New Paltz Middle School Final Projects

After getting some very sensitive secrets from our students, Melinda and I, along with our mentor teacher Kim Sturgis, decided to bring the focus of our lesson toward a more positive goal.  Students were to remember their secrets, and come up with how the bullying situation could be resolved, or how students could be an ally to those who are bullied.

We ended up getting some really great projects at the end!
Each grade did the project a little bit differently:

6th Grade: Brainstorm slogans and images that would help others recognize the issue of bullying and create a design for the front of a t-shirt.  The most successful projects would be combined to create a collage peace sign for a shirt that will be sold as a fund raiser.

7th Grade: Created wordle posters from words and slogans that described an ally and how they could be an ally for someone who is bullied.  The students each chose a place in the school to post their poster. A few chose in the cafeteria, in the hallways, and in the bathrooms.

8th Grade:  Students recorded video of different bullying situations and worked either alone or in groups to edit the film to create a bullying awareness video.  Some chose to change color, add quotes, and add music to the video.  

Overall, the students learned a lot...and I know that I did as well!  It was really exciting to see the changes to the original idea actually play out into something that I feel was even better than it would have been before!

Thanks Kim Sturgis for such a great learning process!

Show and Tell

For my show and tell for my technology class I came across a website which one can explore a multitude of other resources.  The site is titled Exploratorium (the museum of science, art, and human perception).  When reading about the site on their About Us page, I realized that they encourage people to question what is around them to search for understanding.  This site allows one to easily explore their curiosity by giving many self-explorable exhibits.

After searching through many things on this site, I found a really interesting site that I connected back to a lecture, presented by Jana Levin, that we attended in class.  This site documents the "First Annual Art of Science Competition at Princeton University" held in 2005.  The connection that I saw between the lecture and this site, is the incorporation of visual art and science.  These two subjects although at first glance may seem very different, intertwine and overlap in many ways.  I think that many of the artwork displayed on the website found through Exploratorium allows a viewer to take a closer look at things we may not pay much attention to, and we can appreciate it's beauty through these artworks.

Here is a video that (although a little dated) shows some of the past work that has taken place at the Exploratorium.  

I think that the Exploratorium page is a good teaching tool because it allows students the freedom to explore the art world and be drawn in by what attracts them.  This site has a wide variety of visual arts from contemporary metal work to drawings done by Leonardo da Vinci.  This site can be used to attract all different types of learners.

Lesson Presentation: Sell That Logo

Melinda and I have been working very hard to create a lesson plan to teach to our class.  In our lesson, "Sell That Logo", students were introduced to different symbols and how symbols are used in advertising.  Our lesson called for the students to work in groups, or design teams, which gave the lesson a realistic feel for designing at a design firm.

Preparing for the lesson required much thought and organization.  Because students were working in groups we needed a way for each student to keep busy while at the same time contribute to the group in a positive way.  We decided to start the class organization promptly as the students walked in the classroom.  Each student was asked to check out our bulletin board outside of the classroom so that they would have an idea as to what we would be doing in class that day.

Once students entered the classroom, they were given a post-it with a number that directed them toward the table that they would be working at with their group.  By doing this right away, it saved time and was a great way to mix up the groups that students would be working in.  

When the bell rang, we began our class by presenting a quick slideshow of different logos that were easily recognized.  We spoke about how symbols are used in logos to simplify an image, as well as how certain symbols have hidden messages inside.  

                                                           

After the slideshow, we discussed the topic of teamwork.  What does a team do?  What different kinds of teams are there?  We then introduced the term Design Team.  In a design team there is a group of individuals working together to create a design for a client.  In each design team we created 4 jobs that each student would take on.  We created posters about each job which were hung in the back of the room for reference throughout the lesson.

Graphic Designer:  in charge of final image chosen

Editor:  in charge of final text chosen

Team Manager:  in charge of keeping the team on task

Project Manager:  in charge of presenting the logo to the class

We allowed time for each group to pick the tasks that they would be taking on in the design team and had them write it down on an index card so that we could collect it and double check that each person was on task.  From there, we went on to a demonstration about how they would be creating these logos and presented the materials that they would be working with.  There was a quick demonstration about the exacto knives, and we presented our teacher examples.  We had one example deconstructed so that we could show the steps that we took to create it (ex. color, text, slogan).  The other examples were of the logos that we created for the different clients that we had.  

