Story

“Stories are important cognitive events, for they encapsulate, into one compact package, information, knowledge, context, and emotion.”

For the longest time stories were the way to past down information from generation to generation. These stories were meant to describe the working of the world and the follies and successes of men. However with the even increasing rise in literacy stories, and storytelling, have gradually begun to fall by the wayside and have been pushed farther down from view in both to relay information and entertain. However, with the ability to rapidly gather information stories are becoming more and more prevalent in our world and are becoming more openly embraced than before.

Its funny to remember Pink’s interview with Oprah and to see one of the most basic ways we tell a story, “how was your day?” Pink is right when he says we don’t whip out a chart and start showing the percentages of what we do in a pie chart, but rather we explain what we did in a chronological and story like fashion.

To think back on any memory I have each one is in clear detail. Why? Cause I have a story with it that has a beginning, middle, and end even if they get a bit to long winded at times. These stories envelope all of my senses(Which oddly enough fun fact: the sense of smell is one of the best for memory), relay the emotions I was feeling, and envelope the listener into my view.

Here is a shot at my point.

I’m walking up a 45 degree plus angle and every few feet or so I have to stop due to exhaustion. I take full breaths but each stop the breaks are getting longer and longer while the oxygen in air is getting thinner and thinner. The rocks under my feet appear much more uniform in size and look sharper and less weathered than the ones hundreds of feet below. Finally I reach the top gasping for air and just sit down to relax my tired lungs. Though its over 90 degrees at the base of the mountain on the top its easily 20 degrees cooler and windy. There isn’t anything higher around us for several hundred miles and a feeling of being on top of the world starts to take over. Though the air below smells fresh this air feels even cleaner. As the beads of sweat start to stop rolling down my forehead I begin to realize this is the highest my feet have ever taken me. As we break for lunch the crew and I tell jokes and stories and laugh while we our modest lunch that was adequate at best. After a couple of hours that only feels like maybe 30 minutes we begin our decent downwards. A sense of sadness creeps in as I realize that I may never see this vantage point again in my life. As a cloud rushes over us we begin the long way down to continue the rest of our journey.

This was from the 1^st time of climbing Baldy Mountain (10441 ft above sea level) in New Mexico (2^nd highest peak in the state). Reading back I don’t feel like reading it fully gives the experience I felt that day. However I still reached out to, and hopefully, made a connection which is the importance of story. 

Design! A bit of Pink, but mostly relating to my own life experiences

Design!

It’s everywhere! From the little Victoria’s Secret package to how a hospital is laid out it is literally everywhere.

For the longest time I thought of myself more in the realm of designer than artist. Yes, you might wonder, I was still a photographer but the nature of work I was doing was completely Design oriented. My job for a time was being a photographer’s assistant for a company called Gibson Photography out of Northwest Arkansas. My task was to set up flashes, light filters, move furniture, and carry gear. However since I was the assistant and being the lowest on all totem poles I also helped the stylist we would have with moving furniture or ironing/steaming clothes and setting up sets. As proof I did managed to find one shot that I could use from when I was there, It’s funny to note that I am taking the picture so they can all look like they are working mostly since it was going on a social networking site.

When it comes to working for clients it doesn’t get much bigger than working for one of Wal-Mart’s departments and to see how everything works together to get a final image created and all the financing behind it. It was also great experience to work for such large and great client to also understand just how it is to work for one. My boss told me that this job would entail a lot of “hurry up and wait”. Puzzled he elaborated that even though an art director would be there to oversee everything and help give imput he would send it on to someone higher up (generally one of the billions of VP’s Walmart has) and they would have to approve it or make suggestions. At times it could take as much as 3 hours to hear back if it was approved or not. Generally we would try to set up in another location in the studio (or house that was being rented for the time of the shoot) and work on another set up while we waited. If three photographs were taken in a day it was a good day, four was the most I ever had ever been apart of. For the longest time this apparent lack of getting back and approving it quickly was baffling. Then it hit be this is a corporation that is spending more than 5k A DAY (yea its nuts) to get exactly what it wanted right so these images on displays in stores would sell millions of dollars of merchandise.  This is a corporation that is having photos taken in June and July to be shown in store in October and December.

