Thanks for that first great week again. I am glad you are enjoying the stories. More to come.
Her are some comments on Friday's posts. Lynn, I was referring to President Andrew Johnson about being white supremacist. But thanks for the connection to LBJ--also involved with important civil rights legislation. Melanie, you asked if letters can be art. In my opinion, word press is art. Google Dirk Fowler, one of our communication design faculty--he makes posters with word press--very big. Also, google www.woodtype.org That's the Hamilton Wood Type Museum site that is in Two Rivers, WI--the sister city of Manitowoc on the shores of Lake Michigan. Andrea posted about lies/misinformation. Below is an online excerpt from James Loewen's book Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In ten powerful chapters, Loewen reveals that:
From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring to it the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.
Also google Howard Zinn's The People's History of The United States--it's a really great read as is The Young People's History of The United States.
Lynn posted how intent matters. Tyler posted about not ever learning/hearing about the Alcatraz event in school. The two films I was talking about are Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancydancing. I noticed I am making typos. Sorry about that. I will try to watch that more carefully.
opps--thanks for clearing that up.
ReplyDeleteMy first post is about semester project. Yes, I want everybody to lay out your ideas on your own blog site. The templates are easy to do. Your project can be ideas mapped out with commentary or stories. (We won't have that much time to produce something lengthy--class ends in less than a month. I am sure many of you are still thinking--I have no idea what I want to do yet. Neither would I. I am hoping ideas will rise from our readings--maybe further investigating a topic or idea that intrigues you.
ReplyDeleteSarah asked if your project has to be historic. The answer is no. It can be a contemporary topic or issue. It can be personal and related to your own art. It can be about teaching; designing a lesson; rethinking a lesson given new information and facts; a photo documentary essay; just thinking about ideas that bother you as an artist or teacher or community citizen…
Tyler posted if we are making our own blog--yes you are--for the semester project. In about a week and a half, I will ask you to have some initial ideas down that we all can take a look at and comment on each blog site. It may be that your initial idea on your blog is not what you end up with for your semester project. That's all cool and good. Better ideas come late--I am open to however you end up developing your topic. And yes Tyler, you can upload/connect videos. images, poetry… Another idea is that I create a resource page on a certain topic for teachers where there is little info currently. Or I could create a resource page of local art resources for kids/parents/teachers.
I am hoping that as we read more, you will have many ideas of which to choose from. I hope this helps. Post continuing questions you may have about the semester project:
Possibly there is a local issue that you what to further investigate that reveals insightful info that we are unaware of. Local is always the better way to go.
DeleteI would like to create an event for the green corn Moon celebration-- in August. I have asked Wyandotte and Comanches and the drummers "Bearclaw" to help with the celebration. Our hands on will be corn husk doll. The Green Corn Moon is after our class is over. I am uncertain how to create a blog about this --advice?
DeleteI can make the dolls as the part of the project to see.
Ed -- my first name is Daniel and my last name is Tyler. I don't mind at all if you continue to call me Tyler, people do that all the time. I just wanted to clear it up so there is no confusion when it comes to grading, etc.
DeleteI think it may have been a sign, my great aunt Janie brought pictures of my grandparents when they were very young to our house the other day, I will also be visiting my other grandma this week and should be able to get pics then as well! I'm excited on how this might turn out!
DeleteThis seems like a broad spectrum of what we can do that I have too many thoughts. May have to narrow down to one single topic on my own to come up with something. No ideas as of yet :)
DeleteEd, I have some initial thoughts about my project, let me know if this sounds good. I was thinking about creating a blogg about the graffiti around Dallas. I want to get a collection of photos of the graffiti and then categorize it into themes. I have recently found the work of a group that graffiti's images making the public more aware of child abduction and abuse . I want to look more for these images and find out more about their program. How does that sound? Any thoughts ?
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DeleteI would like to take a look at how I present art exhibits and create programming as a museum professional and government employee. Do I feel pressured to follow our government's public policies on everything? How do I show resistance to their policies when I don't agree? How does that affect student learning in the galleries?
DeleteChapter 7 JAcob A. Riis's Image Problem
ReplyDeleteRiis helped launch what we refer to as social documentary photography. Check out Jane Lindsay's www.janelindsay.org/thelastresort A local artist doing great work. We read about the complexity of what Riis was trying to do/change and his own biases about immigrants, workers, etc. He blamed people for their living conditions. That upper/middle class bias is nothing new.
