PhD Candidate M. Sylvia Weintraub researches DIY culture

According to the PeARL Lab, you are conducting research on online DIY and craft culture. How do you explain your research to a layperson?

I study how people teach themselves how to make do-it-yourself (DIY) projects using social media sites like Pinterest. To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the research is studying DIY trends that point to changes in what materials people are working with and what skills they're learning. Ultimately my research explores the possibility that participation in DIY culture online might encourage people to attempt more creative projects in real life.

What do you wish students in the arts, especially in visual and studio art or design/technical fields, knew about your work?

I come from a fine arts background, and my training has been quite diverse, but I will always be a maker at heart. Although I analyze big data in my research and study DIY culture online, I make sure to maintain an active studio practice. I try to exhibit my work regularly and I firmly believe that making work influences my research and vice versa. It can be easy to fall into routines that result in rigid thinking, so moving between creative and analytical processes can be extremely useful.

What is the PeARL Lab? How does it facilitate or support your research? Have you utilized other unique experiences or resources at Texas Tech (for example, the Marfa Intensive)?

The Performing Arts Research Lab (PeARL) is a space dedicated to collaborative research that melds fine arts disciplines (i.e. music, theatre and dance, and visual arts) with cognitive and social sciences. In the lab we have the necessary equipment to do corpus research and to run experiments with human subjects. Also, the mentoring I've received from our lab directors as well as the collaborative environment have been key to the progression of my research during my PhD studies.

What challenges do you encounter as an artist-researcher? What opportunities does the PeARL Lab offer to approach some of those challenges?

One of the biggest differences is that artists like me have been trained to make art that showcases our personal perspectives of the world. The creative liberty afforded to artists is important as art can lead to new insights about the world that may have been otherwise overlooked. For example, art can help us understand aspects of the world on an emotional level through experience. Considering that I'm used to trusting my artistic intuition and running with an idea, working meticulously in the lab on experimental design has forced me to always remember that correlation does not equal causation. So, in a way conducting research in the PeARL has caused me to think and work a bit differently in my studio practice too. In essence, I think that artistic intuition is valuable but sometimes one's vision is not entirely accurate, and it's important to remember that a small percentage of times when we're wrong. Although there was definitely a learning curve in when I first started participating in the lab I have been instilled with an enormous appreciation for falsifiability, which I believe to be a tremendous opportunity for an artist. Nowadays I feel delighted when I realize that my initial assumption was inaccurate, because that means I am discovering something new that wasn't immediately obvious to me!

What other projects currently excite or challenge you? How do you balance the demands of a graduate program and the needs of your research?

Grad school can certainly be demanding, but fortunately I've been involved with some exciting projects recently, which helps. Last November I traveled to China with my labmate Anne Wharton and one of our lab directors, Dr. Peter Martens. The PeARL was selected to participate alongside nine other collectives at an international art exhibit hosted by the China Academy of Art (CAA) called Inter_World_View. During the ten-day event we had the opportunity to discuss the intersections between the fine arts disciplines and the fields of climatology, psychoanalysis, architecture, and cuisine, amongst others. While there we participated in interdisciplinary events and had the opportunity to present on some of our findings. We were also able to conduct a pilot study where we held a silent disco in order to test PhD candidate Hannah Percival's hypotheses about social bonding and beat salience. Despite some challenges related to the innovative nature and ambitious scope of the exhibition, this was an extremely rewarding project overall. So, in order to have the energy to participate in events such as this while balancing my teaching workload and the needs of my research, I try to make sure to stay as active as possible while maintaining healthy habits overall. I also think self-care is extremely important, and often underrated!

What specific challenges and opportunities do you encounter as an interdisciplinary artist?

Learning how to work interdisciplinarly as an artist-scholar has been a challenge for sure, but I think the diversity of my fine arts training in various mediums prepared me well to do this kind of work. One of my biggest takeaways during my PhD Studies in the Fine Arts Doctoral Program (FADP) at Texas Tech is that in order to conduct quality interdisciplinary scholarship one must possess extensive knowledge about the disciplines utilized in conjunction with one's home discipline. This can be quite an undertaking, and although this type of scholarship can be challenging, I believe it has the potential to yield highly valuable discoveries about society, the arts, creativity, and culture.

How do you define success? What drives you more, success or failure?

Achieving success for me would mean making a significant contribution to human knowledge through my research or with my art, but in a way that affects some positive change in the world. I suppose I would define "positive change" as a step towards a more equitable distribution of power in the world—or the diminishment of unnecessary suffering. In terms of what drives me I have an inherently competitive spirit, but I also believe that working collaboratively can be vital to producing high quality scholarship so I try to practice good listening when working with others.

What would you tell current student-artists at Texas Tech about discerning their opportunities?

No one knows you better than you. If you reflect on your life experiences, feelings, thoughts, actions, etc., you can identify your strengths as well as areas that might need improvement. Also, it's important to remember that challenges can present opportunities for growth with hard work and a little creativity. Lastly, I would encourage student-artists as Texas Tech to learn to hone your ability to foster dialogues with other disciplines; we should strive to build bridges across disciplines because we truly have so much to learn from one another. While at TTU I was able to take classes in other departments, and what I learned inspired me and also helped me to see my research in new ways.

What advice would you give student-artists who want to explore critical theory in their art?

Generally speaking, critical theory can be useful to artists who aim to use their work to engage in critical dialogue. However, if you have been a student of critical theory you can probably attest to the tremendous effort and diligence required to grasp these subjects. For those used to thinking through doing, the cognitive load and self-discipline required to become a student of critical theory can be daunting. Still, I would encourage student-artists not to be discouraged as it can take years for concepts you've come across in critical theory to impact your studio practice. Often you might have to encounter concepts more than once or in different contexts to be able to digest them, let alone apply them in your work!

What's next for you? Where do you see your art and research heading as you continue in the PhD program?

I'd like to continue to study the general population of citizen-artists who exchange knowledge about DIY topics online—especially since there is so little support for the arts and artists in our country. I aim to continue to use big data to study how people use social media to teach themselves and others how to make creative projects. I hope that by maintaining an active studio practice my research on DIY culture online will stay grounded in real life circumstances.

Texas Tech has a narrative of being a scrappy, workhorse school that may not immediately bring to mind visual and performing artists. What excites you about Texas Tech's growing emphasis on the arts?

The integration of fine arts and STEM disciplines in academic scholarship presents tremendously exciting possibilities. I came from art schools that promoted academics and partnered with research institutions, but at Texas Tech I have had the opportunity to receive extensive mentoring from faculty in various disciplines directly within the institution. This mentoring has been critical to my work as an interdisciplinary researcher. In my experience, the faculty I've worked with have been open and even enthusiastic about training graduate students who show an interest in genuinely learning how to navigate other disciplines. I often see collaborative, multi-disciplinary, or transdisciplinary work being labeled 'interdisciplinary' as a kind of branding tactic, but at Texas Tech I have been fortunate to be mentored by principled academicians. TTU's growing emphasis on the arts has meant that my PhD studies have provided me with opportunities to receive training from faculty who are both scholars and practitioners, who conduct rigorous, yet mindful interdisciplinary.