Investigating Materials and Ideas

Teachers who orchestrate thoughtful investigations of materials help students develop a repertoire of ideas about materials and expertise in using artistic media and processes. ~ Karen Lee Carroll

Exploration + Wide range of processes + 2D and 3D materials = increased development of ideas and expression for all!

Carroll tells us that experimentation with materials permits students the opportunity to explore the limits and abilities of that material.  Experiences, which challenge students to master the use of materials, foster problem solving and lead to greater degrees of exploration. Ideas arise from this exploration. As students gain experience with the material, the process, and the ideas for it’s use, problems presented should become more complex. Skills can be further developed and built upon. Lessons should engage, invite growth, and a development of mastery and voice.

The author provides several specific strategies for the investigation of materials and ideas. A sampling of these include:

Explorations of a theme or subject matter in different media, having students reflect upon the visual qualities and ideas for use of the media. (Munday)

Encourage students to collect and group objects, and have them explain the groupings. ( London)

Organize art material by specific places providing opportunities for exploration. (Flynn)

Test the limits of exploring a single medium or material with different grade levels or groups. Exhibit all of the works, showing the range of possibilities. (InSEA presentation)

Now that we’re to the nitty-gritty art making section of Carroll’s book I found myself tearing through the pages. I could not read them fast enough. I felt elated affirmation when I encountered practices, which I already employ. Woo! Hoo! I do – do some things right!!! I identified areas ripe for improvement in my teaching. I am excited to implement change and look forward to the formation of Elegant Problems.

The specific strategies for investigations of supplies and materials offer fantastic suggestions, I plan to test the limits of a single medium, perhaps clay or paint, with different grade levels of students and exhibit the possibilities. 

I wish my room were large enough and class sizes small enough to allow for the collection, and subsequent storage of, objects. Likewise for the suggestion to offer different supplies to be organized by table or area. In order for this to work I would have to assign different supplies to different tables, there’s simply not enough space in my room to allow for much movement.

Here’s a little snippet I’ve lifted from the ‘About Me’ section of this blog:

An art teacher to grades K-6, and sometimes artist myself, I am continually redefining what I enjoy creating and have come to terms with the fact that oftentimes I prefer the acquisition of needed supplies to the actual process of creating. Hmmm, is it any doubt that I selected the Investigation of Materials and Ideas for my reflection? This week I’ve heard much discussion centering on ‘academic crushes’. My own crush lies in an obsession with materials. I obtain them through catalogs, websites, thrift shops, and trash cans. I organize them into groups by type, color, and size. I hesitate to use them because then I’ll no longer have them. I don’t qualify for hoarder status yet, but sometimes I think it’s a sickness.  ;-) Perhaps as JooYoung suggested in her blog, I too, could benefit from exploring the suggestions in this book.

Kiki Smith~Art is a Way to Think

   

Annunciation

Alice II

Search

Rationale and Goals

It is important for students to understand that art can tell stories. The goal of this lesson is for elementary students to gain a deeper understanding of between the art they create and the story it tells. They will gain a deeper understanding of body language, and understand the connection between their body language and that of those around them.

Enduring Big Idea

People can make art to share feelings and tell stories. Students will examine selected examples of Kiki Smith’s work and identify the feelings / moods portrayed via the body language of the subjects.

They will create a paper-mache sculpture of a person which expresses a feeling or mood.

Essential Questions

What is body language? How do different emotions look? How does it feel to be happy, sad, afraid, mad, etc.? How does your body language impact the way others feel? How could you express feeling in a sculpture?

Knowledge Base and Key Concepts

Kiki Smith is a contemporary American artist who has created a diversity of narrative subjects. Students will know that art can be made to show feelings and to tell stories. Students will know that, as Smith says, “Art is a way to think.”

Objectives

The student will be able to:

Describe how art communicates thinking. Describe the ways that artists visually convey feelings. Create a figural sculpture, which conveys a feeling or emotion.

