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dadelman — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:30:36 CDT

Note: Wet Paint is not the place or form where the actual project documentation wiki will live. One purpose of this wiki is to experiment and get comfortable with the medium. The actual wiki will be on the nelson-atkins web site, www.nelson-atkins.org.

The purpose of this wiki is to build the New Dimensions Video Conferencing pilot project. The starting documents you will find here are all still in the planning stage, as is the project itself. They include: a Curriculum Proposal by Mark Anderson, North Kansas City School District; a Project Description, an outline/timeline by me, David Adelman, manager of New Dimensions at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; drafts of Ideas and Questions pages where students will respond to create the actual wiki documents; and copies of various communications that I thought relevant to the discussion. The purpose of a wiki is to provide a way for any and everyone to collaborate on a document. I'm still getting my feet wet with this idea. Comments and contributions can be made by leaving a comment on any page with a "Threads" link.

To your left you'll find a navigation column with links to the various pages/documents. Use that, the links below, or the links above to get where you want to go.

Project Description

Outline/timeline

Ideas and Questions

Note: Wet Paint is not the place or form where the actual project documentation wiki will live. One purpose of this wiki is to experiment and get comfortable with the medium. The actual wiki will be on the nelson-atkins web site, www.nelson-atkins.org.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for your help.

d

Proposed timeline/outline

dadelman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:03:52 CDT

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Ideas and question s

Assume two high school classrooms, one metro-area, one rural, twenty five students each.

Video Conference events include the metropolitan school at the museum, and the outlying school at their school building participating via video conferencing.

Museum Visit events include both schools at the museum at the same time.

At School Building events take place in the participating schools’ buildings. As these events include research and perhaps writing activities guided by the participating school teachers, the amount of time for each of these events is flexible.

Student responses are documented in three ways: ·

Formal (standards set by participating teachers), collaborative (wiki) documents responding to “Essential Questions”
Video or Audio recorded large and small group discussions
Informal blog comments asking questions and/or responding to other comments or essential questions

All documentation will be viewable and downloadable from the Museum website.

Participation and contribution rubrics ???

Suggested timeline
This is only a suggested schedule of events. Bulleted activities and goals can be timed and scheduled to fit participating schools needs.

Event 1
Video Conference pre-project activity 2 hours

Outline project
Assign teams (eight teams of 6 or 7 students each, half from each classroom)
Introduction to looking at and talking about art
Pre-assessment

Event 2
Museum Visit 3 hours

Tour/model discussions
Teams pick art works (from preselected lists)
Discuss in teams, in galleries (printed guides?) (Recorded)

Event 3- 5
Video Conference 1 – 1.5 hours each

Teams lead discussions with whole group (Recorded)
Questions for further research

Event 6
Video Conference 1 - 1.5 hours

Present wiki/blog
Present essential questions
Create wiki form

Event 7
At home schools 3 – 5 hours

Research questions
Contribute to wiki/blog
E-mail

Event 8
Video conference 1 - 1.5 hours

Address questions to Curator (other?)

Event 9
At School Building?

Further research
Contribute to wiki/blog

Event 10
Museum Visit 3 hours

Re-visit works
Wrap up discussion

Evaluation

Event 11
At School Buildings ?

Final contributions to wiki/blog

Project description

dadelman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:57:12 CDT

What's to you? What's it to me? Exploring Contemporary Art Through Dialogue

The Big Ideas

Looking at art means to observe closely, find meaning in ambiguity, respond on a personal level, and make inferences about the artist and the culture in which the art was made.
Artists make choices of subject, and form to communicate ideas.
Since the 1940’s, modern and contemporary art has increasingly relied on the experiences of the viewer to “complete” the work of art, to create new ideas within the individual viewer. Therefore, where you come from influences what you see.

