The story lesson was great. It went along really well with Pink's chapter on story. It was really nice getting to know people a lit more through story that what I knew before. You can learn so much about a person through the experiences they share through their art, and if it weren't for people's stories, art would not be as meaningful. I really enjoyed the art activity that the group put together, however I wish I could have had more time to do better work on it.
Symphony sounds like it might be fun. The method Pink demonstrates sounds lit like a project I did in a beginning drawing class in Warrensburg. The teacher started with a very blurry picture and told us to start drawing. All we could do was draw the light and dark areas, also, we could not pick our pencils upu from the paper, so as long as the picture was up our hands were moving. Soon we realized that we were drawing a picture of a person, and we look down at our scribble filled paper to find that we have drawn, very successfully, the same picture. It was surprising to see that we did that. It is just amazing how our brains work, and how, like PInk says, everything is relative to something else. Lights, darks, positive and negative shapes, or colors next to colors. It all depends on what it is next to.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Design
The design lesson today gave me the sense that I do think like a designer sometimes. The whole time we were trying to figure out a design to go on the billboard I was just thinking "can I read that from a car?" I think the group I was with did a pretty good job with the phrase we were given. I also thought that this lesson can show students that there is more in the art field than just a starving artist or an art teacher. Giving the parameters that is can only be this size, we only have this much money, and you cannot change the phrase that the other person gave you, and time restraint gives them a taste of how designers work (although, I believe we are much easier on each other than other boss' might be).
I am also sensing a theme in the sense groups so far in having a sense of now knowing in the activities we are doing. It causes me a little anxiety but it is helping in my own development of my unit plan.
I really enjoyed the story chapter by Pink. Having story in art, or anything really, gives it meaning. It calls on personal experiences to make other things meaningful. I am looking forward to see what the story group comes up with for the class.
I am also sensing a theme in the sense groups so far in having a sense of now knowing in the activities we are doing. It causes me a little anxiety but it is helping in my own development of my unit plan.
I really enjoyed the story chapter by Pink. Having story in art, or anything really, gives it meaning. It calls on personal experiences to make other things meaningful. I am looking forward to see what the story group comes up with for the class.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Play!!
Today, during our play I could relate to our guest in class when she said she was anxious. I like to plan at least a little bit what I am going to do in my art projects, so when Kathy said you have 10 minutes to make as many self supporting structure out of paper, I froze for a second. THen I remembered that my unit plan and studio thinking projects revolve around letting go of control. SO, I dove in. I was cutting the paper before I even thought about how I was going to fold it and make it stand. Curling, folding, crumpling, and all kinds of other things later, I had over 20 pieces. I surprised myself that I just kept going and didn't let myself stop cutting and folding. The next steps came easier to me after that first one. This play day really helped me out of my comfort zone of planning ahead and over-thinking every detail.
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to going over design in the class. "A good design can change the world."
Tomorrow, I am looking forward to going over design in the class. "A good design can change the world."
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Chapter 6's, Pink, and White Paper
In chapter 6 Frredman talks a lot abut curriculum and the importance of cultural experience. I found it interesting when Freedman talked about how curriculum has changed time and time again, but to me it seems, that art education just wants to keep coming down to content and experiences. Also, she talked about art and integration, and how we need to be careful with integration. If you try to integrate too much with other subjects, it might turn out that art will start taking a back seat to STEM classes. Again, it has been determined that visual literacy can improve upon many other skills that students need such as contextual thinking and creative problem solving. We need to keep in mind that these skills that broaden a students sights on art will have differing of opinions and a multitude of experiences, but it is where we find that common ground of shared experiences, that social learning of visual culture takes place.
What I really enjoyed reading in Eisner in chapter 6 was at the very end, under the heading "What to public needs to understand." Throughout the chapter Eisner describes the importance of curriculum and what standards are and why they are important. I enjoyed at the end when Eisner was talking about a child using clay. How this sculpture is more than a piece made by a student, its more than play. It is a show to show creative thinking and development of an idea, which is being stressed, I believe, in the upcoming common core standards coming soon. Showing students that muddling through experiencing all that visual culture has to offer will be extreme, is what we need to promote in all aspects of curriculum.
