LTC 8740 - Read & React Day 3

Class: What is Art and what should we be teaching?

9:00am - 11:45am · Lecture

Assignment: 

Read - 

Chapter 3 & 4 Freedman

Transmediation as a Metaphor for New Literacies in Multimedia Classrooms www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/semali2/index.html
Kittleman’s review of Serra’s MOMA Art exhibition www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/arts/design/01serr.html?scp=1&sq=richard+Serra+Man+of+steel&st=nyt

Read & React

 I like how the image of Fine Art in Las Vegas, where "everything is fake" is seemingly odd. It reminds me of our VTS today where the lamps stood out as being oddly 90's modern in a room of classical furniture (and hundreds of dogs amongst interior grass.) I personally envision the artwork of say, Mr. Brainwash fitting in better there. (Mr. Brainwash and his work is featured heavily in the documentary "Exit from the GIft Shop." I HIGHLY recommend it if you haven't seen it. Talk about a great conversation starter about what is art and who are the artists...) p. 50

Watch street artist, Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash share his story and his creative journey as he takes over an abandoned industrial warehouse space in the center of Hollywood, CA before his massive Art Show 2012. 

Exit Through the Gift Shop

The first paragraph of the section on judgment of quality is new information for me. I find that tidbit quite interesting ( bad taste in the mid 19th c. was in the home, where women dominated aesthetic decisions, and good taste was in men's institutions such as museums, academies, and design schools.) What a reversal from today where women are generally considered better at aesthetic decisions in the home (only perhaps bettered by, to follow the stereotypes, gay men) but still not valued as highly perhaps b/c of the reason that women were the decision makers there. p.51

p. 52. I wonder what Lowenthal would have to say about Pop Art and its influences on the art and culture of today...Hmm.

p. 53 - Can we coin a new term? Artiness? I Like to follow u discussions with my students about what is art with what is Good Art? (or what we sometimes like to refer to as Art with a capital A.)

p. 56 - METAPHOR! Vindicated!

p. 68 - "approach visual culture...with an eye towards trying to understand what the artist is trying to "say". Somewhere in here I started thinking about Ai Weiwei and  his new heavy metal video. I can't understand the Chinese it is in, but the visual images are understandable. Or are they? To a certain level yes, but I'm also confounded by some of the metaphorical, symbolic meaning and then of course by not undergoing the experience myself, I am only trying to understand what I can imagine. By viewing his example of visual culture, I can gain a deeper understanding of his interpretation of history. I want to "decode the artist's intentions. understand what was in the artist's mind" so that I can have a better understanding about another part of the world and other facets of human behavior. 

Too Many Thoughts as I keep reading Freedman! I will have to come back to them tomorrow. Sleep must happen tonight...

Transmediation as a Metaphor for New Literacies in Multimedia Classrooms - 

This is a fabulous article about our form of literacy and gives weight to different types of text.  I am thinking I will need to have our district Content Area Literacy teachers (who are getting ready to help train our secondary Fine Arts teachers in Common Core) read this! I can't help but have a split point of view when I read articles like this written by teachers / experts in other disciplines such as ELA. 1) I get a feeling of validation and a little boost, but it is quickly followed by a question of why do we always give those "other" areas more authority? 2) I get a little defensive and territorial and think Dang it! We (arts teachers) are the experts in transmediation! Why does no one listen to us when WE say it is important? Why do we constantly get pushed to the margins? Why are other subjects celebrated when they incorporate non-linguistic representation as a "strategy" and we are patted on the heads and told, "Isn't that nice?" with a saccharine smile? I am infuriated by the lip service and the play nice lectures and the "know your place" attitude. 

Kittleman’s review of Serra’s MOMA Art exhibition - 

I am a fan of Serra's work, having seen quite a few public sculptures in St. Louis. I am stymied at the "compliment" Kimmelman bestows on Serra, "These shapes and experiences are new," - stymied by this being  "about the best" compliment that could be given to any artist. I'm not sure if it is because I disagree with that sentiment in relation to Serra's work or if it is because I disagree with the idea that could possibly be the best compliment an artist could receive (must be the art teacher in me.) 

It is interesting after reading about how to interpret art and why it is important to teach students to interpret visual images, to read an interpretation of art and compare my own interpretations of an artist's body of work. I always find it interesting that in so many art reviews there is such a lack of imagery. Not a single image to invite the reader to make their own interpretations and judgments in this article. Perhaps when it was freshly published it had an accompanying slideshow? I often marvel at how online articles - such as this - disassociate the images from the text. They are separate spaces on the site. 

While reading tonight, I couldn't help but think of a comment from Rusty at lunch. "Print is dead." This idea that we see so many visual images all around us, do we even need text to understand what we are communicating? Can we rely on dialogue and images? I may be paying closer attention to this thought now as I interact with my world.