The Carrot Revolution: A Blog About Art Education... and Vegetables.

Art History at the Kunstbar

2008-03-04T00:58:00.000-08:00

Quiz Time!

See how many references to various artworks and artists you and/or your students can identify in Kunstbar:

Our Doubts Are Traitors

2008-03-03T04:10:00.000-08:00

MIT professor Ed Boyden has a 10 point plan about How to Think. He posits some important ideas that will no doubt be of interest to all areas of education, but here's one I thought particularly relevant to the art room:

Make your mistakes quickly. You may mess things up on the first try, but do it fast, and then move on. Document what led to the error so that you learn what to recognize, and then move on. Get the mistakes out of the way. As Shakespeare put it, "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

I don't think he suggests anything radically new, but its a good list to look at to while considering both our own learning styles and ones we promote in the classroom. His first point, "Synthesize new ideas constantly" should resonate with the idea of "keep the pen moving" as a way to keep ideas flowing.

100 Architects to build a city

2008-03-01T04:06:00.000-08:00

Project Statement:
The scope of the project is to Develop 100 hundred villas in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, for the client, Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd. Both Ai Wei Wei studio in Beijing and Herzog have collaborated on a masterplan to build this city with the help of 100 emerging architects from around the world (27 different countries). The project has been divided into 2 phases. The first phase is the development of 28 parcels of land while the second phase will develop the remaining 72. Each architect is responsible for a 1000 square meter Villa.

Which international architects would you choose to build a city in China? This great collaborative idea might be easily modified to the classroom too. Whenever issues related to materials, culture, space (or lack of it), financial restraints, and cooperation come up, I can see how an art classroom would be the perfect testing ground for such a thing.
-cr

Longest. Field. Trip. Ever.

2008-03-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

You probably won't be able to fit this into your annual budget, but taking students to the Museum on the Moon would certainly be a trip to remember.

Link via Boing Boing.

Exploring the Explorers

2008-02-29T07:47:00.000-08:00

I recently posted about this photograph, The Explorers by Jennifer Zwick. Today I found a link to her "Explorers Blog" through Mrs. Tulip's Blog.

Three thoughts:

1. The blog is a great format for following the process and progress of individual projects.

2. In the digital age, the idea of 'planning' a photograph seems like such an antiquated notion. Much easier to snap a few thousand on your 2 GB memory card and pick the best, than take the time to plan and organize a single good one. Zwick's process can serve to illustrate what is becoming a forgotten art in itself- planning. The Explorers Blog provides a great opportunity to show how much organization, forethought, and effort can go into creating a single photograph.

3. Did you notice Zwick's t-shirt? Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, geek artists rock.

From Here to Awesome!

2008-02-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

My friend Shaun caught a great little Academy Award moment up on his awesome edublog, The International Counselor. The following is from the speech of Ratatouille's director, Brad Bird:

“I want to thank the Academy. I also want to thank my junior-high guidance counselor for a meeting we had where he asked me, ‘What do you want to do with your life?’ and I said, ‘I want to make movies.’ ”

The counselor then asked what else he wanted to do with his life, and Bird repeated, “Make movies.” After more exchanges about what Bird would do if he couldn’t make movies, if movies didn’t exist, the aspiring animator said he would have to invent them.

“I only realized just recently that he gave me the perfect training for the movie business,” said Bird.

Brilliant. The thing that I especially love about this story is that things have changed so much from when Bird was in school, that his daydream would no longer be seen as unreasonable by a forward thinking counselor. That's not to say that every student who wants to will one day hold an academy award- but today, careers in filmmaking and animation can be both viable and lucrative. I've mentioned it before, but for every student who wants to go into film but is afraid that they can't "make it", for every parent who worries that their kid wants only to be the next Speilberg, and for every teacher or counselor who think that video amounts to "kids being silly in front of the camera", Elizabeth Vann Ness' New York Times article Is a Cinema Studies Degree the New M.B.A.? is required reading.