These examples sparked a lot of interest in the class and everyone was eager to start working.  So we asked if anyone had any questions, and let them begin work. 

The students had 15 minutes to sketch out a design, apply color, create slogans and determine text for the different scenarios that they had received.  The scenarios ranged from a client wanting a new logo for their restaurant to a client wanting a new logo for the President of the United State's airplane.  Every student got right to work at creating their logo, however many students felt rushed in the creating process.  If I were to do this lesson, I would certainly allow for more time for them to play around with different ideas so that the could be happier with the logo that they were presenting.  Here are some examples of the student's work.

At the end of the period, the Project Manager in the group presented the logo to the class, who were prospective clients.  After the presentation of the logo, the class were to fill out a "Client Response" worksheet about the positive aspects of the logo as well as what they could do differently.  Each response was very constructive and offered many good ideas for the presenting design team.  

Overall, I think that this lesson was very successful and opened up many opportunities for follow-up lessons.  Every student was really interested in the topic and I think that by allowing students to work in high-pressure, realistic circumstances gives them a taste of what a real job may offer.  

Final Fieldwork

So my fieldwork at New Paltz Middle School has winded down, and I think that it was very successful.  Ms. Sturgis allowed Melinda and I to really engage with the class and the teaching process.

For our lesson that we taught the class, we began with the theme of bullying, which was being taught throughout the grades 6-8.  From that theme, Melinda and I came up with the idea of using the website Post Secret as inspiration.  Each student would write a secret they had about the theme of bullying, leaving it completely anonymous.  Melinda, Ms. Sturgis, and I filtered through the secrets and typed them up to make sure that they were appropriate and anonymous.  The next class students would be handed out a different secret which they would depict on a poster that could be displayed around the school to remind students that bullying truly does happen.  Some examples that we showed the class were taken from Post Secret and we also created our own example to show the class.

"Any time someone said something stupid I'd write it on a post-it, and put it on the back of my door & laugh about it later."

We showed a few different youtube videos that really grabbed the attention of the students.  The students even gave input as to what youtube videos they knew that we could screen before showing other classes.  The Bully Project is an upcoming movie that uncovers the many ugly and sad aspects of bullying.  It also shows students that bullying really does happen, and they can make a difference to put an end to it.

As an introduction to the project, we agreed that post cards depicting the secrets with a focus on a positive solution to bullying was a good place to start.  These post cards would then be posted around the school.  Each grade would then branch out into their own projects.
The 6th graders would begin working on life-size silhouettes that would be displayed around the school that would be placed where bullying may occur.
The 7th graders would be using the website Wordle to create an image from different text about bullying and their feelings about the subject.
The 8th graders brainstormed as a class, because the focus of their project was a video project depicting bullying and how it can be stopped.  Students could take inspiration from the situations that had been presented through the Post Secret cards.  These students' videos will be shown on the morning announcements.
Ms. Sturgis found a video that we showed for inspiration for the video projects was this:

The students were really excited about these projects and were very engaged in the topics that were being discussed during class time.  Bullying is a very serious subject and all of the students were very respectful and serious about the discussions.  I think that this lesson has a high impact on students and is important to present in all schools at all grade levels.

Documentary Video Project

For my 2nd video project, I created documentary exploring the lives of swimming.  I incorporated found clips of interviews of different Olympic swimmers about their daily routines, and also filmed parts of my daily life as a collegiate swimmer.  I hosted an interview with a team mate about the sport and explored different struggles and strengths that I see in the sport that correlate with thoughts of Olympic swimmers.

Here is the documentary that I created!

