The Bullying Project Take Two

After rounding out the last days at New Paltz Middle School, Taylor and I ended up with some stellar final projects from the students.
Again as a reminder from one of my last posts "The Bullying Project" we created a lesson plan based around bullying. We showed videos and collected secrets students had involving bullying. We had high hopes for the projects, students were very motivated and excited to participate in. After reading some of the secrets, things came to a halt and were redirected. We found some secrets students wrote that were a little too sensitive to share to the class. Leading us to turn the project into a more positive light. The next time we came back to the class we had students remember their original secret and create a solution or resolution to the problem. They could also focus on what an ally was.
Within this change, the projects also shifted.
6th grade- Create slogans and images to stop bullying which will be turned into iron-ons for t-shirts. The best in each class will be combined to create a peace sign, printed onto shirts to be sold to the school.

7th grade- Students create a wordle poster adding words that represent allies and what they are. The posters were laminated and placed throughout the school in areas where students thought bullying happens

 

 8th Grade- Students produced creative videos in which they worked in groups or alone to edit to their liking, adding statistics and quotes, music and sound.

I can't show you the videos due to the fact that I can't put these kids pictures up online! You'll just have to take my word for it, they came out great!

Sell That Logo

Taylor and I taught our lesson "Sell That Logo" to the class on the Tuesday before break. I think it went very well. We spent a lot of time prepping for the class, making sure the flow and transitions would be smooth and simple for the class to understand. We had a lot of information that needed to be told to the students, so any time taken for making groups and getting materials would put us behind. As the students entered the room, there was a sign that instructed them to check out our bulletin board.

This allowed the students to come into the classroom and have an idea of what the project would entail. After they checked out the bulletin board, students were handed a post it with a number, they had to sit at the labeled table with their corresponding number. This was a quick and effective way for students to be placed into groups from the get go and saved us 5 minutes!

When students were seated and the class began, Ms. Henshaw and I showed a slide show that had many different logos and advertisements. We had the class comment on logos they knew and why some advertisements would draw you in more than others. We also spoke about recontextualizing symbols. How these signs we normally see in one place are placed somewhere else.

Somehow along the way, we forgot to maximize our slide show and we found some students were distracted from the main point of our presentation. Next time I use this lesson, I will be sure to use the full screen. After speaking about logos, we brought up the topic of teams and if anyone was on a team. We asked what kind and if there were any different teams people could be a part of, what it means to be part of a team and how to have a successful team. After this class conversation, we informed everyone about a design team, and that where they are seated will be their design team. I think students found this an interesting way to group people together, everyone seemed to be smiling when they looked around at who was in their group. In the back of the room we created posters that described the jobs
Graphic Designer: in charge of final image chosen
Editor: in charge of final words or letters chosen
Team Manager: in charge of keeping the team on track
Project Manager: in charge of presenting logo to class
After presenting these jobs and responsibilities, the groups were handed index cards and had to decide who would be in charge of which job. I think we could have left room for questions if the class had any, instead of rushing into the next step. But the class seemed to catch on to what they were asked of. From here, we went into a class demo.  We had all of our materials and slogans cut out and ready for the class to see, saving us time for the students to work.

By simply explaining how we explored through text, color, and shapes, the class quickly saw how they could experiment with their scenarios. We showed a couple more examples that were already created

There was mostly positive feedback about this demo. I found that as a student, often demos were boring and long. Especially if the demo was with a material we know already. So by having everything prepared to simply show experimentation in a couple minutes, students had more time to do the work themselves.
Students were given 15 minutes to sketch, find color combinations, and new slogans for their given scenarios. Ms. Henshaw and I came into class with 8 different scenarios to hand to the class. For example, our demo example was "the company, Gatorade, needs your design team to create a new design for their product. The design will be turned into a decal to be placed on windows all over town. Keep in mind: Old logos and slogans, what colors does Gatorade normally use? Where is it going to be placed?" After giving them out, we figured if there were any issues we would be able to switch them with a new scenario. 
After hearing comments from the class, it seems we rushed the creating process a little too much. In the future the students will be allowed to have a day of brainstorming, a day to create logo, and a day to present final products.
Students were allowed 1 minute each to present their logo as a "work in progress." Most students seemed excited to finish enough of their logo to present to the class. They created interesting shapes and used color to grab your eye. After each group presented, another minute was given to the groupsto fill out "client response sheet" and to comment on the logo as if they were the client and were purchasing the final product.

