Contributor Process
This online toolkit serves as a resource for and responsible action in response to gun violence.
As we develop the notion of Fourth Responders, we seek to be:
Sensitive to nuanced perspectives on gun ownership, guns as an aspect of identity, and part of US culture;
Supportive of strategies for building community-mindedness for discussion and safe expression of individual points of view
By offering explicit directions for using creative processes throughout, we emphasize the process, exploration, and experimentation more than craft, talent, or expertise (which are also assets).
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A class entitled “Guns, Artmaking, and Truth,” explored techniques for becoming Fourth Responders to gun violence. Students and teachers were viewed as equal contributors in the process. Contributors shared both a concern about gun violence and an interest to respond through artmaking.
The class explored a range of perspectives on gun ownership and whether guns are a cause of violence. The group chose to interrogate and respond to gun culture in the US. We developed our ideas about Fourth Responders as contributors in the lab and made creative responses to explore and explain multiple aspects of the role of guns in the US.
Contributors collaborated on small-scale creative projects, sometimes struggling with how individual opinions and ideas could be part of a collective, agreed-upon effort. The challenge of artmaking, understood as personal expression, gave the contributors room to experiment with how to say what they wanted to say. Evidence from their writings and process logs (as well as their final projects) suggests that this experiential learning was more meaningful to them compared with traditional projects or research papers.
The techniques and tools shared on this site are intended for community groups and classrooms. These Fourth Responder approaches can help build collaboration and express individual and collective beliefs and ideas about how a community can be united and activated in the reflection and response to gun violence and US gun culture.
Stage 1: Research
Delivery, sharing, and discussion of complex, multi-perspective information
Includes research reports, news articles, essays, and media about US gun culture from many perspectives. These resources increase knowledge to spur conversation within a community or classroom group
Stage 2: Discussion
Creative responses are developed to express and communicate ideas
Sample assignments and exercises for communities and classrooms to experiment with art-making and creative expression in response to ideas about the US gun culture
Stage 3: Performance
The community of Fourth Responders share their ideas with presentations and performances
Practical ideas and examples of ways that Fourth responders can create a performance, installation, presentation, or other public event
A successful Fourth Responder event is an example of a broad, democratic culture – one that might allow for both gun ownership and the absence of guns. Contributors should gain an understanding of public reception to their ideas and be able to imagine future opportunities for community-leading roles and responsibilities.
