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Final Presentation Slides - Constructing Your World

I chose several of the main slides from my final presentation.  Here they are:

Artistic Thinking - Week 14

READ & REACT

Hetland Chapters 8, 11

Chapter 8

“In visual arts classes, students are taught to go beyond technical skill to convey a personal intention in the work.  Learning to Express includes making works that exemplify properties that are not literally present, such as moods, sounds, and atmosphere.  Learning to Express also means making works that convey properties such as emotions, a sense of movement, or personal meaning.”  It is important students “go beyond representation to create something with evocative meaning.”

            One teacher has students creating a portrait.  He encourages to use technique to create drama, or show the relationship between two people.  He has them create sketches, participate in critiques, look at each other’s work, and create final pieces.  “He strives to teach students to find personal relationships in their art and never teaches technique alone.”  Another teacher focuses on teaching her students how to see their work outside of themselves as something that conveys something to a viewer. 

Chapter 11

This chapter discusses the importance of play in order to allow students to explore, take risks, and be creative.  Play stresses the importance of the process, not the end product.  One instructor teaches her students several different principles of play (specifically in regards to clay sculpture):

-Experiment with expression through texture

-Experiment with tools

-Discover new techniques through play

-Focus on the process

She found that “When students are playing, they are more able to take suggestions and criticisms than when they are working on a piece that must be finished in final form.”

Another teacher also suggested that students experiment with a range of different forms and materials, even invent new tools.  They encouraged students to take advantage of accidents and let things happen.

Olivia Gude: Postmodern Principles

Olivia Gude presents elements and principles of design as the essence of artmaking.  She starts by discussing three criteria for curriculum: Curriculum based on generative themes, studio art projects based on diverse practices, and art as investigation.  With these criteria in mind, Gude identifies 8 important postmodern artmaking practices, or principles that are the hybrids of the visual and the conceptual.  

Appropriation – For students, recycling imagery feels comfortable and commonplace.  They have grown up in an environment filled with cheap, disposable images that easily can become material for one’s own creative expression

Juxtaposition – “Useful I helping students discuss the familiar shocks of contemporary life in which images and objects from various realms and sensibilities come together as intentional clashes or random happenings.”

Recontextualization – “Often, positioning a familiar image in relationship to pictures, symbols, or texts with which it is not usually associated generates meaning in an artwork.”

Layering – “Multiple layers of varying transparency will be a readily available strategy to students because it is a common feature of most digital imaging programs such as Adobe Photoshop.”

Interaction of Text & Image – “Students who make and value art in the 21^st century must learn not to demand a literal match of verbal and visual signifiers, but rather to explore disjuncture between these modes as a source of meaning and pleasure.”

Hybridity – “Many contemporary artists incorporate various media into their pieces, using whatever is required to fully investigate the subject… hybridity also describes cultural blending.”

Gazing – “By shifting the context within which a familiar advertising image is seen, students spontaneously question who creates and controls imagery and how this imagery affects our understandings of reality – and important activity of visual culture art education.” 

Representing – “Describes the strategy of locating one’s artistic voice within one’s own personal history and culture of origin.”

Principles of Possibility

            Gude explains that the “essential contribution that art educators can make to our students and to our communities is to teach skills and concepts while creating opportunities to investigate and represent one’s own experiences—generating personal and shared meaning.  Quality arts curriculum is thus rooted in belief in the transformative power of art and critical inquiry.” 

            Gude states that, “By its nature art is an open concept that is always evolving and changing.”  Art inside the classroom is no different.  “Today’s students, over-constricted by an education system that often focuses on knowing the one right answer, need guidance in reclaiming their capacities for conceptual, imaginative play.” 

            Gude defines art as a way of forming one’s self.  “Artmaking can be an important opportunity for students to further their emotional and intellectual development, to help formulate a sense of who they are and who they might become… Authentic insight into self is more likely promoted through indirect means, asking students to reflect and recall experiences through making art. 

