Exit Through the Gift Shop

I recently watched the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. Going into it, I thought it was going to be a film about the famous and anonymous street artist Banksy. I've always been interested in his work and wanted to learn more about him. The film ended up being much more than that and asked some very important questions about contemporary art, what makes an artist, and the messages art, particularly street art and pop art, are sending. For those who have not seen the film it is made by Banksy using footage captured by the eccentric Thierry Guetta, a french immigrant from Los Angeles, now known as “Mr. Brainwash.” It captures the story of Guetta as he transforms from curiously filming his cousin the street artist “Invader,” to becoming addicted to capturing any street artists that he could, his obsession with Banksy, through to his rapid development as a pop/street artist selling millions of dollars of art work. Guetta films hours upon hours of graffiti artists at work becoming totally engrossed in the world of art to the point where he puts everything on the line to promote his own name. Interviews with and footage of artists including Banksy and Shepard Fairey, who got to know Guetta very well, give further insight the elaborate ways in which “Mr. Brainwash” developed into a sensation. The end of the film calls into question “rules” about art and whether or not the massive amount of work that Guetta creates in such a short time is actually of any value or if people are just suckers for anything that they are told they should appreciate. For me this called into question what we have been talking about in regards to media literacy. If you reassign the idea that media in a way tells us what we should buy, what we should eat, and what we should watch to the art world, then you essentially have art produced by “Mr. Brainwash.” As his huge art exhibition was haphazardly thrown together as was much of the art work displayed the value of the art itself is really called into question. But regardless, due to it’s publicity in the LA Weekly there were thousands of people who came, saw, and bought. Along with questioning the consumer culture of the art world the film brings up questions about obsession, messages in art work, and obviously the controversial world of street art. I think this is an important film for any artists, art educators, or those intrigued by the art world to see.

Year 2060: Education Predictions

The video below, "Year 2060: Education Predictions," sponsored by the Khan Academy, discusses the ways in which education is shifting and has already made changes. The predictions made are based on the idea that our traditional model of a classroom, with rows of desks and chairs with a professor talking will completely be transformed into a place of interaction, experimentation, and hands-on exploration. The speaker, Sal Khan, proposes that in the past most of the work force was based on manual labor, some mental work, and only a small majority in the field of creativity and the arts. He believes that now we have a more even playing field due to the industrial revolution but as our technology progresses there will be a huge jump to large number of people working through creative means and only a small minority involved in manual work. As this shift is taking place, the speaker proposes that our classrooms will as well. He explains that instead of a GPA type situation students will be moving to a model in which education is based on personal achievement and ways that students move along in their learning at their own pace and in their own way. The credentials will be based on fixed high standards, based on a portfolio of projects as a "transcript." Essentially, based on this future work model where most are working under creative means, employers will be looking for physical evidence of what someone has created, jobs that they have done, or impacts they have made in certain positions. He continues on to discuss the role of the teacher as a "mentor." A mentor for students can often be much more beneficial as they are working with students as opposed to teaching at them. In the model presented by the speaker, there is no lecturing, teaching is based on these mentors, working together, moving around to all students and working with them. Through this students will be able to interact with all the teachers, along with the other students, based on their particular needs. The speaker concludes that due to the high expectations of students there will be a huge jump, up to 99% in the global literacy rate, giving much greater opportunities to students all over the world.

There are certainly a lot of great ideas in the predictions made by Sal in the video. Education as he describes it creates a world in which students can focus on what it is that interests them, and become experts in certain areas on their own terms. There are already schools that run like this, giving students open time to make explorations on their own and really delve into particular areas of study. The speaker is determined that this will happen even earlier than 2060 and we will start to see these shifts within the next 10 to 15 years. There are obviously many questions that arise with this model of teaching. How will be making sure students are effectively learning basic life skills? Is their contact through experience enough? How early on in education can we be practicing this model? Although it is easy to say that students in their early years of education should not participate as they need to accomplish things such as learning to read and write, isn't their literature based on the idea of learning through play? To what extent can that work? And is the exploration that the speaker talking about just a more advanced version of that? All of these are questions that came up for me as I was watching. On the other hand, as a teacher I could imagine it being quite rewarding to mentor a student and watch them develop projects on their own and learn things out of their own discoveries. As these are ideas that we discuss in class it is obvious that there is a certain level of this practice being utilized today in classrooms. I know as an art educator I imagine my future classroom to be a place where students will have opportunities to explore, using media of their choosing, creating work based on what interests them. But to what extent is that appropriate? How will this idea be translated to other subjects such as math, science, and history? Will there ever be a total shift as the speaker in the video suggests? I encourage you to watch the video and come up with some of your own questions about what is being discussed. The video shares a side to education that every teacher should be made aware of. And whether it seems to be directly part of their future as a teacher or not, it is always good to think about. Also the Khan academy is definitely a website worth exploring.



Year 2060: Education Predictions: Sal is asked to make some predictions for the year 2060

Jean Michel Basquiat: Questions and Concepts

Essential Questions:
- In what ways can symbols take on important cultural/personal meanings?
- How can we be using our personal experiences to talk about greater concerns?
- How can we our environments be useful in the artistic process?
- By tracing our roots, in what ways can we make connections to how they effect us in the present day?
- How can the use of language play an essential role in portraying the artists voice?