How else did I realize that design is a MAJOR role player in literally everything we see?

The first time I walked into Wal-Mart’s layout center.

The layout center isn’t really that crazy of a building. The largest Supercenters come in around 261,000 square feet and average around 197,000. The layout center is literally just a plan and boring design warehouse at 240,000 square feet. What makes it different is that inside every single type of floor setup could be seen in there if you looked. At the time what caught my eye was the Christmas tree display, followed by a proposed back to school section and everything else you could imagine, in the middle of June. At the time young old me thought it was baffling that so much time and money would be spent on such a simple setup of even back to school stuff. Throughout my time things made more sense. It was about how to engage and draw in a customer to a product and to see if they could find ways to get them to buy other things as well. Throughout my time I learned so much in terms of design and even though I don’t call myself a designer (most days) it’s still very much a part of me. I have several other stories about what I learned about corporate Wal-Mart, design, and signage and if curious I will gladly share more.

Blog #5 Pondering of the Mind

A Mix of Quotes and thoughts from the various readings.

I thought it was quite funny to read about how Freedman explains/enlightens on curriculum. It made me think a lot about my own past and current views on the subject alone. It’s almost purely amazing to think about how much has actually changed within a year. Now granted in that regard I didn’t have a lot to work with in reality since most of my background was either arts and principles or mostly what I learned in college. Regardless the shift has been extremely monumental and its only been one year! It is crazy to wonder what might happen in another year after student teaching, after first year of teaching, and so on. The thoughts of it constantly changing is both good and a bit mind boggling to think at this time. Baby steps it is!

Listening to the Pink’s Interview with Oprah

The first thing that stood out to me was Oprah herself saying that she had initially just thought of design as basically fashion. Though I am no expert on the life of Oprah I was fairly shocked that she had this view. I was fairly certain due to her career and all the other individuals she had met that she would have viewed it more like ourselves. I thought it was good that she did point out that after reading the book that she started to notice the design of everything she owned from the plates, to the cabinets,  to the knobs, and to even the counter tops. I think this short inverter view showed how powerful design is and that even people in higher places are influenced by it and don’t realize it.

Second, I thought that it was interesting for Oprah to acknowledge how powerful story was and that without it she basically would not be successful. It says a lot about how much we rely on story to connect with others and a lack(?) of other ways that we can easily connect with an audience. Side note, when someone asks me how my day was I kinda wanna make a pie chart and show how my day was. I’m curious how they would respond. Confusion? Missing the final details? Or just call me a Smart-aleck and go on.

I thought it was very interesting about how Pink said, or implied, he wasn’t much of a right brained person at all. What stood out most however is when he said he took a five day drawing course and learned how to see. It gave me flash backs of my old drawing professor in my undergrad and how he said he was wanting us to draw what we saw and not what our mind knew or thought was there. It also was something my art history professor would say and during his tests he would put up one slide or two side by side and tell us to literally write down 10 things we saw. It could be something as simple as one was made of wood and the other metal but his point was literally just for us to actually look at and see an image. It was amazing that even such a simple exercise he said that at time it was a struggle for some people to write down 10 comparing or contrasting things they saw.  

Blog #4 A moment to Nerd out after the readings

After reading A new Culture of Learning I felt I really needed to write out the two different sides that were processing all of this. The Art Educator and the Gamer were both chiming in and it quite interesting. I did play World of Warcarft, or WoW as it’s normally called, primarily through the expansions Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm

Fun Reference Chart how players called the game:

World of Warcraft (the original release)= Vanilla

The Burning Crusade= TBC

Wrath of the Lich King= WoTLK

Cataclysm= Cata

Mist of Pandera= MoP

Its might also be a fun place to note that gamer writing lingo can easily be seen from game to game with just unique game words only appearing in certain games.

Anyways the gamer that lurkers with feels the need to give some very brief history on raids and to show that the game has not always been the way the author depicts, on the contrary the level of it required to actually compete some of these raids was even harder.

