In discussing our brief stay at Heritage Middle School, Nicole imparted a few words of wisdom on me and Bri. I think this is an appropriate forum for passing the common sense along.
These fieldworking and student teaching opportunities open us all to a number of networking opportunities. In working at HMS, Bri and I had the pleasure of chatting with the school's principal, who is a joy to converse with. Nicole recommended Bri and I discover a reason to go back to that school, as they are aware of our knowledge and abilities, and submit our resumes for them to keep on file.
I think this is a wise step for everyone in fieldwork. Leave a paper trail in your placement in case an art job opens up down the line. Hopefully many of us, if not all, left a great impression on our schools.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Balancing dual degrees in the most difficult semester of my undergraduate career
Lesson learned: Pursuing a dual degree is not for the faint of heart. Late nights in my studio coupled with early morning fieldwork duties often left me feeling ragged and less than sane. Luckily, much of my hard work paid off. Bri and I met with Nicole, our fieldwork coordinator, today and her wonderful graduate student assistant named Michelle to give our slide presentation on the fieldwork process. Nicole was thrilled by our progress, how professionally we conducted ourselves, and graciously took note of our ability to change the classroom for the better, even if only for a short period of time. It was wonderful to experience a welcomed departure from routine alongside the students, many from financially and socially depressed home environments, which can really break your heart if you aren't careful. While art-making with students, as I have noticed even in my own practice, casual conversation is generated almost immediately, and you're quick to say what's on your mind no matter who is listening. Students would talk to me as if we already knew each other, which was a strange phenomenon at first, until I realize I'm guilty of the same thing. All-nighters also promote talking without a filter.
Bri and I were unable to give our presentation on the meeting day in Coykendall due to scheduling conflicts and an emergency doctor appointment I had scheduled due to an injury I undoubtedly suffered from the installation and uninstallation of my BFA thesis show. Along with the blow to my ego due to my ceramic studio's crit of my work, I also strained a muscle on my side that resulted in sleepless nights and potent meds.
Lesson learned: Never expect anyone to understand my artwork, despite our seemingly friendly and agreeable relationship. Also, never conduct a studio-wide critique in which all peer commentary is overshadowed by one faculty member's unwavering opinion. Yes, your personal aesthetic is valuable in assessing the work of other's, but it should not be the only lens by which to view art. If you want it that way, make your own. Nothing shuts down a student more, and I say this from personal experience, than knocking down all the successful work she has done simply because of small details, such as hardware choices. The fact remains that I am wholeheartedly pleased with my process, results and undying professional conduct throughout my thesis completion. I belief all you can ask of your students is to give you their best. I also know that I gave it my all. Had I allowed myself time off for vacations or weekends or to even go home at the end of the day, I'd have known in my heart and in my head that I could have done more. This was the first semester I actually only went home to sleep in my own bed about once or twice a week. I had moved further away from New Paltz over the summer due to an offer I couldn't refuse, and was luckily able to stay with a friend in NP during the week. In doing that, over time I began to feel displaced, away from the small support system I feel I actually have. This feeling of displacement resulted in my obsessive work habits that would reach over any ailments, sleep deprivation or mental anguish. It also resulted in a thesis I can be proud of. Most of all, the positive feedback I received came from family, friends and faculty member's whose opinion I strongly value. Breakthrough: You also can never underestimate your mother's ability to make you cry when she tells you (and everyone she knows) how proud of you she is.
Bri and I were unable to give our presentation on the meeting day in Coykendall due to scheduling conflicts and an emergency doctor appointment I had scheduled due to an injury I undoubtedly suffered from the installation and uninstallation of my BFA thesis show. Along with the blow to my ego due to my ceramic studio's crit of my work, I also strained a muscle on my side that resulted in sleepless nights and potent meds.
Lesson learned: Never expect anyone to understand my artwork, despite our seemingly friendly and agreeable relationship. Also, never conduct a studio-wide critique in which all peer commentary is overshadowed by one faculty member's unwavering opinion. Yes, your personal aesthetic is valuable in assessing the work of other's, but it should not be the only lens by which to view art. If you want it that way, make your own. Nothing shuts down a student more, and I say this from personal experience, than knocking down all the successful work she has done simply because of small details, such as hardware choices. The fact remains that I am wholeheartedly pleased with my process, results and undying professional conduct throughout my thesis completion. I belief all you can ask of your students is to give you their best. I also know that I gave it my all. Had I allowed myself time off for vacations or weekends or to even go home at the end of the day, I'd have known in my heart and in my head that I could have done more. This was the first semester I actually only went home to sleep in my own bed about once or twice a week. I had moved further away from New Paltz over the summer due to an offer I couldn't refuse, and was luckily able to stay with a friend in NP during the week. In doing that, over time I began to feel displaced, away from the small support system I feel I actually have. This feeling of displacement resulted in my obsessive work habits that would reach over any ailments, sleep deprivation or mental anguish. It also resulted in a thesis I can be proud of. Most of all, the positive feedback I received came from family, friends and faculty member's whose opinion I strongly value. Breakthrough: You also can never underestimate your mother's ability to make you cry when she tells you (and everyone she knows) how proud of you she is.
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| Cumulus (installation view), 2011 |
Theme Based Lesson Evaluation
After presenting the 45 minute theme based lesson to our students, Bri and I each compiled our own individual evaluation statements based on professor and peer feedback:
After the initial shakiness of our nerves, I believe Bri and I fell into a comfortable and coherent dialogue with our students. We had effective teacher presence and established clarity of our expectations of the class early on, which eliminated confusion and pressures about producing a finished product for the informal critique/class discussion. Enthusiasm was high on our end and the class warmed up to us quickly. It was at first difficult to get participation from our students when revisiting our 10 minute introductory lesson from a few weeks back, but by allowing a casual dialogue to emerge between ourselves and the students, we could gauge students’ understanding of past material and scaffold greater ideas from each participating student’s recollection of that lesson. We made sure to navigate the classroom individually as the class began creating individual sketches, keeping a keen eye on students who were demarcated as trouble makers. These students simply needed a bit more guidance, attention and explanation of ways to spin his/her own ideas from the group’s “web.” By keeping a calm voice and not singling any student out, classroom order was maintained and the sketches showed evidence of constructive thought.
