Week 6 Response, courtesy of Claire

I missed this class, so Claire sent me her notes. Thanks Claire!



Notes from Clare Hilger
5 Oct 2010
Media and Materials

To begin:

Topic presented:
Pedagogy of Listening
• An approach used in Reggio Emilia
• Most important to listen to children talking, especially children talking
about art

Move onto:

Critique of 4 Letters
Brief explanation of how critique about everyone’s 4 letters will be structured—Aileen
assigns:
• 3 minutes per person to talk about his/her work
• Timer
• Critique leader
• Note taker
(I don’t have the notes from the crit note taker, as far as I know these were not posted
or emailed)

Aileen says little else about the critique or during the critique. She wanted it to be run
completely by the class.
• A chance to practice running a crit
• To make us think about how we talk about art—what language we use
• To model language you would want your students to use when talking about art
• A crit is a “conversation with a purpose” (not sure who said this…..)
• “I like it.” “Cool” “Awesome”—what not to say at a crit, not helping students
• Connect student work to other artists
• Read your students’ mood, can they handle a harsh comment?
• Words in a crit are powerful, think of how what you are saying will affect your
student
• “Always be on the side of the learner” Herb Kohl, educator in NY
• Duchamp and the Creative Act

To think about as the artist presenting their work at a crit:
• Present work with intention—think about how you set your work up;
backgrounds, placement, etc.

Move onto:

Dystopia topic for Graphic Novels
• Paracosm—a child’s invented world
• To portray Cataclysmic events, artists use metaphor, allegory, narrative (graphic
novels,) symbols, observational drawing
• Violence
• Ruins
• Aileen showed us an example of a graphic novel written and illustrated by a 7th
grade boy—amazing work, gifted artist. The boy comes from a poor family,
Aileen said art is how he plays

Dystopian artist examples:
Cormac McCarthy, author, The Road
Ai Weiwei, artist made work called “Oil Spills”
Felix Schramm, installation artist, made pieces that were
“exploding” out of gallery walls, conjuring ideas of disaster and
destruction
Christoph Buchel, artist installation work recreates aftermath of
(fictitious) disaster