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Aesthetics in the Classroom: The Power of Visual Culture

image from http://campestre.edu.glogster.com/visual-culture/

Visual culture - it's a topic that I am really interested in.  I can't say I'm thoroughly informed about it from an art education standpoint, but it is a topic that I want to delve into more deeply.  I'm currently in an art education graduate degree program.  My professor and I are having a lively debate about this topic, looking at the pros and cons of this subject.  Visual culture is a small part of our study of curriculum and instruction this semester, and after reading about it yesterday, I find my inquisitive juices flowing - where do I REALLY stand about this topic?  One of my texts, Rethinking Curriculum in Art by Marilyn Stewart and Sydney R. Walker (2005, Davis Publications) says when delineating between fine art and visual culture... 

"Purpose matters.  In general, consumer and material culture is created for purposes of commerce and entertainment.  Artworks are generally created for more substantive expressive purposes."

One point I am making to my professor is that these lines between visual culture and fine art are becoming more blurred in contemporary art.  Because of this blurring, I am having some issues with visual culture being incorporated into my students' art projects as well.  I'll save that story for another time, but this post is an entry point for me into this controversial subject.  I welcome your comments and feedback about my observations.

Artist of the Day - this is a video warm-up in my classes, I show my students short (3-5 min.) videos about contemporary artists and art making.  Sometimes I will have a theme for the week, other times it's a potpourri of artistic expression.  I put together a selection of diverse videos recently and I asked my students to vote on a paper ballot for the artist they liked the best.  Here was the lineup for the week (it was a 4 day week...) in the order I presented them:

Thijme Termaat - I Paint - a stop motion animation video of this young Dutch painter - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozc6t4KwEko (3:11 minutes - 868,913 views)

Timothy Allen - an audio slideshow of this photographer's work for a BBC show, Human Planet - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12618167 (7:28 minutes - # of views not available)

Jennifer Maestre - a video about this sculptor's work made from sections of sharpened pencils - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-ynv59AJqs (2:51 minutes - 3,936 views)

Rymdreglage - 8-bit trip - another stop motion animation video using legos to recreate scenes from video games - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsWFFuYZYI 

(3:50 minutes - 11,554,184 views)

I asked them several questions about this lineup of videos.  I see approximately 170 9th and 10th graders daily.  My survey methods I'm sure wouldn't measure up to proper research standards, but I do find I get an accurate snapshot of what my students are thinking and feeling about art.

Which Artist of the Day was your favorite?  In order of preference:

• Rymdreglage's 8 Bit Trip - 56%
• Thijme Termaat - 21%
• Jennifer Maestre - 14%
• Timothy Allen - 9%

Do you think comparing artists that are really different from each other is a good thing or a bad thing?

• It's a good thing - 65% vs. it's a bad thing - 35%

Do you think people take the art of painters and sculptors more seriously than photographers?

• Yes - 69% vs. No - 31%

Do you think people take art made out of toys and colored pencils less seriously than bronze or stone?

• Yes - 40% vs. No 60%

Looking back on my wording, I realize in the last two questions I asked them what "people" think, not what they thought.  I obviously need to study how to write survey questions to get the most accurate responses.  But their responses still speak very loudly about our young art viewers.

1. They overwhelmingly selected the video that has a strong link to their culture through video games, though many of the video icons predated their generation.  Visual culture, in this instance, carries a tremendous amount of weight when it comes to their aesthetics.  Certainly, the sound tracks to these videos also contribute to their selections, but in this case the sound track reinforces the video game preferences.  And, the fact that this video has been viewed over 11 million times is nothing to sneeze at!  This is an astounding number of views.  (I just googled "videos with the most views on youtube" - they number in the hundreds of millions.  Interesting.)
2. Since I made a random selection of videos (before I came up with the questionnaire), I was interested in knowing what they thought of choosing a favorite when I was offering apples to oranges.  They had many comments about this, but essentially said it was good seeing a lot of different art; they were not as concerned that the comparisons be amongst similar art methods or styles.
3. Fine art photography continues to struggle for fine art respect, which is interesting and personally disappointing to me.  Their common comment was that painters and sculptors "made" their art, while photographers just took a picture.  I am surprised that they can't see the tremendous amount of effort that took place looking at this particular body of work by Timothy Allen.  At times I think their thinking is just skimming the surface, no matter how hard I try to foster deeper thought.
4. Then here is another surprise!  60% think people don't take art made of toys less seriously than work made of bronze or stone.  Wow!  Here they thought it didn't matter about the medium, but about the effort that went into it, which I suppose correlates to their thinking that photography requires less effort than painting or sculpting.  