           

Great art often engages the most significant issues of the community, calling on each of us to bring our deepest understanding and empathy to our shared social experience.

                                    -Tolstoy

            “Artistic thinking is not separate from daily life, but rather can inform and enrich every aspect of one’s life.” Due to the vast amount of images our students are faced with on a daily basis, Gude claims, “All students of the 21^st century need to know how to construct, select, edit, and present visual images.” 

            I love the thought that Gude closes the article with: “If it is indeed true that our notions of the real and the possible are shaped in cultural discourses, art teachers have the potential to change the world.”

Reflect and Write – Part I

Statement: “Consider whether ALL your curriculum projects engage students in making meaning through meaningful making.”

-       What are the classroom implications for this statement?  Describe how this might relate to your classroom experiences or how you predict this affecting classrooms of the future.

If all the projects within my curriculum are engaging students in making meaning through meaningful making, then hopefully I will be teaching students not only to think critically, but also to create critically.  Students would understand how to express meaning in their work.  This would allow them to view art more critically in response.

-       Do you agree or disagree with her statement or stance?  Provide evidence to support or illustrate your thinking through examples.

I agree with her statement.  This idea of making meaning through meaningful making was implemented in my high school art class.  While it frustrated me at first, it ended up being very beneficial.  Originally, I was bothered by the fact that every piece had to have meaning.  Sometimes I just wanted to draw a building just for the sake of rendering a building realistically.  As time went on, I got a little more used to the idea.  Then in college I realized how valuable that way of thinking and creating is.  Thinking critically and creating with meaning is the way the world works.  If one cannot do this, they are missing out on understanding a large part of the world around us, thus proving this knowledge to be invaluable. 

Reflect and Write – Part II

Value 1: “Constructing self: Over symbolizing an essentialist conception of self.”

All contemporary psychological and psychoanalytic theories agree that much of who we are as individuals is created by our personal experiences and by our cultural contexts.

Invent projects in which students explore the discourses that have shaped them.

Activity – Create Self portrait projects that create awareness of how the self is formed in family and social discourses.

-       What are the classroom implications for this value? 

If I were to predict what my classroom will be like in the future, I would say implementing this value of self construction and investigating the conception of self would partner well with the notion of making meaning through meaningful art making.  Students would be using art to discuss and investigate ideas of identity, self-construction, self-conception, etc.  I think it would be valuable for students to reflect and explore the different discourses that have shaped them, specifically in family and social discourses.  No matter what the age, these ideas would be challenging for students.  Some students have never had to think about ideas and reasons behind their identity.  Ultimately, I think the projects created from this value would be rich and filled with meaning through meaning making!

Value 2: “Conceptual Engagement over making Facsimiles.”

Questions –

What strategies did the artist use to make meaning?

Can these strategies be adapted for meaningful use by students?

(Students must have unrestricted choice of materials)

Activity – Materials Based Self Portrait

Imagine a pose and non-traditional art materials for a self-portrait sculpture.  Make a collage.

-       Do you agree or disagree with including this value in your curriculum?  Is it important or not?  Provide evidence to support or illustrate your thinking through examples.

I think it is important for students to become familiar with artwork and artists that have come before them.  I think at fundamental introductory levels it might be beneficial for students to copy successful artists work.  Copying may help them understand, through hands-on work, the principles of design, or how to create meaning in art, etc.  It is similar to how when a student is learning to play guitar, they play their favorite musicians songs because it is something they have heard, like, and is already successful.  Down the road, once the student has learned guitar, they can make up their own parts. 

In visual art, after this step of copying it is important the student pushes the idea further, and creates something original, taking bits and pieces of what they learned from copying. 

-       What are the classroom implications for this value?  If adopted, what would this value like “in action” in your classroom or how do you predict this affecting classrooms of the future?

Like I said above, if I were to implement this idea of copying in my classroom, I would have the copying be just the beginning of a project, to get students hands moving and understanding the material, etc.  After that, for the final project of the unit I would have them create a piece using what they learned from copying as a diving board.  It is important for students to make connections and learn from other artists, but they also must be creating their own individual work.  