Though many of Kiki Smith's images are not appropriate for the bulk of my students, I felt that her history would pique the curiosity of my older students, grade 5-6. Smith describes her family as being like the Adam's Family, that they lived in a huge old house which contained all of the clothing of her deceased grandparents, and family relics such as teeth and a death mask of her grandmother. She says that other children thought that she and her twin sister were odd, that people accused them of being witches. She's a little kooky, a little spooky, and very cool, (What's not to love about that?)

 I liked the idea of exploring body language and felt that it would offer opportunities for the simultaneous development of different representational skills - working from observation, expanding  vocabulary for visual form, tapping the narrative impulse.

Developing a Repertoire of Skills for Visual Perception and Artistic Response

Tapping the Narrative Impulse

“…developing a visual vocabulary for story telling, exploring narrative formats, and pursuing different ways of generating stories provide substantial learning in art while serving, at the same time, a very personal and human need.” ~Karen Lee Carroll

Carroll tells us that the narratives of everyday life lead into opportunities for students to “reflect upon and find meaning in their experiences.” Memorable events, observations, themes, identities, and experiences all provide opportunities for the development of visual stories. Other art forms, works of art, and stories of all types are ripe for cultivating visual storytelling.

The visual narrative vocabulary can be developed in many ways:

as required to illustrate key components of the story such as time of day, weather, the creation of character and setting.

Incrementally as students develop the need, in manipulation of material / problem solving, and in response to the need for a greater degree of complexity in regard to sophistication and content.

“Different visual forms accommodate story in different ways.” The author references sequential story – books, scrolls, storyboard, cartoons and animation. Examples of other forms such as quilts and collages offer the story elements as a whole. Single forms can serve as prompts for stories. Contemporary media provides even further opportunities for narrative.

Carroll places words and images in a symbiotic relationship, each feeding and enriching the other.

The following event took place in my art room this past year. I had little to do with the way this story unfolds, but consider myself privileged just to have been an observer:

     Second grade students were completing a project which had stretched over the course of several class periods, as they finished I allowed them to select a piece of free draw paper. On this day, Xavier finished his work, selected free draw paper, and labored away, head down, pencil in hand. He worked for at least thirty minutes, ignoring the chatter of those around him. At the end of class he presented me the paper. “Mrs. Lamme,” he said, “I’ve written a story.” One side of his paper featured an elaborate drawing of two birds engaged in a speech bubble conversation. The other side of the paper revealed a full-page story complete with a beginning, middle, and end. There was dialog, and the story made sense.  What makes this event so profound is that this particular second grade student had to repeat first grade, had been through a battery of tests, and had developed, to anyone’s knowledge, very little written language skills other than the ability to write his name! Tears came to my eyes as I took receipt of this precious gift. His classroom teacher was dumbfounded and had trouble believing what took place.

It seems that for some reason Xavier had stored these verbal narrative skills somewhere deep inside himself and up until he found a need to use them in illustrating a story completely of his own design, he simply did not use them at all.  It was his choice to tap into the narrative impulse! A perfect illustration of Duncum’s principle of intertextuality and Carroll’s verbal / visual symbiotic relationship! A perfect illustration of the very best day an art teacher can ever hope to have!

Oh, by the way, just in case you were wondering, spurred by his first successful story writing experience, Xavier continues to both write and illustrate. He aspires one day to be an author. Godspeed, my little one!

Jack is Back!

Michael Lamme poses in front of Jack-In-the Box silhouette somewhere on the island of Oahu

I wanted an image with a personal connection for the purpose of analysis by Duncum's seven principles, sure hope a tiny bit of Kahmi hasn't rubbed off on me! I only had access to a small portion of my own images, but felt that this one would work nicely. It does, after all, meet the criteria of 'Cultural and Social' context. Last summer, while vacationing in Oahu, we drove past this Jack in the Box restaurant and our son proclaimed that he must have his picture taken in front of this image.

Let's see how Duncum's principles look...

Power - This image, the Jack in the Box, is owned by the Jack in the Box Corporation. Their power would be influencing people to purchase, not especially good for you, fast food. I would say that despite tossing out a few healthy options, they aren't really concerned with your health, the bottom line is profit.

Ideology- the image itself is abstracted, allowing any viewer to put themselves in Jack's place.(A purposeful omittance!) The ideology and representation work hand-in-hand with this image....just like Duncum says, they are aligned. The body position of the silhouette is one of dominance, AHA! Power comes back into play! 

