Sharon Hayes: Spoken Word DJ performance

On Thursday we got to check out Sharon Hayes's Spoken Word DJ performance for the opening of the special exhibition featuring her work.  She mixed audio from historic public speeches and news broadcasts like a DJ mixes music.  Many students documented the performance as potential material for their upcoming digital story collage projects.  We get to meet with the curator on Monday to learn more!

Thinking about Themes

Terah led us on an improvised gallery exploration of a theme.  First we discussed what a theme can be and brainstormed a list of ideas in the studio.  After some very (un)scientific voting, we landed on a theme to explore together: BLUE.  Amanda suggested Ed Ruscha's City for a starting point.  As our conversations in the gallery went on, each student wrote notes, words, and associations on post-it notes, which we compiled on a collective poster.  Three students were designated photographers, and they collected images to document our walk and the works we considered.  Ultimately, our improvised stops and the conversations we had at each work provided the kind of elements that we could use to develop our next project: digital story collages.

Digital Collages - inspiration!

Here are some digital stories created by teens and teachers who participated in other programs at the museum, as well as other examples from the Internet.  What techniques could you emulate?  What could you do differently as you develop your theme through your own Digital Collage?

AIC examples

• Liel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26C4FM8JY7E
• Rouge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOp-XGdK70
• Angel: http://www.artic.edu/aic/education/teens/project_gallery/movies/angel/angel.html
• Time: http://voicethread.com/#q.b1246683.i6704288
• Looking at the Stars: http://voicethread.com/#q.b1231374.i6634281

Other examples

• Fredniesha's Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVDzIHbaT78&feature=related 
• Matt's Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvCRHTQwXAk&feature=related
• Color Poetry: http://voicethread.com/#q+colour+poetry.b39992.i209930 
• Emma's Garden: http://digitalstories.yale-wrexham.co.uk/storypages/emmahall.html 
• Acceptance: http://digitalstories.yale-wrexham.co.uk/storypages/joanlittlehales.html

Personal Museum Maps - Presentations with Staff

We had a wonderful group of museum education staff members turn out for our midterm presentations of our Personal Museum Map projects.  Students each created a collage featuring a selection of works or spaces from throughout the museum.  Many included a packing tape transfer technique as one of their collage element layers.  While their final collages did not necessarily need to read visually as a literally map, they needed to include the museum map in "some way, shape, or form."

In small groups, teens took the staff members around the museums on a tour of their collages, stopping to talk about their selections along the way.  These collages will be included in a final exhibition (which the students will plan) in the Ryan Education Center.  Here is a glimpse of their work and tours.