New Ways of Seeing--Application of Characterization in Ayn Rand's Anthem

In regards to the potential of tapping into a students visual sensibilities, I wanted to share with you a project we worked on last week in my honors freshmen English course. After reading Ayn Rand's Anthem, the students applied elements of the text in a visual manner--using what they uncovered in terms of elements of art like we did with Cuevas' "Growth Through Crisis," they combined text, line, color, spatial relation, figure/form, and message to understand characterization in a new way. In their reflections, they expressed their appreciation for the visual, artistic representation of the character as it gave them "depth" and a "new of looking" at the three main characters in the novella. Just another way visuality can enhance education:)

layers of seeing--octavio ocampo

After seeing Ocampo's "Visions of Quixote," I began thinking of how his work represents our ways of seeing we've been exploring in this course.

I was intrigued by one of our last conversations about only seeing what we do because of overstimulation or necessity or interest in terms of interacting with our visual culture. This Don Quixote I chose because looking beyond the obvious you see another story--the same goes for our visual culture. These past few weeks exploring the less obvious facets has opened a new layer of seeing as I interact with advertisement, television, newspapers, magazines, and even the art that hangs so comfortably in my classroom about which I rarely give thought.

I am beginning to at once see in these images the sort of strong heroic front juxtaposed with not only the sad and pathetic idealists in the culture but also the manipulators of power and money. I may be a little out there with these comparisons, but it certainly makes sense in my quixotic mind:)

Eddie. Eddie Adams.

The Jaar exhibit we experienced this weekend has been resurfacing and re-creating itself through my experiences the last few days. This morning, however, the layers of my understanding were at once threatened and deepened as I heard a story about Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Eddie Adams and how his award for an iconic photograph that many associate with Vietnam haunted him. Hal Buell, former AP photo editor explained, “No war was ever photographed the way Vietnam was, and no war will ever be photographed again the way Vietnam was photographed ... Photographers had incredible access, which you don't get anymore,” and his words lay at the heart of the ghosts that lived with Adams until his death. What's interesting is in how the public received and exploited the photo. The following passage from the story this morning may help you reading this understand:

"But Adams, who considered himself a patriot and a Marine, never came to terms with the fact that the anti-war movement saw that photograph as proof that the Vietnam War was unjustified. In fact, he believed to the end of his life that the picture only told part of the truth. The untold story was that on the day of the execution, an aid to Loan was killed by insurgents. After Loan pulled the trigger, he walked by Adams and said, 'They killed many of our people and many of yours.'"

These powerful words forced me into seeing outside of the frame, which certainly shed new light on what we saw this weekend. I sometimes get so caught up in a piece of artwork, I forget to look beyond. . .but then, should I be looking beyond?

Fragments of Chelsea. . .

In "Specter Public," Quiles writes a quote which resonated with me and my journey with the Chelsea Museums. While he discusses how the sixties and seventies were "not just an era but a narrative, a progression, a story of failed ambition," he continues to explain this:





"The era retains an aura of purity because of naivete about its own futility, whilst we in the present are not allowed such a luxury--our efforts seemed doomed from the start."





The sentience of our "own futility" in this century was a theme that came up most specifically in the artwork of the Postmasters group show "The Future is not what it used to be" and the "In God We Trust" collages of Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung. I was struck by his insight in terms of our narrative now--by portraying Obama and his futile Sisyphean task to fulfill the world's expectations through a medium using facets of technology and progress as well the work intrigued me so much.

Did anyone else see this idea of our own awareness of being "doomed from the start"? Or am I totally off base and this is all irrelevant? Just curious:)

Vik Muniz--Re-creating Images with Everyday Material

I heard an interview the other morning with Vik Muniz, a brazilian artist with whom many of you are most likely familiar, who uses everyday items like food products, sequins, and even dust in order to re-create both popular and art images like the peanut butter and jelly Mona Lisas to the left. I began to think about the idea of recreating an image with a different medium and how the embodied message component and shift because of that. Just a little tidbit for thought. . .nothing too profound:)

How Far is Too Far?

Continuing to explore the articles and how they intersect with what I am experiencing in this visual world, today's post represents a topic at a thought-provoking connection. Besides the AIG-laden news focus, the chimp attack has surfaced as a highly-publicized event in the last few weeks. My students even blogged about it exploring elements of humanity, of instinct, of cruelty, and of morals. Interesting in it's own right, I go beyond this story to instead look at the NY Post's decision to print a political cartoon of two police officers who have shot a chimp twice in the chest. While an apt allusion to an actual event, it is in the caption that the cartoon gains intensity. The caption above one of the policemen reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." Now, often cartoonists morph events in the media for effect, but the deep-rooted connotation linking primates and African Americans so often found in the image history in the US brings coupled with the words in the cartoon make the image disturbing.

