Monday, October 20, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Erin Lobb's Art Work
I keep thinking, and rethinking, about this art piece that Erin Lobb, a senior from last year, did at my school. i assigned the project of writing a poem that was both visual and artistic and she gave me this (as a gift). It hangs on my wall, and it seems to jazz up my ideas about what words are actually for.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
More of Evan's Images
Evan drew this after reading "Preparing Doctoral Students for Doctoral Studies for Epistemological Diversity" by Aaron M. Pallas, in Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No. 5, June/July 2001 pp. 6 - 11. Art equalizes the playing field and can offer a metaphor/symbol/semiotic as a way of communicating. Doctoral work is about vocabulary. What is practical and useful to real world knowledge is shelved differently than the theoretical texts that follow traditions. Common sense is replaced with difficult language used as a disguise for easy-to-grasp concepts. The nature of this is only to protect the communities who speak such language and to keep an esoteric coterie in an academic position of power. Yet, the adage, “When in Rome…” is practical here. Survival in any land is getting used to the tongue in which the native speaks. (Ah, the irony here is that the native tongue is a privileged one.)
The building being shook by jumbo hands comes from "Fertile Obession: Validity After Postructuralism". The article touches upon the notion of needing to check validity by shaking/disrupting/shifting the presented information/evidence. Evan's drawing is a literal representation of challenging the research or "shaking/checking the foundations". There’s irony in how Lather uses high brow language to address the end of truth in science. It is a lot of work to understand this vocabulary of theory to come to the conclusion that no theories matter. This postmodern self-consciousness seems to be misled (in Bryan's opinion). In the pursuit to represent more stories and more language of those without power, the academic language reasserts power and elitism. Again, the academy has become the Star Bellied Sneetches. 
The next drawing is of two people in front of ab art piece, confused as to what they are looking at. This comes from "Visual Art as a Vehicle for Educational Research". The drawing spurred from a quote that discusses the issues challenging the use of art-based approaches. "Art-based approaches can be used in both the data gathering phase and the reporting phase, but in the latter there is the added complication of audience interpretation where audiences (or rather, spectators) might be less accustomed to dealing with the interpretation of images"(316). At last, notes Bryan, an article that seems relevant. We are, after all, visual creatures, and from the interpretation of the artistic expression, much insight can be found. I am a linguistic learner, but I recognized many of my students learned better with visuals. I tried to create semiotics as a guide for a diverse student population and learned that, often, the difficult concepts and tasks I undertook as a classroom teacher, could be better democratized through the use of art. It evened the playing field a little more. I also like this article for its investigation, although slight, on audience interpretation. The more I pursue my understanding of ‘teaching writing’ the more I am realizing that audience awareness is key.
This is Evan's piece drawn after reading "Concetpual Structure of Visual Metaphor", displaying a sequence of figures going clockwise. In the researcher's findings the "structure" of visual metaphor, or what exactly goes into the work seemed to be a combination of "life experiences, art practices(idea generation, materials, techniques) art practices in the social web (collaborating,community) and relationship to the artwork". Evan tried to put all of that in the drawing. Kind of. Jean Hicks, director of the Louisville Writing Project, used to talk about metaphorical ways of knowing and, like a classroom of writers, a classroom of artists need to be coached towards metaphors that represent who they are. They may have a start to their own thinking, but they may need activities to take such thinking further.
Evan's next drawing is from the "Form Carries Experience: A Story of the Art and Form of Knowledge," with the discontinuous staircase that forbids one from getting to the top or "goal". There's a lot of drawings that could have been done from the article but the quote that reads "It is so frustrating to be asked for help and you find you can't because of some reason you can't understand" (276). The quote struck Evan emotionally in a "man I really feel for ya lady" as if I decided to watch a Lifetime movie. The quote demonstrates the restrictions of communication - when you can't do it with words. Evan thinks. Karen Scott-Hoy paints, narrates, and thinks deeply about her eye-practice in a foreign land. Her story and paintings communicate more meaning bout her study and research. It transcends data as new data. 
