Project Zero: Art & contemporary issues

Every time I go on professional development, I write up what I learnt and share it with my colleagues (either an explicit document about the PD or through adding information in my Edtech newsletter). I haven't blogged for a while, so decided to add some of the information from recent(ish) PD here!

In October I attended Project Zero Perspectives: Learning Together, Leading Together in Washington DC. The next few entries will include write ups from sessions I attended.

Silent Rhetoric:
​Art & contemporary issues

​Elizabeth Dale-Deines
Smithsonian Museum of American Art

PZ Description: “Artists communicate persuasive messages about issues of global import using a strategically-deployed vocabulary just as writers and public speakers do. Using Thinking Routines to engage with a massive artwork, participants will explore issues facing the world’s citizens today as well as the power of visual communication in shaping public opinion. As a group in the role of students, participants will engage in a discussion that spirals out from the classroom to take an increasingly global-minded perspective while we document our thinking and learning. Retaking the role of the teacher, this same documentation will guide reflection: how can a 40-minute object lesson spiral outward to inform students’ thinking when they have left the classroom? How can we lead by example, using evidence to refine our practice rather than holding tightly to unexamined plans?”

Alexis Rockman's "Manifest Destiny"

What happened:

Chalk Talk for ‘What is propaganda’, ‘what is persuasion’ and  ‘what place should art have in issues of global significance’.

​We didn't spend too long on this activity, but you could definitely turn it into a whole lesson, or weave this discussion through a whole unit!

We then moved into the gallery where we spent the rest of the session looking at Alexis Rockman’s Manifest Destiny (at this point we did not know the name of the painting):

• The canvas is split into four, so in small groups of two or three, we looked only at one quarter of the image. (You can see the section I focussed on above)
  
  
• We did a ‘see, think, wonder’ routine. We were given a really good amount of time to jot down our ideas onto sticky notes.  (We thought a lot about sci-fi, the lost city of Atlantis, ship wrecks and more...)
  
  
• We shared our thoughts and ideas with the group then looked at the painting as a whole. We talked about how seeing different sections of the painting changed our ideas. (I surprised myself, by really focussing on my quarter only - I think if I had looked at the rest or the title, the experience would have not felt so rich. If you duplicate this activity, I recommend printing out the image and only giving the students their quarter).
  
  
• We shared our ‘wonders’ together - which lead to more questions - many of the new 'wonders' we had when looking at the whole piece were very different to our initial ones, because when viewing the image in full, so much more was revealed! 
  
  
• We were given extra context about the image. Including that it’s in New York, in contains the Brooklyn bridge, the artist paints a lot about global warming and the title is ‘Manifest Destiny’.

 

• We then looped back to talking about propaganda, persuasion and the role of art in global issues. It was actually really hard to stay balanced - because having art which draws attention to issues which we care about seems important and relevant, but then art doing the same for issues we do not care about or actively disagree with, it seems very manipulative. It would be interesting to find a range of art works drawing attention to issues on the full range of the spectrum or for issues which are more divisive (I live in the South at the moment...so maybe something about gun control), to see the different reactions and thoughts this activity would produce.

 

• We also spoke about the artists intentions,  the ugliness/beauty of the painting, how it would be viewed by different people and in different places, we spoke about the truth in the image and more.
  
  
• (At some point we also looked at the work as a 'diorama' - and were asked to think about the connotations of that word)
  
  

Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this session and would love to do this with works we more commonly think of as propaganda. This painting and activity could be used as a great gateway into a scientific/humanities research piece. You could also easily find other works of art about other global issues and do the same activity.

This was very interesting to me, as I have family members who are artists and others who work for the news (including my dad who is about to retire after 40 years as a news cameraman!), so I would love to see their responses to the initial prompts. 

Some ideas and resources for taking this further.
Adapt the unit using:

• David King's Soviet poster collection (soon to be exhibited in full at the Tate)
• Pulitzer Prize Winners
• "Photos of the Week" from the Guardian...of maybe even Buzzfeed's.
• You could even do a whole session on this, using political cartoons (more here)
• An exploration of the collections by artist Gabriel Orozco (collections showing waste and consumerism) 
• Chris Jordan's photography which highlights waste (and includes images from Atlanta...where I currently live)
• More artists exploring global warming
• Use images from "36 Brilliant Paintings that Describe Everything Wrong with the World Today"
• Use images from "20 Stunning Art Expressions That Create Public Awareness" (though you may want to find better quality images)
• Use more Alexis Rockman artworks!
• If you wanted to look at different sections from an image as a whole class, you could use ClassTools' Lights Out - you simply upload the image and move the torch over different sections to reveal them.
  
  
• I really recommend using Google's Cultural and Art Institute. You can find high quality images from galleries all over the world. Their collection also includes museum objects, street art, world wonders and more. You can create your own collections/galleries or explore those made by other users (your students can also make them). Most images you can zoom in to see them in incredible detail. You can explore museums before visiting them, including using museum street view (also great for virtually visiting museums). I also really like the 'nearby feature', which allows you to find works of art and museum partnerships close by (I spent the morning looking at what Atlanta has on offer, but will definitely use this feature when on vacation).

Hope I was able to explain the session clearly, as well as giving some ideas for adapting it. In August we take the whole Grade 10 to Washington DC, so I am going to do some pre-trip activities with my advisory students before we go. 

Please share links to any resources, including artist and artworks, that you think will be useful for a related unit/lesson.

Thanks!