After reading through the student responses on the "client response sheet," many groups had very useful comments that would have been nice to share with the presenting teams. In the future, I would probably have an in progress review like this, and a final review from the class. Allowing for reviews of what the client would want for their design.

Overall I thought this was a very successful lesson and I am very excited to use it in the classroom when I student teach. I will definitely have more days to work on the project and I think as an extension, the students will be able to use digital formats as well. They can create a full ad for their company including full slogans, phrases, dates, and names.

Video Projects

This was the first time I really dabbled in iMovie. I have worked with Final Cut briefly but I never felt completely comfortable with it. I now learned how to properly adjust and combine videos using iMovie HD and iMovie 9.

For my first project I created a video mash up based on the infectious activity parkour. 
Parkour is the sport of moving, trying to get from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. The Office actually created a spoof about parkour, it's one of my favorite episodes. In my mash up, I took on the "serious" side of parkour, with news casters commenting on the dangers of parkour and how hardcore it can be. I mashed it with classical music to pose the non threatening side of the activity. I play with juxtaposition in the comparison of dangerous free running and classical, fluent music.


        


In my documentary, I created a New Paltz/Scranton mix of the popular show The Office. I created my own introduction and included some of the shows characters as well as some of our classes students and teacher. With a guest appearance by Aaron Knochel, this video comments on Tim Leffens lecture and concepts. Enjoy!

The Bullying Project

Taylor and I are wrapping up our experience at New Paltz middle school with a final project with the classes. We were asked by our teacher to create a project with big idea of bullying. After a couple brainstorming sessions, we had come up with the final idea inspired by postsecret.com. Created by Frank Warren, Post Secret invites people from all over the world to send him postcards anonymously with a secret and image on the face of the card. He continues to scan the card and post the best on his blog. After doing a project similar to this in Art for the Exceptional Child, we decided to create a lesson for the middle schoolers.

In searching for support material, we came across the movie "The Bully Project." This documentary was part of many film festivals and will be released to theaters soon. Check out the movies website here. For those too lazy, here's the trailer.

 

Another video we showed the class, our teacher Mrs. Sturgis came across. She was interested in creating videos with the students as the bully project prior to our post secret idea. This is similar to what she was looking for...

So after a day or two of brainstorming and deciding on the final project, we came to the decision between Taylor, myself, Mrs. Sturgis, and the second art teacher Mrs. Grushaw, that all the students in art would participate in the post secret regardless of their grade. This section "bullying" would be introduced to the students grades 6-8 and every student would create an anonymous secret and place it in a box. We would collect all secrets, filter for inappropriate words/sentences, and type them to help for anonymity. The next day of the lesson students would take someone elses secret and create a post card representing it. These would all be collected and hung around the school so everywhere students go there would be post cards and secrets to see. It would hit students harder because these are REAL secrets from their peers. Here are some of the post secrets we found from the original blog we showed the class. 

 

And here is our teacher example we showed the class. Ours is larger than the students will be. 

"Anytime someone said anything stupid I'd write it on a post-it, put it on the back of my door and laugh about it later."

Again, to expand on what all of us teachers thought for projects it was the decision that each grade would create post cards as the intro to the subject. From there each grade would have their own project to show. For example, the thoughts as of right now are 6th grade- creating lifesize silhouettes to be placed around the school as if bullying was taking place. (ex: in a stair well there could be a silhouette of a boy pushing another boy down the stairs) 7th grade- using Wordle to create posters with words that describe bullying and how they feel. 8th grade- create short films in groups based on situations from the post secret project. A different film will be shown every morning on the announcements for the school to see as bully awareness.