When WoW started there were 25 man raids, but they weren’t the top end game raids. These belonged to raids that took 40 players… yes 40. However it was impossible to actually beat these 40 man raids even if what the author says about breaking through was (and kinda is) true. You had to beat the 25 man tier 1 raids multiple times before you could access the tier 2 raids and repeat the process all the way to tier 3. Where the book talks about raids is around the start of TBC and it got considerably easier. The reason was more people wanted to be able to access the end game content. The problem had mostly a few real issues

1.       Most guilds were only able to actually take on some of the final raids before TBC and only 2-5 guilds in the entire world were able to beat the final few raids.

2.       Getting enough people to complete some of the lower raids could be hard enough because limited amounts of random gear would drop and there was not enough for even a majority or participates.

3.       Getting people who could always preform at maximum tanking/healing/damage per second (dps) was never easy

4.       The mechanics of the game were just kinda dumb If a warrior had 1 point to few in spirit (at the time did health regen and was/shouldn’t have been important to warriors) there was a possibility that the 1 extra health every so many minutes might cause the raid to fail.

5.       The bosses were just insanely hard. On at least two occasions bosses were actually found to be impossible to beat by humans and had to be patched so they could.

Blizzard ended up hearing the majorities cry and made more and more players easily access end game content. Boss difficulty and access in (TBC), More access and the 10 man raid in WoTLK, and etc.

One the sense of breaking through on a boss battles it wasn’t always never spoken on what went right. Every play had and in game meter that could record DPS, Damage taken, and Amount Healed. Sometimes it was obvious if a certain character wasn’t doing enough damaged based on their DPS and what percentage each of their spells were contributing to that DPS. Others it was a matter of positioning and the getting a few lucky breaks from the random factor not hitting certain players (like a healer). Then it did get easier, because of gear, but also because it did feel do able and losing to that boss again did become frustrating.

It should also be interesting to note that almost every player knows how each class is played but they only master one or two. Even classes that are considered more noobish are respected when a player who could play their class extremely well and weren’t just played due to ease.

As I finish typing this up I realize that I am not really completely sure if I fully answered some of what the book talked about and what I wanted to mention because I got so into my brain that hadn’t been opened in a long while.

At the very least I think there could be something said that the Gamer in me wasn’t really surprised by anything that I read. However the art educator in me appreciated a certain amount of enlightenment to it all.

As I leave I wanted to give any readers a fun little list of some MMORPG boss battles. One of the three WoW ones on here are  famous outside of the game to nonWow players and neither are the ones that were unbeatable. However I think there is something to be said about the difficult of bosses number #3 and #1

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-02-08/top_10_greatest_mmorpg_bosses_of_all_time,1.shtml

Blog #3 Out with the kingdoms and in with the 21st Century

“Out with the currency of the Kingdom!” cries the authors “Denounce the ways of the old nobles and elite! Join by learning and using the true form of literacy, Transmediation!”

Okay so it really wasn’t that dramatic at any point throughout the reading in any way shape or form. However, the message is still pretty clear. Why do we still only teach what the nobles and clergy learned hundreds of years ago when many more types of texts have revealed themselves, or became more apparent, since then? There are good things and bad things I see about this article. I will start off with the bad first. This article was written in 2001 and not a whole lots has changed in some regards since this had been written. “How can there be possibly be good news?!” you might ask. Well, quite simply the wheels are starting actually turn more and more and the need is making itself apparently more obvious. In many ways the authors were right in and in many ways I doubted they even foresaw how saturated students would become in media. Personally I feel it has been fueled by the rapid advancement of the smartphone in terms of becoming cheaper, more available to nonbusiness users, and more reliable. This Google age has only increased our need to help students understand what they are being bombarded by, so they can learn that the image they are seeing might not exactly be nothing more than a means to lure you into something.

I found the Man of Steel article to be quite interesting to think about because of our talks today on what is actually art. It’s funny that the author states that almost 25 years prior it often wasn’t considered art, at least among the “art world”. I think, and people can disagree, it shows that viewers can lag behind an artist work as they have done many times throughout history. In some ways the sad old adage rings true “you won’t be famous until you’re dead”.