Which leads my to Pink. I love Daniel Pinks book. It drives home everything that I have been learning about teaching art during my college career. People, no matter the job description, are needing to be creative problem solvers and thinkers. That is what businesses are looking for. I read this book a couple months ago and the things that still stuck out the most to me before refreshing myself were the age of abundance and outsourcing. Mostly because I cannot help but notice all of this in the world everyday. We go to the store and we have 25 choices for anything we want: food, drinks, toasters, coffee makers, paper, etc. It is amazing the choices that we have to make about what kind of toilet paper we buy. Also, outsourcing and finding the people that can do more than what a computer can do. That is what needs to be learned by students today. We need to think outside the box of the computer screen and become creative problem solvers that have empathy, emotion, and fun. I found it very interesting that even medical schools are requiring classes that show the future doctors what it means to be empathetic to their patients! The chapter on play, well, it made me laugh! If we don't have a laughter club on Monday I may be a little disappointed! Just the thought that this session can improve daily tasks in a business environment is wonderful. We need play, we need release!
What I really enjoyed reading in Eisner in chapter 6 was at the very end, under the heading "What to public needs to understand." Throughout the chapter Eisner describes the importance of curriculum and what standards are and why they are important. I enjoyed at the end when Eisner was talking about a child using clay. How this sculpture is more than a piece made by a student, its more than play. It is a show to show creative thinking and development of an idea, which is being stressed, I believe, in the upcoming common core standards coming soon. Showing students that muddling through experiencing all that visual culture has to offer will be extreme, is what we need to promote in all aspects of curriculum.
Which leads my to Pink. I love Daniel Pinks book. It drives home everything that I have been learning about teaching art during my college career. People, no matter the job description, are needing to be creative problem solvers and thinkers. That is what businesses are looking for. I read this book a couple months ago and the things that still stuck out the most to me before refreshing myself were the age of abundance and outsourcing. Mostly because I cannot help but notice all of this in the world everyday. We go to the store and we have 25 choices for anything we want: food, drinks, toasters, coffee makers, paper, etc. It is amazing the choices that we have to make about what kind of toilet paper we buy. Also, outsourcing and finding the people that can do more than what a computer can do. That is what needs to be learned by students today. We need to think outside the box of the computer screen and become creative problem solvers that have empathy, emotion, and fun. I found it very interesting that even medical schools are requiring classes that show the future doctors what it means to be empathetic to their patients! The chapter on play, well, it made me laugh! If we don't have a laughter club on Monday I may be a little disappointed! Just the thought that this session can improve daily tasks in a business environment is wonderful. We need play, we need release!
Thursday, June 6, 2013
6/6 Blog, Freedman 5, Eisner 5, & A new Culture of Learning.
Chaper 5 of Freedman had a lot of information in it but the part that I noticed was very heavily highlighted for me was the section on pages 88-92. First, when Freedman talked about how meanings in visual culture tend to conflict with one another it struck a chord. Just thinking about how artists, like myself, like to contrast our meanings in art. For example, in my curriculum project I will be focusing on control and loss of control. My problem, generally, is being a control freak, my next works are all about losing control over my art by having other people bring in objects that I MUST use in my work. This, I believe, is a duality that Freedman is talking about. Freedman then goes on to talk about how advertisements like to use fine art as ways to depict wealth and good taste to cause people to desire the product. I think that is very interesting, considering that we talk about how many people do not know how to interpret art, how do they know that they desire that fine art/product? Advertisers are very sneaky! On the next page, Freedman goes into explaining suggestiveness. I really like this term because it seems very straight forward. And the fact that Freedman goes on to say that viewers use this power of suggestion to turn the context into meaning for them. The great thing about suggestiveness, is that it is different to everyone, thus creating multiple meanings to artwork, and alos advertisements and all aspects of our visual culture. Then we read about Feldman's model and that takes us back to our VTS, how we must first look analyze the piece before making judgements, and that what we get from the piece must have evidence from the borders of the piece. However this doesn't work, we all bring personal backgrounds with us when we look at art. We all create stories as to why this or that is in a piece. Although we may not know the artists intent, we create intent because of the knowledge and experiences we bring to the table. Then on page 100 I really like the concept of hyperreality, and how advertisers want us to create this hyperreality to put ourselves into the commercials they create, so in turn they sell the experience of that hyperreality instead of maybe the product itself.