Artistic Thinking -- Week 13

The Role of Artistic Play in Problem Solving – Eliza Pitri

Pitri describes play as an essential “medium” of creative thinking in which students develop intrinsic motivation, problem solving skills, and the ability to supply their own meanings through experiences.  Pitri suggests breaking down the wall separating work to the classroom setting and play to recess time only. 

Pitri defines play has having “no extrinsic goals; its motivations are intrinsic.”  Furthermore, “Players are concerned with the process of an activity more than its results. Goals are self-imposed, and existing rules can be modified…Children supply their own meanings to activities and control the situations themselves.”

How is “playing” a medium:

* “A medium is a condition in which something may function or flourish. Play is a condition in which the cognitive functions of the mind can be allowed to function optimally.

* A medium is a means of conveying something, a channel of communication. Play is often the means by which children express their thoughts and feelings and facilitates understanding of these thoughts and feelings.

* A medium is a surrounding or enveloping substance. Children become completely enveloped in play. Almost every activity in which young children engage has elements of play behavior, such as spontaneity of physical and emotional expression.

* A medium is a material or technical means of active expression. For young children, active expression is vitally important, and sensorimotor activity is a major mode of behavior. Play is used by children.”

“Sutton-Smith (1972) describes the different types of playa s imitation, exploration, testing, and world construction.”  Pitri argues that play is an important aspect of curriculum in the art classroom.  “When art instruction is planned around play, students can draw ideas from their own experiences instead of following the teacher's lead. They learn how to discover and plan for themselves.”  In this way, “The child is viewed as competent and full of potential and active in constructing his or her own knowledge, through interactions with peers, adults and the environment.”  When students participate in playing, they are honing their cognitive ability to implement attachment and connection through their work, rather than separation and abstraction.

   “Problem solving is enhanced through play because as Garvey (1990) points out, play facilitates cognitive flexibility, serves symbolic function, and leads to problem finding… Play stimulates intrinsic motivation forces of exploration and curiosity… These forces drive children to seek novel stimulation and increase the chances of recognizing new problems. Sensitivity to problems is one of the important components of creative thinking.”

Play – Daniel Pink

Having fun, playing, allows for more success.  Pink describes play as “manifesting itself in three ways: games, humor, and joyfulness.”

            Games

            “Games have become a large and influential industry that is teaching whole-minded lessons to its customers and recruiting a new breed of whole-minded worker.”  Games, more specifically video games, can substitute “virtual experience for vicarious insights.”  “Half of all Americans over age six play computer and video games.”  If almost half of America is playing video and computer games, wouldn’t it make sense to use them as a vessel of bigger ideas and values?  “Games have become a tool for solving problems, as well as a vehicle for self-expression and self-exploration.” It is important to utilize the power of games, perhaps especially in education.  This idea connects to previous readings in that video games and computer games create an environment closer to reality.  These games incorporate more senses than just a standard lecture or worksheet.  Students can use games to “sharpen many of the skills that are vital in the conceptual age.”  Some aspects of video games include spotting trends, drawing connections, and discerning the big picture. Game design has moved away from its emphasis on code and more towards an emphasis on art design. Game development is more and more being considered an artistic medium.

            Humor

            “Humor is an accurate marker for managerial effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and the thinking style characteristic of the brain’s right hemisphere.”  From research, “neuroscientists concluded that the right hemisphere plays an essential role in understanding and appreciating humor.”  Humor often involves incongruity, which is located in the right hemisphere of the brain.  Some maintain that “humor represents one of the highest forms of intelligence.” 

            “Humor embodies many of the right hemisphere’s most powerful attributes—the ability to place situations in context, to glimpse the big picture, and to combine differing perspectives into new alignments.  And that makes this aspect of play extremely valuable in the world of work.”     

            Joyfulness

            “Joyfulness is demonstrating its power to make us more productive and fulfilled.” 