Video Project: Mash-up

Artist's Statement

Tis’ the season for some holiday shopping on Black Friday once again.  The one day where people line up hours early to get into stores and bombard the doors once the second hand strikes the hour of admittance.  For my video mash-up  I decided to work with the idea of the Black Friday shopping rush and mixing it with something as high tension and exciting, a horse race.  Many aspects of these two ideas parallel each other, such as the horses out of the gate and the people being let into the stores, the race to be the first horse to cross the finish line and the person to get the first good sale, and the winner’s circle with the happy customers leaving with their purchases.  Black Friday is hyped up for its sales, and who can resist during times when our economy is so low.  I decided to exploit the madness of this shopping day and express how mad it really can get.

Tim Lefens: A.R.T.

Today I went to a lecture presented by Tim Lefens, the creator of the A.R.T. Program.  A.R.T. stands for "artistic realization technologies".  I was first introduced to this program in the course Art for the Exceptional Child, where we learned about art for students with disabilities.  

In this lecture, Lefens spoke about a few of his theories.  many dealing with the way that we as artists live our lives.  

1.  Death Bed Theory:  What painting would you want to view hanging across from your death bed?  Is it something beautiful?  Peaceful?  This made me really connect with what I believe art is.  I have always been a firm believer in creating art for the beauty of it.  As an answer to this, I would like to have a large colorful painting, that would submerge me in its beauty, which is a concept that Lefens spoke of as well.  Losing oneself and letting go of oneself when it comes to creating art.  It should be every artists goal to completely let go and not be held back by anything when it comes to creating. 

2.  Truncated Pyramid Theory:  Over the years we have diminished what "great art" is.  We have cut off the top of the pyramid and the only thing left is the "joke art" according to Lefens.  I feel that this is a bold statement because I feel that many artists still today grab my attention and inspire me through their works.  I can still go into a museum and lose myself in a work of art.  

3.  Double Funnel Theory:  Lefens describes creating art as a double funnel.  One needs to diminish themselves to nothing.  To cramps themselves so when they are completely compressed, they can expand and let go larger than they ever have before.  One needs surprise in order to get the free feeling of a masterpiece, and by letting go to create piece, this can be achieved.  

Lefens states that one cannot be drawn in by anyone or told by another what great art is.  For each person it is different.  Different people are attracted to different things.  We are all individuals.

He then brought all of these theories back to his program of A.R.T.  All of his students are severely limited (quadriplegic) when it comes to mobility, and the use of a laser allows them a sense of freedom.  The smallest movement when the right distance away may create a large motion on the wall.  The ability of choice allows these people freedom, something that they are not always given because of their disability.  

I found this lecture very interesting and very inspiring.  It showed me that I should not be drawn to a certain type of art or to create a certain type of art because that is what is being asked of me.  I need to stay true to my inner artist and create the type of art that I love.  

Tim Lefens wrote the book Flying Colors and also has a website.  Check it out for more information about A.R.T.

Video Projects

So we have been working on a couple of projects using video.  I have never worked in iMovie before and it is very similar in format the the GarageBand program that we used in the previous set of projects.  I think it is a little more complicated however, because not only are you mixing video, you also need to consider the audio as well.

For my first project, a mash-up, I am combining the madness of Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year) with a horse race.  There are many correlations between the two ideas, and I am lining up video sequentially.  For instance, the cars pulling into the parking lot and the horses getting prepared.  The people lining up outside of stores and the horses getting corralled into the gate.  The doors opening and the gates opening.  And at last, the mad dash to the good sales with the race for the finish line.

For my second video, I am creating a documentary.  I am using the idea of the sport that I partake in, swimming.  There are many aspects of swimming that are glorified by the many medals that are won by Olympians at the Olympic games.  But what people really do not often realize is the hard work and training that these athletes put in.  As a collegiate athlete, I often find it harder for us because we have a similar training regimen to these elite athletes, however we also have to balance schoolwork in order to participate in our sport.  In my video, I am exploring the feelings of my fellow teammates about the sport as well as using found videos from Olympic swimmers about their training and feelings on the sport.

I look forward to posting the video on here to show my exploration and final product!