Objectives

The learner will:

Observe and describe the subject, composition and details of selected works of art from the 1940’s to the present.
Express personal interpretation of and response to selected works of art through audio and video recordings, discussions, blogging and collaborative writing based on careful observation.
Collaborate with students from another classroom to create a model for looking at and connecting with modern and contemporary art.

The Project

Two high school classrooms, one from metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri, and one from an outlying community will come together via video conferencing and visits to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to document the process of looking at and finding meaning in modern and contemporary art. The participating outlying class will take part in 7 – 10 hours of video conference discussions and presentations, and make two visits to the museum, paid for by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. At their schools students will conduct research and contribute to wiki documents and on-line discussions, the participating metropolitan class will make approximately ten, one-hour visits to the Museum, and work in their school buildings to complete the same tasks. This project is free of charge.

The final product will be a website of collaborative essays, audio and video content and online discussions that will be archived on the Museum website.

Participating schools and the Museum will work together on issues of scheduling, curriculum alignment, and technology compatibility. We plan to present one project in the fall, 2008 and four more in the spring, 2009. This being the first year for this project, the Museum appreciates input from the participating schools as we grow the program.

GLEs:

Social Studies

SS6: Relationships of Individuals and Groups to Institutions and Traditions
Compare and contrast major ideas and beliefs of different cultures
Analyze how the roles of... groups have changed in society, including cause and effect

SS7: Tools of Social Science Inquiry
Distinguish between fact and opinion
Interpret... art and artifacts

Communication Arts

Writing · 1: Apply a writing process
Apply a writing process to various forms and types of writing
2: Compose well-developed text
A: Audience and Purpose
Awareness of audience
Point of View
B: Ideas and Content
Controlling ideas
Specific details
Complex ideas
Freshness of thought
D: Word Choice
Precise, vivid language
Imagery, humor, voice, etc.

CLE:
A: Descriptive, expository text
D: Literary (Art) analysis
E: Reflective writing

Listening and Speaking
2: Effective Speaking Skills and Strategies
A: Discussion and Presentation
Concise presentations
Appropriate media or technology

Information Literacy
Analyze and Evaluate Oral and visual data
A: Media Messages
Analyze, describe and evaluate the elements of messages sent in various media

Visual Art

Strand I: Product/Performance
1C: Digital/Computer
Select and apply digital media that demonstrate:
Sensitivity and subtlety
Engagement and experimentation
Informed decision-making

Strand III: Artistic Perceptions
1A: Aesthetics
Art as reflection of community or culture
2A: Art Criticism
Describe artwork
Analyze the use of elements and principles
Interpret meaning

Strand IV: Interdisciplinary Connections
2A:Connecting Art and Non-Art Objects
Explain how historical events and social ideas are reflected in artworks from selected cultures.

About New Dimensions
Since 2006 New Dimensions has worked with middle school and high school students from public, parochial and charter schools from all areas of Kansas City. Our goal is to bring teens into the museum for multiple visits that go beyond the usual one-hour tour experience of most school children, allowing for a richer, deeper connection between the students, their school curriculum, and the museum’s collection.

We believe that authentic projects involving thoughtful response to works of art calls for a wide range of thinking skills and that multimedia projects exercise a variety of learning styles.

Question 1.1: Individual and cultural identity in art

dadelman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:55:22 CDT

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Big Idea #1

Individual and cultural identities can be communicated in art

Question:

In what ways can a work of art give you information about the artist as an individual or the culture in which he or she lived? What clues might it contain to suggest to the viewer details about the artist or his/her culture?

Response:

One way artists comm...

Curriculum Proposal

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:29:34 CDT

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Ideas and question s

Connections : : Stories of Community

Big Idea Culture: Art is a cultural carrier; it is shaped by cultural conditions and reveals them.

Essential Question When artists come together from different communities, how do they choose to tell the stories of their culture and community?