After the initial shakiness of our nerves, I believe Bri and I fell into a comfortable and coherent dialogue with our students. We had effective teacher presence and established clarity of our expectations of the class early on, which eliminated confusion and pressures about producing a finished product for the informal critique/class discussion. Enthusiasm was high on our end and the class warmed up to us quickly. It was at first difficult to get participation from our students when revisiting our 10 minute introductory lesson from a few weeks back, but by allowing a casual dialogue to emerge between ourselves and the students, we could gauge students’ understanding of past material and scaffold greater ideas from each participating student’s recollection of that lesson. We made sure to navigate the classroom individually as the class began creating individual sketches, keeping a keen eye on students who were demarcated as trouble makers. These students simply needed a bit more guidance, attention and explanation of ways to spin his/her own ideas from the group’s “web.” By keeping a calm voice and not singling any student out, classroom order was maintained and the sketches showed evidence of constructive thought.
Our own sketches/examples may not have been the best, but we did utilize the outside bulletin board, which provided a brilliant outlet for physical movement of the students. Sitting for too long a period of time provides ample chance for fidgeting and off-color activity. Our choice of pastels was perhaps ill-suited for the sketching exercise and was the result of poor material selection in our art closet. While there were plenty of different mark making tools, the condition of many of the supplies left something to be desired (i.e. markers were dried out). We managed to keep our presentation clean and concise by utilizing simple color coding and signage such as the “Think Tank” to establish continuity and organization in each group’s brainstorming. There was some confusion on my part about the counting off system, simply because Bri and I had discussed it so many times I forgot which way it would be executed. In the future, it would be valuable to allow students to break themselves into groups. Also, allowing the students to define “visual language” would better suit the project and could generate compelling ideas of their own, perhaps eradicating the need for assigned topics.
Evaluation of Artist Presentation
Bri and I were fortunate to read peer feedback on our artist presentation. We then synthesized all comments into a one-page evaluation of our presentation:
Overall, our peer reviews are positive. Our audience commended us on our inclusion of current events, citing Occupy Wall Street as our first topic of discussion. We believe it is of the highest importance to incorporate other worldly subjects in the classroom whenever possible, and Occupy was a lucky happenstance. We sometimes jumped too quickly from question to question, especially when discussing that first slide of the Occupy protesters. As we progressed through our brief slide presentation, we were sure to include text slides, listing the artists’ names and dates of birth. Many of our peers felt this was an effective tool, as reading the names help students remember who we are talking about. We were sure to ask the class questions as we went along, spinning ideas of our own off the ideas of the class. At times, our theme seemed a bit muddled to some of our peers, as we touched on a number of them, such as appropriation, human rights, activism and authenticity. As opposed to connecting the two artists to just one theme, we chose to let the conversation flow organically to allow the students to come to their own conclusions. It is important for students to be able to apply their knowledge in order to really have a grasp of abstract concepts.
Overall, our peer reviews are positive. Our audience commended us on our inclusion of current events, citing Occupy Wall Street as our first topic of discussion. We believe it is of the highest importance to incorporate other worldly subjects in the classroom whenever possible, and Occupy was a lucky happenstance. We sometimes jumped too quickly from question to question, especially when discussing that first slide of the Occupy protesters. As we progressed through our brief slide presentation, we were sure to include text slides, listing the artists’ names and dates of birth. Many of our peers felt this was an effective tool, as reading the names help students remember who we are talking about. We were sure to ask the class questions as we went along, spinning ideas of our own off the ideas of the class. At times, our theme seemed a bit muddled to some of our peers, as we touched on a number of them, such as appropriation, human rights, activism and authenticity. As opposed to connecting the two artists to just one theme, we chose to let the conversation flow organically to allow the students to come to their own conclusions. It is important for students to be able to apply their knowledge in order to really have a grasp of abstract concepts.
Artist Presentation Write Up
Bri Murphy and I researched issues of human rights in contemporary art and focused on artist's Jenny Holzer and Ai WeiWei. Below is a written statement on our findings, including citations:
Human Rights in Contemporary Art
The issue of human rights is a broad umbrella of discussion that involves the struggle of activists against a specific higher organization or government. Currently, the movement known as “Occupy Wall Street” has made headlines with its protestors denouncing the inequality of wealth in the current U.S. economy. This demonstration of assembly and protest is akin to similar happenings all over the world concerning social, political and economic topics, as well as throughout history. It is only natural that amid the discord in the political climate the visual and performing arts boom with reflections of economic inequality and social injustices.
In this strain, we first look to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and his controversial ceramic objects. In “Sunflowers Seeds,” installed at the Tate Modern in 2010, Weiwei employed citizens of a small Chinese town that has a rich history of Imperial porcelain production in an effort to capture the effect of historical relevance in his project. The workers created an abundance of life-sized sunflower seeds and hand-painted each one to an astounding likeness. The expansive installation was as interactive as it was politically and historically charged. The Tate’s patrons could be found lying down amid the sea of grey created by the obscured sunflower seeds, the sea dwarfing the concept of individuality that could be extracted from Weiwei’s act of outsourcing labor. He addresses issues of mechanized production and history’s ugly industrial past involving the subjugation of the worker. Through this project, Weiwei helped save the town from financial ruin by putting money back into the economy for the descendents of a noble ceramic tradition. He as an artist recognized the value of this community in despair, its inhabitants and their previously unanswered call for assistance. As Adrain Searle puts it in The Guardian,
“Sunflower Seeds refers to everyday life, to hunger (the seeds were a reliable staple during the Cultural Revolution), to collective work, and to an enduring Chinese industry. But it is also symbolic. It joins several previous Turbine Hall commissions – most recently Doris Salcedo's 2008 Shibboleth and Miroslaw Balka's How It Is – in a dialogue about the social and cultural place of art.”
