Lesson 9: Reflection and Wrapup

The picture of my nephew with his text was one small example of the type of memory representation that I had in mind when coming up with an enduring idea.  Another example I had thought of but was unable to visually represent: my wife went on a trip to Russia during high school and brought back a many souvenirs including a Russian soldiers cap.  I thought this would be a good object to represent he memory of her trip.  The image of the hat would be layered with words from stories I have heard her tell about her experience on this trip: toilet paper, hot water, beautiful, cold, etc... Others looking at this object may have obvious words to add such as: cold war, oppression, names of Soviet leaders, etc...  Putting these words on the image of the object would then allow others to make up their own meaning based on their individual viewing.   The lesson is easily adaptable, because the visual representation can be through photograph, drawing, sculpture, or whatever medium is chosen and/or available.

I think the enduring idea of memories would be a good lesson to implement because it encompasses so many other ideas in the process: different perspectives, emotion, objectivity/subjectivity, power fluctuations, etc...  Learning would be evaluated on the basis of the students' ability to recognize the aspects of different perspectives, the emotion conveyed in their representations, and the creativity exhibited.  Going through the lesson in a step by step process- telling the story of the memory and having stories told about the memory, would facilitate learning.  Although the lesson results in a visual representation of a memory, I feel that the story and the telling of the story is the most important aspect of the lesson.  Recognizing and being able to relate one's own story (and tell stories about others) is the essence of life.  Roger  Ebert once said that a movie isn't about what it's about, a movie is about how it's about what it's about.  This is my feeling about the visual representation of memories and the embedded telling of stories: it's about how one goes about it.  Learning to do this effectively embodies the ideas of power, emotion, and critical thinking about these and other ideas.

Lesson 9: Continued

I was hoping to have my nieces and nephew work on my lesson idea this past week, but they turned out to be rather uncooperative.  My nephew (12 years old) did give me an idea about a memory he had from when he was "a little boy."  Coming up on Mother's Day, this seemed appropriate:

This incorporates a lot of the ideas I had for this lesson on memories such as: combining a visual representation with text, remembering the sights, sounds, emotions, etc... of the moment (in this case the smell and taste of burnt waffles!), and using metaphor to transform emotion into poetic form.  This reminded my of my friend's father who always asked for burnt toast because that's how his late wife always used to make it.  I hope to have a conversation with my nephew tonight in order to implement some of the other steps in the lesson plan, flesh out the idea visually, and get his comments on the process.  This will bring into play the further contemporary art elements of collaboration and layering.

Lesson 9: Individual Lesson Planning

Working off the big idea of memories, I would plan on students taking the memory of a significant object/person/event from their lives, creating a visual representation of the object/person/event (through a photograph, drawing, etc...) and then telling a story about the object/person/event in text form.

To gain a different perspective, the students would then produce a text or story based on the point of view of the object/person/event itself [similar to the studio activity based upon Donald Lipski's work (Walker, p.21)].

This would not only lend a different perspective, but also (hopefully) create empathy for the object/person/event before creating the actual art.  It would be important for the students to try and recall the smells, textures, sounds and emotions associated with the memory in order to get more than a superficial treatment.

After creating the visual representation of the memory, the text of the stories related to the memory would be incorporated into the image, perhaps through cutting out selected "important" words from the stories and pasting them onto or around the image.  The idea of including text in art was taken from Howardena Pindell's work- creating a disarrayed puzzle that must be pieced together for meaning.

Taking the exercise a step further, the students could then create stories based on the images and text created by others, adding more words to the visual representations through collaboration and layering.  

References:

Walker, S. (2001). Teaching meaning in artmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications.

Images courtesy of Google images.

Lesson 9: Overview

I've spent a lot of time sorting through ideas in my head, trying to sketch an outline out of everything floating around in there.

Enduring idea: I came up with the big/enduring idea of memories.  Memories are often more about pictures in our head rather than words, but in this art application, I thought it would be interesting to combine pictures and text.

Key concepts:  these include empowerment, recognizing and empathizing with different perspectives, emotions, permanence/impermanence, and meaning.

Key concepts about contemporary art as public pedagogy:  some key concepts would be metaphor- the transfer of emotion into poetic form; intertextuality- the social context of image and meaning residing in the relationship between object, discourse, and viewer; collaboration- connectedness while still retaining power, and layering.

Essential questions:  What is the importance of memory and telling stories about ourselves?  Are there shared memories that are common across racial/ethnic/gender, etc... boundaries?  What role do emotions play in our memories?  Is the shared power of collaboration stronger than individual power?  These are some of the questions I've considered so far, with many more still to come.

