Social Media Integrity Blog, Episode 8: Maize and Blues
The Maize and Blues project (@maizeandblues) was created by three Art & Design 203 students. In learning about creating socially engaged art, these students aim to increase connection within the U-M by providing a platform to share authentic stories. People can anonymously submit audio clips in response to a weekly prompt; the clips are then made into podcasts and shared on the Maize and Blues Spotify and Apple Music accounts.
Keara: Welcome to the Social Integrity Podcast, featuring the Maize and Blues team. Would each of the three of you please introduce yourselves?
Hi, I’m the girl in the blue shirt.
I’m the boy with the cat.
Hi, I’m the girl on her third cup of coffee.
Keara: Let’s start off by talking a little bit about what this project is and what it hopes to achieve. Can you describe how you found this creative way to connect, when our community couldn’t come together in person, and how this project relates to that?
The girl with the blue shirt: We’re in a class together, called Art & Design 203, which is Social Spaces. We learn about the role of artists, designers, citizens, in the world, and how to create socially engaged art. All with the purpose of trying to positively impact society.
When we were assigned this project, we realized that it was really hard for us to get together. I live in Ann Arbor, the boy with the cat lives in China, and the girl on her third cup of coffee lives in California. Being so far apart from each other, we wanted to find a way to help bring people together and connect the U-M community to make this time a little less lonely.
We came up with this project called Maize and Blues, where we compile anonymous audio recordings from people in all parts of the U-M community [students, faculty, and staff]. The clips will be made into podcasts that will be on Spotify and Apple Music.
Keara: You mentioned that an important aspect of this project is the anonymity of its participants. Why did you decide to have people remain anonymous when they submit their audio clips?
The girl on her third cup of coffee: We thought that having people remain anonymous for their posts would allow people to talk in a more open and raw way, so that they weren’t worried about who was listening. People could just speak as they want without anyone judging them.
Keara: What gave you all the idea to start the Maize and Blues project?
The girl with the blue shirt: It was really us trying to find a way to pull together our stories and find something that connects us all; in this time, that is so hard. Being on Zoom is really difficult. It’s even hard to maintain eye contact on Zoom: you can either look in the camera or you can look at your screen. So, just finding a platform in which you could hear people’s vulnerable stories, hear people’s raw emotions, we thought would be really, really helpful.
Keara: How has the pandemic impacted each of you personally?
The girl on her third cup of coffee: It’s actually my first semester back at Michigan, on Zoom. I took a year off to figure out what I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure, so I took a break and came back. It’s been very different. It’s definitely weird not having that connection with people in your classes and discussions. So it’s been really nice to work with the girl in the blue shirt and the boy with the cat on this project, and also to hear everyone’s stories.
The boy with the cat: I’m a transfer student from another college, from last year. I will say that the pandemic has affected my life a lot. It was really hard for me to book a plane ticket from the United States back to China. And it’s also hard for me to book the ticket backwards, as well. Right now I’m actually still struggling whether or not to book the plane ticket back [to the US] or continue to take classes online.
The girl with the blue shirt: This is my third year at the University of Michigan, and the pandemic definitely affected me a lot. I had some deaths in my family because of COVID-19, and it was pretty isolating.
I was really looking forward to coming back to school [this fall]. Back in March, no one ever thought that the whole next year would be online. I was so excited to come back because U-M has so much to offer––it’s a good way to escape, and a good community to distract yourself from anything that is happening in your life.
During the pandemic, all of a sudden you didn’t have those distractions anymore. You were forced to be on a computer, forced to be with your thoughts, forced to be with the same people day in and day out. I learned a lot about myself, but honestly, expanding my reach has been wonderful. Like the girl on her third cup of coffee was saying, it’s very easy to empathize with people just by hearing their voice. It’s a lot easier to open up to strangers, I think, when being vulnerable.
Keara: I know that this project is still in its early stages, but what do you hope to see as a result?
The boy with the cat: We’re wishing to build up a space for people to connect and reconnect, since this pandemic has separated us physically. It’s a place for people to share things you wouldn’t otherwise share.
The girl with the blue shirt: We have weekly topics that we put out. We’re only one week in, but our plan is to release weekly prompts, and whoever wants to contribute that week, can.
Keara: How has it felt to record and listen to these people’s stories, that are so vulnerable and open?
The girl on her third cup of coffee: It’s been pretty cool to hear little insights into people’s lives–just things that you wouldn’t normally hear about, with people you don’t even know.
The girl with the blue shirt: I have really loved it so far. I think it makes you realize that people are going through their own personal endeavors and their own experiences, but also how universal human emotions are. This past podcast, we talked to people about their happiest moments, and a professor talked about how beautiful it is to watch the dandelions come up next to the Duderstadt. Almost everyone at the University of Michigan has been up to the Duderstadt, and seen those dandelions. It’s such a shared experience of the intense emotion of happiness and bliss, and that’s been really beautiful to listen to.
Keara: If there are any final words you would like to share, the floor is yours.
The girl with the blue shirt: I just want to say that this project will hold a lot of weight, if we get a lot of voices heard. So if you can, if you have five minutes of your time, please go check out Maize and Blues on Instagram and follow the instructions on our account for how to contribute. It would mean the world to us, and it would make this a really powerful movement, a really powerful project. We want to create space for people to be able to open up and have those connections.
DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE
You can share your story at:
IG: @maizeandblues
Email: projectmaizeandblues@gmail.com
Check out the first episode at: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5TLIrv3kMUOBlNqDhbxBzY?si=pIJIfpROTASeZ0d_EwWh-Q&nd=1