While this piece was closed due to the health hazards associated with unfired clay, it stands as a recognizable icon and reference for Weiwei who has made a career of commenting on the inequalities and at times corruptive actions of the Chinese government.
Another Weiwei work entails the destruction and defamation of archaic Chinese vessels, otherwise regarded as historically poignant pots. Specifically, he dropped an urn created under the Han Dynasty, a dynasty established in 206 BCE. This act of radicalism highlights Weiwei’s aim as an artist to clearly defy history as an act of protesting contemporary issues. His approach is blunt, straightforward, and in your face. As he himself said, “I do not think the issue of human rights can ever improve without a struggle.” This point of view is interesting to keep in mind as we transition to another artist that deals with political and social issues.
American born artist Jenny Holzer attempts to recontextualize architectural facades with her larger than life projections. In her public displays, luminous letters give access to ideas that she appropriates from pre-existing prose for her viewers. She cleverly addresses elements and principles of design, as her font selection remains uniform from location to location around the world, acting as her signature or trademark. She uses her bold, fluid and clearly legible text-based imagery to open a forum for political discussion and contemplation. Some quotes include, but are not limited to:“To acquire a political meaning you don’t even have to be human. Raw material will do, or protein feed, or crude oil…”
“I am afraid of the ones in power who kill people and do not admit grief…”
As many of her projected texts are not original, they are instead borrowed excerpts from poets and other works of literature that she deems appropriate to fit her perspective as an artist. This gives a new light to her work, which is interesting if not problematic. Where a viewer may assume she is dictating her beliefs in her own words, and therefore establishing a sort of personal connection to her viewers, she is once removed by expressing her views through a secondary source. Through the precise literary selections, her monumental compositions give off a distinct feeling of alienation, despite their spatial and conceptual enormity.
These two artists are radically different in their approach to the public art, which is notably heavily dictated by government systems that may hinder or discourage the self-expression of working citizens. Where Holzer emblazons entire buildings with her borrowed words, Weiwei destroys a work of art not made by himself, but by a craftsman thousands of years prior. Just as Holzer’s work is contemporarily American, democratic in regard to the hints of vandalism her projections impart on historical architecture, Weiwei’s work is as confrontational and inflammatory to communist China as he can muster. It is intriguing to consider the artist’s country of origin and the ways the respective traditions, government, and cultures affect their attitudes as artists. Furthermore, which approach to art can be deemed more effective in conveying the maker’s own perspective? It is, of course, ideally up to the individual; something can be said for each side, as the radical ways of Ai Weiwei and the epic projections of Jenny Holzer both engage the public in the spirit of protest and condemnation of injustices in our contemporary climate.Works Cited:
Gilsdorf, Bean. "Daily Serving » Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn." Daily Serving. 31 July 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.dailyserving.com/2010/07/ai-weiwei-dropping-the-urn/>.
"Occupy Wall Street." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street>.
"Projections." Jenny Holzer - Projections. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jennyholzer.com>.
Smee, Sebastian. "Illuminated Poetry Delivers Insights at IC." Rev. of Jenny Holzer's "Projections" The Boston Globe [Boston] 26 July 2010. Boston.com. Globe Newspaper Company, 26 July 2010. Web. <http://i1.exhibit-e.com/cheimread/boston_globe_7_26_10.pdf>.
Tom. "» Blog Archive » Ai Weiwei’s Last Talk." Ondertussen in China. 5 Apr. 2011. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://oic.suspects.be/?p=900>.
Weiwei, Ai. "Concept." Aiweiwei.com. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.aiweiwei.com/editorial/editframe.htm>.
Artist Presentation
On 10/21/11, Bri and I compiled an outline of topics for discussion within our 10 minute presentation. We sought to achieve verbal and nonverbal communication from our students, helping us to gauge their interest and understanding as we proceeded through the presentation. We also sought to synthesize their feedback with what pertinent information we were trying to get across. Art is such a subjective topic and expressive medium, and there is absolutely no justifiable way to discourage any discussion of opinion or perspective. Below are notes from that outline:
I. Human Rights and Occupy Wall Street
II. Ai Weiwei
III. Jenny Holzer
IV. Compare and Contrast
Outline
I. Human Rights and Occupy Wall Street
II. Ai Weiwei
- Sunflower Seeds
- Community of historical Imperial porcelain makers lost to mass production – hand-crafted ware
- Public Space - interactive
- Expansive – enormous physical and historical presence
- Political signs of government, population
- Organizing public awareness of history and current economy
- Breaking Vase
- Literal breaking of tradition
- “I do not think the issue of human rights can ever improve without a struggle.”
- Act of radicalism
III. Jenny Holzer
- Recontextualizing architecture – contemporary ideas projected onto historical monuments
- Reversible – temporarily vandalist projections
IV. Compare and Contrast
- How are these artists communicating their political/socio-economic views in their art?
- How does each artist respond to their country of origin and what relevance does that culture have in their artmaking?
- In your opinion, which artist’s method is more effective?
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| After some brief instruction, including some teacher examples, the students began work. |
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| Some students applied paint by actually touching the brush to the paper. |
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| Other students flicked paint, blew puddles of paint with their breath and turned papers with wet paint to produce dramatic drips. |
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| Occasionally, paint got on the floor, on some clothing and on hands. |
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| A huge perk with watercolor is that it is easily cleanable, and with just once mentioning our expectations of students' cleanliness, all students exceeded our expectations by cleaning up their peers' workspace along with their own. |
Fieldwork experience
Fieldwork Location: Heritage Middle School, New Windsor, NY
Grade Level: 6th-8th Grades
Self-assigned task: Integrate new material exploration into existing skill set in mentor teacher's classroom. More specifically, take the structured line drawings to the next level, allowing a departure from straight lines and symmetry and opening doors to new possibilities.