Just after the first day of introducing the topic, students seem excited and interested in the projects. They have voiced their opinions and think its "cool we are doing this so other kids can know what some people think." They were able to share experiences and see that other students in the class related to them, even when they thought they were alone. I can't wait for our next day to work on these with the class. We may be going in an extra day just to see the progress! I think this is something a lot of students could benefit from in other schools. Bullying is a nationwide problem that needs to be addressed. Mrs. Grushaw is even taking ideas from this project to the high school students!

Tim Lefens Lecture

Tim Lefens is the creator of A.R.T (Artistic Realization Technologies).
Author of Flying Colors
a.r.t.lefens@artrealization.org
When Tim realized how much he loved art and that he may lose it, he tried to create a way for those who couldn't move to create art. It simply allows those that struggle moving their limbs to control a laser and decide the outcome of their art.

Tim had multiple theories about art itself and the way people think about life/art as a whole.
Here are some of his theories--
Death Bed Theory- If you only had 4 hours left and were on your "death bed" what painting would you want to see on your wall?
Trunkated Pyramid- There are only so many people who can be ballerinas or astronauts. But, Warhol and Duchant sliced off the top of the pyramid and allowed everyone to become equal on this level of art, "joke art."
Double Funnel- You can't get there by calculating or manipulating. You have to go all the way through a funnel and then shoot out of the second. Lefens didn't realize what he was experiencing until he was staring at the stars and had the realization that he was so small in this vast universe. The further down you go in the funnel, the further out you come the second.
Two Plateaus- One on vast land and 6 feet to second plateau. An artists greatest challenge is to take that leap. Take the leap to the second plateau to find the better place.

The body and spirit cohabitate against their wills. the body belongs for the earth, the spirit for the sky.
He believes the secret to finding real art is by losing yourself and letting go. Somehow get yourself out of the literal world. It took Tim a near death experience to have a vision and realization of the beauty in the world. He explained an instance where he saw the sprinkler as beautiful dropplets of water in slow motion. Similar to paint brush strokes. I love this idea of taking something so fast paced and quick and slowing it down to find the beauty we may miss in our fast paced lives.
If you are aware you are looking at art, that it is framed, you haven't gone far enough. "It's only art if you forget who you are or where you are."

Marcel Duchant (signing a toilet bowl) to Andy Warhol (silk screen of a soup can)- these two artists opened up the "floodgates for mediocre art."

I was fortunate enough to attend Cardinal Hayes last year, 2010, with Art for the Exceptional Child. It was an amazing experience to be able to observe the laser technique at work, much different than simply hearing about it. Students in wheelchairs with severe disabilities are able to create art with the help of a laser and a "tracker." Assistants are the trackers and will ask yes or no questions for the students/artists to respond and create their artwork. Students have the freedom to choose canvas size, brush surface, and color of paint. They are able to control the entire piece, all they need is the hands and functions of the trackers.

Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites

After reading the article Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life by Danah Boyd,  I was able to understand a deeper look into the world of Myspace. As well as looks upon Friendster, Xanga, and Facebook.

Skyler, 18, said to mom, "If you're not on MySpace, you don't exist." These social network sites develop significant cultural resonance among American teens.

I checked out some of the sites launched to attract teens.
Faceparty- a site to meet other teens with similar interests, chat, and gossip specifically in the U.K.
Bebo (Blog early, Blog often)- Users receive a personal profile page where they can post blogs, photos, music, videos, and questionairres to which other users may answer.
Piczo- a photo website builder and community, users can add items such as images, text content, videos, glitters, shout-outs, and profile pages. Took off in the UK

These are all similar sites in which a community is created and teens are lured in by constant entertainment. They can simply log in and "stalk" other users, pictures, and videos they post. 