Rationale: I chose memories as the enduring idea because I was thinking about how it is important for people to tell stories about themselves.  Telling our own stories about ourselves can be empowering.  I also thought about looking at memories from different perspectives in order to tell the story about an image from different points of view, kind of like Akira Kurosawa's movie Rashomon where the idea centers around what is truth, and does it really exist?  I think an exploration into memory can yield many benefits such as empowerment mentioned previously, but also an appreciation and respect for fellow humans.

Unit objectives:  These stem from the rationales above- empowerment, respect, collaboration, and hopefully a greater ability to critically analyze.

Standards:  Encourage disciplined creativity by using higher level critical thinking skills
                    Develop and promote self-expression
                    Make connections between visual art and other curriculum areas
                    Expand aesthetic and intellectual awareness
                    Challenge students to recognize their own ideas, values and beliefs and communicate them
                     through visual arts

                  

8: Performance Art & Performed Networks of Relations

In Stephen's story about the park bench, I was drawn to the different perspectives of those that used the bench on a daily basis: pigeons, an elderly man, a young mother, the grounds crew, teenagers, young children, newlyweds, etc...  My idea for a lesson plan would be a field trip for students to go to a park with a bench area such as this to merely observe the daily flow of the space and how different people interact with the bench and use it for their own purpose.  Students when then create their own stories about what happened with a specific instance on the bench that day.  Perhaps their stories could be printed out and posted on the bench for people to pause, read and reflect upon during their own time on the bench.


Laura March's photo of the construction site in Puerto Rico made me think about the concept of imperialism and our view of the 'other.'  This may be a good instance to make students think about their assumptions made about other people and and how other people are viewed as invading the territory of others.  Maybe in this way, difficult issues like slavery and imperialism can be brought up in the safety of the classroom for discussion and contemplation.  Young children are often interested in construction equipment, so this might be a great opportunity to make them think about the perspective of the workers in such a situation.


Laura McGowen's story about the fund raising drive was touching, but also a dose of reality for how many of us lead our day to day lives.  I immediately identified with the idea of 'bad' news overwhelming our daily lives.  I think a good project would be for children to peruse daily papers or news websites with the purpose of finding positive stories.  These articles could then be presented in a collage to show that there are positive aspects to the news, although they are often hard to find.  Many of these instances aren't front page material, but perhaps by pointing them out, people may stop and reflect upon the good things happening on a daily basis instead of the bad things.

7: Making Visible

As John made his daily commute to work, the light turned red on Jones Street, as usual.  Coming to a stop, he went through his usual routine of reaching down for his iphone to check his messages.  this time however, something caught the corner of his eye through his windshield.  Over to the left on a lamppost, someone had posted a banner with a picture of a dead squirrel.  "Who would put up such a revolting image?" John asked himself.  "Nobody wants to see road kill displayed out in public like that1"  As the light turned green, John cursed to himself and finished his commute to work.  He relayed his encounter to his fellow employees, eliciting common responses of "ewww!" "gross!" and "nasty!" among others.  This water cooler talk was soon forgotten as the workday droned on, and after another tedious eight hour day, John began the long commute home.  As he turned off Jones Street and headed towards the highway, John noticed a dead cat on the shoulder of the road, obviously hit by a vehicle.  "Hmph, these animals should watch where they're going on a busy street like this" he thought.  john soon entered the on-ramp for the highway, and after a couple of miles, he noticed a dead deer laying on the side of the road.  As he continued on his drive home, he felt like he was bombarded with casualties: a dead possum in the middle of the road, a dog off to the shoulder, and too many squirrels to keep count.  John soon reached his exit and slowed down to make the final turn towards home.  As he paused at the bottom of the exit ramp, he noticed squirrels running across the branches of a nearby tree, running back an forth, up and down gathering nuts and morsels from the ground and bringing them back up the tree to nibble on.  John heard a car horn behind him, and realized he had been sitting at the stop sign longer than he realized.  He turned right and, and after a few more turns had reached his home.  Sitting in his driveway, John thought about the events of the day and had an epiphany about the banner he had seen that morning, and began to understand the message it was trying to convey.  We humans share our spaces with these animals.  In fact, we have invaded their space and homes to make room for our own, with little regard for them.  Maybe we should have the courtesy and decency to keep an eye out for them and their well-being as we travel the streets and highways we have built through their natural spaces.

Images courtesy of:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbaron/16655595/

http://www.klimages.com/stock/animals/roadkill/small01.htm




 

6: Critical Public Art Pedagogy

Looking over the artworks from this lesson, I was first impressed by Urban Omnibus and the Geologic City.  The using up of geologic material and laying down of new strata provides a metaphor for the passing of time and our simultaneous connection with the past, present and future.  I was also interested in how our layers of garbage can be viewed as representing our culture, and the question can be asked: what does this mean for our culture? The way buildings are constantly being torn down and demolished to build new structures on the same site is an example of palimpsest.  Architecture is "scraped away" and construction materials composed of elements from the distant past are used in the constructions and reconstructions of new works, providing an overlapping of time in addition to physical materials.