Objectives
TLW communicate visual ideas through the purposeful selection of media techniques and processes, subject matter, and theme.
TLW collaborate to solve a series of visual problems using a pastiche of word and image to emphasize personal experience and cultural value.
TLW analyze and visually interpret the influences of art and design upon their immediate culture, and the time period in which they live.
TLW utilize a combination of technology with hand art processes to promote connections between different communities.

GLE
Strand I: Product/Performance 1. Select and apply two-dimensional media, techniques, and process to communicate ideas and solve challenging visual art problems. (FA 1) 2. Communicate ideas about subject matter and themes in artworks created for various purposes. (FA 1)

Strand II: Elements and Principles 1. Select and use principles of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork. (FA 2)
Strand III: Artistic Perceptions 1. Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks. (FA 3) 2. Analyze and evaluate art using art vocabulary. (FA 3)
Strand IV: Interdisciplinary Connections 1. Explain the connections between Visual Art and CA, Math, Science or Social Studies. (FA 4)
Strand V: Historical and Cultural Contexts 1. Compare and contrast artworks from different historical time periods and/or cultures. (FA 5)

Process & Activity

Video conference connects two different communities •
The world shrinks: Long distance meeting of minds •
Discussion and brainstorming: a “collision” of two communities •
Digital connections to the collection •
Blogging and/or Podcasting to create a sense of combined community and to keep development dynamic/organic •
Collaborative development of ideas/Individual development of discreet artifacts •
Collaborative development of book or video

Artifact •

Blog/Website: documents the process and development of the project •
Podcast: connects to the collection •
Book and/or Video: documents the process, the philosophy and finished artworks; compares/contrasts project with works from the collection; comments upon conclusions and the outcome •
Installation or exhibition: highlights the project •
Artwork: created in collaboration across communities; incorporates a pastiche of word and image; informed by works in the collection and ideas from the world of contemporary artmaking.

Big Idea Identity: Individual and cultural identities are constructed and revealed through art.
Essential Question When artists work in different communities, how do they choose to interpret their own social identities?

Big Idea Society: Art is a form of social commentary, with social, political, and economic conditions.
Essential Question When artists from different communities come together, how do they choose to interpret what they find?

Big Idea Community: Different communities often define and interpret art in different ways.
Essential Question When artists come together from different communities, how do they choose to tell the stories of their culture and community?

Big Idea Place: Context and point-of-view are important to understanding the interactions and influences that define the identity of a community.
Essential Question How does “place” influence the interpretation of an artist’s sense of identity?

Big Idea Visual Culture: Communities are often defined by the visual influences of their world.
Essential Question How do artists use word and image to define their world? How does the combination of word and image influence the interpretation of meaning in art?

Big Idea Autobiography: An exploration of self is deeply revealing of our connections to community and culture.
Essential Question How do artists use word and image to define themselves?

Notes: This program could be an exciting approach for students as they learn how to better understand art and respond in a visual/critical way to their own community identity. As I brainstormed this weekend, I identified numerous points of symbolic departure that might be particularly rich avenues for exploration: •

Race, gender, and other issues of social or political nature. •
Environmental and geo-political concerns. •
Eccentricities of community. •
Visual culture. •
Memory and recollection. •
Identity of place, beyond the landscape. •
The cathartic qualities of art and poetry.

Metaphor might also be an interesting visual filter. For example: •

Bridges are both literal and metaphorical symbols of connectivity. •
Gates and doors offer passage to another way of knowing… but one typically needs a key to pass. •
Roads are literal and symbolic pathways.