Key Concepts:
- Symbols can be developed and used to convey personal beliefs.
- Through our personal experiences we can make connections to larger issues.
- By using elements from our environments in our making, we are directly engaged with our surroundings, creating a strong personal connection.
- Our roots can be an indicator of who we are and what we are concerned with in the present.
- Language can be used to further enforce the message of the artist to their audience.

Jean Michel Basquiat

Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-88) created uniquely abstract works in order to express himself and ideas about his culture. Basquiat developed highly stylized and vibrant self portraits along with publicly displaying his work through street art to further convey his ideas.

This American Life: Middle School

As "The American Life" presents middle school in multiple different scenarios I found the theme of social status to be running throughout most all of the discussions. There is a great concern for middle school students with what drama is going on, who is friends with who, how to act towards people, and how other students are seeing them. Early on in the episode a middle school teacher comments on how due to all of this he is not sure if the students are actually learning anything. There is a humorous discussion about this, saying how at this age they might as well not even be in school, but the conversation continues on to explain how educators for this age group need to be creative about their teaching, listen to the students need, and find ways to help them grow. This reminds me of the discussion with Amber Ward on how she trusted her students to make their own decisions in regards to their projects. She explains that they are beginning to establish their independence, as also talked about in Kerlavage. Ward demonstrates positive and creative ways of teaching middle school students in her Fantasy Facebook assignment as she allows the students to make art based upon their interests, listens to the students need for working with ideas that they are individually interested in, and is helping them grow by having them develop their self-identity. It is clear that the idea of self-identity is certainly important in these years as seen in the American Life episode along with Ward's article and my classroom observations. The middle school teacher I observed had the students working directly with creating a character portrait involving many things that they are interested in. The students were figuring out what was most important to them to place in their collage of who they are as individuals. The young girl at the beginning of the episode discusses this in saying that middle school is a time to grow up and establish who you are, as frustrating and even terrible as it may be. Another predominant theme was in students being influenced by and listening to their peers. This was especially seen the last segment of the episode especially, with the students in the class and the way in which they turned their isolation of the angry student into trying to help him instead. Also, Ward briefly addressed this in our discussion in how students will conform to what their classmates are doing. I feel as though what is important to remember in relation with educating middle school students is that they are capable of a lot more than one may give them credit for. As much as they are going through a time of turmoil they are also at a point where everything is new and experimentation is key. As Kerlavage explains, they are beginning to develop their own sense of artistic expression as they are establishing their roles in the adult world. Keeping this in mind, art educators can assist them greatly in their decisions about who they are.

Art Education Application Portfolio

Make Believe

May 2010

Photographs of Charcoal on Paper

Transferred to Video

Mnemosyne

May 2011

Oil on Canvas

H: 36" W: 41"

Cezanne Color Study

November 2009

Acrylic on Paper

H: 18" W: 24"

Oranges

February 2011

Oil on Canvas

H: 10" W: 14"

Self Portrait

March 2011

Oil on Canvas

H: 16" W: 12"

Figure Study

May 2010

Graphite on Paper

H: 18" W: 24"

Janis Joplin

December 2010

Charcoal on Paper

H: 18" W: 24"

Fly

September 2011

Woodcut Print

H: 12" W: 12"

Vessel

February 2011

Clay
H: 11" W: 10"

Repair

May 2011

Clay

H: 9" W: 5"

H: 5" W: 3"

Clown

September 2010

35 mm Print

H: 9 1/2" W: 6 1/2"

Escape

September 2010

35 mm Film Print

H: 6 1/2" W: 9 1/2"

Mantle

December 2010

35 mm Film Print

H: 9" W: 6"

Studio Exploration Update

Place: Emerson, NJ. Known to its residents as "the bubble."

Questions about the place: Emerson is a very small community. The people that live there, especially those that have grown up there, are effected by this in different ways. How does the close, "family town" atmosphere effect those people, positively and negatively? How does it provide a sense of comfort for some and a sense of confinement for others?

Investigation of the place: I have already done some factual research on the town and explored the town webpage, describing town activities, the government, schools, etc. I was also thinking about asking my main questions to some people that reside there. Still thinking if this will be useful.

Artists: When looking up place-based art I stumbled upon an artist named Justin Marable. A lot of his pieces involve brightly colored landscape with silkscreened landmarks featured in his surronding area. They are really interesting and give a unique look at the place where he is from. Although I was thinking more on a 3 dimensional level, his work has led me to contemplate reconsidering my concept slightly.

Ideas for artmaking: I still like my original idea of the paper mache "bubble," featuring a sense of comfort on the inside while the outside represents facts, giving a sense of confinement. I am going to do some sketches though on how I could use the work of Marable as an influence. I like his bold use of color with one solitary element of his place. An element of my hometown that I want to work with is the one traffic light that hangs in the center of the town. I have to work the actual artmaking out as it is a bit rough right now, but I know I definitely want to use the idea of "the bubble" and the traffic light.

The center of town

 

Me in the center of town