Perhaps the order of preference does have some deeper meaning when it's viewed through the lens of visual culture.  Timothy Allen's work, though stunning, documents other cultures that are remote from our American student's experience.  The toys, video culture, painting and even pencils are things they have more tangible experience with.  And even though Mr. Allen narrates his work in the slide presentation, it is not enough to reach our students.  

This is from my reading this weekend from Marilyn G. Stewart and Sydney R. Walker's Rethinking Curriculum in Art, (2005 Davis Publications) pages 124-126:

Kevin Tavin and other art educators contend that artworks alone are not sufficient to develop students' understandings of contemporary culture.  Tavin notes how 'numerous postmodern theories describe a new social order in which visual representations help mold and regulate social relationships, politics, race, gender, sexuality, and class'.  Without the inclusion of visual representations beyond traditional fine art forms, art students would not be fully equipped to understand the contemporary world in terms of social relationships, politics, race, gender, sexuality, and class - all aspects of cultural understanding.  Obviously, whether to draw on visual culture in choosing art content is a decision that will be made at the local level and will vary a great deal.  Tavin notes that 'while art educators place art from the museum realm at the center of their curriculum, their students are piecing together their expectations and dreams in and through popular culture'  He thus strongly supports the view that popular culture, as a major influence in the formation of values and beliefs, should be at the heart of students' experiences in art education.

I agree with Tavin.  I have experimented with including videos featuring art and artists from the canon, but my students are not nearly engaged or interested in the work.  As I have played around with Artist of the Day, I have noticed they prefer art and artists that are on the frontier of contemporary art making, and some of those incorporate visual culture in a big way.  They respond to imagery related to their culture, and why wouldn't they?  The challenge for me, as a former AP Art History instructor, is how to blend the past with the present.  I haven't resolved this dilemma just yet, but do think I can find some solutions.  If you, anonymous reader, have some insight into this topic, I would be interested in your views.  

Aesthetics in the Classroom - The Power of Animation

Sunrise by the Ocean, Vladimir Kush, 21" x 25"

I just discovered Vladimir Kush, Russian surrealist painter.  The artist explains this painting's meaning on his website:

The egg symbolizes the rising Sun and the beginning of life. In many myths about the creation of the world, a cosmic egg is laid by a giant bird in a formless, ancient ocean. The egg splits into two and the sky and the earth appear from the halves of it, while the sun is seen in the yolk. You can see in the picture that the newborn Sun still hasn't taken its final shape yet. Shreds of primary matter continue to stream from the burning sphere rising over the ocean. According to Polynesian myth, the Hawaiian Islands were born from such an egg.

His work is evocative and interesting - to my thinking, he crosses the mental games and optical illusions of Magritte, with the virtuosity of Dali.  His website says his works are oil on canvas, watercolors, etchings and drawings - he is very skillful.  I am delighted to have stumbled upon him - which is exactly how I found him - through StumbleUpon.  There are many videos of his work on YouTube, so I sorted through and found one I wanted to show my art students for Artist of the Day.  I thought they would enjoy his clever work, and it would give me an opportunity to talk to them about divergent thinking.  Kush takes simple ideas and blends them together into intriguing paintings.

Fauna in La Mancha, Vladimir Kush, 30.5" X 43"

The first video of his work that I showed my students was great - they were engaged and interested in seeing his art.  When I went back to the search page, I noticed another video:  Vladimir Kush Metaphorical Voyage Trailer.  Hmmmm....let's check it out (can't get too much of a good thing!).  Wow!  This video was super cool - his static paintings were transformed into moving images through animation!  (This 30 minute DVD is available through Amazon - I ordered one today!)  I thought this would be interesting to show my students as well, so I showed this video the next day, making sure to point out to them that these were many of the same paintings they had seen in the first video, but now they were shown as animations.  The handout I gave to them went like this:

How Does Animation Change an Artwork?

We saw 2 videos about Vladimir Kush's surrealistic painting.  One video showed his paintings as a static (or still) images - the other video showed his paintings as animated images.  His own art studio produced the animation video (it's not someone else's work).

• Which do you like best - the static images or the animated images?  Why?
• Why do you think he made this video animating his own paintings?
• Do you have any ideas about how he did this - what kind of software he might have used?

I was curious to see how many of the students preferred the animated version, and it was an overwhelming majority!  80% of the responses I got preferred the animated video!  I wasn't too surprised about that preference, but I was surprised at the percentage.  What were their reasons?  Here are a few of their responses:

Which do you like best & why?  Animated (80%) - it had more drama, made the images look more real, brings life to the painting, is more interesting and gives movement to the art, video gave more expression, it was more like a movie, it draws my attention, it looks like a recorded dream, it's magical, it felt like we were actually going deep inside the artwork, more imagination, the animated video gives more insight into what the artwork means.

