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.

Found Text Poetry

We used the words collected through our Text Glimpses activity in the gallery on Oct. 20 to write found poetry.  After creating a group bank of words from our own lists, we each wrote a stanza to add to a group poem.  We began by thinking about the theme "life in the museum," but some of us ended up going in slightly different directions... post-apocalyptic museum, anyone?  Here's the result (sorry, guys, if the order is slightly different -- the sheets got a little mixed up).

Anyone have any title suggestions? 

Industrial City
Museum Admission is mine!
Cafes and levels
I find it beautiful.

Beautiful art is a garden around the world.
Warmed photography is special towards mom.
Pressure between beautiful, not nothing.

Paradise is the key to no pressure.
Hidden cities' elevators is love.
Virgin child's modern wing is Paris.
Hidden cafes everywhere between polished laptops.
MINE!

Don't do that.  The people stay nervous.
Look carefully, hidden dead bodies.
Find them.
The path finder in my mind is the Devil inside me.
The Devil.
Creepy bloody stuff in my Perfectly imperfect world.
The beauty.

Virgin Child leaves outside, crying.
Window city hidden in beautiful Beast.
Dead bodies everywhere, fantastic!
Mom, Devil is in side me, hidden inside mind.
Emotional war open, running is key..
God is mine!

Around the world no exit.
Dead bodies everywhere,
She's crying.
Reminds her of war,
Emotional beast in Paris.

Even beasts find it,
Between industrial archives:
A chance to win,
Running, unarmed, toward the polished city.

I break their neck
On membership desk.
Devil is inside me.
There is no exit.

Paris has a garden that's hidden.
The walls move and you find dead bodies.
The dead bodies are my grandchildren.
But it's okay because it's a perfectly imperfect world.

Every day life, love, Paris.
Crying and cursing.
Photography of every Sunday in the parks archive.

Polished key.
Chance to win marvelous path
Finder to Paradise around the world.
Paris.

I'm fantastic in my mind.
Can you find it?
It's hidden, get the key.
Open it wide look carefully.
Everything in my mind is everywhere scattering.

Look carefully, restroom that way.
Explore its beautiful hot marvelous reflection.
Work hours, exit, leave now, don't stay.
Terminated but stop, no pictures, photography.

I have the key to my mind that lets me think.
Can you see?
That's why I have to archive goals.

Personal Museum Map Project

Today we will begin our Personal Museum Map Project.  These will be individual projects that will reflect upon our museum experiences thus far.  Since our experiences in the museum are unique to our own personal interests, navigating the museum is an important part of how we create lasting impressions.We will be creating personal map collages that describe who we are as individuals and how we record memories, collect images and sketch ideas that inspire our work.  Many artists have used the idea of a theme of the map as collage or have used the concepts of collecting, space, time, and architecture as ways to create beautiful works of art that define themselves as individuals.  Here is a list of artists that work in this manner that you can look at to draw from for inspiration:

Mark Bradford
Mark Bradford (Art 21 video)
Joyce Kozloff
Landon Mackenzie
Matthew Ritchie
Julie Mehretu

Mark Bradford
Whore in the Church House, 2006
Mixed media collage on canvas
103 x 142 in. (261.6 x 360.7 cm)

                                   
                                                                 Copyright © 2009 Rubell Family Collection. All Rights Reserved.

More....Roger Brown Study Collection Field Trip Pics

This album contains pictures taken at the Roger Brown House on our field trip on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.  The collection offered more than enough IRONY, which made me think more about the meaning behind each piece.  Hopefully this field trip gave you some insight about what a "collection" is and inspired ideas about how a collection and its content can tell a story.

Meredith and I would love to read your comments on these pictures and about what you took away from this experience at the Roger Brown House.  If you took pictures, please remember to post them on your blog!

Thanks,
Joel