Seduction- Not as obvious in this image, but I am guessing that the seduction would be in the suggestion of a powerful man. The stereotype involves the fact that Jack is attired in a suit, traditionally, OMG a symbol of power YET again, and success. Will those who dine on Jack in the Box food be powerful? successful? There's also a certain arrogance to this image, captured perfectly in my son's facial expression as he strikes the pose.

The Gaze- I am brought to wonder, when considering Gaze, why this image is purposefully lopped off at the knee? Does the abstraction of which includes just the torso of this powerful masculine image imply  these are the powerful bits? 

Intertextuality / Multimodality - Though I rarely consume fast food, and equally as rarely view TV, previous associations led me to recognize this image as 'Jack in the Box' and recall the slogan 'Jack is back'. I also remember Jack's near slide into failure after the e-coli scare of the 90's. Interesting to see this assertive stance as Jack in the Box struggles to regain the success they once knew.

Visual Culture Art Education Debate

Plenty of Room Left in the Art Bin…

Seven Principals for Visual Culture Education

According to Duncum, current K-12 art curriculum places far too much emphasis on the Elements and Principles of Art. He maintains that they hold importance in the formal qualities of images, but adds that they are inadequate to organize a curriculum which meets the needs of 21^st century students. He offers seven principals as a starting point - Seven new ways of understanding a world of unprecedented imagery.

Power – Key in that it intersects with most of the other principals.

All images:

      make a statement in regard to ideas, values, beliefs.

       serve interest for whom they were created.

       are interpreted.

Corporations produce the bulk of images, they benefit from the formation of status groups, and the images they produce reflect the ideologies of those in power.

Ideology – Referring to ideas, ideals, beliefs, values, and which the author claims are “ground in over time.” Ideology is the way individuals make sense of the world. Images can offer ideologies, which offend, offer support; they can be contradictory and contestable.

Representation – Closely aligned with Ideology and involves what images represent, how the representation occurs, and what is failed to be represented. Body language, the gaze, panning, and camera angle are part of representation.

Seduction – Appeals to our fulfillment of deep seated desires. Duncum says that Ideologies come wrapped in seductive form, making them difficult to resist.

The Gaze – How we look at images and the circumstances in which we look. Individuals bring with them a predisposition to see things in certain ways. Understanding the Gaze brings about an understanding of both self and society.

Intertextuality – All images relate to other cultural texts. Both the image maker and viewer make connections via associations -past and present, and offer opportunities for the exploration of Ideology, Representation, the Gaze, and Multimodality.

Multimodality – No image is purely visual. Word, music, sound, and text anchor meaning.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Paul Duncum,

      Where were you this year when I was locked in a conference room with six other elementary art teachers and the Fine Arts Coordinator, rewriting the art curriculum? It was a dreadfully boring experience: identifying Power Standards, deciding when line, color,____________ (fill in the blank with your choice of Element and / or Principle)would be taught, for how many sessions, what would be assessed, how and when. “Hey” I spoke up, “ We need to base our curriculum on Big Ideas and themes relevant to the lives of our students.” Mr. Duncum, I kid you not, I thought I was at great risk for bodily harm! My colleagues hemmed and hawed…."Too much work, we’ll be tying ourselves to something set in stone, we can’t move away from the elements and principles; the very backbone of art education.” I brought up Visual Literacy, Visual Culture, and technology. It was as if I were speaking a foreign language, one in which they expressed only a polite interest in. They then angled their chairs ever-so-slightly away from me and resumed the painful task. I felt saddened, but there is great power in numbers. The Coordinator offered no support. A retired administrator and former music teacher, he just wanted the job done, as quickly and quietly as possible.

       I feel quite certain that had I been armed with the ammunition of your seven principals I might have spoken-up louder, longer, and less readily accepted defeat!  It will be five years before we rewrite the curriculum, five more years to plan my attack. In the meantime, sir, and this will just be our little secret, I plan to do as I damn well please, my students deserve no less.