The students were amped to work with paint. They had been working with clean materials such as pencils, erasers and rulers for so long that our simple exercise seemed like a prison break. While our mentor teacher had some wonderful traits, such as his comfortable relationship with his students and his ability to act as an intermediary between the students and on-site security officers, his shortcomings lied heavily in his lesson plans, and the inherent lack of structure. It seemed as though his many years of experience had desensitized him to the educational needs of his students. We noticed immediately that the creative but inhibited students were an untapped resource. The mentor teacher and his former student teacher had created a beautiful mural in the back of the classroom, but no student had a hand in it. Yes, it is his classroom, but what does viewing his flawless execution of an idea show his students? His years of experience dwarf the abilities of his students, shutting them down before they even started. We observed the 6th graders as being mostly oblivious to the perfected craft of the mural painting. They enjoyed using it as a sort of I SPY resource. However, the 7th and 8th grades would flank the teacher's desk, asking for his assistance at almost every turn. While he never actually drew on the students' papers, he may as well have, as much of the work reflected the How To Draw books in the classroom. Where is the student's voice?
In creating a new line drawing, this time in marker on watercolor paper, our students were encouraged to think beyond the line. It was more about experimenting with cause and effect; if I do this, what will I get? Simply applying water to the marker drawn line caused the mark to wick and bleed in pools and webs across the paper, allowing students to make mental note of the change and further strategize to come up with potential patterns/results. Some students went back in and highlighted newly formed paint shapes, transforming his or her entire composition based on elements of chance and play.
We introduced the exercise as just that. Papers were cut small so detail oriented students wouldn't feel burdened by the empty space and fast working students could act as factories. Some students worked in very representation formats, some included texts, and others worked in abstracted versions of his or her line drawings. This made for a dynamic composition once we were able to set up the display in the school's main lobby area, just outside of the principal's office.
Grade Level: 6th-8th Grades
Self-assigned task: Integrate new material exploration into existing skill set in mentor teacher's classroom. More specifically, take the structured line drawings to the next level, allowing a departure from straight lines and symmetry and opening doors to new possibilities.
The students were amped to work with paint. They had been working with clean materials such as pencils, erasers and rulers for so long that our simple exercise seemed like a prison break. While our mentor teacher had some wonderful traits, such as his comfortable relationship with his students and his ability to act as an intermediary between the students and on-site security officers, his shortcomings lied heavily in his lesson plans, and the inherent lack of structure. It seemed as though his many years of experience had desensitized him to the educational needs of his students. We noticed immediately that the creative but inhibited students were an untapped resource. The mentor teacher and his former student teacher had created a beautiful mural in the back of the classroom, but no student had a hand in it. Yes, it is his classroom, but what does viewing his flawless execution of an idea show his students? His years of experience dwarf the abilities of his students, shutting them down before they even started. We observed the 6th graders as being mostly oblivious to the perfected craft of the mural painting. They enjoyed using it as a sort of I SPY resource. However, the 7th and 8th grades would flank the teacher's desk, asking for his assistance at almost every turn. While he never actually drew on the students' papers, he may as well have, as much of the work reflected the How To Draw books in the classroom. Where is the student's voice?
In creating a new line drawing, this time in marker on watercolor paper, our students were encouraged to think beyond the line. It was more about experimenting with cause and effect; if I do this, what will I get? Simply applying water to the marker drawn line caused the mark to wick and bleed in pools and webs across the paper, allowing students to make mental note of the change and further strategize to come up with potential patterns/results. Some students went back in and highlighted newly formed paint shapes, transforming his or her entire composition based on elements of chance and play.
We introduced the exercise as just that. Papers were cut small so detail oriented students wouldn't feel burdened by the empty space and fast working students could act as factories. Some students worked in very representation formats, some included texts, and others worked in abstracted versions of his or her line drawings. This made for a dynamic composition once we were able to set up the display in the school's main lobby area, just outside of the principal's office.
Grow a Game
In-class, Week 2, we discussed the value of growing a game:
Building a game is a fun brain-storming activity designed to encourage effective peer to peer communication, synthesizing ideas in a group format, and generating concepts that can further be developed through individual research.
Mary Flanagan
Game Building through “Grow A Game.”
TiltFactor.org
Group 4 Play:
Green: repairing
Blue: cooperation
Pink: life (the game of)
Orange: urban sprawl
Board is an urban landscape/cityscape
Purpose is to create community/social settings, repair broken social structure
Encourages group dynamic
How to get two players to land in one space and work collectively?
To Win:
Moving up in the social hierarchy of community organizers.
Spaces to Land on:
Game as a similar structure to the Curriculum Reading from this week.
MS Curriculum
Building a living curriculum:
-One that deals with the issues that face us currently
-How do we deal with the world, rather than do we understand
-Teaching the students strategies in life
-How do their lives enter our lesson plans?
-Be aware of where they’re at developmentally, socially, are they social or not
-Are they getting positive affirmation at home?
Early Adolescent Concerns:
-Developmental
-Peer group interaction
-Self concept
-Complicated being in the world
(We can’t assume they don’t know what’s going on anymore. Through social networking and vast media outlets, kids are more in touch with what’s going on than ever.)
Social concerns:
-Recognize their contexts (geographic location, family life, friends and experiences) will affect them. Who are they going to become with these contexts?
Connecting through themes:
-They connect the understanding of the curriculum to a larger social concern
-Use skill building but does not end at skill development
Skills in a living curriculum:
-Reflecting thinking
-Critical ethics
-Values
-Self concepting and self esteeming
-Social action
-(others)
Persistent themes:
-Democracy, how do we use this concept in the classroom? The responsibility of educators is to receive and produce knowledge and practice human dignity and related themes of freedom, equality, justice and peace. Cultural diversity is not limited to race- our skills, physical abilities, pasts, practices also comprise our C.D.