Hetland Chapter 11

This chapter discusses the importance of play in order to allow students to explore, take risks, and be creative.  Play stresses the importance of the process, not the end product.  One instructor teaches her students several different principles of play (specifically in regards to clay sculpture):

-Experiment with expression through texture

-Experiment with tools

-Discover new techniques through play

-Focus on the process

She found that “When students are playing, they are more able to take suggestions and criticisms than when they are working on a piece that must be finished in final form.”

Another teacher also suggested that students experiment with a range of different forms and materials, even invent new tools.  They encouraged students to take advantage of accidents and let things happen.

Tim Brown – Creativity and Play

Notes:

We fear the judgment of our peers – causes us to be conservative with our thinking

Kids feel the most free to play – security to take risks

Adult habits get in the way of creativity – ideas

Construction play – learning tool – building towers, etc. – learning by doing

Thinking with your hands – making prototypes

In schools and in the work place – the tools for creative play gets taken away

Role play – acting out a solution (specifically in the classroom or in design, or both)

Stuart Brown – Why Play is Vital – No Matter What You’re Age

Notes:

Play is born by curiosity and exploration

Need social play

Rough and Tumble play – preschool age, should be allowed

Imaginative play

What does play do for the brain? – Play lights up the brain, 3D play fires up cerebellum, helps contextual memory be developed

Collective Play – Play signals

Play-related Project   

For my play project, I wanted to “play” with a medium and subject matter I hadn’t used in a while.  For me, this was watercolor and figure drawing.  I did three different figure drawings, but only focused on the exterior/ornamentation of the figures: the clothing.  I wanted to investigate the movement of clothing (drapery, folds, lines, the way things fall due to what lies underneath them, etc).  Here are my pieces of play:

I enjoyed using color, as well as colored pencil to play with the use of line and tone in order to create depth and understanding of what was depicted in each image.  

Artistic Thinking - Week 12

Week 12 

Read and React

Hetland Chapter 6-7

Chapter 6

Learning to Engage and Persist: Committing and Following Through

            Sometimes students need encouragement and guidance when completing a task or project in the art room.  During this time it is important to acknowledge that the students have a difficult task ahead of them, tell them they have done a great job so far, try to keep them focused on the task at hand, and encourage them to persist through what they may not like at the moment because art is about the process. 

            One teacher expressed these guidelines to his students:
            -Stick to what you’ve begun

            -Slowing down is sometimes a form of persisting

            -Even if you’re not happy with your work right now, it’s important to keep going

            -Learn to manage time as you work

            “By going through the process and coming up with something, students realize that not everything works.”  This, again, is all part of the process.  Remind students of expectations in the classroom and of student work.  Encourage them to challenge themselves.   Sticking to a project involves the habit of Envision: The end product should motivate students to keep working.  “Teachers often play a role of gently keeping students on task and making sure they persisted in their engagement.”

Chapter 7

Learning to Envision: Planning Beyond Seeing

           

            “Envisioning includes the acts of generating mental images so that one can imagine how a work will look, and planning ways to achieve that image.  Observation and Envisioning are ends of the same continuum.  When we observe, we look closely at the outside world.  When we envision, we imagine and generate images of possibilities in our mind.” 

            This chapter discusses some ways students can be encouraged to envision:

-Generate a work of art solely from their imaginations, rather than from observation.

            -Imagine how their work would look if they made specific changes.

            -Make a “unit,” repeat it, and then combine the units into sculptural forms.

            -Imagine all the ways they can vary a line, a shape, a color, or a composition.

            Ask students to think explicitly of what they are trying to represent.  One example of asking a student to envision is by having them “Determine where on the page a new color could be used.”             

            Envisioning helps students to invent rather than copy.  It allows them to better represent themselves in their artwork.  One teacher said, “I want to give them the tools so that they can be innovators and come up with their own problems and their own solutions and their own questions.”

Twyla Tharp:

“Scratching”

            In this reading, scratching refers to the action within the first few steps of a creative act.  The author describes it as “digging through everything to find something…Scratching can look like borrowing or appropriating, but it’s an essential part of creativity.” 