Network Publics and a Response to Danah Boyd's Article

For many teens, social networking is a must in order to keep in touch with friends and be able to stay in the social loop.  I find it interesting in the article that it is stated that "Although the luster has since faded and teens are not nearly as infatuated with these sites as they once were, they continue to be an important part of teen social life"(page 1).  I actually believe that these sites are more popular than ever.  Majority of students with access to the internet, have social network sites and I believe it might be rather a normality of daily life which creates this view that the interest is not as high.  It is not a new thing in other words, and because so many people are involved in it, it is not as abnormal and fascinating to explore anymore.

The social networks explored in the article are Myspace, Friendster, Xanga, and Facebook.  All of these sites allow teens to have accessibility to others connected to such networks as themselves.  They are allowed to delve deep into the lives of their peers and search them.
The idea of Network Public was brought up in Boyd's article, and the meaning of this is "a collection of people who may not all know each other but share 'a common understanding of the world, a shared identity, a claim to inclusiveness, a consensus regarding the collective interest.'"

Below are different properties that separate unmediated publics from networked publics,
Persistence: This is the fact that information posted online can be replicated, copied, or reproduced. Enabling communication, but also extending the period of existence of any speech created
Searchability: We may not be able to find one another in a town or state, but by a couple of clicks on a keyboard, a person can be found within seconds. Words or things they may have said can be found just as easily
Replicability: This is similar to Sweeney's article about cloning. Anything in the networks public can be replicated/repeated or copied. It can be made over and over or be used again and again by different individuals
Invisible audiences: This can cover parents, community, administrators, anyone who has access to the internet. It is virtually impossible to know all of those who come across our path online. 

I have been taught throughout my life what is appropriate to put online and what is not.  However, certain sites do not give the option.  Many students have changed their privacy settings so that they are not searchable on search engines such as Google, however on these sites, they are susceptible to searchablility from their peers, who have access to view their network.  I believe that many of these teens do not understand the concept of virtual privacy and many of them find out the hard way through internet bullying.

There is actually an instance that came up in my fieldwork, where a student was threatened via a social network.  These are very serious matters, and as a teacher, is something very important and fragile that we need to pay much attention to.  I feel that it is important to not only teach students the importance of privacy and information that they may reveal on these networks, but also see it as a harmful tool that may increase issues in every day life.
In our fieldwork, Melinda and I are working with the concept of bullying and using websites such as postsecret.com and thebullyproject.com that will help students to see what these ways of networking, although at times very exciting, can also have a dark side.

Presentation Summary

After giving our class a presentation about the topic of "Hybridizing Symbols",  both my partner Melinda DiGiovanna and I felt that overall our presentation was solid.  We created a powerpoint exploring different symbols that our society sees in every day culture and used artists Ryan McGinness and Mambo (Flavian Demarigny) as examples of how symbols can be used in to convey a message in a simple visual fashion.  We felt that both of these artists were strong examples because of their use of symbols in their artwork and the way that they display their artwork.

We began our presentation by asking the audience (our classmates) what different symbols were and why they knew what they stood for.  Working in a simple to more complex fashion seemed to really draw more interest in our topic.
We first used Ryan McGinness's piece "Duality" as an example, and asked audience to look for symbols, then link those symbols to what the meaning of the piece is.

The audience pointed out a number of different symbols represented in this work such as people, handcuffs, holding hands, and intertwining snakes that all represented a connection or a bringing together.

The other artist that we explored was a graffiti artist named Flavian Demarigny, who goes by the alias of Mambo.  We used a piece from an installation assembled in Lyon, France.  Mambo collaborated to create artwork that combined symbols in the form of street signs.  

The audience pointed out a flower, a hazard symbol, as well as the surroundings of where the sign was placed.  All of these details contributed to what the sign might stand for as well as why the artist chose to bring attention to this area.

As an installation, the audience determined that viewing many signs as opposed to just one allowed the viewer to stop and pay attention to their surroundings, or to just play with the idea of signs and how society is so trained to view signs by shape and color, that we often do not even really pay attention to what is depicted.  By creating a play on the normality of street signs, the viewer is tricked to pay more attention to what the signs are saying.

After our presentation, the class evaluated Melinda and I.  We had high ratings for our teacher presence and the engaging quality of our presentation.  Many students wrote that we had great starting questions and really caught the audience's attention with the selection of our artists.  

