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
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