I also enjoyed the EcoArtTech site, specifically the idea of Indeterminate Hikes.  In our fast-paced world of information overload, it is important for one's physical and spiritual health to find spaces where one can slow down and contemplate nature as well as the overlapping terrains of psychological and environmental ecologies. In one of our downtown schools here in Durham, NC, there are green spaces and gardens incorporated into the campus and time is set aside to allow students the opportunity to play and contemplate, and perhaps more importantly, collaborate in the design and use of these areas.  Murals adorn the walls of the school, and various sculptures using recycled materials can be seen around the schoolyard, all created in a collaboration between the students, parents, and teachers.

Image from Central Park School for Children site: http://cpscnc.org/



 After exploring EcoArtTech, I immediately thought this could be incorporated into a project or lesson plan.  While the cost of providing Android devices to students may be something out of reach, perhaps students could be provided with disposable cameras or share a digital camera in order to take pictures of an "urban wilderness" or an architectural layer as mentioned in Geologic City. These photos can then be combined in a collage or layered to produce an overlapping of time and image, and discussed with the students as being metaphors for our culture, among other things.

This week, I came across some images that incorporated many of the ideas we have been discussing.  A Swiss photographer, Corinne Vionnet, has created a series of photographic works entitled 'Photo Opportunities', taking hundreds of photos of famous landmarks found on the Internet and layering them successively to produce images that invoke questions about memory and the passage of time. Here are a couple of examples, and a link to the collection: http://www.corinnevionnet.com/index.php?/photo-opportunities/

Images from www.corinnevionnnet.com



5: Public Pedagogy: Politicizing the Personal

My wife made this "collage" for Valentine's Day a few years ago.  It includes photos of us as a couple and individuals, including interesting architecture we encountered (e.g. an Art Deco hotel we stayed at in Milwaukee in the upper left) and ephemera from events we attended together.  A number of the photos are placed on boxes that when opened up reveal email messages we exchanged during our "courting" period.  I think this exhibits appropriation and layering, as mentioned by Gude, very effectively.  Ticket stubs, rail passes, horoscope clippings and photographs are re-purposed and layered on top og one another to create a sort of time capsule of our relationship to that point.  I find it interesting that we went through a rough period soon after this was made, but this was hanging in our hallway to see as we passed through numerous times each day as a reminder- a way to reminisce, but also stay grounded.  We eventually got married and will celebrate our second anniversary this summer, so I offer this up in contrast to some of the seemingly negative valentine messages from postsecret.com. 

4: Contemporary Art Concepts

Maya Dern's Meshes of the Afternoon

An interesting short film, which I learned was an influence on David Lynch.  Many postmodern principles are present in this film, including juxtaposition of radically disparate elements and recontextualization: repositioning the familiar in relation to the unfamiliar (Gude, p.9).  Another principle exhibited in this film is layering (Gude, p.10).  Images and scenes are repeated with new elements being added each time.  The soundtrack of the film often lends sound effects to the scene (e.g. the key dropping on the stairs, and the skipping of the record player), an element of hybridity (Gude, p.10).  The issue of gazing is also present- a shifting context within which a familiar image is seen- and brings up many questions: who creates and controls? How does it affect our understanding of reality? Who is being looked at and who does the looking? (Gude, p.10, 11).  Wexler also has some ideas that pertain to this film, such as the boundary between looking and participating in art and the deconstruction of knowledge and power (p.25).  The realtionship between subject-object creates aesthetic empathy for the viewer, affecting one's concept of the relation between self and world (p.31).

I thought the movie did a good job of exploring the boundary between shadow and substance, especially in the early scenes.  The close-up on the eye leads us into a dream sequence which becomes disoriented, and scenes are repeated with added elements, and it seems as though one is watching the watchers while simultaneously watching the self.  Perhaps the juxtaposition of knife/key/flower in these instances are symbolic of the different aspects of one's personality?  Overall, I thought the movie could be a metaphor for life: the flower representing the innocence of youth, the repeated scenes and objects being the mundane aspects of day-to-life in middle age, and then death at the end.


Mark Ryden

For a contemporary artist, I chose Mark Ryden.  Ryden uses recurring themes in his work, many of which are present in this work: meat, Abraham Lincoln,  and children.  Ryden combines the appropriation of familiar, iconic images, the juxtaposition of radically disparate elements, and the repositioning of the familiar in relation to the unfamiliar (along with deconstruction) to create a provoking and energetic piece of art. Take a gander at www.markryden.com to see more.

