Exploratorium Artist-in-Residence Played The Waiting Game

Last November, folks from our Center for Art & Inquiry and I accompanied Exploratorium Artist-in-Residence Nina Katchadourian on something of a homecoming trip to Stanford University. We trekked a hour and a half, through early traffic, to see author and psychologist Walter Mischel, PhD speak in Zambrano Hall as part of his book tour. A former Stanford researcher, Mischel was sharing The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control, which explores self control and its presence (or absence) in early childhood. Katchadourian attended Stanford’s Bing Nursery School, where Mischel’s fieldwork began; she was an early participant in the study and continues to be involved in his work.

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Exploratorium Artist-in-Residence Nina Katchadourian at Bing Nursery School. (Courtesy of the artist)

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Bing Nursery School was built, in part, to study early childhood development. In Mischel’s “marshmallow test,” researchers sat Bing students at a table. On top of the table was a treat. The researcher would then explain that they were going to leave the room. If the preschooler was able to wait (which, let’s all collectively acknowledge is asking a lot of a four year old) until the researcher returned without eating the treat, the young study subject would get a larger portion of the incentive. If the pre-schooler could not wait, the researcher would immediately return and the little one would only receive the single, small treat.

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A similar, more contemporary study.

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Mischel goes on to argue a connection between one’s capacity to wait and self-soothe in early life forecasting an ability to avoid impulsivity through adolescence and into adulthood. Mischel saw this less as a sentence to a lifetime of poor decision making and more of an illuminating guide for learning “cooling” skills throughout life. Despite the book’s title, artist Nina Katchadourian remembers a little red toy trumpet, not a marshmallow as her “carrot.”

Katchadourian performs a dramatic reenactment of the "Marshmallow Test." (Courtesy of the artist)

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Why are Dr. Mischel’s work and self-control important to arts at the Exploratorium? Katchadourian used this text and her connection to it as an initial starting place for her work as an artist-in-residence. Katchadourian’s artistic practice is more conceptually driven. She works across several media including photography, sculpture, video and found objects. This range of things (and sometimes non-things) encourage us to “re-see” our surrounding world. A book becomes sculpture; airline napkins and selfies become Flemish style portraiture. Moreover for Katchadourian, research and the exploratory process inform the beginning steps of creating.

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Accent Elimination (2005) Nina Katchadourian (Courtesy of the artist)

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In her work Accent Elimination (2005), Katchadourian, her mother, and her father trained with an accent coach to “switch” their accents: “standard American,” Finnish and Armenian, respectively. When shown, the artwork includes televisions, pedestals, video, headphones and benches. But one wonders: is the substance of Accent Elimination this collection of items and devices, or the process begun by the artist and shared with her parents?

Accent Elimination is an important part of the Golden Lion Award-winning Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Katchadourian’s work  is also included in Drifting in Daylight, the Central Park Conservancy and Creative Time’s activation of Central Park’s North End through June 20.

Katchadourian is still in the exploratory phase of her two-year Exploratorium residency; the project development phase begins in 2016. What began as a contemplation on self-control may develop into an exhibit on the Exploratorium floor, or a reflective space in the stimulating galleries. We’ll exercise our self-control and wait for the work to materialize.