Category Archives: 517: Visual Arts Research

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So I realized that I did not write my second memo correctly. I have been writing down notes that were due, but I lost my cell phone with my calendar in a bucket of water on my art cart. So please disregard the second memo I posted earlier. My research has hit some issues. I spoke with Kevin the other day, I realized the area in which I am trying to cover is too vast. I need to cut down the research area of the southeast quadrant of Rochester to the lower section of the southeast quadrant. I walked one of the neighborhoods with one f my best friends. It took us a little over two hours. There is approximately 46 in the southeast quadrant of Rochester. As we were walking I was talking pictures of visual culture under the labels, statements, graffiti, murals, signs, or flags. I have drawn maps of the neighborhoods that I am making marks to label the locations.

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So far, I have been looking primarily at the digital resources available from the museum and looking close at the approaches that museum takes through these resources. One resource in particular has been the online course Art & Inquiry: Museum Teaching Strategies for your Classroom (offered through Coursera). It not only gives me a direct experience of MoMA’s pedagogic approach/practice, but also provides me with numerous ways to consider utilizing such practices in my own pedagogical approach and how that may affect the way my students learn. I am planning after this course to look into another course about interactive strategies to engage with art.

I have also been particularly interested to see the lessons and slide show presentations that are offered by MoMA through their side-site, MoMA Learning. By looking carefully at how their lessons are designed, that right there is a direct indication of their pedagogic approach and makes for an interesting comparison to my own lessons. It serves as both inspiration for lesson ideas, but also makes me consider the approaches made by both myself and the museum.

I am planning on physically going to MoMA this weekend, and hopefully the next two weekends, to make direct physical observations and attend further exhibitions/events in person. I am really looking forward to really being able to explore the space and see what I am able to take away from the experiences I have at the museum itself.

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For the latest push in my research I just sent out my first set of emails to some local businesses so we’ll see what happens. I have been working with my students on cropping information to create abstractions that also might tell us about a certain place.

This research has raised some questions about our current state of education that I didn’t realize it would. I introduced this project and the fact that we are going to go on some feild trips and some of my students became hesitant. Which I never would have expected. They felt that they couldn’t miss a day of school because than they would have to miss the work that was given in class. I never had this type of pressure before and I was so surprised that this had happened. I never remember not wanting to go on a feild trip.

This week, I am going to hand out my pre-assessment form asking the students perspectives on their community and I’m both nervous and excited to see the results.

Another thing that I think will aid my research is all of the amazing lectures that I had seen this past week at the NAEA 2017 convention. I will be posting links soon!

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I was able to focus a lot on painting and my process over my week-long winter break. It was so nice. I made a point to go outside to a park every morning right when I woke up and painted for an hour or two. I began every session by journaling for a half hour. The days were warm, some were cold, but overall it was a really awesome experience. One day, I wasn’t able to get to the park in the morning because of an appointment but I went later in the day. There were more people than ever before because it was later in the day and I hated it! I felt watched! People were very interested and asked me questions about my art and why I was out.

I also started to leave my paintings there. I wrote a message on the back of the paintings asking for them to be taken home to enjoy. It was interesting that people were hesitant to take them home. After the first few days, people came up to me and asked if I was the one leaving paintings around. Someone even took a picture of the first painting I left and was upset that someone else took it because she wanted it. It was cool! People said they would keep coming back to the park in hopes of finding one of my paintings to take home for themselves!

In terms of place, it was cool that this park allowed me to get outside and paint, and that the people in the place were inspired and motivated to come back because of the hidden art. I would like to keep hiding paintings in public places, just for fun, but it was a cool outcome to my initial research of getting outside and painting in different places.

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Jennifer Brannigan
2/19/17
Data Visualization

For this first data visualization, I decided to map visually my students understanding to the key concepts of two-point perspective and its key components. As a wrap up activity, I asked students to chart where they thought they might be in each category. The first category was vanishing points and the midway, i.e finding the center to where everything begins to pull back into space and to one of the vanishing points, the second was placing objects in a two dimensional space, and the third was the horizon line. For these three categories, students received three post-it notes. They were asked to initial the back, so that it would stay anonymous. Once they did this, they were asked to one post-it note under each category. They had three options for this also. The first- I understand this 100 percent, the second- I understand some of this, 75 percent, and the third- I really don’t understand this at all, less than 50 percent. Students charted themselves on their own personal bias, and they were asked to be honest so that I could better help them.

Once students mapped their post-it notes, I took them down section by section and listed their names so that I could see where everyone was feeling confident, or not understanding what we had been doing. This was for my own personal data collection and use, and it helped me better understand the key concepts that I had to re-teach for the next couple days.

For the actual visualization, I started with layering two colors of inks, one a cerulean blue, and the other a red iron oxide. I picked these two colors because I felt as though they were fitting for the ideas that surrounded this data. Blue being clarity, red being the uncertainty that students felt during this process. I washed both inks under the faucet in my apartment so that they would mix with one another, and create a misty or cloudy like quality. My thought behind this, was that even the students who marked themselves at 100 percent for all of the sections, still struggled, even slightly, with the application of these concepts. On top of these ink washes, I started to make a different looped mark for each one of the sections. After I completed these marks, I went back and created either a ring, or a dot around these marks. Each ring represents the number or class that each student is on. For example, four rings= freshman, one=senior.

With this visualization, I was able to see that my sophomores, except for one student all understood the three concepts at 100 percent. Which tells me that they way that I teach, or the way that they understand what I am teaching are almost perfectly aligned. My freshman were mostly in the 100 percent to 75 percent range. I had only two students under “ placing objects in a two dimensional space” say that they didn’t understand this concept at all. One student has a 504 plan, and the other has an IEP.