Most students felt that we did a good job at researching our artists and theme as well.  However, many felt the need for a deeper exploration of the artist's background.  Melinda and I did our best to incorporate enough information while still budgeting our time to explore the theme.  It is amazing how fast 10 minutes goes by!!!

Lastly, was the synthesis of the artists and themes.  Although many loved our choice of artists, many were lost about the theme of hybridizing symbols.  Some students pointed out that our theme would work if we simply switched out hybridizing symbols with recontextualizing symbols to make it more clear.  

Overall, it was a very successful presentation of our artists and a great teaching/learning experience!

Thank you everyone!

PEW Internet Article

This article was very straightforward through its information.  I found myself drawn to the charts that were posted throughout because so much of the information could be compared and analyzed at the same time.  It was interesting to see how each generation associated themselves with the technologies around them.

The older generations tend to use e-mail more than younger generations, I find to be very true.  I feel that personally I communicate more through instant forms of technology such as text messaging or through instant chats.  I noticed a change when I got a phone that I can receive e-mails on, which always allows me to be connected.  I e-mail more often now that I can always have access to it.

The research showed that the younger generations were more involved in technologies by a landslide.  However, in schools, I find that teaching these technologies fall short in the classrooms.  If the majority of students are involved with technology in some way, I think that the curriculum needs to form more toward their interests.  I think that once we can associate education with things that are of interest to the students, students would be more eager to learn.

Update from New Paltz Middle School Fieldwork

The past two weeks at New Paltz Middle School have been quite exciting.  Ms. Sturgis has allowed Melinda and I to really become active in her classroom.  She allows us to work with her students and help out where we can.

Last week, we were there for our first "A" day.  The 6th grade students are working on a self portrait exploration through collage and text.  Students were in the process of cutting out images from magazines, and they were encouraged to lay out their pieces to see how many more images and words were needed to complete the project.
Ms. Sturgis introduced the directions to her first class and asked if Melinda and I would like to introduce the same project to the following two classes.  Melinda and I took the challenge and the students responded really well to our teacher presence.  After working hard for the class periods, the students found it fun to have a little friendly competition during the clean up.
We pointed out what table was doing a great job at cleaning up, and that they were going to get first place.  The other tables around quickly followed the table in the lead and the classroom was clean in no time.  The first table that was seated quietly a their cleaned up table was awarded first place.  The allotted time for cleanup was 5 minutes, and the students scurried to clean up in just 3 minutes.  This was great because Melinda and I wrapped up the day by telling them the next step of the project as well as asking what some students were using in their collages!

Sound Project II: Interview Popplet

For our 2nd sound project assignment, we were to conduct an interview to discuss the topics of different dilemmas that we face in technology and relate it to the art classroom.  I chose to interview a fellow art education student to see what he had to say about the topic.

I have included a Popplet, which is basically a web program designed to create mind maps, or webs to show my thought process of the questions that I wanted to ask.  I was able to visualize the questions that I wanted to ask as well as add images to the popplets.

Here is the Popplet that I created for my interview!

Sound Project III

For my 3rd sound project the assignment was to create an autobiographical narrative which reflects upon a media literacy that we have learned.

For the literacy that I explored, I talked about my love for Where's Waldo books when I was a child and how it helped me later on dissect different pieces of art to find hidden clues that would bring me to the meaning.  Through constantly viewing the pages of Where's Waldo, I find myself creating very busy and intricately detailed artwork as well.

I created a narrative using the program Garageband, and utilized different editing techniques such as volume control, cutting footage, re-arranging footage, and inlaying different footage to different places.

Day 1 of Fieldwork at New Paltz Middle School

When I was at the middle school level, it did not seem much different than other years.  I went to a Kindergarten through 8th grade school, where all grades were in the same building.  I feel that each year I grew a little more, but I never really realized many of the changes that we as students underwent.