Finding themes:
-Developing curriculums with students (keep fieldwork in mind and use other theory students as resources)
-Provide opportunity for range of knowledge, use this in the objectives
-Contributions to the greater community, school as a small scale, neighborhood and world as a larger scale
-Use experiences as a teacher and expand upon them.
Building a game is a fun brain-storming activity designed to encourage effective peer to peer communication, synthesizing ideas in a group format, and generating concepts that can further be developed through individual research.
Mary Flanagan
Game Building through “Grow A Game.”
TiltFactor.org
Group 4 Play:
Green: repairing
Blue: cooperation
Pink: life (the game of)
Orange: urban sprawl
Board is an urban landscape/cityscape
Purpose is to create community/social settings, repair broken social structure
Encourages group dynamic
How to get two players to land in one space and work collectively?
To Win:
Moving up in the social hierarchy of community organizers.
Spaces to Land on:
Game as a similar structure to the Curriculum Reading from this week.
MS Curriculum
Building a living curriculum:
-One that deals with the issues that face us currently
-How do we deal with the world, rather than do we understand
-Teaching the students strategies in life
-How do their lives enter our lesson plans?
-Be aware of where they’re at developmentally, socially, are they social or not
-Are they getting positive affirmation at home?
Early Adolescent Concerns:
-Developmental
-Peer group interaction
-Self concept
-Complicated being in the world
(We can’t assume they don’t know what’s going on anymore. Through social networking and vast media outlets, kids are more in touch with what’s going on than ever.)
Social concerns:
-Recognize their contexts (geographic location, family life, friends and experiences) will affect them. Who are they going to become with these contexts?
Connecting through themes:
-They connect the understanding of the curriculum to a larger social concern
-Use skill building but does not end at skill development
Skills in a living curriculum:
-Reflecting thinking
-Critical ethics
-Values
-Self concepting and self esteeming
-Social action
-(others)
Persistent themes:
-Democracy, how do we use this concept in the classroom? The responsibility of educators is to receive and produce knowledge and practice human dignity and related themes of freedom, equality, justice and peace. Cultural diversity is not limited to race- our skills, physical abilities, pasts, practices also comprise our C.D.
Finding themes:
-Developing curriculums with students (keep fieldwork in mind and use other theory students as resources)
-Provide opportunity for range of knowledge, use this in the objectives
-Contributions to the greater community, school as a small scale, neighborhood and world as a larger scale
-Use experiences as a teacher and expand upon them.
Theme Based Lesson Notes
As you may remember, Bri Murphy and I gave a 10 minute presentation dealing with human rights activist artists, which then translated into a 45 minute theme based lesson. The lesson deviated somewhat from the original subject matter, as we encouraged the class to use individual expression to exercise each person's individual rights to express his or her own ideas.
Below are some notes from the brainstorming session (Think Tank, if you will):
Bri & Gabby in Deep Thought (essentially a conversation):
The purpose of this lesson is to serve as an introduction to a unit plan that incorporates the development of a symbolic language in artmaking with contemporary human rights issues.
We begin by highlighting points from artist presentation. Review Ai Weiwei and Jenny Holzer...ask what were the human rights issues they were addressing in their work? If students can’t remember, go back over an example in detail and let them figure it out again.
Group discussion about human rights issues. One monitors class/calls on people, other writes on whiteboard. Name some issues! Let them come up with what they want to talk about but have all possibilities anticipated. (Are all issues school appropriate? Know beforehand what is acceptable and be prepared to explain why)
Possible Human Rights Topics
-Adequate Housing
-Forced Labor
-Child Labor
-Employee Discrimination
-Child Abuse
-Prostitution
-Infanticide (Female Infanticide)
-Religion
-Right to Assemble
-Freedom of Speech/Expression
-Climate Change (tsunami, earthquakes, natural disasters)
-Disability
-Pollution and Public Health
-Poverty
-Famine
-Appropriation of Wealth
-Genocide
-Globalization
-Health Care
-HIV/AIDS discrimination
-Human Trafficking
-Racism
-Terrorism
-LGBTQ Rights
-Abortion
-Cyber Bullying
-Suicide and Assisted Suicide
-Education
-Marriage
-Women’s Rights
After brainstorming a list with the class, supplement it with our list to give a wider range of working options. Select a topic for class work-shopping (we have one pre-selected or they choose? I think it would be better to let them pick...give them a sense of ownership...or should it be preselected to ensure that it all works out???) From here we would come up with a list of words that we associate with our topic. For this example lets use our example from the artist slide show (Occupy Wall Street) to discuss Appropriation of Wealth.
Notes from Gabby’s sheet:
*6 & 7th grade, but tailored, of course, to our college students
*let’s aim to finish a teensy bit early. 40 mins mark, so we have time to sum up. Earlier presenters did this and it also leaves time for questions- BINGO
*Ai Weiwei- uses culture richly, work is direct link between object and action
*Holzer- uses text that she is reappropriating, uses symbolic locations and buildings
*Things we can address:
-Comics as examples
-Artists
-Narrative
-Material exploration (set limits with charcoal and colored pencil, if we meet resistance to charcoal (i.e. the “bad” kid), we can reiterate how experimentation may lead to other ideas and briefly discuss how different materials lend themselves to different aesthetics)
-color emotives (what does red mean, vs. blue?) (chromology as vocabulary word)
-semiotics (how can language be used?)- AdBusters magazine, manipulation of branding (our examples will show this, kind of like the use of the Corona bottle to touch on alcoholism, but maybe not as literal). Maybe we make our display for the unit and give an overview for these things that we plan on discussing further in the unit? Or do you want to use it for teacher examples? What do you think? Also I’ll start hashing out the time for the lesson but I think we should spend a decent amount working as a class. Maybe we make them a worksheet to brainstorm on?