We were asked in class to expand on the section Network Publics.
Here, public is best defined as "a collection of people who may not all know each other but share 'a common understanding of the world, a shared identity, a claim to inclusiveness, a consensus regarding the collective interest.'"

Boyd goes deeper into the definition to focus on the 4 properties that fundamentally separate unmediated publics form networked publics:
Persistence: This is the fact that information posted online can be replicated, copied, or reproduced. Enabling communication, but also extending the period of existence of any speech created
Searchability: We may not be able to find one another in a town or state, but by a couple of clicks on a keyboard, a person can be found within seconds. Words or things they may have said can be found just as easily
Replicability: This is similar to Sweeney's article about cloning. Anything in the networks public can be replicated/repeated or copied. It can be made over and over or be used again and again by different individuals
Invisible audiences: This can cover parents, community, administrators, anyone who has access to the internet. It is virtually impossible to know all of those who come across our path online. 

Most of this has been brought up in our education. As students we have been informed of what is okay to post online and what "the public" is capable of finding or seeing us post on social network sites. I don't think this article changed any of my concepts of the networked public. I have had an understanding that what is put online is easily replicated and searched by simply typing a name into Google. One of the things I would look out for as a teacher, would be issues that arrise with children. This is an easy way of students to get a hold of one-anothers information. It is an easy way for bullies to key in on a students pictures/life/history. 
In one of our previous readings, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, an interesting game came up. It was called Medieval Space. In this game students would create a Myspace for a medieval character such as Henry the VI or Queen Elizabeth. As an art teacher I would be extremely interested in having students create a Facebook for artists. They would have to research information on the artist and plug in the information to create a profile for the artist chosen. As a follow up, students would need to friend other artists created and leave messages on the others walls as if they were the artist themselves. 
They can create photo albums of the artists work, profile pictures, "like" pages, etc. Because Facebook and social networking is a popular topic for the youth, this should be a topic they enjoy and are able to relate to.  

Glogster

If you enjoyed one of my previous posts about Wordle, you may enjoy this site!
It is a similar site that allows you to create a form of posters. This site is more for text and images. You can add videos, animated images, text, or graphics to enhance your poster. Here is a little example of something I threw together when testing out this site.



Pretty cool, huh? You can change the background and rotate pictures/text however you'd like. Try it out here!

This would be great for classes in a similar way Wordle could be great. If the student is finished with a product they can create a poster for the subject they were working on in their class project. They can submit it to a class hard drive or a class blog so the teacher can see what the student works on. 

Popplet

Popplet is this nifty little site that allows you to create a visual outline of something. I practiced using it for my Narrative project for Technology in the Art Room. I actually really enjoyed this. I am more of a visual person, so being able to add images to my audio project was helpful for me. I was able to visualize the point I was trying to get across by sound (which I was having a difficult time with, might I add). Let me know what you think when you hear my narrative piece!

But all in all, I enjoyed Popplet. I think it is a great colorful, eye grabbing tool to have. You can sort by color, topic, and incorporate images and videos. Check out mine!

Observations Day 3

Today during observations in the New Paltz Middle School, Taylor and I saw our first "A" day. The big project throughout the day was the sixth grade self portrait collages. Each student needed to create a self portrait incorporating multiple images for a person in the center and words that describe their personality as a border. Throughout the day there were three sixth grade classes, Mrs. Sturgis taught the first class and then allowed Taylor and I to take the reigns for the next two periods.
Jumping into the lesson on the spot was not that hard after watching Mrs. Sturgis do it. The classes respected us greatly and acted as they would if Mrs. Sturgis were teaching.
I found this great trick for the cleanup process for this grade while teaching these two classes. Adding a little competition to their day made for a quick cleanup. When the first table was clear and the students at it were sitting quietly, I deemed them first place! After I announced this to the class, they all quickly picked up their pace and rushed back to their seats with quiet mouths! Worked like a charm. For a 5 minute cleanup, all students were in their chairs after just 3 minutes.