With the proper classroom management, I feel that an art classroom can be both a fun and learning environment.  The teacher who my partner, Melinda DiGiovanna, and I are placed with, Ms. Sturgis, handles her classroom with both patience and interest.  Many people warn aspiring teachers about the middle school level, for it is a time when students are undergoing many changes, physically, mentally, emotionally, and behaviorally.  Ms. Sturgis seemed to create lesson plans that addressed many topics and things students might face at this level such as identity, pop culture, and liberty.

Having a sense of identity is very important at this age, it will shape who you will be and grow from for the rest of your life.  At the 6th grade level, Ms. Sturgis as well as another teacher in the school. shaped her lesson plan around identity exploration.  In one class, the students had just finished a project about the "Elements of Art".  After learning about these, students experimented with line, shape, color, space, value, texture, and form.   The second class that we saw, students were creating a name poster for their locker.  A locker is a very personal place and this project allows students to create a name tag that personally expresses themselves.

In the 7th grade, the lesson was based around liberty.  Students learned about collage and were to create a "collage word locker project", where students depicted a word that described themselves or a close friend and incorporated collage in some way.  Ms. Sturgis encouraged the students to use the whole piece of paper for their artwork, and after they were finished, Ms. Sturgis scanned the work into the computer and printed out multiple copies for the students.  Each student picked two others besides their own to matte on a larger sheet of paper, that would be laminated and taped to their lockers.

The 8th grade was just being introduced to their new unit on Pop Art.  For this project students find a headshot of someone who they see in popular culture today.  In the computer program of paint, students will alter the image using bright colors similar to the Pop Art style.  To educate the students about Pop Art, Ms. Sturgis showed her classes a series of videos about certain artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, Andy Warhol and Keith Harring.  All of the videos that she showed were taken off of youtube.com, which I thought was a good tool because students often use it.  After the students viewed the short video clips, Ms. Sturgis passed out a hand out with pictures of each artist and asked the students to write down three facts about each artist.

Andy Warhol on Pop Art:

Media Education for the 21st Century

In Henry Jenkins's article Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Jenkins focused on what new media literacies teachers can bring into the classroom. These new media literacies are a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape. This set of skills focus greatly on social involvement and working as a collaboration and network. These skills build upon the traditional skills which are literacy, research, technical, and critical analysis skills.

The new literacy skills allow the student to create as well as learn.

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting
multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

The fact that all of these literacies now include more social development, gives more options for students who may not be interested in art to contribute their ideas and feel that their contributions make a difference. This all plays into our society's participatory culture.

The new literacy that I found most interesting was the idea of play. In my other class, Theory and Practice, we recently looked in depth into the idea of play. Not only does it engage the students in a different way, it is also a way for them to engage in a project in different ways, much like the way each individuals mind works.

At a young age, children are being bombarded with visual and media information that teach them about the world around them. As they grow older, the focus of education suddenly shifts and textbooks and literature are now the focus. For many students the switch from these ways of acquiring knowledge is a struggle. As teachers I feel it is necessary to cater to many different styles of learning.

The Microscopic Opera

Matthijs Munnik, Microscopic Opera (detail)

In the Netherlands lies the most prestigious Genomics Centers which are now being used by artists and designers to create new artworks ranging from topics of sustainability, food, health, bio-informatics, agriculture, and safety.  There is a competition for Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award (DA4GA) where they are able to collaborate with these Genomics Centers.  

Exhibited on January 8th at Naturalis, many different projects were on display.  The piece that I most enjoyed in reading about was called the Microscopic Opera developed by Matthijis Munnik with Richard de Boer.  The article explains that the lab worm's (commonly used worldwide in laboratories for research) movements are converted into sounds and images.  The artwork utilizes the lab worms in this piece to cohere to genomics because lab worms are the first multicellular organisms to have fully sequenced genomes.

Matthijs Munnik, Microscopic Opera 

Munnik and de Boer use software tracks to convert the movements to sounds into abstracted opera singing as well as a range of other sounds.  There are images shown of the lab worms on screens of the magnified organisms.  These organisms are kept in petri dishes and each dish holds up to 1,000 worms!