A worksheet may be a good idea. It could be a great jumping off point for potential students who would have difficulty in addressing a visual task right off the bat.
What would we include on it? Words? Issues? Fill in blanks with their own thoughts?
Ask open ended questions like:
What matters to you?
What’s something you’d change in the world if you could?
Etc?
Gabby! Those are all swell ideas. I’m thinking that maybe we go through the class example together first so that they understand the format.
Essentially:
1. Think of issues you relate to
2. Pick ONE to work with
3. Make a list of words you associate with that issue (these could be describing words, nouns, whatever, as long as they relate to the theme. ex. Appropriation of wealth, greed, poverty, starving, poor, etc)
4. Write the names of objects, people, etc (nouns) that you associate with the words you listed in step 3 (Appropriation of Wealth → Greed → Pig)
5. Develop your symbolic language → This is the fun part! illustrate these words to create your own visual language that gives meaning to your issue. (Illustration of pig)
-We will have a slide with issues on them, or have the students shout stuff out like rapid hot fire and we will jot it down on the white board, so it has more of a physical presence than slides. I really don’t like using PPoints, by the way. Lets only bring up the PPT if we need a refresher on the artists *Exactly. We can just pull up the two images... Ai Weiwei breaking pots and Jenny Holzer’s buildings.
Think tank on white board- Check! How many examples do we want?
We need 3-4
Resources:
Binder with Wikipedia overviews of selected human rights topics.- do we still need this? our idea has sort of shifted since we originally thought this out.
Probably not, I keep going back to the whole intro lesson thing...they can research their project idea when the have one in future classes but this is just an intro right?
ALSO- what materials should i lift from the supply closet today... in 20 mins?
(what kind?)paper, charcoal, colored pencils, pastels?
something with a tooth to hold that charcoal...and size? medium to large id say
***We can also cut down the big sheets, like what we did for Grodin, so for those who finish early, they can move onto the next practice round. We won’t have to worry about conserving materials. They can have at it a little bit.
Have students draw up a schematic using a specific controversial issue and a specific issue written on a distributed sheet.
-base opening discussion on human rights- what is it? define it.
-brainstorm some topics
-try to gauge student’s comments in think tank and synthesize them with what distribution material we have.
-have a few groups
-discuss commonalities in branding/advertising *are we incorporating a discussion about advertising? yes
what makes them recognizable as an ad?
use examples.
examples can be pulled directly from ads
use specific demographics, issues, brands
-sketch round, not a finished product
-crit will be an open discussion
-set up guidelines so that they can determine whether they have met the project’s requirements.
-human rights issue, demographic, known brand/corporation
-groups will discuss topics and use the strategy for developing a symbolic language to brainstorm ideas for individual projects
-throughout group discussion, individuals will generate their own thoughts and opinions. following the group discussion, each student will create their own approach to the assignment and come up with primary sketch
Lesson Layout:
-Greeting, highlight artist presentation. You remember the PPT we saw? Who remembers what contemporary issues these artists addressed with their work? (Show reminder slide)
-Introduce today’s lesson - Today we will beginning a unit of study that is going to bring us deeper into those concepts we we just starting explore...human rights, activism, the publicity of those actions and what they mean to us as artists. Today is going to be like a big brainstorm, meant to give us a jumping off point for the rest of the unit. So don’t worry if you don’t have a perfectly finished product by the end of the day, today is a think day to give us tools to use in the future.
-Intro to Developing a Symbolic Language (Bri) - Preface this by saying...We will first be looking at symbols in art making and how we can make our own meaningful symbols that help us create meaningful art. (Tool kit) It is a challenging topic, but we are all up for it if we work together and stay focused. on white board, write a central issue. Use web to construct symbolic language chart with help from class. Gabby assist in calling on hands and getting more ideas going while Bri is frantically writing. Show how symbolism can be broken down simply and turned into visual language that we can use. KEEP this in mind, turn it over to Gabby to tell you about your job today.
-Gabby introduce lesson, bring us out into the hallway to stretch out a bit and look at teacher examples. Explain what we are going to be doing.
-Lesson- divided into groups of 4 Each group will be given a topic to workshop like the one we did as a group. They will have time to web it and discuss. After workshopping as a group, they work individually to create an ad based using all materials given based on their own opinions on the issue at hand.
-Clean up
-Class discussion
Below are some notes from the brainstorming session (Think Tank, if you will):
Bri & Gabby in Deep Thought (essentially a conversation):
The purpose of this lesson is to serve as an introduction to a unit plan that incorporates the development of a symbolic language in artmaking with contemporary human rights issues.
We begin by highlighting points from artist presentation. Review Ai Weiwei and Jenny Holzer...ask what were the human rights issues they were addressing in their work? If students can’t remember, go back over an example in detail and let them figure it out again.
Group discussion about human rights issues. One monitors class/calls on people, other writes on whiteboard. Name some issues! Let them come up with what they want to talk about but have all possibilities anticipated. (Are all issues school appropriate? Know beforehand what is acceptable and be prepared to explain why)
Possible Human Rights Topics
-Adequate Housing
-Forced Labor
-Child Labor
-Employee Discrimination
-Child Abuse
-Prostitution
-Infanticide (Female Infanticide)
-Religion
-Right to Assemble
-Freedom of Speech/Expression
-Climate Change (tsunami, earthquakes, natural disasters)
-Disability
-Pollution and Public Health
-Poverty
-Famine
-Appropriation of Wealth
-Genocide
-Globalization
-Health Care
-HIV/AIDS discrimination
-Human Trafficking
-Racism
-Terrorism
-LGBTQ Rights
-Abortion
-Cyber Bullying
-Suicide and Assisted Suicide
-Education
-Marriage
-Women’s Rights
After brainstorming a list with the class, supplement it with our list to give a wider range of working options. Select a topic for class work-shopping (we have one pre-selected or they choose? I think it would be better to let them pick...give them a sense of ownership...or should it be preselected to ensure that it all works out???) From here we would come up with a list of words that we associate with our topic. For this example lets use our example from the artist slide show (Occupy Wall Street) to discuss Appropriation of Wealth.