Yes, I've posted that before, and I'll beat that dead horse until its... (I'm ending that sentence early because everything that is coming to my mind about beating dead horses is kinda gross. I'll just spare you. If you can think of an appropriate ending, post it in the comments and I'll give you credit for being more clever than I am).

One fine example of how junior filmmakers can get their work out there is the From Here to Awesome online film festival, which looks fantastic because its open to all and free. Their website describes the festival as being about "discovery and distribution" - filmmakers retain the rights to their work, and can possibly earn revenue if their film is selected for distribution.

Of course, if you're in the Shanghai area, another great way to get your work out there is by submitting work to our Shanghai Student Film Fest. However, since blogspot is blocked in China, this probably is of interest to nearly none of you.

On another note, we've just passed our 400th post! Can I get a 'w00t'?

The Comic Book Project

2008-02-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

Comic Books get a bum rap in the United States. The words immediately conjure images of disproportionate people in primary colored tights. Fair enough, that's what defined comics for many years. However, as Scott McCloud has often pointed out, that limited view ignores the great possibilities in the merging literature and visual art.

Enter The Comic Book Project:

The Comic Book Project engages children in a creative process leading to literacy reinforcement, social awareness, and character development, then publishes and distributes their work for other children in the community to use as learning and motivational tools.

Run out of Teachers College, The Comic Book Project looks like a phenomenal project which taps the potential of this medium by engaging students in a process that carries them through inspiration to publication. The project provides students with a new topic to write comic books about each year. Every comic submitted is included on their website, and a select few are given publication.

Stratastencil Animation

2008-02-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

This animation was done by a Javan Ivy, a student at Pratt University. The technique, which he refers to as "stratastencil" is done by stacking pages of cut stencils.

I don't know about you, but I'd kind of like to see a feature film done in this style.

Maybe a remake of all three Lord of the Rings movies. That would be sweet.

Software Structures

2008-02-26T04:12:00.000-08:00

I'm not as much of a computer geek as the big Carrot himself, but as his friend and fellow contributor, I'm happy to call myself a technophile (or is that the same thing?). In any case, a few of you might appreciate these software structures based on Sol Lewitt drawings. They're created by Casey Reas. The Whitney Museum has more of this, and as I recall, they put on a great show called "BitStreams" way back when.

If software structures is too conceptual for you, try this mesmerizing art game that has absolutely no objective but to keep pressing the mouse. It's at Vectorpark.com.

-cr

Wait. What?

2008-02-26T01:18:00.000-08:00

You can do live chroma key with not just photos, but video in Leopard's Photobooth? WHAT?

Drag and drop - live and learn!

About a Pencil

2008-02-25T05:44:00.000-08:00

When a bunch of tech geeks get together to, I don't know, plan a Learning 2.008 conference, you can bet that you'll be bombarded with all kinds of swell ideas and find out about all the latest gadgets and useful tools. I don't know how he does it, but Michael Lambert of Concordia International School in Shanghai is always digging up the coolest stuff on the web to use with his students. Well, I just got back from our monthly meeting, and I immediately began playing around with Pencil - a fantastic open source traditional animation program.

With Pencil, you can sketch out your idea in a bitmap layer, and then create a frame by frame animation in the vector layer. As a 'traditional' animation program, it doesn't do tweens- just frame by frame, but if that's what you need (and you do need this), it is an extremely powerful and useful tool. Its also extremely free.

Thanks Mike!

Drawit

2008-02-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yet another paint program for the mac, Drawit has two things going for it:

1. They have a free version.

2. The vector tools are very powerful and very simple.

As far as vector editing goes, so far only shape editing in Adobe Flash is easier. I still don't understand why they don't transfer that technology to their other programs.

Deviant Work, Deviant Alternatives

2008-02-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

Student artist Lindsey writes in to suggest My Art Space as an interesting alternative to Deviant Art . I'll get to that in a second. First I want to point out her cool her student blog is, as an example of students publishing their work online, and using that format as a way to discuss their process, as well as feelings and intentions about their work and assignments. I especially like this intaglio print called Owl Dreams. Thanks Lindsey!