It was interesting to about how art history is taught, and it seemed to be mostly everything I have experienced when I have been taught. I always did love my art professor when he taught art history because he would tell what else might be going on as a whole. It was a wonderful reminder to be reminded that certain aspects of modern art started to appear because artist were just starting to look at Japanese wood block prints because Japan was now forced out of isolation.

“We want to decode the artist’s intentions, to understand what was in the artist’s mind” (pg. 68). This seemed like I should have read this sentence yesterday due to the nature of the topic. However, even though I fully understand as a viewer wanting to decode what the creators mind was thinking. It truly is still and should be ment for a viewer.

As a minor off topic thought process I feel the need to type up more of my thoughts on the Neighbors exhibit while I still remember.

I was pondering my own brain as a photographer and thought  “Some of that stuff is beautiful, but is it really legal or does it just cross my own ethical line perhaps?” This led to well the subject matter isn’t in a public place so not legal. Then I thought but it is taken from a private space so really probably has some legal ground. Then I jumped to well even though these images are from large window apartment buildings most of them are probably second level or higher so it wouldn’t actually be that easy to see from a public space so maybe not legal again.

After all this back and forth I decided to actually look up these photographers rights since someone has chimed them during my unit plan when they were suggesting some borderline legal or at least ethical ideas.

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

How true these are I’m not completely sure but it does add another idea in the mix.

Blog #2 Barrett and Seranno A Combo that Never Fails

As I was reading everything this evening, in my lovely, well loved, and old reclining lazy boy chair mind you, I couldn’t help but feel like this all had an air of familiarity to it. In reality I had just left quite a few of these topics in one form or another less than two weeks ago. However everything seemed to have a refreshing feel to it, like lemonade on a hot summers day.

 Much of my research in 8730 revolved around how to get dialogue about students own artwork in a critique or other setting. During that whole time I couldn’t help but feel like it could have a VTS feel about what everything I was reading about but nothing would ever flat out nail down the head completely. Then this wonderful statement appeared before my eyes!

“Interpretations are not so much absolutely right, but more or less reasonable, convincing, enlightening and informative.”

There it was not being tip toed around anymore it actually gave all the frame work of VTS. A reasonable statement that was could be conceivable, shine a light something someone else had missed, and provide information to others. Working with the Boys Writers all last year they exhibited these types of answers, most of the time, and even when they disagreed they were able to see why it was said and where in no ways disrespectful.

As a side note: I still can't find the answer to the question Livek asked me about "the perfect question" in discussions. In many ways I am finding this to be a quest that halfway through these articles I thought would surely be answered..

I couldn’t help but also be highly draw to literally the last section I read the work of Andres Serrano’s Immersion (Piss Christ). It does not help that he is one of my favorite artist but the topic of how people think his work should be treated or has always been almost maddingly intriguing. The responses that were gained were ones I have typically heard, however what was a surprise was how respectful the discussions were with differing views. I think this says a lot about how to have meaningful dialog it has to be a respectful and safe environment with a great facilitator in charge of the conversation.

Other  bits that stuck out and felt like they should be mentioned:

Students learn from observation.

-I wrote something like this in my artist statement/bio for student teaching a few weeks ago as a quote that I believed in and felt was important to write.

Students learn less just because that’s the way it is.

-I feel like this is something that I haven’t truly seen in some ways yet because I feel like at times I have either been underestimating students or literally not knowing what to expect. The thought of them learning less might just be somewhat do to my own lack experience or because I literally don’t know what to expect. Either way it feels hard to see them as learning less. Maybe not something as quickly as we think, but not less. 

Possible Questions:

Does anyone really feel like the really learn less? I can understand maybe not as fast as expected but learning  less seems a bit odd in someways.

How can you deal with people where great offense is taken on an artwork. It seems like the best option is possibly to step away from everything and revist it under cooler times.

Scratching the Surface Blog 1

The thoughts from a tired mind on Eisner, Freedman, and Learning in the Visual age.

