LTC 8730 Day 3: Read & React

6/5/14

Assignment:

Read:
          Outcome I: Developing a Repertoire of Skills for Visual Perception and Artistic Response in Better Practice in Visual Arts Education by Carroll, K. & Tucker, J. (2007). (PDF: http://www.aems-edu.org/PDFs/Better_Practices_Visual_Arts.pdf)
           Find an article to discuss about this topic.
          *Write topic reflection about your article on your blog.

Choose a contemporary artist from Art:21 Series at pbs.org and be prepared to discuss how the artist could inspire art instruction. *Your written lesson reflection should answer the following questions:
    How will you help students connect the enduring idea (Art:21Theme) to the students’ lives? And other disciplines?
    How will students respond to the artist’s work?
    How will you engage students with exploring, questioning, and problematizing the enduring idea through creating artwork?
    How will you engage your students in presenting their artwork? 

Read & React:

1. Drawing on Imagination, Memory, and Experience
Describes the strategy of revisualization in order to more fully develop images in the mind's eye before working. Discusses ways to help students visualize memories. Encourages using source material to aid in visualizing images for work and better express ideas. To invite students to work unprepared from the imagination and memory results in regression to a previous level of comfort. No new learning takes place, images are hard to generate, and an opportunity to invest in image making at a meaningful level is wasted. However, certain strategies that promote idea generation and image formation greatly improve the odds that an image of consequence will emerge from imagination, memory, experience or some combination thereof.(p68)

2. Tapping the Narrative Impulse
Discusses using storytelling in artwork. Offers methods for encouraging visual storytelling and ways for students to tap into their narratives (Ruopp!); ways to develop a visual vocabulary useful for visual narratives; and how matching media or method to the tone or feel of the story is important to the quality of work. Also points out how moving between symbol systems (writing vs images) can better develop ideas. When students aren't able to express themselves in pictures, try writing and vice versa. Teachers who allow the narrative impulse to fund image making help learners of all ages construct personal meaning while developing a repertoire of representational and expressive skills. (p70)

3. Working from Observation
"Marks on paper record the process of looking." Gives great insight into levels of drawing readiness, offering subject matter appropriate for each grade band. Also gives insight to methods for instruction (Nicolaides and Edwards) that have been beneficial to student student development and sense of efficacy. "Students, K-12, can succeed in drawing from observation provided an instructional method helps them think about what they are drawing, visualize it,…and determine ways to proceed." Teachers who integrate observational drawing into art instruction help learners develop both perceptual and representational skills. The goal of observational drawing should be to further expand and develop a repertoire of drawing strategies useful in depicting a range of ideas. (p74)

4. Developing an Expanded Vocabulary for Visual Form
Elements & Principles = vocabulary of visual qualities and principles of organization. Beliefs about organizing principles and the vocabulary used to describe them have changed over time. Teachers who use both formal and informal approaches to the exploration of visual form build vocabulary and concepts related to art, nature, and systems theory while facilitating deeper thinking about life and art and about visually communicating ideas, thoughts, and feelings. (p78) 

5. Expanding the Repertoire for Visual Perception and Artistic Response
Great info on expanding students' repertoire of skills.

6. Reflecting on Perceiving and Responding Visually

Topic Reflection: Developing a Repertoire of Skills for Visual Perception & Artistic Response

Art:21 Inspired Art Lesson 

• Artist: Gabriel Orozco
  Big Idea: Response (Art:21 Theme - Loss & Desire)
  How do we respond to the world around us? How does that change at given times? How does an individual's perspective & circumstance shape his/her view of his/her surroundings? How do one's surroundings shape his/her point of view? How can we as artists use our surroundings to shape our art making? How do we as artists affect our environment/community through the creation of art? How does art help us understand our surroundings / community?
  How does an artwork's surroundings affect the way it is seen? How does the environment shape the viewer's interpretation of an artwork? How does the way a finished piece is presented alter the message or content of the work?
  