In Eisner, I have concernes. I agree completely that students need more than one project to fully grasp a medium as well as how this medium relates to content. However, I am concerned with time. Until people realize that more time needs to be devoted to the arts, we will never be able to teach these concepts to students, fully, AND give them opportunities to experience everything the curriculum says we need to teach them. As I say this, Hyatt's "pods" come to mind. They get to experience a large number of media and techniques and get to choose a few to put into their work. Then later, they get to see what others are doing with the other techniques, then they get to experience it more. Which brings me what the chapter is really about. The social life of art. When students are put together in education and allowed to discuss and work together to solve problems given, they are put into real world experiences. We all realize that they wont all be trying to make a landscape look realistic as well as portray a deeper meaning, but the fact that they discuss their trials with the work is how they will be creative problem solvers in the future. They will not be working alone. They will be around people, and most likely will be put into groups to solve problems, no matter the path of work they pursue. We, as teacher have to facilitate this experience. I the art room, I think that will be easy. My art room with be a freeing place. A place where they can discuss their work, to have impromptu critiques, and to discuss complex ideas, sometimes not always directly related to the task at hand, but that is ok. They are still having that experience, of socializing with their peers, to work through solving problems.
A New Culture if Learning is great so far. Very easy to read and it is realting very well to what was read by Eisner. It delves into how our society is not only learning through technology but how social interaction is in the forefront of learning. Just like Eisner was pointing out, socializing in education is real world problem solving, and the stories being told by Thomas and Brown solidifies that.
In Eisner, I have concernes. I agree completely that students need more than one project to fully grasp a medium as well as how this medium relates to content. However, I am concerned with time. Until people realize that more time needs to be devoted to the arts, we will never be able to teach these concepts to students, fully, AND give them opportunities to experience everything the curriculum says we need to teach them. As I say this, Hyatt's "pods" come to mind. They get to experience a large number of media and techniques and get to choose a few to put into their work. Then later, they get to see what others are doing with the other techniques, then they get to experience it more. Which brings me what the chapter is really about. The social life of art. When students are put together in education and allowed to discuss and work together to solve problems given, they are put into real world experiences. We all realize that they wont all be trying to make a landscape look realistic as well as portray a deeper meaning, but the fact that they discuss their trials with the work is how they will be creative problem solvers in the future. They will not be working alone. They will be around people, and most likely will be put into groups to solve problems, no matter the path of work they pursue. We, as teacher have to facilitate this experience. I the art room, I think that will be easy. My art room with be a freeing place. A place where they can discuss their work, to have impromptu critiques, and to discuss complex ideas, sometimes not always directly related to the task at hand, but that is ok. They are still having that experience, of socializing with their peers, to work through solving problems.
A New Culture if Learning is great so far. Very easy to read and it is realting very well to what was read by Eisner. It delves into how our society is not only learning through technology but how social interaction is in the forefront of learning. Just like Eisner was pointing out, socializing in education is real world problem solving, and the stories being told by Thomas and Brown solidifies that.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Chapter 2 Finding Meaning in Aesthetics
Freedman.
