Well I have come to the conclusion that Blogging isn't so bad, if you relate it to keeping visual diary of your life that your kids can read. I think that in an art school setting it is a good resource for keeping things up to date and could be used as a researching tool for students. Yet, I still contest that their are better ways to keep children informed about the art world. A Facebook page would serve essentially the same purpose and would be far more accessible to students. Plus Blogging consistently is a lot of work/time/effort that I am always running short of, which is why this marathon sprint to the finish is occurring.
My advice for future Non-Traditional Canon classes would be to not use the Blog. It is not an effective means of critique, not useful in an way to the learning process, and it felt like chore or busy work. I loathe busy work, we are all far to busy to be burdened with busy work.
Also, shorten the class. As art students we are used to 3 hour blocks but 6 hours is ridiculous! When I tell people on campus that I have a 6 hour class they look at me like I have been through the Spanish inquisition. A shorter class period would have been a welcomed change!
Thanks Hsiao-Ping, not sure if you are actually going to read all this but....
Thursday
Art Student Owl
Meme's are a part of culture for better or for worse. Art Student Owl is no exception, and his image has been appearing all over campus recently and they are somewhat amusing. While it is no Ermahgerd girl
or Forever Alone
but is still pretty funny. Keep up the good work art students of Calder!
Santiago Sierra and why he is not a wanker.
While looking at another blog (I know, sad right...) I found a piece on Santiago Sierra and artist whom I admire for his...for lack of a better term...balls. His work cannot be dismissed as mere insensitivity to the disenfranchised and debased, but as pure genius. His work is political in nature, and he is full recognition of what he does and what work like his makes him....the devil.
This is where the pure genius part comes in, he is purposely taking on the role of the devil. He fully expects there to be backlash against his work and he takes full responsibility for it. The simple fact that he can tattoo a line on junkies who have been compensated with enough money to buy the drug of their choice, shows that he is thinking of the politics involved and understands the risks.
Pure Genius
This is where the pure genius part comes in, he is purposely taking on the role of the devil. He fully expects there to be backlash against his work and he takes full responsibility for it. The simple fact that he can tattoo a line on junkies who have been compensated with enough money to buy the drug of their choice, shows that he is thinking of the politics involved and understands the risks.
Pure Genius
How I work...
It is amazing to me how much better I preform in class when I am truly interested in what I am looking at. I have always been like this, ever since I can remember. Frequently my parents would leave teacher confrences with these types of statements from my teachers
"Mark is capable of doing this, he is just disinterested in it."
and the proverbial
"He is smart enough, just not motivated enough."
Maybe I am too independent, or maybe I am selfish and shallow, either may be true but I do know I work way better when I am challenged and interested in the subject matter. This fact about myself has manifested itself in two ways this semester.
1. My paintings at the beginning of the semester were complete crap. I just could not get the hang of it, all this mushy paint on paper. It was the first time I can remember that I was truly lost in the art world. I can usually bullshit my way through some art stuff relying on innate abilities to see me through, but with painting bullshit doesn't work, and bullshit looks just like it's name on canvas. For our last painting we got to make our own still life's, and viola my painting turned out decent! I just needed the change in subject matter, and it made all the difference. While DaVinci, Michelangelo, or Ofili (Virgin Mary covered in dung) have nothing to fear from me, I was pleased by the result.
2. I need a challenge. Without it I think what is the point? I need to pushed, and pushed further until I get pissed, and then push again. Some of my best work was done under duress, and were probably over extensions of my resources, but they turned out great. Take my video "A Prison Fairy Tale" I decided to make a video that was 8 minutes long, that was synched, had meaning and involved a lot of different clips. Also I did this video two days before it was due. I could have made something simple, done something that would have garnered a good grade but was uninspired, and I would not have been satisfied with it. This has been my downfall in the class that this blog is for. I basically had already had all the projects in Time Studio and CPS and the challenge had gone out of these projects for me. I was not going to turn in something I did not pour myself into wholeheartedly. It would not feel right.
"Mark is capable of doing this, he is just disinterested in it."
and the proverbial
"He is smart enough, just not motivated enough."
Maybe I am too independent, or maybe I am selfish and shallow, either may be true but I do know I work way better when I am challenged and interested in the subject matter. This fact about myself has manifested itself in two ways this semester.
1. My paintings at the beginning of the semester were complete crap. I just could not get the hang of it, all this mushy paint on paper. It was the first time I can remember that I was truly lost in the art world. I can usually bullshit my way through some art stuff relying on innate abilities to see me through, but with painting bullshit doesn't work, and bullshit looks just like it's name on canvas. For our last painting we got to make our own still life's, and viola my painting turned out decent! I just needed the change in subject matter, and it made all the difference. While DaVinci, Michelangelo, or Ofili (Virgin Mary covered in dung) have nothing to fear from me, I was pleased by the result.2. I need a challenge. Without it I think what is the point? I need to pushed, and pushed further until I get pissed, and then push again. Some of my best work was done under duress, and were probably over extensions of my resources, but they turned out great. Take my video "A Prison Fairy Tale" I decided to make a video that was 8 minutes long, that was synched, had meaning and involved a lot of different clips. Also I did this video two days before it was due. I could have made something simple, done something that would have garnered a good grade but was uninspired, and I would not have been satisfied with it. This has been my downfall in the class that this blog is for. I basically had already had all the projects in Time Studio and CPS and the challenge had gone out of these projects for me. I was not going to turn in something I did not pour myself into wholeheartedly. It would not feel right.