Our experience directly shapes another. What a powerful phrase to have to think about (even more so after dealing with a day like today) in the thoughts of life much less art education. How true is it in the purest sense? It feels fairly true when I think about my own life looking back on it. It’s hard to believe that if something slightly different would have happened I would still be exactly where I am today. I don’t mean a difference as drastic like butterfly theory (crush a butterfly in China and a twister happens in Oklahoma) but the principal remains the same, every experience I have had throughout my life has shaped me into who I am this moment. At the same time I am doing this to others at the also and we are all consentingly facing new experiences because of how we affect the world. The shear thought is almost mind blowing in its own right when/if you choose to think of the vastness of what everything means.

However what does this one phrase mean to me in a practical sense when it comes to education?

The first is the most obvious. My experiences directly affect my students and help or hurt their own growth in this visual culture. The flip side is that by interacting with students I will just be equally affected by them in learning what they already know of visual cultural, what remains relevant, and just growing by being around different unique individuals. Then year to year will change even more so! A new year will mean more knowledge has been gained but just as much will need to be learned all over again.

BOOM (or Ping feels more like a boom)

There went my mind being blow away again because I just made a connection. I couldn’t help but think after re-watching Ken Robinsons talk on individualized education plans. Everyone is given a unique plan for success in an alternative school. This is what my students will need because they are all coming from unique experiences that are still being shaped by myself. In a lot of ways its easiest to think of everything as kind of a work in progress that is never truly done. We won’t ever stop gaining new experiences and you won’t honestly meet the a student you had five years ago that is EXACTLY like the one you had now. Therefore my own curriculum must be able to change for my students, the times, and also myself.  Otherwise I am doing a disservice to all.

Questions:

How does one know if what they aren’t doing isn’t enough? At times its obvious but others not so much.

What does one do to improve themselves if they are possibly at the front of a movement? Its far easier to look back and see what someone else has done and follow then it is to blaze a new trail.

Imagination First:

 Rewrite History

How fittingly how this one stood out of the rest this evening after all the other previous readings.

To start it might be fun to recount a well know historical event ex: The American Civil War. Now force the students to think what would have happened if the Confederate States had won, but more than geographically and on a complete scale. What would people wear? Eat? How different would be artwork be? Would we have everything we have today? Would we have had more or something new?

It would be fun to have them explore any avenue in this new universe (or any other type of alternate universe if they wish) from designing clothes based on certain goods origin to how ones diets might change. I think every student would truly come up with something different and most likely each would also create a different universe from everyone elses.

Artist Statement after peer revision and One on One revision

My work aims to give iconographic figures physical items so viewers can better understand their true meaning. This series focuses on the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and what each would bring upon their arrival. I chose to use metal and wood for my materials, as I wanted to create objects that are strong and long lasting, while also allowing them to be physically handled. My desire is to add another layer of depth and complexity, to the horror of the destruction of the world to the delicacy of the universe what these figures represent, while pushing the viewer to understand and learn more.

Art Capacities

Artist Statement Draft

My artwork aims to bring ideas or concepts into a physical realm for viewers to behold for themselves. To do this I use wood, metal, and other materials to create objects that represent these ideas and can be physically handled.  The series on the four horsemen seeks out to give these figures unique and individual items that can be seen by a viewer. By bring these objects to the viewer I hope to add a layer of depth of understand to the horror of what these figures truly represent, while also adding a curiosity to understand and learn more.

Personal as Political

Protest

Icon

Secret Mission: Time

Time.

It is something that at times we wish would speed up and others slow down.

It is an aspect that can never be physically held or seen, however we want more of it even though nothing can buy it.

It ravages all: Making the strong weak and even the mightiest fortresses crumble.

In the United States you must be on time or early because if you arn't you are not showing respect to someones time. However in South America to arrive a few minutes late is considered acceptable because it says that how you were spending your time was meaningful and not wasted.

Due to the events of my past week, and not wanting to dive into it here, I can only currently think of one way for me to really demonstrate my own personal time.

I can't help but relate to the one second video every day except by just using photographs. By taking a photograph a day of something I feel would best represent "that day" I could easily record what I truly did with that day. Photographs are also a unique way to present time. They can be either physical giving time a way to be "physically held" when it normally can't. However photos can now be digital therefore causing them to become only physical if I choose for them to be. 