Back on topic:

Like Deviant Art, My Art Space is a social networking site for artists. As Lindsey points out it is a little 'classier', and the contributers there do, as a group seem to take their artwork more seriously. Another feature that is very cool: you can create galleries of your work, and allow people to either download them or embed them as slideshows. Browsing the site, I quickly found the stunning paintings of David Carmack Lewis:

Its worth checking out some of his other galleries as well.

One of the reasons that My Art Space has that "classier" feel than Deviant Art (besides the title) is that members can 'flag' inappropriate work - so it has that element of a community policing itself, like a wiki. It would seem for classroom use, that this would be a good alternative to Deviant Art.

There are some drawbacks too- it doesn't seem to have the same level of participation as on Deviant Art, which makes sense considering the smaller community. In a way its the same sort of quandary, I think, between posting student videos to Youtube or TeacherTube. On Youtube, the obvious advantage is the possible quantity of exposure, on Teacher Tube, you don't have to worry so much about inappropriate comments on student work.

The other drawback of My Art Space is that the galleries default to play music. You can shut it off, but I'd prefer if you had the option to turn it on. I find that pretty annoying- but that might just be me; I have a pet peeve about sounds on websites. Not sure why.

At any rate, both provide a variety of resources and experiences for posting art online, and I find it incredibly exciting that students have found the motivation and confidence to put their work 'out there'.

Speaking of which, a former student of mine, known on Deviant Art as "Aean Nephquarielle" is using the site in a very creative way- to publish her own online comic book, Conquering Gods in weekly installments.

Here's the synopsis:

Set in a futuristic Egyptian colony of an imperialistic Britain, interplanetary religious wars play far in the background of young Ichor Bielladonia's life as she is raised by a reknown professor of archeology and his wife after he had discovered her as an abandoned infant sealed in an ancient temple underneath the Nile. However, it is becoming more and more evident that Ichor possesses incredible strength, speed, and telekinetic powers. Star-struck at her own abilities, she becomes a vigilante, forcing beings even more powerful out of their hiding among the British officers and the campus professors. But much more serious, her activity catches the eye of an evil force that seems like the mirror image of her and her powers---but unmistakably evil.

I'm hooked!

TGIF!

2008-02-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

I really dig Michael Wandelmaier's style. There's a great sense of motion, color and imagination. This work, Something Fishy, is graphite on bristol board with digital coloring. Hadn't thought of that approach before, but I like what I see.

Neat!

Link via Drawn!.

Deviant Art in the Classroom

2008-02-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

Here's the problem that a lot of art teachers have with Deviant Art: a lot of the images are violent, exploitive, juvenile, and very often - really bad.

This is of course, only a problem in the context of students logging on in the classroom. We're trying to teach Rembrant and the students are looking at images of scantly clad busty women with swords that are dripping with blood.

However- a if we take a look at how the site works, and a bit of a closer look maybe we can find some common ground between what we want to teach and what the students want to learn.

Deviant Art is an open forum for people to post their artwork, and as a result, you're going to get what is essentially a microcosm of the rest of the internet: a lot of inappropriate junk, but also a good deal of interesting and educational stuff, especially when you know which pages to bookmark.

Just to pick an example - artist Heather Horton does beautiful, serene paintings - not a hacked limb or bulging corset in sight. In other words, since students are responding to the format and interactivity of Deviant art, with a little looking around there are plenty of really talented, and largely 'undiscovered' artists to be found here.

Tangent - what does it mean, really, to be 'undiscovered' if, like Horton, you have 46,675 page views?

Back to the main point- you can also find wonderfully imaginative watercolors, like the work of "Scarlet Dragonchild:

You can also find examples of blossoming artists whose work reflects the ideas themes of adolescent art, like this neat little tribute by 'The World Joker':

Of course, I'm being selective. The predominance of violent and exploitive imagery on Deviant Art is explained by its popularity with high school students. As we all remember from our readings on 'artistic development of adolescents', high school often bring themes of solitude, loneliness, violence, and death into their art making. If we can accept the concept that its not just 'ok', but healthy for students to be working through these ideas in their artwork, perhaps a case can be made for the images that they find on this website becoming an important part of class discussion.