As I think about this, two themes continue to recur: (1) sense of place and (2) cultural/community/social identity. A quick survey of the Bloch Building left me with a lot of great connections to these two themes:
Sense of Place
Thiebaud Wyeth
Keith Jacobshagen
Neil Welliver
Fairfield Porter
Diebenkorn
Estes Dennis
Oppenheim
Roger Brown
William T. Wiley
Radcliffe Bailey
Freilicher Alex Katz
Rackstraw Downes
Robert Cottingham

Cultural Identity
Thiebaud
Warhol
Rauschenberg
Larry Rivers
Duane Hansen
Estes
Alison Saar
Roger Brown Ray K. Metzker
Martin Schoeller
El Anatsui Kerry
James Marshall
Warrington Colescott
Thomas A. Huck
Leslie Dill
Christopher Brown

Other ideas I’ve toyed around with, include a couple of ongoing approaches to visual artmaking that my kids have been watching metamorphose over the past couple years. One is called “Projected Identities” and it involves merging handwritten self reflections, memories and memoires with image in a digital pastiche. Like Rauschenberg’s work, we make an artwork, then do something to it… and then do something else to it.” The evolution results in a variety of stages which – due to the digital and ephemeral nature of the works – means that one artwork is often actually five or six artifacts. Another is an idea that I call “Handwritten Portraits,” a visual exploration of what happens when one realizes that a portrait, in and of itself, is really quite uninformative. It is actually quite a liberating process we go through as our young artmakers re-invent the idea of portraiture by weaving meaningful elements of handwritten narrative into photographic portraiture.

Question 3.3:The influence of the viewer's background

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:26:53 CDT

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Big Idea #3

Ideas and functions can be communcated the artist's choices of subject and form (size, media, compositional elements).

Question:

In what ways might your own background, experiences, where you come from influence the meaning you get from the artist's choices of subject and form?

Response:

Question 3.2: Communicating through subject and form in selected works of art.

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:26:29 CDT

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Big Idea #3

Ideas and functions can be communcated the artist's choices of subject and form (size, media, compositional elements).

Question: Specifically in the work of art you studied, how did choices of subject and form suggest ideas or function?

Response:

Question 3.1:Communicating through subject and form

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:26:09 CDT

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Big Idea #3

Ideas and functions can be communcated the artist's choices of subject and form (size, media, compositional elements).

Question:

In general, in what ways can choices of subject, size, medium, and composition communicate an idea or function?

Response:

Question 2.2: The influence of the viewer's background

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:25:41 CDT

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Big Idea #2

Art can communcate ideas and purposes or functions. The idea communicated by the work of art, or the function of a work of art is influenced or even mandated by the culture of the artist who made it.

Question:

In what ways might your own background, experiences, where you come fromefffect how you interpret an idea or function of a work of art?

Response:

Question 2.1: Culture influences on ideas and functions of art

dadelman — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:24:51 CDT

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Big Idea #2

Art can communcate ideas and purposes or functions. The idea communicated by the work of art, or the function of a work of art is influenced or even mandated by the culture of the artist who made it.

Question:

In the works of art this class has looked at, what are some examples of ideas or functions that are specific to the culture in which the art was made? Are there examples in the art we've looked at of ideas or functions that are independent of a specific culture, that might be called global, that might be communcated by anyone regardless of where or when they lived?

Response:

Question 1.3: The influence of the viewer's background.

dadelman — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:56:44 CDT

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Big Idea #1

Individual and cultural identities can be communicated in art

Question:

In what ways might your own background, your culture, your experiences, where you come from have an effect on how you interpret clues about the artist and her/his culture?

Response:

Question 1.2 Identity clues in selected works of art

dadelman — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:55:38 CDT

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Big Idea #1

Individual and cultural identities can be communicated in art

Question:

Specifically in the works of art we studied, what clues suggest to you something about the artist or the culture in which she/he lived?

Response:

Ideas and questions

dadelman — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:52:12 CDT

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Timeline/outline
Curriculum proposal

Here is a first draft of a set of ideas and questions, drawn and modified from Mark's Big Ideas and Essential Questions to serve as writing prompts for wiki documents. Each idea would probably be a page with sub-pages leading to the questions. I tried to design these to be instructional and respond-able across a range of high school ability levels. Each question would be answered collboratively. Responses can include graphics audio or video. A scheme or rubric or set of expectations for how many responses to how many questions a student would be responsible for would be set out by the participating teachers. Students can also post comments via the Threads button.