Your devoted follower,

S. L. Lamme

Survey of Art Education - Reflection 6/6

Ding-Ding-Ding....in this corner Michelle Marder Kamhi and in the opposing corner Paul Duncum!!! 

According to Michelle Marder Kamhi, art education needs rescued from Visual Culture Studies. Ms. Kamhi defines visual (fine) art as paintings and sculptures as ‘re-creations of reality whose purpose is to concretize ideas and values in an emotionally compelling form’. Kami does not consider modern art, installation art, video art, crafts, and photography art. Furthermore, she argues that the Visual Culture movement has a social / political agenda. Ms. Kamhi believes the influence of Visual Culture studies will ‘further debase the general level of culture, but may extend far beyond the arts themselves.’

The article I read was Visual Culture Isn't Just Visual: Multiliteracy, Multimodality and Meaning 

by Paul Duncum   http://vassarliteracy.pbworks.com/f/Duncum_visual_cultural.pdf

 “There are no exclusively visual sites. All cultural sites that involve imagery include various ratios of other communicative modes and many employ more than vision”.~ Paul Duncum

Duncum presents a strong argument for art teachers to expand from the long advocated, traditional focus of solely the visual, to a more contemporarily relevant focus on visual culture.  He strongly advocates the need for Art Education to include multiliteracy – ‘the making of meaning through the interaction of different communicative modes’ (p253) and mulltimodality –  ‘all cultural sites but especially ones like television, and the internet, include a range of modalities, especially language, images, and sound.’ Giving the examples of watching a TV show with no volume, or viewing a web page with the text blocked out, he emphasizes the importance of importance of these modes working together. He goes on to say that cultural sites such as: magazines, malls, theme parks, packaging, advertising of all forms are all venues which utilize a combination of images, sounds, music and language. Duncum says, they” saturate our cultural landscape, and impact our everyday thoughts and decisions.”(P252)

Duncum asserts that the visual must be acknowledged as a part of communication, and stresses the importance of the dynamic interaction among differing sign systems.  He does not deny that the visual is a unique in it’s communicative code, however goes on to stress that “The visual was never exclusively visual”, (p258) the cultural meaning of a work of art has always depended on the viewer’s prior knowledge, experience, the artifact, and the title of the work.

In conclusion, Duncum proclaims that an education in visual culture, one, which teaches an understanding of multimodal cultural sites, might be the most important subject taught.

My reaction… I am definitely going to have to put my money on Paul Duncum for this match. I agree completely with everything Duncum has to say about Visual Literacy.  The more I learn about Artistic Thinking, technology, and multimodal applications for art the greater need I see for the development of a blended literacies approach to education. Art communicates, whether it is Michelangelo's David, or, to use Ms. Kamhi’s example, Mattel Toys' Barbie and Ken dolls. (The Barbie dolls may be communicating a far more serious message in regard to little girls and body image than David ever did to any man or boy!)

Borrowing a few lines from my closing to last semester’s course, Visual Literacy and Visual Culture, “In this age of continual visual bombardment, one must sift through, interpret and make sense of what is real. The passage (p ix) of the Smith-Shank book, Semiotics And Visual Culture: Sights, Signs, And Significance introduction, is stuck firmly in my mind, if we passively interact with images, we accept the messages without critical examination. Perceptions that grow and develop without conscious attention to content and context, and un-interrogated responses to visual input are dangerous to democracy. If the mission of education is to prepare students for successful lives, I believe Visual Literacy should play a key role in education! 

Reflection and Closure Week 16 Visual Literacy

                                                      

                                                                                                                         http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html

Week 16 Reflection –Sheryl Lamme

Multimedia Composition – ‘Noise Day’ a poem by Shel Silverstein

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I71FKz3RHxk

In my introduction for this course I recall noting that I’ve been accused of being overly detail oriented. As I reflect, this closure is no exception. How could I possibly attempt to summarize this class in 500 words? I enjoy word clouds, such as the one above, and thought that perhaps I could better organize my thoughts with a visual, which utilizes the discussion board text. The more I look at it, the more I realize how much I have learned…. literacy, culture, media, semiotics…I don’t think my word cloud has helped at all!