Notes from Gabby’s sheet:
*6 & 7th grade, but tailored, of course, to our college students
*let’s aim to finish a teensy bit early. 40 mins mark, so we have time to sum up. Earlier presenters did this and it also leaves time for questions- BINGO
*Ai Weiwei- uses culture richly, work is direct link between object and action
*Holzer- uses text that she is reappropriating, uses symbolic locations and buildings
*Things we can address:
-Comics as examples
-Artists
-Narrative
-Material exploration (set limits with charcoal and colored pencil, if we meet resistance to charcoal (i.e. the “bad” kid), we can reiterate how experimentation may lead to other ideas and briefly discuss how different materials lend themselves to different aesthetics)
-color emotives (what does red mean, vs. blue?) (chromology as vocabulary word)
-semiotics (how can language be used?)- AdBusters magazine, manipulation of branding (our examples will show this, kind of like the use of the Corona bottle to touch on alcoholism, but maybe not as literal). Maybe we make our display for the unit and give an overview for these things that we plan on discussing further in the unit? Or do you want to use it for teacher examples? What do you think? Also I’ll start hashing out the time for the lesson but I think we should spend a decent amount working as a class. Maybe we make them a worksheet to brainstorm on?
A worksheet may be a good idea. It could be a great jumping off point for potential students who would have difficulty in addressing a visual task right off the bat.
What would we include on it? Words? Issues? Fill in blanks with their own thoughts?
Ask open ended questions like:
What matters to you?
What’s something you’d change in the world if you could?
Etc?
Gabby! Those are all swell ideas. I’m thinking that maybe we go through the class example together first so that they understand the format.
Essentially:
1. Think of issues you relate to
2. Pick ONE to work with
3. Make a list of words you associate with that issue (these could be describing words, nouns, whatever, as long as they relate to the theme. ex. Appropriation of wealth, greed, poverty, starving, poor, etc)
4. Write the names of objects, people, etc (nouns) that you associate with the words you listed in step 3 (Appropriation of Wealth → Greed → Pig)
5. Develop your symbolic language → This is the fun part! illustrate these words to create your own visual language that gives meaning to your issue. (Illustration of pig)
-We will have a slide with issues on them, or have the students shout stuff out like rapid hot fire and we will jot it down on the white board, so it has more of a physical presence than slides. I really don’t like using PPoints, by the way. Lets only bring up the PPT if we need a refresher on the artists *Exactly. We can just pull up the two images... Ai Weiwei breaking pots and Jenny Holzer’s buildings.
Think tank on white board- Check! How many examples do we want?
We need 3-4
Resources:
Binder with Wikipedia overviews of selected human rights topics.- do we still need this? our idea has sort of shifted since we originally thought this out.
Probably not, I keep going back to the whole intro lesson thing...they can research their project idea when the have one in future classes but this is just an intro right?
ALSO- what materials should i lift from the supply closet today... in 20 mins?
(what kind?)paper, charcoal, colored pencils, pastels?
something with a tooth to hold that charcoal...and size? medium to large id say
***We can also cut down the big sheets, like what we did for Grodin, so for those who finish early, they can move onto the next practice round. We won’t have to worry about conserving materials. They can have at it a little bit.
Have students draw up a schematic using a specific controversial issue and a specific issue written on a distributed sheet.
-base opening discussion on human rights- what is it? define it.
-brainstorm some topics
-try to gauge student’s comments in think tank and synthesize them with what distribution material we have.
-have a few groups
-discuss commonalities in branding/advertising *are we incorporating a discussion about advertising? yes
what makes them recognizable as an ad?
use examples.
examples can be pulled directly from ads
use specific demographics, issues, brands
-sketch round, not a finished product
-crit will be an open discussion
-set up guidelines so that they can determine whether they have met the project’s requirements.
-human rights issue, demographic, known brand/corporation
-groups will discuss topics and use the strategy for developing a symbolic language to brainstorm ideas for individual projects
-throughout group discussion, individuals will generate their own thoughts and opinions. following the group discussion, each student will create their own approach to the assignment and come up with primary sketch
Lesson Layout:
-Greeting, highlight artist presentation. You remember the PPT we saw? Who remembers what contemporary issues these artists addressed with their work? (Show reminder slide)
-Introduce today’s lesson - Today we will beginning a unit of study that is going to bring us deeper into those concepts we we just starting explore...human rights, activism, the publicity of those actions and what they mean to us as artists. Today is going to be like a big brainstorm, meant to give us a jumping off point for the rest of the unit. So don’t worry if you don’t have a perfectly finished product by the end of the day, today is a think day to give us tools to use in the future.
-Intro to Developing a Symbolic Language (Bri) - Preface this by saying...We will first be looking at symbols in art making and how we can make our own meaningful symbols that help us create meaningful art. (Tool kit) It is a challenging topic, but we are all up for it if we work together and stay focused. on white board, write a central issue. Use web to construct symbolic language chart with help from class. Gabby assist in calling on hands and getting more ideas going while Bri is frantically writing. Show how symbolism can be broken down simply and turned into visual language that we can use. KEEP this in mind, turn it over to Gabby to tell you about your job today.
-Gabby introduce lesson, bring us out into the hallway to stretch out a bit and look at teacher examples. Explain what we are going to be doing.
-Lesson- divided into groups of 4 Each group will be given a topic to workshop like the one we did as a group. They will have time to web it and discuss. After workshopping as a group, they work individually to create an ad based using all materials given based on their own opinions on the issue at hand.