Political cartoonists have always (and should) push the proverbial envelope with their material, but when blatant violence is combined with the racial images and current events, one may question what is the artist's purpose true purpose in creating this image? Just wondering what you all think about this evocative cartoon, its implication in the world of media, and the power of not only "representing" a form of reality but pushing that reality into an uncomfortable realm. At the root of this inquiry is the idea from the Stuart Hall lecture Richard posted in which Hall discusses the distortion of what images mean in terms of "true meaning" vs. how the media represents the truth. It really has been an intriguing mental grapple for me as I wonder, how far is too far?

"Beauty, after all, comes from within..."

Nick Veasey is an artist whose intrigue surrounding the superficial and what lies beneath led him to use x-ray to mesh art with science. After our discussion after visiting the lab last weekend, I really have begun pondering if the images science produces can be considered art.

I think what I've come to understand is that most of what artists create mimics in some way what naturally occurs anyway, so the idea that images and sounds found in nature and science thus manipulated through the perspective of an artist can certainly be embraced as art. As my mind began to reel considering if there is any art constructed that in some way doesn't reflect an image, action, or structure not in nature, I became very interested in what that art looks like--I mean, even chaos is natural.

So, to you all, I open up the idea of responding to this blog with images/examples of art that are not grounded in some way on concepts naturally occurring.

Simplified Reality of the Cartoon

In preparing for our next sessions, I began reading "Understanding Comics." While I was completely entertained, it was Scott McLoud's clever illustrations and concise, insightful explantion of the role of comics and icons in our culture led me begin exploring the possibilities in using comics in my classroom. To put this iconic power into practice, I will include the strip below, "American Maze" by Dale Wilkins, to prompt my student to write an original paragraph incorporating their vocabulary words from this week. Words such as cessation, deter, hamper, obstruction, subside, thwart, and preclude can be applied to express complex ideas hidden simple images. McLoud writes "the ability of cartoons to focus our attention on an idea is, I think, an important part of their special power," and I am going to attempt to tap into that power to challenge my students' ways of seeing and understanding ideas and concepts around them.

While reading the Sturken chapter about spectatorship, power, and knowledge, I remembered an ad from maybe five years ago that was part of a GE campaign for new appliances. While the text read "Intelligence marries beauty," the image represented a play on the words. There is an attractive woman in a tight-fitting dress symbolizing beauty and a man, smaller, but dressed in suspenders, hand poised in a pensive manner, symbolizing intelligence. Although the couple reflects the quotation, obviously the aim of the ad was to show that GE "married" beauty and intelligence in their new appliance line.

Clever in its own right, the ad also demonstrates the underlying power/knowledge structure inherent in advertising images. I notice some crossing of the typical roles in this ad, so my question to others is this: How does this ad challenge or support the cultural ideals we associate with these images? Are there other ads that play with these ideas that you've seen more recently? Just curious:)

p.s. When I searched for the image, I found this website with other ads if anyone is interested!

www.genderads.com

Following the Yellow Brick Road. . .

In the series of articles under the concept of Biocollage, I was drawn first to the need for a more public discourse regarding the scientific realm of the Human Genome Project. It is true, for me, that I am kept in the dark by the smoke and mirrors of the rhetoric surrounding science as I listen to NPR or read the New York Times about the project, I become part of the masses reading yet not completely understanding, nodding and accepting the material with consideration--I become an example of what Larsen and Milner in "Mapping the New World" explain as the bewildered "uneducated population who support and eagerly await miracles" from the "Great Totalizer of Biotech Oz." After exploring the Cell Lab with Ryan, however, I feel that the man behind the curtain was somehow exposed. By visiting the lab yesterday and hearing only a few concepts explained at my level, I feel I have somehow began traversing the divide knowing that scientist don't have all the answers, but it is instead, in the journey of a divergent exploration of the human body that is the magic.

What really helped in this new-found understanding was the visual culture to which Ryan exposed us--it was not only informational and helpful in understanding the world of cells, but also aesthetically pleasing. Watching the video of a live cell or the florescence of the GFP was natural art. What interested me in the question posed "how can a cell lab be an artist's studio" was how this natural phenomena could be considered art. Larsen and Milner proposed that science maps the body while artists map social, political and emotional implications of that, but I think there may be overlap. The question remains for me, however, how is that overlap defined.

Background and Expectations. . .

As a high school English teacher, I am privileged to connect with a group of adolescents each year with whom I share a social world where images are central to our existence. With my experiences with the Lincoln Center for the Arts, study of Maxine Greene's philosophy of aesthetic education and imagination, and understanding of the power of media, I find the role of visual literacy inextricably linked with not only English education, but also in creating a holistic and meaningful approach to education in general.

Based on the readings, discussions, and field trips in this course, I hope to continue with my divergent exploration of how images, icons, art, etc. and their mutual relationship with politics, social, and emotional components of our society can function in the classroom. My inquiry stems from the following: How can understanding and engaging in visual literacy heighten the 21st century high school student's education? How can exploring visual literacy create an awareness of their identity and or otherness within their culture? How can I incorporate this subject in my everyday lessons to create both critical and aesthetically aware citizens?