This chapter was a lot more interesting to me than the last one. I have never thought about aesthetics in the way that Freedman said that they can uplift us and make us feel good. but they can also make us aware of our weaknesses, they make us believe what they want us to whether it be stereotypes, or buying objects we don't need (page 24). I think this is very true, and I never thought about advertisements in the form of aesthetics before, for some reason. Under the Rejection of Symbolism section I found a couple points very interesting and quote-worthy. "Art should exist for its own sake, rather than conveying literary or moral ideals." -Whistler. I thought it was funny, and after looking at the painting mentioned in the section, understood it more, that his use of symbolism is quite obvious, and everything seems quite deliberate, from the painting on the wall and the fact that she is holding a handkerchief in her hand. Then in the next section, and I don't know why I didn't know this, perhaps because the public school system only teaches what they want me to know, but I did not know that artists and artists communities were being blacklisted because of communist affiliations. Not really anything significant to our class but I found this interesting.
On page 33 when Freedman said "The problem of curriculum is not form, it is an overreliance on formalism in the classroom." I think this is so true. I went to a high school where it was all just skill building. WHile I believe that those are important steps in moving forward in art, I am surprised that I wasn't bored out of my mind, like many other students. This is why we need meaning making in the art room.
Last, and my favorite part of the whole chapter is on page 40, "..denied the common assumption of many of his contemporaries on art that great works of art have inherent universal qualities that make them great."..."Art is made as a result of something 'occasional, something having its own date and place'" I loved this quote from Dewey. I also loved the discussion on how art has a different affect on everyone, not one person sees the same thing you do when looking at a piece of art.
Eisner Chapter 3&4:
Chapter 3, aptly named, teaching the visual arts, is exactly how it sounds. In a somewhat repetitive nature, Eisner goes into this chapter talking about what affects a students time in the art room. The curriculum, and how that curriculum is taught. A great quote that is found on page 48 could sum up the chapter "Wonderful plans can be scuttled by weak teaching. Conversely, good teaching has no virtue if the content students engage in is without value: if the ideas or skills being taught are not worth teaching, they are not worth teaching well." It is our job as educators to engage the students in what they are learning, while still TEACHING them something. Now, I know it is asking a lot to try to get a student to care about their school work, but putting that meaning into the artwork is what is going to hook them, and keep them engaged. The next part of the chapter is facilitating this learning and scaffolding it to becoming wonderful pieces of art. Materials, instructions, play, and exemplars have to be utilized for the purpose of the art to come out. Guiding them in the beginning of the unit, follow-up, talking with the artist constructively about their work, artist works, all help in this task. Chapter 4, What the arts teach and how it shows, to me can be summed up rather quickly. (Mostly because I feel I am rambling) I nuts and bolts of this chapter is learning to put meaning into the work through imagination and content that is expressive and personally meaningful, interpreting their own, and others' work, criticism, and being able to talk about pieces of art is what needs to taught in a successful art class. How it shows? Through the students' work, of course. A teacher can determine very quickly, even after the first day whether the students are grasping the idea. That is why discussions are needed, why in-progress critiques are useful, and why being able to talk to students on an advanced level about their artwork is so important. You are not going to get meaningful work from students if you cannot have a discussion with them about what they are thinking.
BARRETT
The ENTIRE time I was reading the articles from Barrett I was thinking about the VTS we did with Mary Franco my first semester at Mizzou. This article goes hand in hand with teaching students how to interpret art through VTS. The student are asked those three questions.. What's going on in the piece? What do you see that makes you say that? What else can we find? The article goes along withall of the rules, looking at what in in the piece, not who made it, not the name, not looking at an artist statement. Previously I stated how important it is to remember that everyone interprets art differently and gets a different meaning from it, this is why we need to teach students to not just look at art and say "oh that's pretty" but get to the deeper meaning.
Freedman.