Image from Google: Mark Ryden - Meat Train

3. Installation Art Encounters: Extending the Invitation

Extending An Invitation

To:  Toni Morrison

Because: Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors.  I first encountered her work in undergrad with The Bluest Eye, and my favorite novel is Song of Solomon.  I feel she should be invited because her novels mainly concentrate on black women, an underrepresented yet major part of our society.  Before her days as an author, she strove to bring black literature to the mainstream (notably Angela Davis) as an editor at Random House.  She was the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first black woman writer to hold a named chair at an Ivy League university- Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University.  While she does not identify her work as "feminist," she does not subscribe to patriarchy and believes in equitable access for all.

Nominator:  Rodney Draughn

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html



I thought an image of a tree with roots would be an apt visual metaphor.  If one is familiar with Morrison's novel Beloved, the image immediately echoes the scars on Sethe's back, emblematic of the painful horror of slavery, but also invoking the idea of family.  I also feel the image of roots beneath the tree speaks to Morrison's story telling.  As a child, Morrison's father told her numerous folktales of the black community which she incorporated into her own stories.  We are all a combination of numerous stories from our past, and other stories we have co-opted along the way, as we create and tell our own stories about ourselves.

2: Public Pedagogy of Everyday Objects & Spaces: Table Talk Encounter

My wife and I bought our 1946 house about 5 years ago.  Looking at the picture above, I'm amazed at how the view of the house has changed.  We cut back some unruly azaleas from the front (regrettably to some extent now), and planted some holly and Japanese Pencils in their place.  On the interior, we wanted to respect the architecture and era of the house, so we gutted the kitchen and bathroom and added vintage pieces when we could find them, and age-appropriate facsimiles if not.  My first thoughts of a house centered around the word "home," a safe place to reside and come back to.  I know that a house is an extension of ourselves, but I feel a house also has a character of its own that must be respected.  Almost five years later, we're still working on our little house to make it an extension of ourselves while maintaining its historical roots and essence.

For the table exercise, I was drawn to the image of a picnic table.  I particularly like how the seats are part of the table, and in this example, seem to float in air without legs of their own.  This type of table evokes the outdoors and feelings of community.  While it is a communal place where people can gather, I feel there is also a strange tension in its essence.  The picnic table is an icon that can be viewed in backyards and rest areas everywhere, yet there is an impermanence to the structure due to its weathering from the elements and day to day use.  In a park nearby our house, there are some stone and steel picnic tables that have stood the test of time for many years and bear the etchings of both visitors and lovers.  While many varied designs exist, I prefer the classic version as pictured above- it reminds me of childhood road trips and stops at rest areas for homemade sandwiches.

This is how my wife and I start every morning- Starbucks Pike Place Decaf.  Her sister works at Starbucks, so we usually have a "free" supply of coffee (in exchange for babysitting).  When purchasing coffee at the store, we had always steered away from Starbucks in favor of a more environmentally/social conscious brand, or so we thought.  I was surprised to see Starbucks rated as highly as it was on the goodguide.com site.  While I knew they were a charitable company to some extent, I tended to view them as the "McDonalds" of coffee companies since you see one on just about every corner and in some grocery stores nowadays.  I'm sure there are better options in terms of fair trade certification, but for the taste and price to us, I'm rather satisfied.  On the same site, I did see some Baltimore Oriole French Roast from Birds and Beans that we may have to try though.  Here in Durham, NC there are some great local coffee providers that I grab a cup from when out and about, and I like the idea of supporting the local community, especially mom and pop type establishments.

After reviewing the tasks of this lesson, I think it's important to stop and take a look around at our surroundings and what we surround ourselves with and consume in those surroundings.  We all internalize messages from society and what those messages represent to us, but its important to recognize and acknowledge the implications of choices and the impact/effect they have on others.  

1: Public Pedagogy Meet & Greet

"He lives in a pineapple under the sea." This is how my friend introduced me to the show "Spongebob Squarepants" about 10 years ago.  After watching a few episodes, I could easily see how this cartoon appealed to both children and adults.  In a Bugs Bunnyesque way, there were many jokes obviously aimed at a knowing older audience, with plenty of slapstick humor for all to enjoy. Psychedelic, underwater set design provided eye candy for all viewers as well.  After 10+ years of watching the show and its huge popularity among all ages, I've come to see the show as more than just an entertaining cartoon that appeals to children, parents and other adults.  First of all, Spongebob himself exudes gender neutrality, while other gender issues are explored as well (e.g. the tomboyish Sandy Squirrel and images such as Patrick Star in high heels and fishnets as seen above).  For an interesting exploration of these issues, I reccomend an article from Bitch magazine http://bitchmagazine.org/article/dumb-getting-dumber

 Furthermore, I feel the show creates a space whereby children are free to be children, while also creating a space for adults to feel free to explore their own childlike natures.