            Scratching is one way to get ideas.  “A good idea is one that turns you on rather than shuts you off.  It keeps generating more ideas and they improve on one another.  A bad idea closes doors instead of opening them.  It’s confining and restrictive.  The line between good and bad ideas is very thing.  A bad idea in the hands of the right person can easily be tweaked into a good idea.” 

            The author recommends focusing on scratching for little ideas.  Without little ideas there are no big ideas.  Sometimes all you need is a small idea that will lead to more and more ideas.  She also suggests that an artist actively engage in their medium in order to allow their brain to fully generate ideas.  For example, “If you’re a painter: You can’t imagine the work, you can only generate ideas when you put pencil to paper, brush to canvas—when you actually do something physical.” 

            The reading lists four ways that ideas can be acted upon:

            “First, you must generate the idea, usually from memory or experience or activity.  Then you have to retain it—that is, hold it steady in your mind and keep it from disappearing.  Then you have to inspect it—study it and make inferences about it.  Finally, you have to be able to transform it—alter it in some way to suit your higher purposes.” 

            Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, and nature are all examples of scratching. 

ENGAGE AND PERSIST ASSIGNMENT

1. Blog Reflection

Reflect on strategies you use to combat these five struggles/ideas in your own work:

Motivating and instilling passion—This is a hard one.  I don’t feel like you can force feeling motivated or passionate about art, or a piece of work.  I believe these notions come after being persistent in working through the dry parts of your work.  Sometimes you won’t feel motivated or passionate, but you most work through those times to get to the wonderful moments when you feel so motivated and passionate you might burst.  There are definitely highs and lows; the key is to keep your work pattern consistent.  I believe it is important to take time to look at other art that inspires you.  Maybe make an inspiration board on Pinterest.  Gather up anything and everything that makes you feel passionate and then go work!

In the classroom, I would remind students that persistence builds passion.  I think it is important to acknowledge to students that it is okay to feel unmotivated or a lack of passion at times, but it is in those times when you can learn the most.  Those moments are valuable.  You can look back after the piece is finish and be proud that you worked through it and look at what you learned about the process of artmaking.

Cultivating sustained attention—During times of low motivation and passion, you may feel like working less and giving it time.  While sometimes it is good to put some space between yourself and a piece of artwork so that you can come at it from a fresh perspective, generally, I think it is important to have a consistent working pattern.  Knowing there are times when you don’t want to work on a piece of work, I think it is wise to have a scheduled time per week, or biweekly, or whatever it is you have time for.  If you have a scheduled time then you know you have to work on your project once that time hits.  You have carved out time for it.  Even if it is just a time when you’re “playing” or processing, etc.  You must do it!

Similar to the classroom strategy of finding motivation and passion, cultivating sustained attention comes with persistence.  Persistence might come in the form of a schedule.  It might come in the form of taking away all other distractions for a period of time so you can remain focused.  I think it is important to remind students to figure out what works best for them to remain focused on the task at hand.  Help them figure out what they need to focus their attention.

Combating Frustration—This is a hard one.  You can’t really help the emotions you feel.  If you feel frustrated, you feel frustrated.  Again, I think this goes back to keeping a schedule and working through the frustration through consistency.  With that said, if you need to take a break from a specific project and go back to something that is more inspirational, something that will instill motivation in you, and then do it!  Sometimes we need to be reminded of the things we love about art.  It is important to take time to do that.  In the classroom, I would do just that.  I would recommend if the student is frustrated, they take a quick break and “play.”  Find something to reignite their interest and passion for art.

Working hard to meet a deadline—This simply comes down to will power.  Do you have the ability to a) Keep a schedule, not procrastinate and b) Work diligently for long hours to get a project finished if there is a short work period of time?  I think it is important to have self-control and self-discipline to create a work ethic in which you set out time to work on a project so that you’re not doing it the night before a deadline.  Sometimes you run out of time and have to work long hours to finish the project in time.  This takes a lot of will power.  This is when you need to be goal-oriented and stay motivated by the finish line. 

