relationships with wonderful
of our participants but we are finding that
teachers and students and future leaders in
visual communication is becoming a more
this community.
attractive pursuit to students at CRES
because of our workshops.

How have our

expectations evolved?
Karin
Since we have been teaching our animation workshop in the same location for the
past 3 years, I feel that my expectations have
increased each year. I have noticed that every
year the animation produced by participants
has become more sophisticated. The most
recent one, created with a completely new
group of students, shows more detail in the
scenery and characters, compared to the
group we taught our first year there. Either
we are getting better at teaching these
workshops, or the whole student population
is getting more knowledgeable about
animation through exposure to multiple
examples of their peers work over the years.
Or maybe both! Each year I want the
animation produced to improve, so 1 have
higher expectations of participants and
attempt to push them harder in doing the
best work possible.

Melanie
I think at first I expected to work mostly
with the Huichol students, to continue to
develop the initial project I had started, but
this past visit, I recognized the value of
focusing upon ditferent populations, not only
to document their traditions and languages
and provide more students with media
production skills, but also because it
encourages more intercultural learning
within the diverse student population at
CRES. Although these students live and
study together, they may not ever discuss
particular ways of life from their home
towns, so through these animated shorts,
students even within the school population
learn something new about each other and
the varied traditions within indigenous
communities from various parts of Mexico.

Melanie woiks wuh two students to animate a scene from Marriage in a Totonaca Town. 2009,

10

ART EDUCATION / September 2009

How do we divide up
the work?
Karin
There is really no distinction in how much
work we do; we both do 50% and we really
complement each other. The difference is
only in our areas of expertise. We hotb know
that we couldn't do it if we weren't working
together!
As the "director," I am responsible for the
whole visual communication process. I also
make the phone calls, confirm dates, and
help keep Melanie organized, I make sure we
have all the technological materials necessary
to take to the school. While we are there I
also help document our experiences through
photography and video, and then publish the
work online at http://teachanimation.org/
estipacmenu.html. The slideshow banners are
L-vidence of the amazing times and people we
have met in our 3 years visiting Estipac.

Melanie
I just want to add that we have been
working together for 6 years, and so it must
be working well! Our capabilities and
personalities mesh well, and we both take
pride in the successful completion of a
workshop. I think it is important that we
both appreciate what the other brings to the
project and recognize the unique opportunity we have to do good work together!

Melanie
I think that we are able to communicate
with each other openly, because we know
each other well at this point, and so we can
get past some obstacles that might be
challenging to new collaborators. For
example, during this last visit when we
locked ourselves out of the place we were
staying, hoth of us were agitated about time
lost that could have been spent more
productively. But, it was possible to keep
perspective and not become too annoyed
because Karin and I hoth knew that later, we
would enjoy recounting this incident as a
humorous story from our adventure. So, an
hour on the sidewalk seemed a small bother
compared to the many laughs we enjoy from
this and other anecdotes from Mexico.

Where do we go from here?

Karin
We could become a nonprofit organization
and have more access to support for this
project. Tliat way. we could bring more
computers and cameras to the school to
expand opportunities for the students. If we
had more time on site, we could also produce
much more complex pieces, I would like for
us to be able to stay longer, perhaps if we
both will take sabbaticals there someday? In

addition, I think we should submit these

animations to more film festivals in the US,
Mexico, and abroad, as well as find other
ways to share this work with students around
the world for intercultural education. We
need to find a sponsor!
I see us continuing doing this project for at
least a few more years, going to Estipac and
working with different students. I hope that
within the next 2 years we will also get to
teach similar animation workshops in other
parts of Mexico, such as Oaxaca. Someday.
I would love to be able to go teach an
animation workshop in the mountain village
of San Miguel Huaxtita, where Melanie
originally planned for us to go.

Melanie
I would like to continue to do workshops
at CRES until they are self-sufficient in their
media curriculum, and even then, periodic
visits would be very gratifying. 1 would hope
that we can grow these workshops into a
program that reaches many more schools
and regions, perhaps starting in Oaxaca or
Ghana, and moving into urban areas in the
US as well. It would be nice to do something
in Brazil, too, either together or for Karin to
develop individually. I think we are both
empowered to expand our individual reach
as well as continue to work together.

How do we solve problems?

Karin
When problems come up, it helps a lot to
have a second person assisting and recognizing or providing new ideas/solutions to
getting the job done/problem resolved.
Whenever we have a doubt, we do not
hesitate to consult with each other and share
responsibilities. We also make sure that we
are communicating accurately across
languages and cultural differences, updating
contacts, and attempting to avoid having
problems. If we come prepared and organized, we will have a better time starting and
completing an animated short on a I-week
period.

Workshop participant Norma Mndez Juarez moves flower petals

to spell out the title sequence of Marriage in a Totonaca Town in the
Totonaca language, 2009,

September 2009 / ART EDUCATION

11

Conclusion
We hope that sharing these insights into
our ongoing collaboration will encourage
others to develop and pursue their own
projects. It isn't always easy to collaborate,
and sometimes competing goals or expectations can lead to rivalry instead of mutual
support, but we have learned that the
experience can be so satisfying, it is worth
taking the risk and trying it for yourself! As
long as everyone involved approaches the
project with a positive attitude, a strong work
ethic, respect for each other and just a touch
of fearlessness, the advantages far outweigh
the challenges.
The process of creating animation is so
time- and labor-intensive, it helps tremendously to have the support of a collaborator.
Karin and I recognize each other's expertise,
but also assist each other in all steps along
the way, because we both want to guarantee
successful outcomes for the students with
whom we work.

Our last bit of advice for others interested

in collaborating;
Make sure all members of the team are
willing to work hard to reach your
goals!
Give it the best you can and enjoy it
while you're at it!
Be open to new situations and be
flexible! Adapt to unexpected situations.
Be patient with one another! Be a good
listener. Communicate often.
Smile often and celebrate your
successes!
Melanie G. Davenport is Assistant Professor
of Art Eucation at Georgia State
University, Atlanta. E-mail: meldavenport@
gmail.com
Karin Gunn is Photography Teacher at
GradedIhe American School of Sao
Paulo, Brazil. E-mail: karingunn@gmail.
com

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Research Interests: Visual Culhire, Servltt-learning, Qualitative Research, Exhibition,

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12

ART EDUCATION / Septmber 2009

REFERENCES
Buckingham, D. (2003). Media education and the
end of the critica! consumer Harvard
Educational Review, 73{3), 309-328,
Davenport, M., & Gunn, K. (2007). Animation
education in an indigenous context. The
Animation Journal, 15, 44-62.
Ginsburg, F. (1991). Indigenous media: Faustian
contract or global village? Cultural
Anthropology, 6 ( 1 ), 92-112.
Rockwell, E. (1999, October). Constructions of
diversity and civility in Latin America and the
United States. Paper presented at the 8th
Interamerican Symposium on Ethnographic
Educational Research, Bloomington, IN.
Turner, T. (1992). Defiant images: TTie Kayapo
appropriation of video. Anthropology Today, 8
(6), 5-16.
AUTHORS'NOTE
This project would not have been possible without
the support of the Florida State University
Foundation, the Fundacin Alejandro Diaz
Guerra, and the Center for Latin American and
Latino Studies at Georgia State University.