The last drawing (before the finger monsters) is the Art not making the subject test from "Valid Knowledge and the Problem of Practical Arts Curricula". Much like the previous articles Evan sketched from one quote that immediately drew a picture in his head when he read it; "...the fact that these subjects have traditionally failed the critical test of discipline structure tactily means that they do not belong. They do not qualify as valid knowledge" (181). This tension was all over Kentucky curriculum, notes Bryan, especially with the writing portfolio. Should English educators prepare their students for work-place writing or should they prepare the students for academic, high brow writing? The problem is that the state tries to take control with mandates instead of allowing an educator's intuition for best instruction. Instead of knowing students as individuals, the State mandates a conformity that all kids should be the same. This is scary.
The finger monster drawings stem from one hall-way disciplinarian at an inner city middle school who resembled a thumb. Face and neck-wise. I wouldn't want to thumb wrestle these bad-boys, admits Bryan.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Sand Artist - Something We Should Talk About
Peter Donnelly of New Zealand arrives to beaches with a stick and a rake. In the morning, when the tide is out he begins designing intricate patterns in the sand and works on his creation for a few hours. Eventually, the tide comes in and all his art and labor disappears, only to be recreated in a new style the next time out.
There's something beautiful about this. It makes me want to write elaborate stories in chalk along city streets early in the morning, only to see a day of traffic wipe it out and smear it into oblivion.
Nothing lasts. Everything is temporary. Life is the miraculous moment while we have it.
The Night before Class began
Anticipating the Arts-Based Summer session, I sat down the night before class and scribbled the following poem. I offer it to our "thinking" blog so we will have more to discuss when we meet face to face. The two pieces of art Evan (you) posted are fascinating and, yes, they are in line with the articles. I can't wait to talk to you about this.
untitled
art. smart. can someone say fart?
i’m starting to feel claustrophobic,
in the xenophobic institutions that blockade intuition
and creative initiations of trying to think as i do.
foo foo foo, fee foo foo foo,
at the university, one must speak as the academics do,
(unless you wish they poo poo your brain).
let me explain.
i’ve never been out of school,
and i’m proud of being both the dork and a fool,
conscious of the fact i tend to drool
as my own race horse, and not another’s mule,
while using creativity as my major tool
to do things my very own way.
i’ve never had anything else to say.
learning is a blessing,
and i love messing with what i’m supposed to know,
to show the alternative worldviews
that ebb and flow in a confluence very often overlooked.
and i will admit i am sort of hooked on being crooked
and zig zagged along the folded cube.
i’ve never had a problem being a doobie-doo boob
nor a lopsided goob.
it’s just that i desire more freedom,
and for me, hmmm, emancipation comes
from keeping it real to all,
and not just the esoteric breed of the academic mall
who oppress others in the name of liberation,
and it isn’t their fault, cuz they’re stuck in hibernation
of tenure, journals, and corporate-pyramid egos....
so whereever he goes, i go, cuz i know,
it’s my show, yodel lay he ho
and for now, i still believe in the magic of the unknown.
i’m prone to have more questions
than answers, and i seek out fellow
dancers to tapdance through
the roses and are willing to
stop to smell the daffodils with me.
that’s how i live to be free.
Definitions
re·search [ri-surch, ree-surch]–noun
1. diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.: recent research in medicine.
1. diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.: recent research in medicine.
2. a particular instance or piece of research.
–verb (used without object)
3. to make researches; investigate carefully.
–verb (used with object)
4. to make an extensive investigation into: to research a matter thoroughly.
–verb (used without object)
3. to make researches; investigate carefully.
–verb (used with object)
4. to make an extensive investigation into: to research a matter thoroughly.
rethinking [ree-thingk~eng] - verb
1. to reconsider, esp. profoundly
2. the act of reconsidering
validity [vuh-lid-i-tee] - noun
1. the state or quality of being valid: to question the validity of the argument.
2. legal soundness or force
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
"By Degree"
Evan, hearing about Fred Wilson from you in class had me check out his artwork. I found this piece called "By Degree" to somewhat represent the Theodore Lewis article. Thanks for leading me to this artist. "By Degree" is open to much conversation.
Bryan
Monday, May 19, 2008
Bry's Self Portrait - Inspired by eggs and iceburgs
After reading "Reshaping the qualitative-quantitative divide through the currents of arts-based educational research" by James Rollins (2008), I had an image of myself trying to fit into an academic box. I talked this through with an artist friend of mine and told her one day I will make a movie of what it is like trying to make my mind fit in the parameters of academic thinking. I haven't made that movie, yet, but I did sketch out an image. This is me trying to conform. Yikes.
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