Exhibition

My art education class has been working on an exhibition which illustrates issues of racism. This exhibition can be found at http://cyberhouse.arted.psu.edu/322/exhibition.html

My personal curatorial choices can be viewed at: psu.voicethread.com/#create/6728571

Curator Statement:

This collection of work sheds light on the issues of racism. All of these works illustrate that we must look deeper than simply judging people based on the way they appear. In each clip someone is being judged based on their outward nature, these films help show how ridiculous these judgments truly are. Do not be ignorant, we are all people, we all deserve equal respect.

 Questions to consider when viewing these videosFind cards:

1.) Find an aspect of this artwork that makes you feel angry? What was it that made you feel a type of anger? Why do you think it made you feel this way?

2.) Find something in these videos that made you feel proud? what made you feel a sense of pride? Why do you think you had this reaction?

 

 

 

WeVideo

I have been exploring many different technologies that are new to me, such as Lino, Wix, Sound Cloud, Music Maker Jam, Garageband, Photoshop, This Penn State blogging site, and iMovie. All of these sites have played an important role in allowing me to feel comfortable exploring new technologies that I may be unfamiliar with. This new found comfort around technology is what caused me to discover one app in particular that I instantly fell in love with, WeVideo. This app inspires me to post on technology sites that I am more familiar with, such as Facebook and YouTube, sites that up until now, with the discovery of WeVideo, I never really had products that I wanted to upload. This is what the app WeVideo looks like.

Unknown

 

I absolutely love this app because it is easy and fun to use right from your phone and the best part is, it’s free! I am obsessed with this app because I have an Android; finding great, free, video apps is almost impossible to come by for those of us with Androids.

This app is so wonderful because all of your photos, videos, and music that are on your phone automatically transfer over to WeVideo. This is such a convenience, no extra time trying to download photos and music. This app is so quick and easy to use. This is what it looks like when you are inside the app.

overview_mobile

The above images are the images or videos you have chosen to include within your final video. The images under that are images or videos that you have taken with your phone. To put an image or video within your creation all you have to do is drag it into the placement you want it to be between, before, or after your other clips and photos. Once you have done this you have the option of clipping your video or increasing or decreasing the amount of time you want each photo to be up within the final video. To do this you simply click on the photo you want to change and go under the Trim tab, which can be seen below. So simple!

wevideo_android_trimming_clips

Within this app you also have the ability to add text onto each clip, yet again by simply clicking on the image you want to include text within and going under the Caption tab.

You also have complete control over the volume you want your full video, or individual clips to be. For instance if you use a video clip, you can turn the volume down, up, or completely off of the clip so that your other music throughout the whole video can be heard or the sound for that particular clip can be heard. To do this, yet again you simply click on the clip and go to the Volume tab.

As for the music, if you choose to have any throughout your video, you can also decide the volume control for that simply by clicking on the Unknown  Which is right on the main screen.

The music options for this app are wonderful, not only do you have access to all of the music on your phone, but the app also provides free music that goes along with each theme you can choose from to add to your video. this theme does not only provide free music, if you choose to use theirs, but it also adds a unique quality to your video as a whole. There are many themes to choose from, as seen in the image below.

wevideo-themes-1 The themes include simple, icy blast, fashonista, sweet flare, and so on. The free music within each theme goes along perfectly with the theme, which i found pretty neat.

When it comes to music, the other great thing about this app is that it goes along great with other music making apps. For instance I used the music app Music Maker Jam, which I also highly recommend, and once i made a song on their, it was instantly under audio options within WeVideo without having to do a single thing. I was so impressed and relieved by this factor.

I absolutely love this app and can not say enough how much I recommend its use. I already made two videos using this app, and am currently working on another one. Here is one of my videos I created using this app along with Music Maker Jam. 

I think that this technology would be great to use within art education because it was such a fun and easy app for me to use. I know that video production, as confirmed by all the YouTube videos and kids obsession with making snapchat videos, is huge for kids nowadays and very intriguing to them. In sharing this app with students you would provide them with a great resource to produce videos.

The other wonderful aspect about this app is how easy it is to share your video with YouTube and Facebook all for free.