-Clean up
-Class discussion
Tim Lefens Lecture
Got a bit backed up this semester with posting things I began in Microsoft Word. If only they'd create a shortcut button to have it save directly to blogger. Regardless, I attended the Tim Lefens lecture, and below are the notes I jotted down:
Tim Lefens
-Death bed theory: if you had 4 hours left of living, and you’re in a room with a comfy bed and one wall- what painting would you want on that wall?
-It is necessary for one’s own art to transcend death.
-Losing yourself is essential to zone crossing/making work that is less literal.
-Finds ways to remind himself of near-death experience, wall-less space, ultimate freedom.
-Truncated pyramid: only so many people can be what they always wanted to be (astronaut, ballerina, etc) and what Warhol and other “joke artists” did was make it so anyone could be an artist, clipping the top off the “pyramid.”
-Clement Greenberg is an acquaintance. Figures.
-If you know you’re looking at art, that you are in an art space like a gallery, it’s not successful. You’ve got to be completely gone.
-You need to put your body into some insane state (fasting) to then magically get inspired to make this wonderful art that allegedly transcends everything.
-Not all great art is great.
-High goal of art is to “go for the awesome” and shock/surprise everyone, including yourself.
-Socio-political issues are just icing on the cake that is art. All the meaning we tie to it is contextual.
-He faced anxiety when learning of his imminent vision loss, but it’s just an example of “letting go” theory- he can still paint, he painted in monochromes anyway.
-“Cool Cat Refrigerator Repair Men” are a key audience in judging whether or not people get the work.
-Treated CP students as hot sources ready to be tapped.
-Art therapy art is not valid, to Lefens.
-artrealization.org for student examples…. “better than art school art.”
-We are damaged as typical students because we are so influenced by what’s happening around us.
-“High Art” is complete openness to everything, uninhibited by everything.
As a person- Likeable, until he went off on some tangent I completely disagreed with. He completely dismissed art therapy as a nonsensical profession, assuming that all therapists have no background in the fine or applied arts. I found it interesting that there were no images- he described a few paintings, which he described as what art is (clearly a Clement Greenberg disciple) but there was nothing tangible for us to explore as an audience. This was entirely a one man show. He reminded me a bit of Robin Williams, and I almost expected him to pull out a red nose or rainbow suspenders. I’m not even sure he knew or expected there to be questions asked after his lecture.
He describes his students’ painting as “good”-WHAT IS A GOOD PAINTING? Clearly he’s judging them SOLELY by what context they are being created in. Clearly, he is disenchanted with the fine arts as a professional, technical and universally acceptable field.
*Should typical people be making art using the a.r.t. technique?
*Are other artist’s not as valuable?
*Is making something consciously, wrong?
*Are we not making assumptions about the disabled, something that is not quite p.c.?
*We are essentially treating them as being “special” people.
*This technique seems entirely PRODUCT based. His focus is on how brilliant and marvelous these paintings are- I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid. The PROCESS is evident, yes, but each process is designed to yield this beautiful product.
I wonder what the A.R.T. participants would have to say about him and his theories.
Tim Lefens
-Death bed theory: if you had 4 hours left of living, and you’re in a room with a comfy bed and one wall- what painting would you want on that wall?
-It is necessary for one’s own art to transcend death.
-Losing yourself is essential to zone crossing/making work that is less literal.
-Finds ways to remind himself of near-death experience, wall-less space, ultimate freedom.
-Truncated pyramid: only so many people can be what they always wanted to be (astronaut, ballerina, etc) and what Warhol and other “joke artists” did was make it so anyone could be an artist, clipping the top off the “pyramid.”
-Clement Greenberg is an acquaintance. Figures.
-If you know you’re looking at art, that you are in an art space like a gallery, it’s not successful. You’ve got to be completely gone.
-You need to put your body into some insane state (fasting) to then magically get inspired to make this wonderful art that allegedly transcends everything.
-Not all great art is great.
-High goal of art is to “go for the awesome” and shock/surprise everyone, including yourself.
-Socio-political issues are just icing on the cake that is art. All the meaning we tie to it is contextual.
-He faced anxiety when learning of his imminent vision loss, but it’s just an example of “letting go” theory- he can still paint, he painted in monochromes anyway.
-“Cool Cat Refrigerator Repair Men” are a key audience in judging whether or not people get the work.
-Treated CP students as hot sources ready to be tapped.
-Art therapy art is not valid, to Lefens.
-artrealization.org for student examples…. “better than art school art.”
-We are damaged as typical students because we are so influenced by what’s happening around us.
-“High Art” is complete openness to everything, uninhibited by everything.
As a person- Likeable, until he went off on some tangent I completely disagreed with. He completely dismissed art therapy as a nonsensical profession, assuming that all therapists have no background in the fine or applied arts. I found it interesting that there were no images- he described a few paintings, which he described as what art is (clearly a Clement Greenberg disciple) but there was nothing tangible for us to explore as an audience. This was entirely a one man show. He reminded me a bit of Robin Williams, and I almost expected him to pull out a red nose or rainbow suspenders. I’m not even sure he knew or expected there to be questions asked after his lecture.
He describes his students’ painting as “good”-WHAT IS A GOOD PAINTING? Clearly he’s judging them SOLELY by what context they are being created in. Clearly, he is disenchanted with the fine arts as a professional, technical and universally acceptable field.
*Should typical people be making art using the a.r.t. technique?
*Are other artist’s not as valuable?
*Is making something consciously, wrong?
*Are we not making assumptions about the disabled, something that is not quite p.c.?
*We are essentially treating them as being “special” people.
*This technique seems entirely PRODUCT based. His focus is on how brilliant and marvelous these paintings are- I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid. The PROCESS is evident, yes, but each process is designed to yield this beautiful product.
I wonder what the A.R.T. participants would have to say about him and his theories.
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