What we did in class (straight out of the note book)
-media and social change/influence
-told the story about the monk who wrote "Call Me By My True Names". Story was about a girl who threw herself over the side of the boat after being raped by pirates. Could not blame the pirate because of the conditions he knew. Personally I think this is BS. It assumes that we are all victims of our circumstances and avoids the notion of universal truths or inherent "Right" and "Wrong".
-This got me thinking about psychological and sociological differences between someone who succumbs to the circumstances they were born into, and those who rise to the occasion and find a way to "fight" as it were. (this is assuming that the circumstances are of negative influence, though it could be applied in reverse).
-We then talked about right-brain communication which reminded me of this TED talk I once saw about a woman who experienced a stroke from a golf-ball sized clot on the left side of her brain, effectively shutting it down. Her experience living almost exclusively in her right hemisphere was astounding. (video posted below)
Following this we put out our masks along side the photos we had created and did a walk-around looking at them. This was great for saving time, but I would have like to have discussed this project. More than the other things we have done in class, this one angered a lot of people in the way that it was executed. It would have been good to hear how this delivery method of the assignment altered their creative process and resulted in the images that they made. I know in my own process it did not alter much as I always use visual research methods in developing my ideas and images, and one project more often than not, evolves into another project. What I did not like about this project was the short-notice for the additional requirements. As the email provided to the university for school related things is NOT my primary email address, I do not check it every day, expecting that if there are to be changes to an assignment, notification will be given several days before the assignment is due. Because of this I did not have the opportunity to complete all of the requirements for the written paper at the end. This was in part due to the fact that we were first told in class that there would be no written portion to this assignment, then in an email were told to do a brief rational as to why we chose to take the photo of our mask in the location that we did, and then in yet another email, were asked to add explanation of our process, symbolism, an added requirement of juxtaposition was thrown in the mix, etc. This was a terrible delivery method. All requirements of the assignment should have been made available to us from the beginning, or at least delivered in two parts, not several pieces strung together through a series of unclear email's.
After the all to brief gander at the masks around the room, we watched a video about Ben Shahn "Paintings for Social Activism". I could not find this video, but I did find another one about the artist and his art (posted below)
we also watched a video on "Park(ing) day" in SF. Many video's about park(ing) day can be found on youtube or with a simple google search.
-These lead to a discussion about Random Acts of Kindness and then into our group projects. It did not take long for our group to come up with a concept for our engage art project, outline what we were going to do, and develop a schedule. We have decided to do a project promoting positive body image called "You Are Beautiful" involving photographing of the public both on campus and down town, as well as setting up a gallery web site were people can view the photos and be provided with links to resources about positive body image. There are still some details to be worked out, but that will all come when next the group gets together.
The website is youarebeautiful.x10.mx
Shooting days are scheduled for the 16th (campus) and the 17th (inner harbor).
The group currently consists of myself, David, Andrea, and Marcie. We may be absorbing two other classmates who were absent at the time groups were formed.
The last thing done in class this day was to be assigned another paper. the requirements outlined are as follows:
-1500ww.
-12pt font
-dbl spaced
-due Mar 9th
-APA citation style
-the goal is to demonstrate an understanding of engaged art and knowledge of contemporary engage artists. It is to include both theory and personal inquiry. questions posed in class were: What is engage art? What is social art activism? What are examples of artists and projects? Provide an analysis of "that" work and your point of view (when asked what "that" work was, if it was a particular piece or a body of work, the answer was that it was up to us. This leaves it open and extremely broad and makes me wonder what the grading criteria will be). Give your point of view on the art (whatever that may be), provide alternatives. What are future implications (im assuming this is in relation to future teaching and classroom application as well as for the aspect of society the project was intended to influence or change), Personal connections and professional connections.
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