This is what I would remind my students as well.  Have self-discipline to not procrastinate.  Which took me years to figure out.   The sooner students can hone in on a good work ethic and schedule, the better their artwork will be.

Developing the ability to delay gratification (working without seeing the endpoint)—Of course, in some cases, there is no finish line.  That is to say, there is no obvious reward or acknowledgment of your progress other than your own.  Or sometimes a project is so long-term it is hard to feel motivated by a finish line.  I think this idea of “developing the ability to delay gratification” goes back to finding your gratification in the process itself.  It is important, as an artist, to appreciate and value the process of a piece, although this is sometimes very hard to do when coupled with frustration or lack of motivation.  Just keep reminding yourself of the value in the process!

For students, I think it is just as important for them to find value in the process.  While in school, students usually have deadlines and grades that give some satisfaction to a finished product, it is important to instill in them a satisfaction that comes with learning through the process.  If student understand this notion they will resultantly create better work.  

2. Studio Assignment

Progress and written reflection on how the ideas of engagement and persistence have factored into this work thus far (or how you envision them factoring in over the course of the next few weeks).

            I have finished an introductory piece for my body of work.  I wanted to get something on paper that was rolling around in my head.  I like some aspects of the piece and dislike other parts.  After working on the piece for a few hours I was extremely unimpressed.  I wanted to start over, but instead decided to keep adding layers to see if it would come together.  For a first piece I am happy with how it turned out.  I like the use of watercolor and line throughout the image, and yet something about the way it flows together seems unprofessional to me.  I dislike the architectural image in the center.  For my next piece I would like to make images either more abstract or more realistic.  The illustrative approach in between of the structures in this piece bothers me.  I would like to build on what I’ve learned from this first piece by eliminating the aspects I don’t like and adding onto the aspects I do like.  I would like the next piece to have more layers and a more defined approach before I begin.

System A

Watercolor, Acrylic, Pen, Graphite

INVISIONING ASSIGNMENT

1. Evidence of Scratching: Pinterest inspiration board for this specific body of work.  After having completed an introductory piece in my body of work, I am now going to do research on where I want the project to go from here.

Link to Board: http://pinterest.com/cjcover/memory-map-project-inspiration/

2. Blog Reflection

In what ways could you teach the processes of generation, retention, inspection, and transformation as part of the envisioning process?  Give Examples of a project for each idea.  Or how the 4 might be used together in a particular lesson/unit of study?

“First, you must generate the idea, usually from memory or experience or activity.  Then you have to retain it—that is, hold it steady in your mind and keep it from disappearing.  Then you have to inspect it—study it and make inferences about it.  Finally, you have to be able to transform it—alter it in some way to suit your higher purposes.”

Lesson 1: Generation

Students will create hand-bound journals out of paper, recycled paper, found paper, altered book paper, etc.  These will be their art journals for the semester. Students are expected to make two entries a week that can include any of the following: Sketches, ideas, writing, processing, questions, answers, random thoughts, artists name/work, cut and paste images, photographs of student work, artist statements, etc.  This will be a tool for students to generate ideas.

Lesson 2: Retention

Students will choose an idea generated in their artist journals for further development.  They will create three pieces encompassing a body of work.  These pieces will cover a general theme/concept, but show different approaches to physically manifesting this concept (Different mediums, different perspectives, different subject matter, etc).  While these are not final pieces, they should be thought out, crafted, and executed with excellence. 

Lesson 3: Inspection

Based on these three pieces, students will choose the approach they find most successful.  They will reflect and respond by investigating and researching their concept further.  They will find an artist that creates work pertaining to a similar concept or similar medium and use their work as a platform of inspiration.

Lesson 4: Transformation

Lastly, students will begin their final piece based on the concept and artist they chose from lesson 3.  They will create a piece of work that visually demonstrates understanding of their medium technically and their concept is communicated through content.