Finally, the thing about Deviant Art, that I find absolutely fascinating - because so many students post their images there, it has become, in essence, an enormous online art show that they are curating themselves.

Essentially, its one big amazing "Art 2.0" tool. Accomplished artists, new artists, photographers, graphic designers, painters and drawers all have equal voice here. Obviously, there are issues about using it in the classroom, especially if your school uses a filtering system. Its also really easy to 'stumble upon' some not-school-appropriate images on the site.

Basically, that amounts to making it a difficult site to integrate into the classroom well. Yet, it seems like a great way for students to showcase their work outside of their school community, respond to and critique the works of others, and perhaps discover some new styles, techniques, and mediums that they might like to try out for themselves.

Mao in Reverse

2008-02-20T04:06:00.000-08:00

With the onslaught of global capitalism hitting mainland China and creating over 100 billionaires seemingly overnight, it's almost easy to forget Mao's terrible regime not so long ago. In retrospect, his stint as dictator (27 yrs), was remarkably short in world history terms. But his impact was huge in human sacrifice terms.

Zhang, Hongtu is one of those artists who lived through the Cultural Revolution and decided that New York was a better fit for his free-thinking ways. From that vantage point, he began to make art that represented both worlds simulaneously. He writes:

"If you stare at a red shape for a long time, when you turn away, your retina will hold the image but you will see a green version of the same shape. In the same way, when I lived in China, I saw the positive image of Mao so many times that my mind now holds a negative image of Mao. In my art I am transferring this psychological feeling to a physical object."

This emphasis on green gives his "ancient" tongue-in-cheek bronze McDonald's containers a whole new meaning. This was shown at the Princeton museum (along with truly ancient chinese works).

"I believe in the power of the image, but I don't believe in the authority of the image."

"Sometimes the hole in my work might remind you of the Nothingness of Taoism or the negative space of traditional Chinese ink painting, but the visual inspiration of my work comes directly from a bagel."

I've been amazed by his work and ongoing explorations of bicultural concerns. If you're interested, check out his website at MoMao.com. There's also a PBS special about him that aired last summer.

Thank You!

2008-02-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

Many of you wrote in to congratulate us for being yesterday's Blog of Note. I just want to take a moment today to thank all of you for stopping by and for the kind comments that you left. I also want to thank those of you who have left comments that challenge some of our posts. To me, art is about challenging ideas and raising questions - and so should be art education. If you're a new reader or seasoned revolutionary, I hope you'll continue to do so.

Thank you!

Lessig for Congress

2008-02-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

It seems that the great civil libertarian and copyfighter, Professor Larry Lessig is considering a run for congress. His campaign alone would likely bring more attention to critical 21st century issues regarding participatory culture and net neutrality. You can follow the campaign to start the campaign at the Draft Lessig Blog.

The Problem with Pixish

2008-02-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

At first glance, I love the idea behind Pixish - a website where amateur designers can compete to have their work selected by various clients through their proposed projects. At first glance, it seemed like a great, logical extension of Web 2.0, in that it creates an opportunity for anyone with a good idea and strong design to get their work recognized, and even published. This quickly leads to daydreams of graduating students who have gotten scholarships to the schools of their choice based (partially) on the fact that they've already had their work on the front of the new Stephen King novel, and created the new Starbucks logo.

Ok, that's a reach, but the idea is to have students engaging in projects that take them outside the classroom and allow them to participate in a process that allows them to examine a diversity of approaches to a given problem.

Unfortunately, as many different people have already pointed out, the concept behind Pixish amounts to spec work. In other words, rather than paying an artist to create various concepts, a company can get a bunch of artists to sketch out ideas for them, and only pay the one that they want to use. There are many arguments against spec work, but basically it comes down to undervaluing the role of the artist in the part of the very creative process that defines their partnership with their clients.

