LTC 8740 Curriculum in Art Blog #1

6/3

Assignment: read Chapters. 1&2 Eisner
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.

A narrative distillation of Eisner and Freedman with a whole lot of pondering:

Eisner, asserts ours senses and presence with in a given culture define who we are and how we move through our reality. One experience directly shapes another.  Eisner compares humans and our ability to grow within a culture with that of chimps, their apparent static existence with that of ours progressing.  But this makes me wonder.  Chimps live in unison with their environment, taking what they need, surviving or not, living and dyeing in response to the natural world, doing no deliberate harm to it.  We on the other hand are indeed leaving a legacy.  One of pillage and exploitation of the natural world while simultaneously evolving technologically at mind numbing speeds.  I wonder IF the native cultures, Native Americans, Aborigines, etc had been left alone  IF they would have grown as rapidly as the we have. These humans who lived more in sync with nature.... I wonder.  On the other hand, it is Chalmers view that art (which I associate directly with imagination and possibility) is defined by social context. Were Native cultural norms so set and strong that it did not allow for deviation, did these cultures limit imagination? On the other hand, was art segmented and something separated from the culture or completely integrated..... 

Imagine possibility and creation. It is realized of course (culturally, outwardly) as Eisner's states, though Arts and Sciences, but if we ponder this a moment, isn't that what happens with each breath, each step?  Every single activity can be traced to this, we must imagine it for it to happen, right?  When we first start walking, our brain must imagine this to be inspired to take that risk, and then go for it. As children we do that relatively fearlessly.  So in that process, we realize bodily what we imagined and so on and so forth and then some of this becomes habit so we don't have to imagine it anymore and we imagine yet another thing and work to bring that into reality, a manifestation of sorts of what we thought.  So is ALL of what we do a manifestation of thought and if thats true, are ALL things possible? Are we aware of what we are manifesting or do we take it for granted. Does society thus impose limits on our imagination to keep chaos from erupting?  As a result of this, does art get put in a box? Art is a safe place for the imagination because society has also imposed norms and expectations there.

“representation stabilizes the idea or image in a material and makes possible a dialog with it”( pg 6 Eisner)  Hmmm.  Does an object imply static meaning?  Is something "what" it is, prior to dialog, and then doesn't that something change when a dialog ensues because the dialoguer imposes a meaning or interpretation, thus removing the stability of the objects definition?  Editing erupts from perception shaped from our imaginations, whether we realize it or not. Further, like it or not, we are bombarded with visual stimuli. From objects to signs to film. This is particularly true in society where every manipulated, humanly created image has intention behind it to shape our perception, the aesthetics have different intentions.

“People tend to seek, what they are able to represent.”  Boom. The analogy of using black and white film so we seek shadows etc is a great metaphor.  BUT tools (what we see) are defined by culture. (And culture is defined by the people who create the texts which shape our perceptions and beliefs about who we are and what were supposed to value, it all gets very sticky!) Fundamentally, an object does not need a definition to exist as an object. It is. All things are defined through our experience which circles around to the idea of visual culture which provides the experience which will shape us. 

So why do we need permission through ART to experience imagination?  How did things get defined this way, should imagination not permeate every cell, every breath of every moment? On the other hand, thank heavens culture has made room for imagination someplace.... Although to survive without becoming completely overwhelmed, Eisner speaks to distillation, seeing differences for the sake of classifying etc... All important as long as that process does not lock out that initial space for possibility beyond the definition.

Eisner states it beautifully at the end of chapter one when he says “education is a process of learning how to become the architect of your own experience, and therefore learning how to create yourself.” (pg 24)

When examining the Versions of arts education, to me it is an odd event that we would define ONE WAY to engage in creative endeavors. I suppose the need to define helps explain and its a bit like the map reference in chapter one, it represents something greater than it actually is for the sake of illustrating something.  Still, it seems to me the strongest experiences are grounded not in defining a specific path but exploring many paths and through that experience selecting the one (or combination of one) which is truest to the heart of the walker, so approaching a classroom with the knowledge and openness to apply all six versions as a response to the needs of the group is the way to go. 

Ultimately, the goal from where Im standing is I want to provide experiences for my students which enable open minded, open hearted thinking feeling expressing of life experience.  Develop relationships  (realtime)where thoughts are seeds and with in each seed is infinite potential which through sharing, integration and visioning can grow. 

Imagination First:

Spotlight Off, Lantern On:  

As an introduction to the idea of “seeing” and “perception”  It might be fun to do a simple drawing experiment.  The first phase would be to do a drawing from memory (a common place in the school)  They could draw it anyway they wanted, but I would ask them to draw it with as much detail as possible.  Upon completion, we would then go to this space (be it another classroom, or the library or the playground...what ever.) and have them spend some time looking/investigating.  As they are looking, I would ask them to make a note of what they missed in their drawing.   List everything they now see that they didn’t draw.  Then discuss... Possibly go investigate one more time...(Probably...yea, for sure)  

Similarly, Go outside and do a color observation drawing of the woods.  Bring back in and discuss colors selected. (do a compare and contrast of what people saw color wise)  Then pull out color aid paper (or in my case, paint samples from Lowe's)  Select some random colors, from ones obviously there to less obvious (neon orange, etc)  Give each student 20-30 paint samples (all different from each others) and have them go explore the site they drew, investigating for the full range of color. Take along a journal or paper or what have you to document what was found, draw it and tape the color swatch next to it. They will find them. 

These may seem simple but can have profound effects on how they participate in “seeing” the world they encounter each day.  Subtle shifts in attention over time broaden the awareness.