I feel like I have come a long way, from Week 1, when I didn’t quite understand what visual literacy was, to Week 16 when I’ve just finished posting my ‘comprehensive’ video to YouTube.  Some of the early course readings I had to read over and over, highlighting and outlining. I wondered if I stuck the papers under my pillows if it would hasten the comprehension of van Leeuwen.

Now, I find myself analyzing every nuance of every text I encounter. I look for AND find metaphor everywhere. I’ve mentioned in a post that in the music I listen to, I hear with a ‘new’ ear. I’m in total agreement with Sheryl Crow:

 I've been wondering if all the things I've seen

Were ever real, were ever really happening

In this age of continual visual bombardment, one must sift through, interpret and make sense of what is real. I feel that this course has equipped me with the tools to do that, and of equal importance, pointed me in the direction to do the same for my own students. Participating in the group lessons and viewing the Unit plans of my peers has given me a nice file of ideas for planning future lessons. Implementing my own Visual Literacy unit plan has proven to be relevant and engaging. There’s no better feeling, when teaching, than to gaze out at one’s students and see that ‘Wow, she GETS it!!!” look on their faces.

At a time when many states and school districts fail to recognize the fine arts as core curriculum, the information I have learned in this course has MORE than adequately prepared me to be a strong and articulate advocate of my program. The passage (p ix) of the Smith-Shank introduction, is stuck firmly in my mind, If we passively interact with images, we accept the messages without critical examination. Perceptions that grow and develop without conscious attention to content and context, and un-interrogated responses to visual input are dangerous to democracy. If the mission of education is to prepare students for successful lives, I believe Visual Literacy should play a key role in education!

Do I feel like I’ve mastered anything? Could you categorize looking at everything with a critical eye as something to be mastered? I feel very proficient at that! However, I feel like I‘ve just touched the tip of the iceberg as far as visual literacy. I feel like the process of being visually literate is one that is ongoing and changing as the world around us evolves at a dizzying pace!

(Please stop reading here if you only wanted to read 500 words!)

In closing I leave you with:

Top Ten Things I Learned While Composing my Multimedia Composition:

10. Despite very limited experience, IMovie 11 is incredibly easy to use.

9. Relying on the images of other people to express what you want to say is sometimes difficult.

8. Relying on stock sound clips to express what you want to say is sometimes difficult. (Garage Band is wonderful for creating your own sound clips!)

7. When your laptop gives you that annoying alert buzz and says that the battery power reserve is running low - STOP working and plug it in. Thankfully IMovie automatically saved my many hours worth of work before the screen went black.

6. Working back and forth between a PC desktop and a Mac laptop can be frustrating, especially when you can’t get a file to email and you can’t find one of the gazillion flash drives that you own.

5. A strong ‘visual’ text easily translates to a multimedia composition. (Note to self when creating lesson for my elementary students!) 

4. Multimedia presentation making can be addictive. Packing my husband off to Turkey Camp (where I strongly suspect very little actual turkey hunting takes place), allowed me to work many happy and guilt-free hours on my project.

3. Limitation of IMovie, or maybe just a limitation of the user…There was a place I wanted to stop the ‘Ken Burns’ panning effect, but I could not figure out how to deselect it for just one clip.

2. I wouldn’t say that I have mastered multimodal communication in this project, but working on it provided me with experience and inspiration for future projects, both personal and professional.

1. Now I know how my kindergarteners are capable of destroying a perfectly wonderful painting because they are so engaged in the process of painting. It was hard for me to know when to stop tweaking every little detail!

A Final (This time I promise) Addendum

Cultural Relativity in Action:

A scene from my school last week ~A kindergarten teacher was dropping her students off at the music room, next my room. The music teacher had a sub. As students filed into the room the sub nods at a student and questions the teacher, “Is his eye okay?” The kindergarten teacher stared back questioningly. The substitute teacher repeated her question. Again, the kindergarten teacher stared back, tilting her head in question. The substitute said, “His eye, it’s really pink, is it okay?” The kindergarten teacher burst out laughing, “Sorry, we’ve just been working on our vowels, I couldn’t figure out why you wanted to know if his ‘I’ was okay.”