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I am doing my research on place and the impact it has on an artist. My own teaching philosophy centers on promoting metacognition, encouraging equal respect for each other, and fostering deeper connections among the classroom community as well as the outside community. Thinking and community are my two main topics that relate to both my research topic and teaching philosophy. I wrote some words that related to my process when reflecting on my art and some words that also relate to my pedagogy n the classroom. There is no formula to viewing or making art, but I aim to interpret how an environment can impact an artist. I find myself asking students to think beyond what can be seen or known. The arts are essential in building confidence, cognitive ability, and critical thinking. In a broad sense, art expands students’ ability to use it as a tool for deconstructing the world around them but to also explore and reflect on individuality and the role they play in the world. I encourage students to learn from the inside out. By contemplating and examining their own personalities, interests and relationships, they may better understand the world around them. This same approach to art making and thinking in the classroom is what shaped me into the artist and thinker that I am today.

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For this Visualuzation, I wanted to find specific connections currently between my own pedagogy and MoMA, whether it is through exhibits, events, or other educational opportunities. I found that doing a concept map gave me an opportunity to find connections between things I did not immediately consider to be related. I also coordinated the information  by color, with my own pedagogy practices in blue and MoMA resources/practices in red. The purple was then utilized to visually demonstrate the correlations between the two. I found looking more into resources and opportunities at MoMA to be extremely helpful and I already have specific exhibits/events I am interested in going to and possibly begin utilizing teaching practices from the museum into my own teaching.  I feel that this map is a good starting off point in beginning my research in visiting the museum. Ultimately, I want to expand the map further to get more details as I go to the museum and further analyze the actual teaching methods they utilize to visitors.

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Melissa Mizerak ARE 518​Visualization 1 = Your topic + Ecological Pedagogy
Additionally, each visualization is to be accompanied with a statement of purpose that discusses your intentions and analysis 400-600 words [5 points].
As I continue on with my research and teaching, I have come to realize that the most important thing in teaching—for me—is community. I am constantly moved around in my district, and I have become tired of getting to know my kids over and over again. I love my School 12 community because I have seen several kids grow from kindergarten and they are now approaching third grade. Watching them grow and having them know that I am there supporting them and caring for them is highly important to me. The relationships that you foster as a teacher are highly important. I am struggling this year because I feel that my bonds at School 12 are weakening for School 28. My School 28 kids are receiving most of my effort because I cannot seem to manage a foundation with the kids. It feels like a daily struggle. So, as I approached my Pedagogic Ecology, I realized that—as a military kid—I was constantly moving; maybe community is what I have always been seeking? That is why I want to find the school where I can have a strong community built and supported every year. That way struggles with the kids will result in them knowing I am fighting for them not against them.
As I approached the physical visualization, I used the same method I will for my research. I will be incorporating maps into my research as well as the nails and thread. The thread is wrapped around a central point. The radius was measured for each year I lived in a location. Each year was represented by an inch. Thus, for Germany my radius is two and half inches which represents the two and half years I lived there. I only included areas where I lived. Nothing under a year. However, I had trouble representing New York because I had lived in several locations. The map was too small in size to fit all the locations with the threading. So, I just included a nail since I did a zoomed in location with Farmington, NY.
As I approach my research with this method, I will include city streets. Each street will have a central point and a radius. I have not worked out the radius. I think that will depend on the number of murals, graffiti, or billboards in each location. If anything, I will make each point a half inch radius, and the points will represent one of the three visual culture representations. The thread will distinguish the differences.

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My research has taken a slight turn from the original plan that I had discussed in my presentation over the winter session. I was looking into the bus schedules and found major resistance and road blocks. With that said, I have decided to still travel the roads, but I will do every road within the radius of both School 12 and School 28; taking note where murals and graffiti are located. The radius will be based off data that I collect from http://www.cityofrochester.gov. I have been looking into the city’s main website to get guidelines on neighborhood zoning. I have also been looking into which zones my schools embody; thus, keeping in mind that we have a lottery system in the district. I will then proceed to show the images to local shop and community members. I was going to give them printed images with questions. I will ask that they respond to the questions via paper or internet (assuming not everyone has internet access). Or if I can personally record responses if they do not have time to write. I will also incorporate student responses. I will show them the images, and then I will record the responses via written or recorded documentation. If I do recording, it will not be video but just audio. I have begun the HREB process. The application is very intimidating. I fear being concise might be an issue, since I feel as though my research is having many “hiccups” already at this point. Overall, I am excited for the art part of the research. I think it is actually starting to bring a little clarity to the process. The writing seems to cause me to slow down with my thoughts and rethink things. I am trying to do both at the same time.

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I continue to look into how museums impact art education, and vice versa. I also am continuing to look into the concept of accessibility for visitors of a museum. For the museum that I will be focusing on, I have narrowed it down and have decided to focus in on MoMA.  While it is an extremely well known institution, I feel that that can contribute to my research and better allow for me to see the transitions and change in approaches that it has and continues to utilize. I am already a little familiar with some of the outreach programs and teaching opportunities offered by MoMA but I still need to look more into the programs offered by the museum. In the next couple of weeks, I hope to be able to find out more information and visit the museum to take specific notes on the set up/space of the museum and how the visitors are either encouraged or discouraged in their visitation. These notes will comprise of observations both written and photographic. I also will investigate into the various programs offered by the museum and have considered also looking into specific individuals that have played a role in the museum’s educational department, noting key differences in approaches and programs enacted under their supervision (I am still unsure of this part of the research). Again, with being such a well known institution, I am more likely to find more visible signs of change that have been enacted over the years in their teaching approaches, just like art education’s own re-conceptualization.