Show and Tell

 

Gulp

 

Gulp: The making of

Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends. 

This site can be used in art classes for students that are struggling with the use of text and image. If they can plug in multiple words to wordle, a cloud will be created that selects prominent words. Those that stand out to the student can be the words they choose for a project. 

Or as a teacher, this can be a simple day project if a student finishes with an assignment early. They can choose a topic such as the US Constitution, most common crossword answers, or characteristics of a friend. After the cloud is created, adjusted and finalized, they can print or post the final product to a class blog or add it to a class folder.

Fieldwork Day 1: New Paltz Middle School

All I can remember from Middle School art is unmotivated students, loud noises, and ruined materials. Students that did not want to be in the classroom made it clear to the teacher and other students that they had better things to do. It was extremely disheartening to be in the class and think back about my experiences.

Going into my first day at the New Paltz Middle School I was expecting the worst. I expected crayons to be flying, students to be rubbing glue sticks on each other, and disrespect towards the teacher. To my surprise the classes were well under control and the students enjoyed being there! It was a great turnaround from my experience.

The Middle School runs on an A/B schedule and this Wednesday, my partner, Taylor Henshaw, and I were there for a B day. According to our teacher, Mrs. Sturgis, this was her "crazy" day. She explained to us that for each grade there is a theme the school likes the art teachers to work with. Mrs. Sturgis creates most lessons based on the theme.
On B days there is a second art teacher that shares Mrs. Sturgis's room, she follows the same themes when creating lessons. On A days, the teacher goes to the high school to help out there.

6th grade-identity and exploration
Mrs. Sturgis lesson- We caught the tail end of a technique project "Elements of Art" where the students simply learned and experimented with line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space. 
Second teacher's lesson- Students created a "locker name poster." Each student wrote their name and decorated the piece to be laminated and posted outside their locker as well. When looking around, students created very unique and individual designs. Some were quite interesting! One student had balloons holding up each letter in the sky and another had all the letters of his name stacked on a desk.

7th grade- liberty
Mrs. Sturgis lesson- Students created a "locker word art project." In this project, students picked a word that described a close friend. On an 8x8 piece of paper, students wrote their word and incorporated it into a drawing and collage piece which covered the entire paper. Their final drawing was scanned and copied, each student then used their original and two other drawings for their final locker poster. Students were asked to glue the three pieces to a long black piece of paper which would then be laminated and taped to the outside of the lockers. Some words students used were epic, funny, athletic, and unique.
7th graders will be taking a field trip to see the Statue of Liberty and there they will create sketches and drawings based on their experience there.

8th- pop culture and current art
I found myself mostly interested in the 8th grade lesson. This was one of the first days for the introduction of this new project for the students. In the "Pop Art Project," students will pick someone in popular culture today and through the computer tool paint, they will create a bright colored pop art image. For the intro to this lesson, Mrs. Sturgis showed multiple short videos about 5 artists. I thought this was a great technique because it was not one long movie that students would either love or hate. They had multiple 1-5 minute videos to watch, so if they did not like it they could find information through the second video. The artists she introduced to the students were Andy Warhol, Wayne Thiebaud, Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Harring, and The Art Guys. After showing the videos she handed out a worksheet in which the students needed to fill out three pieces of information they learned from the videos.
 

Wayne Theibaud

 

Roy Lichtenstein

Overall it was an enjoyable first day and I can't wait for next week!

Le Cadavre Exquis

We Make Money Not Art

After searching through the site a little bit, I discovered the exquisite corpse game taken to the next level! Many of us have played this game as children or read about it in class. We have introduced the idea of creating sculptures based off the final product, adding new materials and creating a collage, and now Brendan Oliver and Brendan Randall have reinterpreted the game to create Le Cadavre Exquis.
Members of the public are invited to record a short stop-frame animation as a response piece to a previously recorded submission. The piece is uploaded online within minutes and textual narrative is then created by online participants through a narrative suggestion feature. 