Static (20% overall) (Note:  39% of my Honors Art 2 students preferred the static images.  I consider this class to have a higher percentage of serious art students.  What might that statistic imply?) - the animated video trivialized the art work, you have a better chance seeing the artwork in the static image video, it had a more calming effect, the movement distracted me from the art work, you could take your time looking and them and understanding them. 

Why do you think he made this video as an animation? - to bring his ideas to life, so people could understand his work better, to show people how realistic his paintings are, to entertain the viewer, to add more excitement to his work, so his work would appeal to a broader audience (video set up like a movie trailer), to see what goes on in his (the artist's) mind, so he can bring his surrealism to life like a movie, his paintings could be used in a video game.

Interesting!  I am beginning to understand the power of animation!  As the quality of animation becomes more realistic (think about all of the 3D movies that have come out lately!), it appears that the large majority of the general public, at least in this informal sampling of 14-16 yr. olds, prefer more dynamic imagery.  I know when I select something for Artist of the Day, it HAS to be a video, not a static website!  As I started playing around with my class opening Artist of the Day activity last year, I would sometimes include a website because I couldn't find a video, but I thought the art was cool so I'd show them the website.  Ho hum, went my students!  It was a dramatic difference when I showed a video - 90% or more of the class would be engaged in the video, so I moved into video only selections.

The last question I threw in because I wanted to get them thinking about technology and see what they would come up with as far as the tools he used to animate his paintings.  I, myself, am clueless, but am very interested in finding out more about how he did that to his art.  Here are their guesses:

Do you have any ideas about how he did this - what kind of software he might have used? - some kind of "flash" application, Adobe Flash, IDK (for those not with current truncation of the English language, that means I don't know ;-), Photoshop, Autodesk the engineering design software, Sony Vegas, iPad software, Windows 7, Adobe Premier 10.

The surrealists began an interesting investigation of what reality is to our conscious and subconscious minds.  It's exciting to see contemporary artists continuing the dialogue.  And, as we move into realms of hyper-reality and virtual reality, the conversation becomes even more interesting.  Why are we more interested in the animation versus the static?  What is your opinion of the question?  Where do you think this is leading us?  

Descent to the Mediterranean, Vladimir Kush, 39" x 23.5"

STEM to STEAM - Adding the Arts to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

New stem to steam presentation

View more presentations from tagartteacher.

Video links that may not work in slide 3 of uploaded presentation:
Sir Ken Robinson's video - RSA Animate Changing Education Paradigms

Nick Okafor from the School for the Talented and Gifted in Dallas ISD coordinated a STEM to STEAM Festival last Saturday bringing students, parents and members of the community together to discuss the importance of adding the Arts to a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum.  You can visit Nick's STEAM Through Education website here.

Nick asked me to make a presentation about the importance of the Arts in education as well as strategies to incorporate the arts into STEM curriculum.  Attached is my presentation.  I am grateful to Nick for inviting me as I am learning more about it myself.  Plano ISD is set open a STEAM Academy fall of 2013 and I have a lot of interest in it.  Not just because it's in my school district, but also because I think this is one of the most exciting times to be in education.

There is a strong movement across our country to change the way we teach our children.  Our students want their education to be relevant, collaborative, include the technology that rests in their hands, and be more student-directed.   Fortunately the Arts do all of that and much more!  Please join me in the rethinking of our children's education.  Find out what's going on in your community and support the efforts of your schools in changing education to meet the needs of our students in the 21st century!

A Letter to my Students

Dear Art Students,

First, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for participating in the VASE competition this last weekend.  Making that kind of commitment to your work is really admirable!  It was a cold, rainy day and I know that alarm came really early!  But we went and had a great experience!

It's one thing to talk about your art in our classroom, but quite another to do with someone you've never met!  I know it can make you feel nervous - I was nervous for all of you!  I believe we did everything to get ready for the experience - matte and pack all of your work, get all of those darn papers filled out and turned in, take pictures of the art and practice the interview in class!  I hope you felt we did all that we could to prepare you for the event (especially the first timers!).

I hope we can have conversations looking back on the experience.  Let's look at the evaluation forms and see what comments were made about your pieces.  Some of the evaluations I agree with, some I do not.  This is really very typical for competitive art events.  I've been putting my work in art competitions for many, many years, and I still can be surprised (happy or frustrated!) by a judge's opinion!  And, I have been a judge in many different kinds of competitions, so I've also looked at the work from their perspective.  Try to think back on times in our class when we didn't agree on art!  Often when I've shown the Artist of the Day videos, some people will like it and some won't.  And so it goes with judges' opinions.  In the end, it's helpful if you can be open to what they are saying, but you have to take it with a grain of salt.