More projects from this exhibit can be viewed at http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/bioart/

This piece is a "New Media Literacy" in that the lab worms are a part of a performance.  Although not staged, they are the subjects that are being viewed and their movements converted to images and sounds.  Munnik and de Boer worked together for this piece and this literacy can be classified as "Collective Intelligence" as well.  More literacies can be learned about in my article about Media Education for the 21st Century post!

Talking About Art with Students

When I was younger, I found it easy to find things that interested me about artworks.  But what about the student who begins a lesson completely uninterested?  How can a teacher guide a student to ask and answer questions about an artwork?  Upon reading Terry Barrett's book Interpreting Art, he created a way for any person to seek answers to some questions to lead to the artworks meaning.

Barrett's formula consisted of combining subject matter (how one would describe the piece) , medium (what the piece is made out of), form (what its properties are), and context (purpose/history) to get the outcome of the meaning of the piece.

In class, we used a Bloom's Taxonomy chart to answer questions about an artwork.  I feel that this forced the viewer to ask questions about a piece of art.  It categorized different thought processes and allowed for an organized and better understanding of the piece.  This incorporates Barrett's formula in that all of the different categories of Barrett's formula can fall under Bloom's Taxonomy Chart.

These questions are a good starting point to talking about any artwork and always can generate a conversation about a work of art at any age.

Digital Project II: Digital Collage

Who we are and who we want to be are many different things.  In this piece there is a combination of different people.  Through Sweeney’s article, I researched the topic of identity in regards to the Internet and how much we really know who is looking at us or becoming us through the web.  Then I played with the idea of identity and how affected our own identities are through media.  In a sense, who we are and how we see ourselves rests in the palm of our hand.

Digital Project I: Magazine Cover

This is the first Photoshop project I have ever done.  It took a while to get a hold of all of the tools that Photoshop had to offer.  I ran into some trouble when my flash drive crashed and I lost this project completely.  However, I realized that it was much easier to recreate something that I already had experience in doing!  So it was a great learning process at the same time.

In this piece, I focused on the theme of Connotation and Denotation.  I focused on driving the point of these young girls being made up to look older than they really are.  In these beauty pageants, the parents of these young girls are forcing them to dress up and parade around like young women.  Some even resort to putting false body parts into the costumes to make them appear older than they are.  My question is, why can't these girls be judged by their beauty without having all of these prosthetic things to enhance these young and naive children?  Why should these toddlers be dressed up and paraded around as if they were older and more mature?  

Digital Project III: Self-Portrait

Garden gnomes are said to watch over ones garden and property.  I have grown very fond of gnomes over the years and have even acquired a few that I keep around me.  Since I have lived in the same dorm room for all four years of college, there is a sense of home there.  I decided to put myself on my windowsill with my collection of gnomes.  From there I can keep watch over the room that I call home. 

Before these 3 digital projects, I was not very educated in Photoshop.  Through this series of projects I have learned a lot and was able to also learn a lot through my own explorations of this program.  In this project in particular I started off with a completely different topic.  However, it did not allow me to really utilize all that Photoshop had to offer and I wanted more of a challenge.  By integrating some of my features, I was able to create a composite image with many different parts of images. 

Cloud Clusters

Connection

Identity

Sharing

Togetherness

Middle School Curriculum--James Bean

Adolescents understand more than we give them credit for.  In the article called "A Middle School Curriculum: From Rhetoric To Reality, Bean outlines different problems that middle school curriculums often have and how these problems can be sorted through and adjusted.

There are certain aspects of of skills that are proposed by the curriculum that many educators feel that are over the heads of adolescents.  However, the author states that they are fully equipped with the skills, however they do not always understand how to use them.  It is through this curriculum that they can use trial and error to find a way to utilize these skills.  In the curriculum now, they do not demonstrate the understanding of these skills because the curriculum does not allow for it.

"If we encourage early adolescents to be active democratic citizens, then we must engage them in looking behind the 'facts'" (Page 65).  This allows them to question things around them.  They are forced to look deeper into the information they are being fed by the current curriculum and question it.

