The alchemy of becoming unstuck

A group of children gathers in front of the clear glass studio door with a container of water and a large bowl filled with paper strips. One by one, they dip a strip of paper in the water and apply it to the door’s transparent surface. The warm morning light streams in through the glass, speeding the paper’s drying. Some strips fall off while others adhere. The educators join in the rhythm of figuring out the relationship of glass, water, paper, light, and temperature. Too little liquid and the paper won’t stick; too much and it slides down; just enough and it is held in place. (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind, and Kocher, 2017 p.26)

Inspired by this vignette, Miriam Potts invited The Ediths to:

1.    Take a piece of paper and tear it into two shapes; 

2.    dip it into water; and 

3.    stick it onto a smooth surface. 

During the workshop, Miriam shared paper stories that encouraged us to consider paper relationalities, the non-innocence of paper, and the sounds and smells of paper. Gradually, during our discussion, the paper pieces we had stuck onto various surfaces began to fall. The unseen processes of sticking and unsticking caught our attention — it seemed like magic, but the processes of chemistry led us to understand paper’s stickiness differently. 

Just as chemistry can uncover the ‘magic’ of alchemy, feminism can uncover previously unseen processes that perpetuate, for example, sexism, colonialism, racism, classism. What makes these processes stick and what causes them to become unstuck? The tenuous and temporary attachments formed by paper and water reminds us that what appears as fixed may just be in the prolonged process of becoming unstuck and what looks like magic may not be magic at all. 

Reference

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L.L.M. (2017). Encounters with materials in early childhood education. NY/London: Routledge. 

(This entry was inspired by the presentation Alchemy with paper: Exploring agentic relations a participatory creative online workshop) by Miriam Potts at the Ediths Roundtable Series 2021)