Sometimes in these competitive events we lose sight of what's really important about participating.  Let me tell you what I think the great advantages of showing your work are:

• It propels you to do work and to get it ready for competition.  There is an energy about that and it can be very positive and fulfilling.  (Sometimes it can be very frustrating and exhausting to meet those deadlines too!)
• I believe you strive to do your very best work when you enter competitions.  I've seen so much growth in all of you, and I am super proud of the hard work you have put in making your art.  
• You see other artists' in the process, and how fun is that!  So many ways to express yourself - I never tire of seeing what other people think of doing.
• And from all of that, you grow as an artist.  The more you do, the more seasoned you become.  I've been entering contests for over 30 years, so you would think I'd be used to them!  But I feel just like you - excited, anxious, nervous, joyful and frustrated.  
• The judges' opinions are just that - opinions, not "truth".  We can be open to hearing what they have to say, but in the end you have to check in with your own truth about the work.  

So I wanted to celebrate your fantastic efforts by showcasing each VASE entry here in a special online exhibit of its own.  Here are all of your pieces (in alphabetic order by artist).  Hats off to all of you!  I am incredibly proud of the risks you took, the problems you overcame and the beauty you discovered.  Let's celebrate the accomplishments you achieved!  

Yours truly,

Ms. Miller

Nazia Ahmed - Intersections

Cardboard sculpture

Jordan Anwer - Big Idea

Mixed media

Jedidiah Berhanu - Broken Yet Bold

Colored pencil

Jedidiah Berhanu - Climb

Needlefelting

Alec Bob - Pop Art

Cardboard sculpture

Amber Brown - 524

Mixed media

Soneri Chaturvedi - Birds of a Feather

Colored pencil

Soneri Chaturvedi - Cough Syrup

Mixed media

Sahiti Cherukuri - The Point of Speech

Colored pencil

Jennifer Chhoa - Pish Posh

Mixed media

Mandy Cho - Don't Lose Track of What Matters

Mixed media

Mandy Cho - In the Depths

Needlefelting

Ryan Desmond - Mr. Mogu's Insta-serrating Servicer

Paper & cloth mache, mixed media

Tara Dunlap - Consumed by Fire

Needlefelting

Meghan Duong - Masquerade

Paper and cloth mache, mixed media

Grace Hseu - The Night Sky

Cardboard sculpture

Maria Lopez - Beaucoup De Couleurs

Colored pencil

Maria Lopez - Fashion Statement

Needlefelting

Felipe Ramos - In the Shadows

Marker

Brenda Segura - New Ending

Mixed media

Brenda Segura - Squared Belief

Marker

Hanna Sirak - The Little Things

Mixed media

Artist of the Week - Jean Paul Gaultier

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:  From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art closes February 12, 2012

GO SEE IT!!!!

I just have to make a post about this exhibit.  It is just spectacular!  The way the show is hung is amazing and so perfect for the incredible fashion in the exhibit.  When you step into the first gallery, there is a virtually animated image of Jean Paul along with the other mannequins.  It is an eery virtual presence, but I thought it was just marvelous and mesmerizing.  I was fascinated with this technological aspect of the exhibit.  

As we wandered through the show, I noticed the conversations the viewers were having about the show.  They were animated!  People that were next to us, who we didn't know, were striking up conversations about the work they saw.  I've never really seen so many people talking and interacting with the work quite like this show.  I think perhaps it's because we all wear clothing and can relate to what we see (either thinking we could or couldn't wear a particular fashion statement).  I really loved seeing so many people marveling at the time, effort and money that was put into each piece.   Watch the video below to get a tiny glimpse of the exhibit.

As a textile artist, I sewed a lot of my clothes in junior high and high school.  During my weaving career, I had a line of handwoven clothing I sold, though I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I've always loved fashion and as I came to the end of the exhibit (for my second time), I said to my husband, "I just don't push the fashion envelope like I used to!"  It seriously makes me want to play (though my closet needs some new pieces to play with!) more with my clothing.  We'll see.  I suppose I marvel at how much fun he has had as well as how fearless he is in his art.  As an art teacher, I just love this exhibit of divergent thinking!  I am always encouraging my students to think more divergently - his divergent thinking is to the power of 10!!!   A great inspiration, Jean Paul absolutely rocks the catwalk!