This multi-dimensional curriculum incorporates personal and social concerns, skills necessary to explore these themes, and concepts of democracy, human dignity, and cultural diversity.  In these intersecting themes, spring different possible units that can help aid adolescents develop the necessary skills to grow.
Each of these themes work together to teach.  Now the curriculum is either geared toward elementary students, or adults.  By focusing on the general education aspect that taps into the common and shared concerns of early adolescents, the more students will better understand the world around them and the issues that people in the world face.

Sweeny's Internet Connection

In Sweeny's article "Lines of Sight in the 'Network Society':  Simulation, Art Education, and a Digital Visual Culture", he touches upon many different aspects of technology and how it affects its users.

In one part of the article he touches upon how different internet-based technologies have become a leading form of "research, a method for community building, [and] a forum for interaction"through the "simulation matrix".  This brings me back to last semester when a professor had us create a SecondLife account.  Discussions were held through this life simulated program where students could converse with different artists and professors worldwide.  Through this form of technology, we are allowed to be a part of the technology, as opposed to simply operating it.  Through the use of this program we were able to explore what the world wide web truly has to offer us as aspiring art educators.

Now I ask you to imagine your life without the internet.  Difficult right?  I feel that through the internet I am constantly being bombarded with information, whether visual or textual.  I think that through this constant flow of information, we are able to have more and resources available to us to use.  

The idea of SecondLife also attaches itself to the Cyborg Vision in that through a computer screen, we are able to create an identity that can interact with other virtual beings across the world.  A Cyborg is defined in Sweeny's article as a cybernetic organism.  SecondLife is a little different than Stelarc, who attached electrodes to connect his body physically to the internet.  It has no physical attachment whatsoever, yet allows a person to virtually connect to others making different connections and discovering different resources by meeting different people in a virtual life.  

The internet allows for an endless supply of information for teachers.  It creates a system where ideas can be shared, critiqued, and borrowed in order to present such information to students.  Through the internet, teachers are able to travel around the world and with the click of a mouse, tap into different resources that will benefit their students.  

Digital Collage: Response Part I

In Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", it was interesting for me as an artist to think about how much artists rely on technology.  The question of whether something is art if it's original idea inspired the artist to create something different.  I think as artists it is important that we take ideas from one another to learn different process, and learn about ourselves.  Being able to take something and create something completely new from its original state, is a great challenge for artists.  Each person sees things differently, and one artwork may inspire one artist one way, while another a different way.

The article that stood out to me the most of the first three readings is the article by Terry Barrett, "Interpreting Visual Culture".  I think that Barrett rose many interesting questions about different connotations and denotations of images.  The different meanings of an image can vary drastically from viewer to viewer.  There are many hidden meanings that are concocted from images, while such meanings were not the intention of the artist.  Sometimes as viewers we read too far into an image, which can be positive yet negative at the same time.

Surrealist Games

The idea of play is an important aspect for students to begin thinking in different ways.  It allows a no consequence way for them to express themselves and harness their true creativity.  Established artists such as Salvador Dali utilized play in many of his artworks.

"Automatism is the primary method of surrealism.  Solitary and collective automatic techniques, and the exploitation of chance are central to many surrealist games.  Surrealists soon came to realize the limitations of 'pure automatism.'" Spiral Workshop 2008.  

In beginning a lesson with play, in the form of a game, creative minds will be sparked into action and through the outcomes of such games, springs fourth many different and creative ideas that can be used in image making.  I find that chance is a great way for students to be able to create something.  Torn paper collages allow for chance to play a role in the image making process.  This is an example of Hans Arp's torn paper collage.  Different sizes of torn paper are dropped onto a sheet of paper where they are fixed with glue.

Different ways of using this technique allow for the artist to re-arrange and re-interpret the image and maneuver around the pieces to form an image.

Lesson plans can be derived from Surrealism Games utilizing chance.  The Torn Paper Collage allows students to use imagination for ideas of a project.  Drawing things other than reality can be hard for many students, however with this game, students are able to see that not all artworks are realistic and can be rendered and drawn from the imagination.

This is a drawing that taps into the imagination of the artist.  Although there are realistic qualities, the figure depicted is a creation of the imagination.

Diving Right In

Swimming into History