What happens to immigrants and us when we assimilate? Have you ever thought how you assimilate on a daily basis rather than be your true authentic self? What is gained? What gets lost? My parents were bilingual--Polish and English. The local parish pastor told parishioners to stop speaking Polish and only speak English to better assimilate. None of us second-generationers know Polish. Knowing multiple languages is a powerful way to learn and understand.
How do we change when assimilation is complete? What's lost? Your takes on this chapter.
Chapter 7: Jacob A. Riis Image Problem
DeleteI was surprised to read about the overcrowded rooms in New York during the 1870s. Having gone to New York and seen the number of people on the street and their tiny apartments, I can only imagine what it might be like. When I went to New York, I stayed with my best friend from high school, she moved there from dallas to follow her dream of being a fashion designer. She has worked for Alice and Olivia and now works for David's Bridal. Her apartment is actually in Brooklyn and she computes on the subway for about 30 mins to get to work on 46th street. Her apartment is quite small and she shares it with 2 other people. Space in New York is limited and even in Brooklyn. I can only imagine the smells and health concerns it must of been like. The last time I was there, her room mate had been out of town and left her window cracked which let bed bugs in her place. Living in mostly Dallas for my life, I never heard of bed bugs. I though that was just a myth. "Don't let the bed bugs bite! " I wonder if they had problems like this back then. Anyways, it makes sense that the idea of lighting was a problem to document these dark places.
I have read that it takes 8 generations for immigrant families to stop behaving like immigrants.
DeleteMy mom didn't speak Italian--she was born in 1940 and was told to always say she was "American". (Meanwhile Lucky Luciano, Sicilian American mobster, I believe from prison in NY, helped American troops land safely in Italy.) When you assimilate, you lose the "Creole" mix--the change to take the best of both cultures and blend it.
My friend is from South Louisiana were mandated to stop speaking French--legislated. She grew up hearing older people speak it and then it just was gone.
I worked for Head Start for a year before I started teaching, it was quite the experience! I went into these "low" income families homes and helped teach them English and in return I was taught Spanish.. These people had make shift homes that were often cramped and overcrowded with many family members to small rooms all just to survive. They would offer anything they could to me and it was an insult not to take what was offered even if it was disgusting or you had already eaten. I learned my families that did this and usually would wait to eat until after so that I was able to take their food even when I felt soo guilty of taking what little they already had. It was a VERY humbling experience that stays with me, constantly reminding me of where my students may come from.
DeleteI loved reading about the process of the photography. How the powder invented helped to illuminate the dark spaces he wanted to develop. I wonder what the people were thinking while a man and his camera and powder came into their room late at night to take a photo. Some of the people smile naturally, while others definitely do not want to be in the picture.
DeleteLiving in San Antonio there is definitely a sense of mixed culture in certain areas that are not fully assimilated. Many signs, menus, and billboards are all in Spanish. My husband is Hispanic, but his parents did not learn Spanish so he didn't either. Many assume he knows Spanish at his work place and immediately start talking to him and get upset that he does not know Spanish. Its almost an annoyance for him at times when people assume or treat him poorly because of it.
I like the fact that we live in a country where everyone is of a different culture. Its always amusing to learn how certain families came to America through immigration. Certain areas of it are very prominent and interesting to visit. Through total assimilation in the United States, would we then develop our own 'American' culture?
The tenement conditions described in this chapter reminded me of the novel Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska. The novel takes place during the later part of Jacob A. Riis’s career but still describes in detail the cramped living quarters of immigrants in New York. Bread Givers is a pretty great book if you all have not read it. It tells the story of a young Polish-Jewish woman fighting against the strict tradition of her family/religion and making a way for herself in said conditions. One can only imagine living like that. Riis’s skewed reputation is of interest, do you all think even with his blaming biases that his work is ultimately positive/productive?
DeleteThe thing that stuck out the most for me (aside form deplorable living conditions) was that "Riis 'shoots' his subjects without their permission; to him, the people in the room are simply statistics" (p. 63). How awful!
DeleteWhen we talk about the immigrant "problem" of today, many people see immigrants as only statistics. They don't really see human beings trying to escape poverty and danger in their home countries. If we could show these immigrants and their back stories we would probably be a lot more welcoming. That's hard enough to do when the general population isn't interested, let alone when the photographer doesn't even see them as humans...
Chapter 8 Haymarket: An Embattled History of Static Monuments and Public Interventions
ReplyDeleteWhat a complicated history with twists and turns! Chicago, if you have ever visited, is a very complicated immigrant city. Lots of old neighborhoods changing--and still lots o f working class neighborhoods. Working only 8 hours a day was something workers had to fight for. Many labor histories have never been written.