Photographs are something that everyone has used to capture a personal moment of time. They only capture a second however they divulge and retain monumental amounts of information for some. They are a way to capture personal but also other peoples time for theirs or others use.

Body as Medium

Anatomy

Body as a Surface/Medium

So I realized as I was re-watching this video I kinda mixed these up. Whoops. I think I still related to this topic enough so I'm just gonna keep it up here.

Allegory

Chance

Whiteness

So between no internet for more than 5 minutes, keyboard, wrecked truck, and other things its been a bit hard to upload my videos to my blogs. Luckily I've finally had the chance to load all of them so here they are!

Facilitating Critical and Aesthetic Inquiry

Thoughts and bits that stood out to me while reading the Carroll text.


Engaging Students with Art Objects

Strategies that engages learners with objects = sensory involvement, personal response, preparation for development of skills and concepts.

Successful images = developmental interests and skill

Broad theme (Big Ideas) can focus engagement and inquiry

More ambiguity = higher levels of critical thinking

Visual Analysis = Looking Deeper

• isolate sections
• diagram or trace
• look for patters
• sorting
• draw work as a warm up
• describe work so others can "see it" in their minds clearly

Sound & Movement

• Strengthens Memory
• Deeper Understanding
• Enriches conception 
• Promotes Creativity 
• Practice out visual concepts
• Explore: time, space, force, flow, and effort
• Develop a "sound" vocabulary 
• Develop a "moving" vocabulary

Categories, Verbal Cues, and Search Strategies

• Provides new Knowledge  
• Opportunities to :
• sort 
• classify
• defend decisions 

• Intorduce and expanded reange of possibil perceptual categories
• describe thoroughly
• Identify category specification and cues  
• students then classify works to catagory based on cues
• students defend reasons
• self identify cues that played into decisions

Strategies from creative dramatics

• Drama in art allows
• bringing characters to life
• actions
• positions
• interactions
• dialog
• image
• events of past or present

Strategies from creative writing

• alternate between words and imagery
• letter writing encourages reflection and introspection
• personal voice
• informal

Game Strategies

•  Possible increase retention from studetns
• reenfore prior learning
• visual problem solving skills 

Employing Storytelling and Puzzle Problems
Stories = natural way to learn

• creates context
• Provides discussion and debate

Double edged sword

• Can diminish qualities of work or misrepresent artwork
• can create context and appreciation of artwork

What is said and how it is told both matter

False story

• powerful + convincing = change attitude 

Present artist in a balanced light

• concentrate on 
• challenges
• personal effort
• investment 
• achievement 

Keep the art in context of the time

Using Interpretive Strategies to Find Meaning

Nonlinear strategies = personal, emotion, metaphoric, and conceptual responses

Description

• Closely tired to interpenetration and evaluation 
• Critics decided all (Power)

Opposition

• Powerful tool for creating meaning
• contrasting opposites define each other
• Internal and external opposites can happen in artwork

Intertextuality

• Interdisciplinary connections add substance to an interpenetration

Metaphor

• see one thin in terms of another
• make sense of experience
• coherent structures
• highlight some things
• hide others

Principles

• Art demands interpration
• some better than others
• feelings are guides
• not right but reasonable/informative
• artwork no necessary about what the artist wanted it to be about
• no interpretation is the defacto end all
• meaning changes viewer to viewer

(this sure does feel a bit like VTS)

Promoting Critical Thinking Through Problem Based Inquiry
 Problem based approach promotes

• reflection and inquiry 
• research and debate
• leading to deep thinking about complete situation

We constantly "make up" world as we understand it
Experience everything as "sign"

Facilitating Student Curated Exhibitions
Can range from table sized to full installations
Finding sameness among differences is higher level thinking

Using Model for Writing about Art
Models serve

• setting expectations
• how problems can be addressed
• different ways to develop ideas

Postcards and Letters

• unearth personal observations 

Poetry

• different format for responce
• more elegant language

Making Art Inspired by the Study of Art
Cycling students back to personal experiences after investigations with art promotes

• Ideas
• concepts
• techniques

Engages students emotionally in discussion
Images may be prompts for new work
Study master artist
Invites students to examine cultural icons and images from own heritage