  VTS:
  “Balloon Dog” by Jeff Koons at the Château de Versailles exhibition. (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/royal-heir-says-non-to-koons-exhibition-at-versailles/?_php=true&_&_r=0) (permalink: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/09/11/arts/design/20080911_KOONS_SLIDESHOW_index.html) (Re8a-I, Pr6a-I, Cn11a-II)
  
  Resources: 
  Art:21 Season 2 Episode 2 Loss & Desire - http://www.art21.org/artists/gabriel-orozco?expand=1
  MOMA 2009 Retrospective exhibit website - http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/gabrielorozco/
  
  Orozco resists confinement to a single medium, roaming freely and fluently among drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and painting. From one project to the next, he deliberately blurs the boundaries between the art object and the everyday environment, instead situating his contributions in a place that merges "art" and "reality," whether in exquisite drawings made on airplane boarding passes or in sculptures made from recovered trash. (http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/gabrielorozco/#video)
  
  Before viewing the Art:21 segment about Orozco, ask:
  
  • Think of all the ways photographs are used and displayed. What are the similarities and differences between fine-art photographs and snapshots? Do these “worlds”ever come together? If so, when, where, and how?
  • City streets or the natural landscape are often an inspirational source for artists. What objects and incidents do you remember from a walk you took today? What objects and incidents do you think you overlooked? What held these objects or incidents in your mind?
  
  Have students record their thoughts in a sketchbook and/or post to class discussion board. View the Art:21 video about Orozco.
  After viewing, have students think about and respond to these questions:
  
  • What and where are “in-between spaces”?
  • Many artists combine the perspectives they have about the places where they were born or grew up with the places they move or travel to later in their lives. How does Orozco merge different geographic and cultural influences into his work? How might your experiences shapes your work? (Cn11a-I)
  
  
  “What happens when you don’t have a studio is that you have to be confronted with reality all the time. You have to be on the street, you have to walk around.” Orozco’s Art:21 segment opens as he is taking one of his daily walks. Use a daily walk to explore your familiarity with your immediate surroundings. Document your walk by using a camera, a journal, or other means. Record and post your observations to a class blog, Instagram, or Twitter. Create a collage or installation using the documentation you have collected. Collect meaningful found objects in your environment as you walk. Record your observations of the object in its surroundings; ponder its use and intent in that found space; why was it discarded? (Cr2a-I)
  
  Have students further investigate the work of Gabriel Orozco using the MOMA exhibition website. (Re8a-I) Have students record their responses to the artworks and think about:
  
  • Orozco uses a wide range of media in art-making practices. How does he decide what materials to use for each artwork? How do the chosen materials for a piece affect the process of creating, the viewer’s response, and the environment in which the artwork is displayed? 
  
  Transform a found object. Consider whether the modifications will enhance the intrinsic nature of the object or disguise its original intention or function. Describe the method of abstraction, camouflage, or alteration. How will you present your object? Where will it be displayed? Write a short story about the birth, life, and death of your object.
  
  Create: 
  Teams of students will design and create a work of art intended for a specific space (community, school, or global community) with the intention of changing the space it inhabits. How can a work of art shape the experience of a viewer in a specific space? How can you (the artist) play with materials in order to construct meaning? (Cr2a-II)
  
  
  
  Core Arts Standards -  

Cr2a-I:Engage in making a work of art or design without having a preconceived plan.
Cr2a-II:Through experimentation, practice, and persistence, demonstrate acquisition of skills and knowledge in a chosen art form.

• Enduring Understanding: Artists and designers balance experimentation and safety, freedom and responsibility while developing and creating artworks.
• Essential Question(s): How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error? 

Pr6a-I:Analyze and describe the impact that an exhibition or collection has on personal awareness of social, cultural, or political beliefs and understandings.

• Enduring Understanding: Objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented either by artists, museums, or other venues communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding.
• Essential Question(s):What is an art museum? How does the presenting and sharing of objects, artifacts, and artworks influence and shape ideas, beliefs, and experiences? How do objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented, cultivate appreciation and understanding?

Re8a-I: Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence found in the work and its various contexts.

• Enduring Understanding: People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
• Essential Question(s): What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual art vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art? 

Cn11a-I: Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
Cn11a-II:Compare uses of art in a variety of societal, cultural, and historical contexts and make connections to uses of art in contemporary and local contexts.

• Enduring Understanding: People develop ideas and understandings of society, culture, and history through their interactions with and analysis of art.
• Essential Question(s): How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures? How is art used to impact the views of a society? How does art preserve aspects of life?