Education vs. Art Education
All semester long I have struggled with why as an Art educator do I need to take ALL the Education classes? Some of the classes I understand as they pertain to an art classroom as well as a general education classroom, such as Classroom Management, and Child Development. Yet some of the classes are a complete and utter waste of time.
Over the summer I took an Assessment class, which basically told me how to write tests and quizzes. While this may be useful to an English teacher, it helped me realize that it was pointless for me. When I asked how to grade or assess something subjective as a piece of artwork. My instructor gave me the basic rhetoric, of comparison, general confusion as to the question and looking at the content standards. The content standards for art in the state of Michigan are a complete joke, so they are useless. Comparison between students only differentiates skill levels, and the confusion should be clear.
Why can they not create classes that teach us all these things within an art ciriculum? I know we have to take specialized classes that allows us to be art teachers but why must I double up on everything. Do I really need a Technology in the Classroom class when I have had Non-Traditional canon? Plainly it's bullshit.
This doubling up on everything, makes Art ed one of the toughest majors on campus. Super frustrating, I feel like I have been in school forever!
Over the summer I took an Assessment class, which basically told me how to write tests and quizzes. While this may be useful to an English teacher, it helped me realize that it was pointless for me. When I asked how to grade or assess something subjective as a piece of artwork. My instructor gave me the basic rhetoric, of comparison, general confusion as to the question and looking at the content standards. The content standards for art in the state of Michigan are a complete joke, so they are useless. Comparison between students only differentiates skill levels, and the confusion should be clear.
Why can they not create classes that teach us all these things within an art ciriculum? I know we have to take specialized classes that allows us to be art teachers but why must I double up on everything. Do I really need a Technology in the Classroom class when I have had Non-Traditional canon? Plainly it's bullshit.
This doubling up on everything, makes Art ed one of the toughest majors on campus. Super frustrating, I feel like I have been in school forever!
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
When I first witnessed Tim and Eric, I thought to myself. "This is stupid, how can this be on Television." Yet it slowly grew on me, and I was locked with Tim and Eric forever.
The show itself contains some of the most inane insane banter, graphic images, amateurish camera shots, and techno 80's backdrops, that it cannot help but be funny. Trying to describe what the show is like is a lesson in futility.
My wife thinks that the show is pointless, stupid and immature, and I agree with her and I tell her frequently that's why I love this show! I have yet to see the movie, as I am only allowed to watch it when my wife is asleep, out of town, or clinically dead, but if it is anything like the show I am sure it will be AWESOME!
Freddie
Many years ago my friends, who are all equally crazy, decided to make up a person. Where we got this idea I do not know, all I do know is that alcohol was probably involved and a lot of air conditioning.
Freddie is a fictional person who was born on July 17, 1976 so he is older than all of us. I think at some point he became French (not born French, just BECAME French), and he is super arrogant. He owns a Porsche and is generally loved and loathed all at the same time. Some sample comments made to Freddie are:
Happy Birthday you stupid moron!!!! I hope you have the worst birthday ever, and somehow get run over by your own Porsche!!!! YOU SUCK!
I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!!!!!
but there are moments where he is loved by us:
July 17th brought us one of the greatest men to live!! Happy birthday buddy. Sucks we can't celebrate together with some hot tamales...
and
Freddie--what are you and I doing for the Holidays?! (Other than a handful of blonde hookers that is?)
I think a psychologist would have a field day with my little clique. We have frequently created these alter ego's to illicit our rage, and at the same time it became a gigantic inside joke that snowballed out of control. Yet I think Freddie embodies us as a collective and I think it is important to keep imagining and not lock your mind into real and unreal. I think as an educator we lose sight of that sometimes, we focus solely on what is tangible, and forget that an imagination is just as important if not more so that the physical realm.
Oh yeah Freddie has a dad:
Happy Birthday you stupid moron!!!! I hope you have the worst birthday ever, and somehow get run over by your own Porsche!!!! YOU SUCK!
I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU!!!!!
but there are moments where he is loved by us:
July 17th brought us one of the greatest men to live!! Happy birthday buddy. Sucks we can't celebrate together with some hot tamales...
and
Freddie--what are you and I doing for the Holidays?! (Other than a handful of blonde hookers that is?)
I think a psychologist would have a field day with my little clique. We have frequently created these alter ego's to illicit our rage, and at the same time it became a gigantic inside joke that snowballed out of control. Yet I think Freddie embodies us as a collective and I think it is important to keep imagining and not lock your mind into real and unreal. I think as an educator we lose sight of that sometimes, we focus solely on what is tangible, and forget that an imagination is just as important if not more so that the physical realm.
Oh yeah Freddie has a dad:
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