Is art a waste of time?
Sometimes while exploring this I wanted to say yes, but NO. Going through the two sources all I could think about was how on earth do I compare these?! It’s obvious that art doesn’t provide the same or even equal impact that money does…or does it? The fact is, both the EA’s in Southan’s paper, and Dre and Jeroen want to do is help make people’s lives better. The only difference is that the do it in different ways with various types of impacts.
To be honest I really didn’t recognize the point Dre and Jeroen had and was trying to make with their project. I had to read two separate explanations of their projects (One on TED Hour, the other their actual TED talk.) before I finally saw that their entire point was to change people’s perceptions of these favelas’ through art and beautification. Both them and the EA’s take a direct action, donating money and donating time and labor. While the EA’s donate money, it’s taken out of their hands from there. They don’t always get to see the outcome of their actions. Dre and Jeroen, however, go through it step by step with the people in the community to execute what they want to see.
In the process of looking for connections, you made some insightful comments on the differences between the texts.
Do you plan to distinguish between the art process versus the art product? This could be a useful avenue to explore.
Keep that open mind. You are doing great!