Did you fall on one of the many sides? Why? To this very day Chicago police are considered corrupt. When I attended the Free MInds/Free People Teacher Conference last July in Chicago, I was warned not to even ask Chicago police anything; not to bother them--this by the conference.
What did you think of the artist actions on behalf of the incident? The newest sculpture? Google Studs Terkel if you have no idea who he was. Very important literary figure.
Lampert writes: "In the majority of public art projects today, the artist is simply hired to carry out the subject matter and the content that someone else has already determined" (p. 83). Sounds pretty bleak. Your thoughts?
What happens when important events and facts are oversimplified and blurred? What happens to us and others when we don't even know our real histories?
I really enjoyed reading this chapter! I thought it was so interesting how they fought over a monument and wonder how many other monuments had such an interesting history?? I know i learned about Maya Lin and her battle over the Vietnam War Memorial, what a struggle it was to get that monument complete!! I do think it's sad that the monument is now in a place that we are not able to visit freely... I do think its meaning and symbolism has greatly changed from the time it went up through all the bombings and times it's been moved to where it is located today! It's inspiring to know that people are so willing to fight for a cause!!!
DeleteNot knowing who threw the bomb causes a blur on which side is in the wrong for some of the incidents in Chicago. We begin to question the police, who are supposed to be there to protect us, or the protestors, by questioning their true morals.
DeleteIts hard not to side with the protestors. They had the right to protest for better rights to their labor that they work hard for each and everyday. I don't think the police should interfere people are already have high tensions with force. I also don't think protestors should get out of hand by instigating the police who are only doing their job as well.
When it comes to the sculpture, I am surprised the police sculpture wasn't destroyed sooner. The hand and message it is providing is very instigating. I feel that if they intended it to honor the fallen policeman, they should have come up with a more passive design.
Andrea, I agree with you. I do like that the art has created such controversy that it even had to be moved over and over. The meaning of each changes as the history behind them continue to grow into more and more issues. I would like to see the police sculpture.
DeleteChapter 8: Haymarket
DeleteReading about this horrific event was surprising to me of such violence. It is hard to picture an event like this today taking place. What happened at the Haymarket square sounds so surreal that it seems like it could happen in a different country. Today, when workers are not happy they still go on strike and for some of the same reasons. "Higher wages, better working conditions, and other policies that benefit unionized workers" ( Lampert, 73). I can even picture teachers in Dallas ISD who where on the streets refusing to work under their policies when they extended the work day for them and lowered their pay.
When it comes to the Chicago police, in my experience, their is still a distance between the people of Chicago. A few years ago or more, I dated a guy from Chicago and went home to meet up with his family a few times. His family would make comments about the police as if they were looking for any excuse to be an extra pain in the butt. It seems they have a way that they go around like big-shots and expecting the royal treatment and are extra mean to people based on where they live within Chicago. His family thought everything was the police's fault. While going around the city and examining the police for myself, I never got that impression. However, I did stay my distance because I was very intimated by them.
As a radio nerd, I have known about Studs Terkel and WFMT for a while. Ed – this with the “Radio Free Alcatraz” now marks two times radio broadcasting has come up in class. I think this may be an avenue I’d like to go down for the project. I know radio is an explicitly non-visual medium, but I personally consider it a legitimate and powerful form of art, especially when the likes of Terkel is behind the microphone. Chicago continues to be home to important, progressive broadcasting figures (i.e. Ira Glass).
DeleteSarah – I agree with you that it is hard to not side with the protesters. I have never been to Chicago but the bad reputation of the police and municipal government seems to be more or less the general consensus.
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DeleteI have been to Chicago many times and have never encountered a single police person, which is both good and bad, I think. I have never had a problem where I needed police intervention so that's good. I have been there for St. Patrick's Day celebrations and other shenanigans, and we all noticed that the police there have a swagger that you don't normally see. They see themselves as heroes to be given great respect. The general opinion of my friends who live in Chicago is that they're a great idea until you need them; then you never know whose side they'll be on.
DeleteRader pp. 41-50 (End of Chapter 1 and beginning of Chapter 2)
ReplyDeleteOn page 43 Rader describes who came to the support of the Indian Occupiers: Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, CCR, etc. What does this say about who their/our allies are? The images on pages 44-45 are extraordinary, in my opinion. Just lovely. Mapping, like on page 45 is a great method to create something.
The insight that moved me was the author's connecting a ghost dance to the Alcatraz occupation. Very interesting and insightful parallel.