First, some assumptions:

Communication has six components: An originating idea, a sender, a medium, a receiver, and a response or interpreted idea.
Art is communication. In art, the sender is the artist, the medium is the work of art, and the receiver is the viewer (or listener or reader).
In some art, the originating idea and intended response is specific and for the most part, agreed upon by everyone in the culture in which it was created, and everyones' response is expected to be similar.
In some art the originating idea may be ambiguous, and the viewers' responses are intended to be individual, personal, and varied.
Art with a specific, intended idea and response, when viewed by a viewer from a culture or time or background that is different from the culture in which it was made, may result in a response that is individual and personal. This viewer may never know for sure exactly what the painter, writer, musician or choreographer intended. This does not mean the response in incorrect or invalid. It means the response is personal.

Big Idea #1

Individual and cultural identities can be communicated in art.

Question 1.1: Individual and cultural identity in art
Question 1.2 Identity clues in selected works of art
Question 1.3: The influence of the viewer's background

Big Idea #2

Art can communcate ideas and purposes or functions. The idea communicated by the work of art, or the function of a work of art is influenced or even mandated by the culture of the artist who made it.

Question 2.1: Culture influences on ideas and functions of art
Question 2.2: The influence of the viewer's background

Big Idea #3

Ideas and functions can be communcated by the artist's choices of subject and form (size, media, compositional elements).

Question 3.1:Communicating through subject and form
Question 3.2: Communicating through subject and form in selected works of art
Question 3.3:The influence of the viewer's background

Communication david to Mark 5/23

dadelman — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:52:44 CDT

Hi Mark,

I like your ideas and the themes of community, identity you're bring out. The idea of a product that lives beyond the project, a book, a video, whatever, is important.

Here are the fronts I'm currently working on concerning the this whole video conferencing endeavor:

I'm very interested in projects that result in products that are usable as teaching tools by teachers around the country. I like creating peer teaching resources, impressing on the students that they have a responsibility to learn, create and teach. The book idea is a good one. I'm also looking at a resulting wiki or blog with multimedia links and resources that are documents of student discoveries and dialogues.

My task this fall is to create a pilot project that can be replicated four more times in the spring of '09. I'm thinking about processes that that can be general enough to be attractive to a range of participants, simple enough that I'm not reinventing the wheel each time, and (here's where the tire hits the gravel) matching the curricular needs of participants to the museum's collections. I have surveyed 53 schools/teachers/administrators, from 28 rural counties. Concerning curricular needs, the majority of responses spoke about exposing the students to wider worlds, different cultures, etc. Along this same line I'm looking at Missouri high school Art, English and Social Studies GLEs and trying to make these interests work with the areas of the collection, including special exhibitions like the "Age of Steam" that will be open during the 08/09 school year.

Gear. I still don't have a clear idea of what we are getting. I have communicated to the right people what I envision a vital, interactive, real-time, video conferencing session looking like. Instantaneous dialoguing from anyone anywhere in the room. Images, audio and video material available at my finger tips and brought into the discussion on the fly. I am only imagining these things as I have never seen an example of a video conferencing session that actually does these things. My IT people and the ATT people have said this is all possible. I am hoping to meet with our IT soon to get a better idea of gear and capabilities.

Really the second front, creating a curriculum that can be attractive, flexible, collection/exhibition based, and replicable, is where I am devoting the most time right now. At this stage, email conversations are probably the most efficient way of working. As I look more into the wiki/blog thing I may set up a site, probably a blog, where we and anyone else we want to invite can input ideas at their leisure. You know, as I write this, that sounds like a viable way to move. I'll get started on that.

What do you think?

P.s. I'll get more info about collections/exhibitions to you.