Once I was done with all of my reading I was drawn to the section of story and how it can affect a viewers interpretation of art. It dived into using story for issue based projects. Anne Lord in Creative visual art storytelling and concept development used this method for an assignment for students. Students then used different medias to tell a story, while increasing their knowledge and skills. I was highly impressed by the end product that all the students created and see the real potential on this assignement.


http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/ehost/detail?sid=89e9ffb1-4697-4c85-a291-61505d8a933d%40sessionmgr12&vid=3&hid=11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ufh&AN=58533559

Facilitating Engagement with the Art-Making Process

Thoughts and bits that stood out to me while reading the Carroll text.

Investigating Materials and Ideas

• Ideas are generated by working with materials
• Play and experience are key
• Even simple materials can be used complexly
• With continued practice material and artistic preference will develop 
• Always Push/Challenge your students

 
Structure for Creative Thinking

• "Closed" problems actually are not that bad
• Can learn
• New Skills
• Knowledge
• Concepts
• Techniques
• Processes 
• Ideas
• To Easy = Bored
• Flip Side To Hard = frustration or giving up
• Have task meet ability
• Don't have an answer be obvious without new thinking
• Brain storming best in groups
• Always Push/Challenge your students

 
Forming Elegant Problems

• Elegant problems allow any ability level to tackle the problem
• Open-Ended
• Original Thinking
• WORTH DOING/SOLVING
• Big Idea/Themes
• Metaphors

 Designing Problems based on Real World of Work

• Problem based learning + creative thinking = Solution
• Designed based allows rethinking and redesigning

 Facilitating Dialog and Discourse about Students Work

• Dialog requires clear purpose and guidelines 
• Taken serious with high regard
• Possibly model responses you want to develop
• Try smaller groups before bringing the whole class together 
• Try being a facilitator more then a critiquer
• Try and involve everyone
•  Have no one dominate the discussion

After reading all of these I then started think more about how others recommend strategies or ideas when it came to the infamous critique. This led me to The Class Critique: Get Beginning Art Students to Talk about Art by Alexandra Overby. Throughout the article she goes over a few of the different approaches on how she helps introduces begging artist to a critique. The first was to randomly mix up all the work and then place it in a show like setting. She then lists off all of the lesson objectives and then students then vote for each piece for a certain award (most creative, best technical, and best of show). Then since students are standing by work they are voting for they can speak positive about it and say why it might have beaten others out while remaining positive. A second approach was by having students breaking into small groups and critiquing others work, not in their group, based on a work sheet that asks technical questions while also providing positive criticism. A third approach was to use sticky notes with their name on it to choose the three strongest examples on the lesson. Overby says that by the end of the year students are comfortable with critiques and understand how to give positive criticism.The general rules are a negative is always followed by a positive one (complement sandwich like) and criticism is based on art principles and not opinion.
I noticed that in relationship to both reading it recommends to use small groups to introduce critiques. The more I sat down on this idea the more and more it made sense. Public speaking is a major fear among most people so why not try smaller groups before expanding it. I also liked the idea of keeping criticism to art principles and not content. I think that is often so much of what can cause a critique to become a negative experience to so many and by doing so the experience can remain positive.

http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/ehost/detail?sid=25d4edf9-8af5-41c6-9cf3-af1b074d48f2%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ969216

Developing a Repertoire of Skills for Visual Perception and Artistic Response

Part 1

 Perception: The ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

While reading all of the short articles in the Carroll text I found that I had to keep referring to the above definition, not because I didn't know but because being an artist the idea of perceiving something that I have become accustomed to. The very phrase "becoming aware" reminded me that this very little part is something our students are doing daily but has to also be nurtured and reenforced if we want them to grow as artist.