Mapping as method: Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
So paintings can be more than a pretty picture--an active engaged visual resistance. A very different way to write about art. What is resonating with you from these ten pages?
DeleteRader ( p 41- 50 )
One of the things I found interesting was the significance of the red color. I have always heard of red being symbolized for blood, war, and love. Why have Indians been associated with the color red for so long? " Most of the Red Power phrases are painted in red, reinforcing Alcatraz's redness, both literally and metaphorically". " The associative qualities of red- anger, war, aggression, blood" ( Rader, 41). Why were they wanting to be represented by a color that is so violent and in your face ? Is it the white that calms the red down?
Being a Janis Joblin fan, I was not surprised that she was involved in Indian Activism. Her experiences of singing about her pain with heroin and life gave her material to write her songs. Even though she was popular at the time, her lyrics were attracted by what the Indian activism wanted at that time. Someone to bring to light of what is going on and the feelings that came with it. When I think of Janis, I think of a peace loving person that is not afraid to speak her mind. Like artist that went to Woodstock, hippies artist who are surrounded by people who have an opinion. The same thing goes with Bob Dylan, another artist who sings about the events in their life and popular at the time.
I also enjoyed reading about Indian Joe Morris sense it is the first time paintings are mentioned in this book. When starting this book, I thought there would be more of this type of art, paintings representing an Indian issue. I think the power of the image says more then just words. There is the fact that an image can be translated to more then one meaning depending on the view of the viewer. I also wanted to looked up the images to see the color of the paintings. However, after 30 minutes of researching, I could not find anything about his artwork online that would show images of his work. Therefore, I imagine this color choices in his paintings. They are still impressive.
I was so happy to see the color plates for the maps. I enjoyed seeing the browning and the colors on the maps. I found Smith's sense humor engaging in her map statement "ads" for California and Nevada--"get away with the best deal of the century (pg 62)
DeleteAfter reading to look for "what is present and what is absent" (pg 55) I carefully examined the map's content.
I love how Juane Quick-To-See Smith adds all sorts of items to her paintings to map he statements. Her work inspires me as that is a lot of what I have been doing, putting all sorts of things together to form one statement. Her colors are so vibrant and make such a strong statement!
DeleteAs for songs, I love Texas music because they write songs about real life and their own experiences and put it to music. The majority of it relates to us common folk and our own life experiences. I love that music has a way of doing that for us! Not all music is that way.... I also love symphonies and classical music because the way it crescendos and decrescendoes makes you think about times in your life that may have been more dramatic or more calm or when you sometimes get in the rut of life and your just going through the motions. Singers, song writers, artists all put into words or artwork what we see, think, live, feel, believe, etc. that we can't always do for ourselves. I love that they are some of the strongest supporters of major causes because they can interpret those things for those that just don't always get it or understand!!
“Like the Ghost Dance, the Alcatraz occupation inspires not so much through ‘results’ as through performative symbolism, which catalyzes past practice and future endeavors.” (46)
DeleteI think Joe Morris’s work on page 45 captures this sentiment entirely. Morris quite literally drew up a map for activism; Rader calls it “a cartography of activism”. I agree that this image is stunning, just so cool. I feel the popular musicians who rallied in support of the Indian Occupiers relates (indirectly) back to the appropriation of Woody Guthrie lyrics into the occupiers’ plight. Bob Dylan was and is a huge admirer of Guthrie’s work. Much of American folk music has been about activism in one way or the other, telling the story of the “common” man, that is, not the elite. Bringing it back to Studs Terkel and radio (sorry to harp on this), one of Terkel’s most famous interviews was with a young Bob Dylan in the early 60s where some of these ideas come up. Thanks to youtube, you can listen to it here:
http://youtu.be/sYdvOPRE3EQ
In fact, in the first part of that interview, Terkel and Dylan talk about Woody Guthrie in depth.
DeleteIt definitely shows how much the pop culture was on the side of the Native Americans by inspiring the young youth.
DeleteI too love the mapping piece... I think it would be a great project for my students next year to research a political/historical series of events and capture it in a timeline in an aesthetically pleasing way. I love the symbolism and time he took to memorize the important people throughout the movement.
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ReplyDeleteI have always loved maps--I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a cartographer when I was a child. They convey so much information in so many different ways! My love for maps probably also has to do with my love for boundaries and organization, but that's another story...I liked that Juane's maps show more than just political, arbitrary boundaries. Some of them barely show the outline of the US with the native art overlaid, some are more delineated but still show how native populations fit into the current overall political picture.
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