This app could also prove extremely valuable within art education when focusing on stop animation. Since this video allows the use of pictures from your phone, and offers how long you want each image to be viewed, i feel like it would be the perfect app for stop motion beginners.

Even in creating music videos, this would be the perfect app, since it allows you to bring in the music of your choice and it allows you to clip and add different videos together. This app is also great because it allows you to view your piece as often as you wish. You simply press the play button.

I would love to incorporate tis app within my classroom, especially since now a days almost every kid past the age of 12 has a phone, and thus they hold the ability to create.

Diversity

Hello everyone! I made a quick video about diversity. If you want to check it out the link is posted below.

However I wanted to make the rights of ownership a creative commons- attribution but it will not allow me to. If anyone has any advice let me know! Thanks!

I figured it out! Had to make my own music. Let me know what you think of the new version!

Webquest Introduction

Now that I have been formally introduced to what I Webquest is, I am excited to start to explore some ideas on creating one of my own. So the main focus of a Webquest is to cause those that are on your quest to use higher level thinking skills, using the web as the focus of your lesson, and causing those on the quest to interact with others as well as the content. With that in mind, I want my Webquest to go along with my fundamental idea of anthropology and cultural history.  Thus I want my Webquest to focus on exploring their identity, and zoning in on one factor that helps to define who they are. For instance the class I plan to be working with has students that enjoy hunting, fishing, and football. A big part of how they identify themselves and their culture could be through these hobbies, thus I want them to chose one to further explore. For instance they could use the web to explore the origin and cultural background of hunting, they could then go and interview others on their views toward hunting, or interview their family members and better understand how their family got involved in the sport. Each kids Webquest will be unique and individualized based on the subject they chose that they identify with. After extensive research, they will then create a form of artwork, using materials that go along with the subject they chose, and that can further reflect their identity. They must explain why they chose that particular material and how it reflects on their identity. Within the Webquest I can include different website sources that provide a great resource for research, I can also include several links to different artists that also explore their identity, as well as artists that explore the historical meaning and origins of the culture that they identify with. So far this is a rough idea of my Webquest, if you have any further ideas or comments on how I can improve this interaction please feel free to leave a comment.

My Animation

So far I have had some difficulty uploading my animation, but it starts with the idea of identity. I feel that within art education it is important to help the kids understand and express how they identify with themselves. Within the animation different photos of how people can negatively or differently view themselves pop up. Stressing the ideas of identity crisis, such as a person born into the wrong gender, as well as body image issues, such as anorexia. I then include pictures of different cultures and backgrounds, since your origin and the culture you live in has a huge influence over identity. The next point I bring up within the animation is world issues. I flash pictures of issues that occur around the world, such as starvation, war, the cruelty of animals, pollution, and litter. I then express in the animation that the best way to explore and express these issues within your own identity and even around the world, is through the use of creativity, which is another important part of art education.

LOCATING Self As Teacher

animation2The personal experiences that I have encountered within my life and how art has supported me through my hardships is the reason I have such a desire to be an art educator. I want to show my students what a great impact art can have on their lives, because if  I did not have art within my life I would not be the person I am today.

For me art has the ability to temporarily take you away from your problems. To me art has a way of making time stop, because when you are absorbed within an art project, time no longer matters. Art makes me feel powerful, it gives me the ability to create, to express myself, and art was the one thing that gave me proof that I was worth something, I was good at something, my art gave me pride. Art was something I was acknowledged for.

As I get older art no longer has as much of a critical stance in my life because I now have control and freedom over my own life, the only person I need to rely on is myself. However as a child you do not maintain any control over what happens in your life , you are dragged into whatever situations your parents or guardians are going through. During that part of a persons life, in my opinion, an artistic outlet becomes the most valuable. I want to provide that outlet to my students, and allow them to see how much art can truly impact their lives.

For those reasons I think exploring identity and realizing your beliefs and struggles that you are experiencing within life is incredibly important to bring into the classroom. These issues are not necessarily something that needs to be discussed openly, since that may be hard for the student, but I feel that it is important to put them into perspective within your own self, and perhaps express them within your work.  If a student is going through a hard time, and they do not want to discuss it, it is important for them to be given an outlet to express this pain, whether that be through art or music or even poetry.

