6/3/2013
Assignment: Read Chapters 1-2 Eisner- The Arts and the Creation of Mind. Read Chapter 1 Freedman- Imagination First
Choose one of the 21 Imagination sparks and demonstrate/describe how you would use it in an art class to promote imaginative thinking that leads to creative production, responding or presenting artwork.
Choose one of the 21 Imagination sparks and demonstrate/describe how you would use it in an art class to promote imaginative thinking that leads to creative production, responding or presenting artwork.
I must be honest I very much dislike reading. Maybe this is because I am right brained and reading anything without pictures puts me to sleep. So one can imagine when I picked up this book at 9pm on a Monday night I was tempted to test the books flight pattern into my fireplace. Eisner was lucky I took a summer class and did not need the kindling to keep me warm. I digress...
In the first chapter of Eisner's The Arts and the Creation of Mind, Eisner begins by discussing the the very essence of life, experience. These life experiences define and shape our personal identity. Through the use of our senses we encounter all sorts of different experiences. Our senses can teach us a lot, but our senses alone do not shape our lives. Through culture, or others experiences, we are able to learn "quicker" than learning by trial and error. We can take instances from others lives and relate them to our own, manipulating and adapting them to benefit ourselves and develop our own lives accordingly.
I love Eisner's reference to the definitions of culture. "A shared way of life" or "a medium for growing things." Art is so much a shared way of life. Taking the chaotic scramble of thoughts, experiences and visions lost in our minds and translating them into a tangible form that invokes reaction. As creation takes place it reflects past experiences and develops and grows into a wonderful work of art.
As I am reading and writing this my stress levels are skyrocketing!
Back story... (in short)
I have been asked to design the mural on the Tropical Liqueurs building depicting a 20' by 2.5' beach scene. It is currently staring me in the face. Believe it or not I prefer to create art rather than read about it. The drawing is due Wednesday...
So one might imagine it was hard for me to pick up the next book, Imagination First. I want to use my imagination! Thank the Lord Almighty that this book grabbed my attention and allowed for my mind to wander away from the daunting tasks at hand.
Design for Hallway- Let Informal Spaces Thrive
Liu Noppe - Brandon and I must have collaborated in a past life. When I first started teaching at the high school level I wasn't sure how I was going to start the first week of class. My classroom was a small room that Columbia College had loaned the school I was teaching at until they finished our school building. So naturally when they crammed 25 students into a room barely bigger that Dr. Unraths office I was mortified in how I was going to get anything accomplished. My first thought was lets do all the Art History lessons now so when we get into our nice studio we can create. Sounds like a brilliant idea, right? No! Students don't enjoy spending their entire day in the monogamy of the "core" classes to come to the one place they can create and express themselves to be told that they are going to learn about more old dead guys. I naturally needed to find a way to reach these students. Something fun, that would allow them to step out of their shell of the con-formative white and khaki uniforms. Something not too messy as not to upset the gracious offer of CC's classroom. I wanted the students to be challenged with a medium they had never used but want to leave the parameters of the project up to them. My media of choice was baling wire (commonly used by farmers to bale hay). I told the students to let the wire speak to them allowing for the line to flow creating both positive and negative spaces. I tried to influence them very little in this assignment and allowed myself to learn about the students through their work. I would "climb" around the classroom since there was very little space to walk and ask each student questions. "Where are you from?" "What activities do you want to be involved in?" Simple questions allowing me to learn about each of them and to help spark ideas in the class room. When I did this the first year I got better work from those students than any year before that. In Liu Noppe - Brandon's chapter Design for Hallway- Let Informal Spaces Thrive, he talks about letting the people chose their course and designing around the path they chose. Like in the TED Talk we watched in class we need to turn Alternative Education into the norm, reaching out to each student by catering to their needs.
Again I must be honest, I thought this was going to be a rough assignment and I am glad I didn't put it aside to finish my own art.
Time to escape to my beach scene!
As I am reading and writing this my stress levels are skyrocketing!
Back story... (in short)
I have been asked to design the mural on the Tropical Liqueurs building depicting a 20' by 2.5' beach scene. It is currently staring me in the face. Believe it or not I prefer to create art rather than read about it. The drawing is due Wednesday...
So one might imagine it was hard for me to pick up the next book, Imagination First. I want to use my imagination! Thank the Lord Almighty that this book grabbed my attention and allowed for my mind to wander away from the daunting tasks at hand.
Design for Hallway- Let Informal Spaces Thrive
Liu Noppe - Brandon and I must have collaborated in a past life. When I first started teaching at the high school level I wasn't sure how I was going to start the first week of class. My classroom was a small room that Columbia College had loaned the school I was teaching at until they finished our school building. So naturally when they crammed 25 students into a room barely bigger that Dr. Unraths office I was mortified in how I was going to get anything accomplished. My first thought was lets do all the Art History lessons now so when we get into our nice studio we can create. Sounds like a brilliant idea, right? No! Students don't enjoy spending their entire day in the monogamy of the "core" classes to come to the one place they can create and express themselves to be told that they are going to learn about more old dead guys. I naturally needed to find a way to reach these students. Something fun, that would allow them to step out of their shell of the con-formative white and khaki uniforms. Something not too messy as not to upset the gracious offer of CC's classroom. I wanted the students to be challenged with a medium they had never used but want to leave the parameters of the project up to them. My media of choice was baling wire (commonly used by farmers to bale hay). I told the students to let the wire speak to them allowing for the line to flow creating both positive and negative spaces. I tried to influence them very little in this assignment and allowed myself to learn about the students through their work. I would "climb" around the classroom since there was very little space to walk and ask each student questions. "Where are you from?" "What activities do you want to be involved in?" Simple questions allowing me to learn about each of them and to help spark ideas in the class room. When I did this the first year I got better work from those students than any year before that. In Liu Noppe - Brandon's chapter Design for Hallway- Let Informal Spaces Thrive, he talks about letting the people chose their course and designing around the path they chose. Like in the TED Talk we watched in class we need to turn Alternative Education into the norm, reaching out to each student by catering to their needs.
Again I must be honest, I thought this was going to be a rough assignment and I am glad I didn't put it aside to finish my own art.
Time to escape to my beach scene!
David, as someone who teaches art on a cart all day, I completely understand being limited by the space (or in my case, other people's spaces) that you have. I did a similar project with my 5th graders when, instead of giving them wire, I gave them all a piece of modeling clay and 4 popsicle sticks, and asked them to do the following: see how tall you can make your sculpture. It was completely open, and they could use the materials any way they wanted. Like your lesson, it enabled me to go around and talk with each of them about what they were trying/wanting to do and get to know them a little more. And I'm also incredibly jealous of Trops commission!
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