In response to some of this criticism, Pixish has backed off its web design projects in good faith. Now they only accept illustrations and photos- however, that doesn't seem to address the fundamental issue of valuing the work of the artists.

While it might seem great to engage students in online design contests, like the ones that are proposed on Pixish, we have to give consideration to who and what they are designing for- if it's for a professional project, what message are we sending to the students about the real value of art?

The reason that this is not Web 2.0 is painfully clear - the financial incentive inhibits the ability of a group of individuals to come together to share and build a community through an exchange of ideas.

You Suck at Photoshop

2008-02-14T05:17:00.000-08:00

I was going to write something about how Donnie Hoyle's tutorial series You Suck at Photoshop can help us think about using digital media to create engaging lessons; ~~but really, its just funny~~- the first few episodes are funny before an early shark jumping... especially if you've taught or use photoshop. Maybe not so school appropriate though...

Creating New Worlds

2008-02-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Museum of Art, 2005

I stumbled across the website of model-maker and photographer Lori Nix yesterday in my new quest to reacquaint myself with some contemporary photography. Nix turns her exhaustively detailed dioramas into beautiful and haunting scenes. On her info page, she describes her inspiration coming from watching disaster movies from the 70s and growing up in Kansas.

The state of Kansas is located in the middle of the United States geographically, and also represents the moral middle of the road as a state of mind where conventional family values and good citizenship go hand in hand. By linking disasters with moral imperatives Nix allows herself to question conventional codes of society at the same time as she explores the unsettling memories of her youth.

Diorama- a great way to get your photography students out from behind the lens and working with their hands. Nix provides an excellent example of how to create a diorama based around conceptions of identity and society.

PD Days

2008-02-13T02:22:00.000-08:00

The first two days after Chinese New Year break have been spent doing professional development activities, and I must say, the offerings were pretty good this year. One faculty member who was trained at the Beijing Opera presented about the differences between Eastern and Western theater. Eastern theater, he described, was more concerned with the beauty of the movements with little emphasis on what is going on 'inside'. Another teacher presented about her experiences growing up during the Cultural Revolution.

We also had a special guest, photographer Wang Gangfeng, also known as Gang of One who spoke of his own experiences during the Cultural Revolution and his discovery of photography. He presented his stunning work, which capture China in all of its amazing diversity and contradiction. Here are a few examples from his website:

Unfortunately, I had to cut out of his presentation early in order to prepare for my own. I'm sure my presentations on "Get to Know Your Mac" and "Imovie as a Tool for Curriculum and Assessment" weren't nearly as exciting, but I hope some of our underground mac users (we're a Dell school) found them helpful.

During these presentations, I suggested a few of my favorite free programs for mac. I also created a page of links to some great examples of imovie projects for various disciplines and rubrics for assessment. If you're using video in your classroom, there might be some useful ideas for you there too.

Obama and Art Education

2008-02-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

I have to admit - it was really difficult for me to be unplugged for our vacation, especially during Super Tuesday. Bad timing for a political junkie to be out of the loop. When we got back last night, I had to spend a few hours catching up with everything that we missed.

Here is one of the most interesting things I found - Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes brings our attention to the policy statements that (some of) the political candidates submitted to the Arts Action Fund. I'm sure no one will be surprised that more responses were received from the Democratic campaigns (Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson) than from their Republican counterparts (just Brownback and Huckabee).

As Green points out, only the Obama campaign submission is thorough and explains in detail what he has done and will do for the arts and art education. Obama is the only one who outlines his detailed platform for the arts, which cover the following major points:

Reinvest in Arts Education

Expand Public/Private Partnerships Between Schools and Arts Organizations
Create an Artist Corps
Publicly Champion the Importance of Arts Education

Support Increased Funding for the NEA
Promote Cultural Diplomacy
Attract Foreign Talent
Provide Health Care to Artists
Ensure Tax Fairness for Artists

While I'm not so easily convinced by campaign promises from any candidate, I do find it significant that his campaign is able to make a very good case based on past action, and a clear understanding of the issues regarding art education. The fact that the other candidates speak in platitudes (and in Clinton's case, even wanders into irrelevant and off topic issues) suggests to me that Obama is the only one who is serious about developing meaningful policy.