Nottingham Contemporary 1st September 2011, 13:50:46

As for response from the audience, "Some people have been reflective, a few declined but the overwhelming majority have been excited and more than happy to be involved in something creative and user-generate."



Nottingham Contemporary 4th September 2011, 14:17:18

This interactive piece follows the new media literacy of performance (the ability to adopt the alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery). By having the audience dress up in costumes and react to previous videos, they create the stop motion clip by improvising and reacting to what they see.
Check out my post about Participatory Culture for more information about all of the new media literacies!

Participatory Culture

This weeks reading was Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. "According to Pew Internet and American Life project, more than 1/2  of all teens have created media content. 1/3rd of teens who have used the internet have shared content they produced."
Emphasized in the reading is a participatory culture. By these teens being involved in the culture, they are in a culture with "relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one's creations."

"New literacies" are the way students will be learning and creating. Also the way we will be teaching. There are multiple skills involved with the literacies.
Play- capacity to experiment with on'es surroundings as a form of problem solving
Performance- adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation- interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world process
Appropriation- meaningfully sample the remix media content
Multitasking- scan one's environment and shift focus as needed to salient details
Distributed Cognition- interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence- pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment- evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation- follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking- search for synthesize and disseminate information
Negotiation- travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms

             I found myself returning to the concept of play and performance. Though the reading did not specify art related instances, I believe through my experience play and performance and wonderful skills to use to engage students in the subject matter.
             If I look back at my little cousins, they are playing video games, watching movies and television shows that educate them with math, art, and language. In the early stages of learning, children are geared to understand a highly stimulated type of education. I find myself losing interest in an average history book compared to a video with music in the background, multiple images on the screen, constantly changing. I was the same as a child as I am now, but I believe with consistent techniques students would grasp more then they do now.
              If my little cousins begin their education with videos and play to learn, they should be able to grow with more challenging play. As teachers, by bringing play and performance into the classroom we are engaging our students, allowing them to experience rather than lecturing hoping they listen.
            Through Theory and Practice we have learned multiple games to play with students as "warm-ups." This is something I wish I had done when I was a student. I remember warm ups being a power point presentation of a couple slides of an artists work rather than artist trading cards.

            An example I am particularly fond of is the game Medieval Space. This is when students are asked to create online profiles for various historical figures studied int heir classes. Since students are already extremely interested in social networks, why not incorporate that into a lesson? Create a Facebook for Picasso. This will allow for students to research artists and become creative with stories and images. This is definitely something I would be interested in doing with a middle school or high school level class.

Ryan McGinness

Ryan McGinness is an American artist working in Manhattan. "Known for his original extensive vocabulary of graphic drawings which use the visual language of public signage, corporate logos, and contemporary iconography, McGinness creates paintings, sculptures, and environments."

Here is an artist worksheet I created based off his works. He uses very bright colors that I find eye catching!

How many shapes/ objects can you find here? What are they?

What is negative space? How does the artist create negative space?

What symbols are used here?                    What do you think they represent?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you were to represent yourself through symbols, what would you choose?

What makes this an engaging installation?

What is repetition?                                        How does repetition enhance this installation?

Teacher Examples of Surrealist Lesson

Here are two examples of what I would use for my first lesson.
Inspired by the surrealist games, students would begin by playing the sentence game!
This is great for people all ages.
Begin with a group of 4 or more--each person has a pile of papers about 5 or 6 sheets high--the game begins by each player writing a random, descriptive sentence on the first sheet-- pass the pile to your left-- based off the sentence, draw a picture that illustrates what the first player wrote-- place sentence underneath pile-- create sentence based off picture.
And so on and so forth-- when everyone finishes with the last sheet of paper, go around the circle and share! You will get a good laugh from this exercise.