This chapter was a lot more interesting to me than the last one. I have never thought about aesthetics in the way that Freedman said that they can uplift us and make us feel good. but they can also make us aware of our weaknesses, they make us believe what they want us to whether it be stereotypes, or buying objects we don't need (page 24). I think this is very true, and I never thought about advertisements in the form of aesthetics before, for some reason. Under the Rejection of Symbolism section I found a couple points very interesting and quote-worthy. "Art should exist for its own sake, rather than conveying literary or moral ideals." -Whistler. I thought it was funny, and after looking at the painting mentioned in the section, understood it more, that his use of symbolism is quite obvious, and everything seems quite deliberate, from the painting on the wall and the fact that she is holding a handkerchief in her hand. Then in the next section, and I don't know why I didn't know this, perhaps because the public school system only teaches what they want me to know, but I did not know that artists and artists communities were being blacklisted because of communist affiliations. Not really anything significant to our class but I found this interesting.
On page 33 when Freedman said "The problem of curriculum is not form, it is an overreliance on formalism in the classroom." I think this is so true. I went to a high school where it was all just skill building. WHile I believe that those are important steps in moving forward in art, I am surprised that I wasn't bored out of my mind, like many other students. This is why we need meaning making in the art room.
Last, and my favorite part of the whole chapter is on page 40, "..denied the common assumption of many of his contemporaries on art that great works of art have inherent universal qualities that make them great."..."Art is made as a result of something 'occasional, something having its own date and place'" I loved this quote from Dewey. I also loved the discussion on how art has a different affect on everyone, not one person sees the same thing you do when looking at a piece of art.
Eisner Chapter 3&4:
Chapter 3, aptly named, teaching the visual arts, is exactly how it sounds. In a somewhat repetitive nature, Eisner goes into this chapter talking about what affects a students time in the art room. The curriculum, and how that curriculum is taught. A great quote that is found on page 48 could sum up the chapter "Wonderful plans can be scuttled by weak teaching. Conversely, good teaching has no virtue if the content students engage in is without value: if the ideas or skills being taught are not worth teaching, they are not worth teaching well." It is our job as educators to engage the students in what they are learning, while still TEACHING them something. Now, I know it is asking a lot to try to get a student to care about their school work, but putting that meaning into the artwork is what is going to hook them, and keep them engaged. The next part of the chapter is facilitating this learning and scaffolding it to becoming wonderful pieces of art. Materials, instructions, play, and exemplars have to be utilized for the purpose of the art to come out. Guiding them in the beginning of the unit, follow-up, talking with the artist constructively about their work, artist works, all help in this task. Chapter 4, What the arts teach and how it shows, to me can be summed up rather quickly. (Mostly because I feel I am rambling) I nuts and bolts of this chapter is learning to put meaning into the work through imagination and content that is expressive and personally meaningful, interpreting their own, and others' work, criticism, and being able to talk about pieces of art is what needs to taught in a successful art class. How it shows? Through the students' work, of course. A teacher can determine very quickly, even after the first day whether the students are grasping the idea. That is why discussions are needed, why in-progress critiques are useful, and why being able to talk to students on an advanced level about their artwork is so important. You are not going to get meaningful work from students if you cannot have a discussion with them about what they are thinking.
BARRETT
The ENTIRE time I was reading the articles from Barrett I was thinking about the VTS we did with Mary Franco my first semester at Mizzou. This article goes hand in hand with teaching students how to interpret art through VTS. The student are asked those three questions.. What's going on in the piece? What do you see that makes you say that? What else can we find? The article goes along withall of the rules, looking at what in in the piece, not who made it, not the name, not looking at an artist statement. Previously I stated how important it is to remember that everyone interprets art differently and gets a different meaning from it, this is why we need to teach students to not just look at art and say "oh that's pretty" but get to the deeper meaning.
Imagination First
First of all, I am loving this book so far. It has great ideas that can be used inside of classrooms! The one I chose to concentrate on was the "Play Telephone" chapter. This describes the way meaning gets lost in translation. One way I could see using this in my classroom is first by playing that game we all used to play in grade school. The students all lined up in a circle the teacher whispers in a students ear and we all pass it along to the next person. What starts as a coherent phrase ends up being a jumbles up mess. I think what could be led into is a discussion on meaning in art. Is the meaning on what we started with always what we end up with? It that a bad thing? Is the journey moving from one meaning to another more exciting than a clear concise arrow to the meaning?
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