Finally, if you're a political junkie like me, you'll want to check out this important and insightful video by Lawrence Lessig about why he's supporting Obama, or you can read the transcript here.

Park(ing): Some Green Talk

2008-02-03T03:59:00.000-08:00

Since David is away, I'll post this one.

Ever think we need more parking? Having lived in NYC, I always thought so. Free parking, that is. But some have realized that finding parking is a lost cause. Rather, we should be spending more time finding spaces for parks rather than finding parking spaces. Thus a new movement was born: "Park(ing) Day".

Yes, it's a bit nuts. But this art group called Rebar calls upon all people to set up temporary parks in cities across the U.S. It's not just a crazy idea, though. It's become the talk of politics, business, and architecture.

Here's Tom Friedman (conservative journalist famous for his book "The World is Flat") who writes this:

In the world of ideas, to name something is to own it. If you can name an issue, you can own the issue. One thing that always struck me about the term “green” was the degree to which, for so many years, it was defined by its opponents — by the people who wanted to disparage it. And they defined it as “liberal,” “tree-hugging,” “sissy,” “girlie-man,” “unpatriotic,” “vaguely French.”

Well, I want to rename “green.” I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century. A redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology is not meant to trump the traditional Republican and Democratic agendas but rather to bridge them when it comes to addressing the three major issues facing every American today: jobs, temperature and terrorism.

The architecture world is changing too. Green roofs, solar panels, sustainable cities, and so on.
Here's the first major office building in the world that is completely self-dependent on energy.

This building in Singapore is the latest in an architectural trend to incorporate greenery as part of the structure.

This building in Japan is called the "Ark" (by Sanyo) and is surrounded by 5,046 solar panels.

-cr

TGIF! CNY Roundup!

2008-02-01T02:08:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday all! I'll be taking a short break from the Revolution for Chinese New Year - but before I go, I'll leave you with a week's worth mixed bag of Art-Ed related goodness for while I'm gone.

Love for Leopards:

When my mac crashed this week, I was up to 3 in the morning backing up files, and decided it was about time that I installed Leopard. Folks, if you've got a Mac and you're still running Tiger, its time to make the move. The improvement to Photo Booth alone is worth the price. First of all, the new Amusement Park style of photos in photo booth is hours of useless fun.

But what really turns Photo Booth from a cute image capture program into a powerful tool is the new Chroma Key function, which allows you to record live video and switch the backgrounds- instantly, and without a chroma color background. It even works with ichat.

Another great feature? Time machine. Now I won't have to be up until 3 AM backing up files ever again. Wish I'd installed this on Monday.

...and in political news..

If you didn't notice the button in the sidebar, I'm a Obama supporter, and it's not just because he's got the best logo. No, really he does- scroll down and take a look at it. Its an "O", and its also a rising sun. Simple, meaningful, inspirational. Love it! Now, Shepard Fairey (of OBEY GIANT fame) has created a limited run print edition of this equally amazing Obama poster:

Put your checkbooks away, its already sold out. However, all proceeds went to support the candidate. I love the poster, and love when art is used to make a difference.

...and speaking of great images...

In my quest to get reacquainted with photography as best I can in the next few months, I just discovered photographerJennifer Zwick. I particularly like this photograph, called The Explorers:

...and in other news...

If you're looking for some good classroom guidance, check out Sister Corita's excellent Art Classroom rules:

Found at High Low, you can read the text here. My favorite is rule 6: "Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make." It reminds me of Yoda. "Do. Or do not. There is no try." He was very wise for a muppet.

...and finally...

Artist Yeon Doo Jung creates fantastic photographs based on children's drawings. These beautiful images really capture the energy and lightness of children's art. Check out the website to see the photographs side by side with the drawings that inspired them.

That's it for me! We're out of here next week. Xin Nian Kuai Le!