Here are some of the examples from when I played with my group.

(Sorry, you are going to have to tilt your head to read this one!)

After the groups play this warm up game they will have to collaborate to create a final piece. It can be a narrative piece or abstract involving some of the images drawn and words used.

Here are some of the examples I came up with from the warm up games.

 

What words would you add to this drawing?

      

Postmodern Abstract Art Book

After creating the Principles and Elements Panorama Art Book using the given instructions, I have recreated it by incorporating Postmodern Principles into the instructions. 

Postmodern Principles (PMP):
Appropriation, Juxtaposition, Recontextualize, Layering,
Text and Image, Hybridity, Gazing, Representing

Materials:
Magazines
Scissors
Glue sticks
Markers
Colored Pencil


1. Choose a single shape. Make 10 or more of your chosen shape.

2. Make these with variations of size or form. Experiment with the PMP Layering. Layer your shapes and paste down on first panel after discussing the technique of layering.

3. Create emphasis by adding images cut in the shape you chose. Paste to second panel.

4. Create emphasis and contrast by experimenting with text and image. Add text to your images on the same panel. Discuss PMP Interaction of Text and Image, how the text relates to the images, if the words are self explanatory or if more descriptive words are needed.

5. Recontextualize images chosen on next panel. Use markers or colored pencils to put your subject chosen in a different context.

6. Choose one more PMP for the last panel. See if you can incorporate images, shapes, or PMP from the earlier panels to create a sense of unity throughout all panels.

Photoshop Project: Self Portrait

For years I have been accumulating injuries and ailments that have impacted my life in either drastic or mild ways. In this project I attempted to create myself as if my body were x-rayed, allowing the viewer to see the issues beyond the surface. In creating this final image, I have been able to think about the pain I’ve been through. I have decided I would like to go even further and create an image that reflects the positive attributes of myself.

Photoshop Project: Digital Collage

 

Technology has become a window to the world for some individuals. While for others, it has become a trap. Televisions, computers, cellphones, even automatic toilets and doors have crept their way into our lives. Soon enough we will not need to fend for ourselves because the electronics and technology will do it for us. In this image I have depicted the defenseless, engulfed and overwhelmed by technology.

 

Photoshop Project: Magazine Cover

Honey Bunches of Oats: with Cloud Clusters

So what is a cloud cluster you might ask? 

A cloud cluster is also known as a tag cloud, which "offers a collection of pathways to
understand the visual construction of connotation."

 Through the use of Flickr.com, by searching different terms and words (tags), I was able to acquire a collection of images that assisted in the visualization of specific themes of the Big Idea, as described in my previous post.

As I began with my big idea of Facebook and social networking I brainstormed words for the themes based off Facebook and socil networking. Which led me through the ideas of people being connected with one another, how it has become so simple to see what is happening in someones life with the click of a button rather than a phone call. This then lead me to how we can now hold all of that precious information int he palms of our hands. We have access to information through smart phones at any given second. Some people consistently will have them out relating most of their conversation to their phones, addicted in a sense. 

The themes I have expanded on are Connected, Addicted, Conditioned, and Trained

 

 

 

Big Idea: Technology as Communication

Our practice of the internet is a form of communication. Our lives are deeply affected by the way we communicate. If we update our facebook, we are updating our friends on what is happening in our lives. Art can be shared, job opportunities, even just simply a persons thoughts. Twitter allows people to update their status every minute if necessary describing what they are doing throughout the day.

 

For the past couple years, we have seen video games being a highlight of childrens lives. They wanted to spend all their time challenging others or beating the high score. Wii allowed you to create a "Mii" that looked like you. Beyond creating yourself, the gamer was able to communicate with other Wiis and play them as an opponent. Call of Duty allows opponents to talk and taunt, becoming involved in a competitive game.These games were their own community.