David Adelman

Manager, New Dimensions

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

4525 Oak Street Kansas City, Missouri 64111

816.751.1370

dadelman@nelson-atkins.org -----Original Message-----

From: Mark Anderson [mailto:manderso@nkcsd.k12.mo.us]

Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 8:50 AM To: David Adelman

Subject: New Dimensions

Dave,

I wonder if we could set up a time to chat and brainstorm sometime soon? Or maybe we can just "talk" via email: whateveer works best for you. Anyway, I'd like to move forward with planning something like you and I discussed, connecting some of our students with students in a more rural setting. I am envisioning a possible project that involves digital storytelling.

Some randomly fired thoughts: I really like the entry point that two groups of learners (on the surface) are connected only tenuously through the railroad. In other words, NO obvious connections! But, it's interesting to think that we might create prompts that will facilitate the discover of real connections. AND, that together - from a distance - we might collaborate in the creation of something tangible. My kids have been very involved with making books and I'm thinking this might be an excellent collaborative format. I've been using the online service blurb.com to generate absolutely fantastic published products...I have samples I can share with you: you simply have to see these to believe them. I think that there are two important facets to this: a sense of identity and a sense of community. Identity is largely a product of community, which is interesting in the context of "connections." Community can also be viewed through the lens of the creation of an artistic, narrative community of learners. Community identity is something for which many of us take great pride and ownership: "I'm just a country boy" or "I come from Missouri" or "St Louis is MY hometown." I'd love to also see the PROCESS documented and shared via the internet. Maybe we could create a pastiche of video, still image, writing, and sound bytes? As I write this, it occurs to me that JJ Higgins will be back in the metropolitan area teaching at Blue Springs. She is an incredible emerging media artist who is really into "community" too and maybe I could arrange to dial her into this as well. These are just some of my rambling thoughts and I'm sure that if we were to look at the context of the exhibit we can make many other connections. Even though we're still finishing the school year over the next week, I need to put the wheels in motion NOW in order to facilitate this thing (whatever this thing turns out to BE!) What I'd like to be able to do is to get people in the district excited about this so that we can see some press coverage and keep the wheels greased. I see no problem making something happen so long as I can begin to "prime the pumps" now.

I need to be able to tell folks sort of what this might look like. What are your thoughts?

Mark

Mark Alan Anderson,M.Ed.

Fine Art Department Chair AP Studio Art | Visual Art Photography | Design Oak Park High School

manderso@nkcsd.k12.mo.us

================================

comm. david to mark 5/28

dadelman — Wed, 28 May 2008 11:17:01 CDT

Hi Mark,

You may have gotten an automatic invitation to join a wiki I have set up to work on developing the video conferencing project. As I said, I’m experimenting with this tool and, as this is a collaborative project, it seemed that it might be the right tool to help us work through this as a team. If you haven’t received the invitation, the address is http://ndvcprojectplan.wetpaint.com/

If I set it up right you should have full writing privileges. Tell me what you think, both about the tool and the project outline I posted. A third person I want to include in our discussions is ************. She will be co-teaching the video conferencing projects.

I’m still looking at and thinking about the details of your absolutely beautiful proposal. I think the format of the project as I’ve visualized it work with the objectives of your curriculum. I see the Essential Questions as prompts for the collaborative documents.

As for the Museum collection, we can only count on the Bloch building and first floor galleries of the Nelson-Atkins building. This leaves us with; Mod. and Contemp., African, Photography, featured exhibitions, Ancient, and Europe 14th century through WWI. If the survey results are to guide us, meaning rural teachers are interested in broadening horizons, Mod./Contemp. and African are probably our choices. Missouri High School Art GLE’s certainly suggest Mod./Contemp. Social Studies Standard 6, Depth of Knowledge standards all can be supported by the Pop through Post Mod galleries. What do you know, that happens to coincide with your list of artists/themes!

Okay, that beautiful PDF proposal you sent me - I have to know how that was formatted. Please tell me that was a template and you didn’t create it from scratch. I intend to steal that for a different proposal I’m working on.

d