So upon reading through Carroll I wondered what else I could find that would relate to the readings, while at the same time being something somewhat fresh and new. During my searching I found an article titled "Making Information Visual: Seventh Grade Art Information and Visual Literacy" by Joel Shoemaker, Elizabeth Schau, and Rachael Ayers. Every student was required to take a course called Visual Studies where they are taught basic tools reference tools for research. In the course they did basic research about an artist and then were required to put that information into the a book. Upon first read I didn't feel as if I could connect it, even though I wanted to, because it seemed just like another lesson. Then upon reading my lovely definition again it hit me. These students were being asked to perceive information through a very traditional means, library research, and then retell it a completely different way. That being to create it in a new form where others will be able to clearly perceive it visually while the students themselves are being asked to perceive how to best accomplish that. 

Honestly my mind was slightly blown at this little revelation and I hope that it wasn't really my mind just doing back flips to make it work. Nevertheless it is still found it to be a wonderful article and I do suggest giving it a quick read here as it does have the full pdf with images of the students work:

http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/ehost/detail?sid=24e8cbb1-bd53-4e9c-b7a4-d711dc1a4d86%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=27&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ825514

Part 2

When started looking at the different categories for artist I chose the Identity unit. Initially my first thought was its something that most students can easily relate to as they are trying to find their own identity. I chose Kerry James Marshall because I was initially drawn to the phrase "question the authority of history and "reclaim the image of blackness"." In the video he talks about how African sculpture has the same parallels as the Greeks in terms of the hero figures, however the African statues do not have the same regard so he is trying to "reanimate them" so they might become heroes once again.

Lesson Idea:

Distribute out images of artwork to students images work with relatively unknown subjects. Have the students create an identity for these characters and bring them to life in a completely new media. 

How will you have students connect the enduring idea to the students' lives?

Having students write down their own personal idea of what their identity is. Then if possible have students take a self portrait on how the feel is the best way to represent that. Afterwards have the students trade off with someone else to have them evaluate the others "identity"through the work to compare answers. They will be able to see how well they communicate their ideas and if what they believe is their identity is what others see.

How will you build the students' knowledge base about the enduring idea as it relates to other content areas as well as to life?

I think there is a lot the students will be able to learn from having the students investigate the identity of someone historically famous. The thought of students exploring the military aspect of William T. Sherman, pillage and burning of the south, compared to his personal identity, someone who loved the south, could show how the spotlight on one identity can overshadow another.

How will you build the students' knowledge base about the enduring idea as it occurs in art? (art criticism, art history, aesthetics)

Throughout history art has been used to identify them vs us, how you should look, who the elite are, etc. Without the notion of  identity artist would not have been able to connect with their patrons on what they were creating, and today by not being able to convey their message.

How will you engage students with exploring, questioning, and problematizing the enduring idea through art making?

My hope is they would already be somewhat curious to exploring their own identity and be curious about what others think of their own. However hopefully by allowing them to express their own identity, while then getting feedback on it, my hope is it will drive them to think if they are really showing the identity they want to be.

Documentary

Fun Fact!!

Videos can't be over 100mb which is really easy to do if you have an HD camera!

Whoever does videos needs to be aware of this so generally if you just lower it down to about a 720*420 aspect ratio you should be fine.

The above only matters if you are trying to upload it straight to blogger

 Another fun fact!

Blogger doesn't seem to like wmv format. So upload it to Youtube then hook it onto blogger.

Satire

Bird describes satirical as art that distorts recognizable figures enough to invoke laughter, but also to shine a light a disapproving light on them. He further goes on to call them a "moral agent" who removes the portrayed facade and reveals the truth. Finally Bird says satire is both reactive and constructive in that it is reacting to the things around it while also trying to help change and "construct" a better future.

I personally do not think that I will use satire in my own work. I find that personally I don't feel that the underlying message is strong enough, and that the humor aspect sometimes covers up the issue at hand. However I feel the need to say that I do not believe that satire in art is worthless, it is just not effective or "useful" in my own work.

Expressing Inner States

Bird describes expressing inner states as the means that artists use to describe what can not be seen or spoken. He further mentions artist like Kandinsky and references their desire to express what was being said from their soul. He also references where this art was labeled as degenerate and that this art form still remains a political act.
Expressing my inner feelings in my own art is something I do even when I am not trying to be abstract. However I have found that when I am doing abstract expressionism like work I have to "turn off" my brain. If I don't I've found that I can't actually do it and my thoughts get in the way of what I am trying to express.