Now we see adults and children holding the internet in the palm of their hands with smart phones. Having the ability to fact check a friend or pull up email with the flick of a finger

 

It has become accustom for us to understand how to use a smart phone. You can pull up a plane ticket on it, use coupons, check email, navigate your way around, even use as a tape measure. At this point, many Americans have smart phones. Of those Americans, most have the phone attached to their hip or have their heads buried in them throughout most of the day. We have become trained, addicted, connected to the internet constantly. 

Good things can come from Facebook

Themes

Identity

Views of Reality

Materialism 

Relationships 

Community

Big Ideas and Interpreting Visual Culture

 
Big Ideas
"Big ideas are what can expand student artmaking concerns beyond technical skills, formal choices, and media manipulation to human issues and conceptual concerns. Big ideas can engage students in deeper levels of thinking." As a student in high school, I rarely was challenged to create something deeper than a pretty picture. Day in and day out I would show up to art class and be asked to duplicate a famous drawing or practice a still life from different angles.
     After a semester or two at New Paltz and reading these articles, I find that having a big idea in an art room can lead to works from students that mean more than what you see.  Some of the examples in the readings have given me a better sense of developing questions for big ideas. Criteria for essential questions may include-- distinction and substantial, realistic in terms of time allocated for the unit, and language that is comprehensible to all students. Many activities involve students investigation in artists works.
When thinking about questions to ask students to spark ideas, this site is helpful and informative with essential questions of education!

 Interpreting Visual Culture

Students of all ages are able to interpret art. They are able to investigate art through phrases, designs, and images with proper guidance through the use of linguistic messages, denotations, and connotations. A linguistic message is considered the words actually seen in an image, denotations are what you literally see in a picture, and connotations are what the things and words imply or suggest by what they show and how they show it.

Michael Ray Charles is an African American artist who creates works that refer to the offensive denotations of Blacks constructed in the past.

 

Art teachers interpreted this piece Cut and Paste by Michael Ray Charles and "emotionally identified with the tragic meaning of the artwork."

 

As you can see here, as the viewer you can "cut and paste" the objects onto the paper doll. By choosing an object we are classifying this and stereotyping the character. 

Towards the opposite end of the spectrum, even kindergartners would be able to join in this activity. When cereal boxes are introduced, students are quickly able to identify "adult cereals" and "children cereals." Adult cereals have fruits, flakes, and milk while children cereals have animals, bright colors, and toy images.

 

 Do you know of any other ads that have underlying messages? I found this ad. What audience do you think this is targeted towards?

The Paper Game

Materials:

1. Friends

2. Paper

3.Writing Utensils

Instructions:

Grab a couple friends, about 6 pieces of paper each, and pens for everyone.
Everyone begins by writing a descriptive sentence on the first piece of paper on their pile. The game continues by passing the pile to the friend on the left. After reading the first sentence, the person will draw an image on the second sheet of paper based on what they read. Again, passing the pile along, the next friend will write a sentence based off the picture...and so on and so forth until the pile is finished.



This is a fun game to play with friends or use as a warm up in an art class!
Inspired from the surrealist readings in class, I had the realization this would be a great game for students to get their minds and creativity flowing. It is an easy way to get students talking about each others work. If they think someone created a funny sentence or if someones drawing was spot on! They can compare images and sentences after the game is over and see if anyone drew or wrote the same thing.

After this game students can stay in their groups and work on a collaborative final project. By comparing sentences and drawings created in the game, students can choose favorites or specific details that catch their attention. Together they can create a collage or painting incorporating text and images. This game can come to life in a narrative form or through a well thought out composition.

The Paper game is a combination of Automatic Writing and Chain Games.
"Automatic writing is the most direct of Surrealist techniques." This technique forces you to write down whatever it is you think quickly. No time to second guess yourself.
Chain games can be played by anyone. They are "strange conjunctions, humorous or poetic" that result in an interesting final product.