Bias Outside the Box (BOB)

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About

Look for this installation at four venues from September 30 - October 24!

Bias Outside the Box (BOB) is an online personal learning tool being developed based on a combination of the science of psychology and the art of photography. Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman (Lead With Diversity) and Ian McCausland teamed up to create portraits of people from various ethnicities, in cultural dress. These photographs are presented to the viewer, in an attempt to help people identify their own bias so they can readily work on changing it more.

As Freud said, "insight is the cure". Most of us carry unconscious bias, but the lack of awareness of it allows it to persist and influence our thoughts emotions and behaviors, in particular with those different from us. This lack of awareness also allows systemic racism to continue as we remain unable to identify biases that maintain it.

In the online tool, people are presented with several portraits and asked to make a definitive decision based on the appearance alone, as we often do. This includes skin color, gender, and clothing. They are to respond with their gut reaction. Then the accurate information about those people is presented to participants, bringing the observer face to face with the actual information about that individual that highlights how their bias changes perceptions. Examples of questions include: Which person is Canadian? Which person is least likely to conform to Canadian values?

Links

• Bias Outside the Box leadwithdiversity.com

Organizer

Illuminate the Night presents Rehman Abdulrehman & Ian McCausland

Ian and Rehman feel strongly about how art can have a real influence in changing the social structure and culture of a society. This project on helping people identify their own biases, safely, in their own minds, works on the psychological principal that insight and mindfulness can encourage us to better behavior. In the case of unconscious bias, and in the face of our current world, addressing bias is the road to improving inclusion and becoming antiracist. Ian and Rehman believe strongly that their project will not only help showcase people of colour and those from cultural communities as beautiful, but also Canadian, as an additional bonus to helping us challenge our biases and see the world and the people in it in a more accurate light.

-- Each year, the "Illuminate the Night" open call is held for artists to propose pieces that will enthrall, excite and possibly introduce Winnipeggers to something they have never seen or experienced before at Nuit Blanche. Projects are selected by a jury of artists and art professionals and are featured in Winnipeg’s downtown core. --