In being an art educator my key goal is to allow my students to discover a safe, private outlet that can allow them to be free from the burdens that are put upon them, whether that may be problems at home, problems at school, or even problems they are fighting within themselves.

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Important Areas to Teach

“What are five things that are really important that you hope your students learn from you as a teacher in this imagined teaching context in 2025?”

-I hope to help my students find themselves. Allow them to think about what they feel or how they view certain topics. I want them to explore their identity and how they define themselves. I want them to explore their family history. What do they believe in? What is of importance to them? How do they feel others view them? How do they view themselves?

-I hope my students learn about certain issues that are going on in the world, or even within their school and how they feel toward these problems. Do these problems effect them personally? Do they contribute to these problems? Is there anything that they can do to help alleviate these issues?

-I want to allow my students a new way to view the world. Let creativity take control. There are no boundaries or set rules within art. I want my students to have the freedom, and feel safe enough within my classroom, to explore the possibilities art offers. I want them to realize that art is a broad definition.

-However I still feel that it is important to teach my students the fundamentals of art, though allow them the freedom to ignore these rules.  I want them to understand the elements of art; line, color, texture, shape, value, form, and space, along with balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity and how these elements work.

-Another important factor of art is its history, and I feel this is important to discuss and teach students. I want to discuss what use to be considered acceptable art and how the definition of art has evolved. I want them to discover an artist that they can relate to, from the past or present.

Link

I chose Voyant Tools to compare the two articles; “Are We Still Evolving?” and “Climate Effects on Human Evolution.” Voyant Tools allows me to take these two articles on Anthropology  and compare as well as determine the number of words included in the articles, the number of unique words, the length of the documents, and the vocabulary density. This in depth text analysis is all available on the convenience of my own laptop and can be found at this url:

http://voyant-tools.org/?corpus=1421973773626.7277

 

Link

Power, what is power? When I think of something as being powerful, I think of it as holding an influence over people; something that causes people to think or act in a particular way. Many things hold power over people, from religious beliefs to money to  words and images.

I believe religion holds the greatest power over the world. Religious differences are the main causes of war, these differences cause discrimination, and hatred. Not only does our choice in religion effect how others view us, it also provides us with a set of morals and rules to which we live by. Religion influences the way we choose to live and view our life, thus holding great power over us.

Money holds great power over us as well. Money is what allows us to live a certain way. Money provides shelter, food, clothing, all of our basic needs and wants lie in the ability to make money. These needs and wants can cause people to do immoral and selfish things in order to obtain money. Money, and its deep power over us, may in fact be the root of all evil.

Images also have a power over us, influencing the way see or define the world. Images have the ability to trigger an emotional response in a way that words are often unable to accomplish. An image makes a concept or fact real. When you hear or read the news, and certain facts about terrible events are listed we often can not conceptualize what we are hearing. However when we are given a photograph or video, those traumas become a reality. Thus images are an extremely powerful tool. Of course words can hold a power over us as well, I think it is safe to say that a book, a poem, and especially certain music lyrics have at one point influenced the way we feel about the world.

An image from an artistic standpoint also holds great power over people. It is not the denotation of the image but rather the connotation, or the emotional meaning behind the work, that holds power over us. Art has an incredible ability to cause others to understand and relate to the ideas that the artist is trying to portray. Art has the amazing ability to cause a feeling to evolve within us. A simple look at a piece of art can often cause chills to go through my body, and that is when I know it holds a power over me.

Talent also holds great power. Weather musical talent, artistic talent, athletic ability; talent is what inspires, allows us to see what we are capable of with hard work and practice, talent allows us to dream. Talent is such a powerful thing, if you have true talent, you have the ability to gain respect and admiration from the world.

Power is a force that comes in many forms and has the ability to cause turmoil, greed, an understanding of the world and ourselves, along with inspiration and desire. What we choose to allow to hold power over us, and how we choose to define and view that power, defines who we are.