Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Critical Theory Adaptation


Critical Theory
Teachers: Kaylee Jensen and Danielle Thompson--Adapted by Whitney Gasser
Grade: 6
Time Needed: to 35 minutes blocks
Objective: Students will understand the Critical theory of art and learn how to question the way in which they see the world. Students will have read the book The Giver by Lois Lowery and critically analyze it in small groups. They will demonstrate their knowledge of critical learning theory by taking a picture (either at home or using one of the classroom digital camera’s) of something (or a representation of something) in the world that they think needs to be challenged. Students will use a large negative of their picture printed on a transperancy and then use Sunpaper to create a Cyanotype.
Standards:
 State Visual Arts standards
Objective 2
Connect various kinds of art with particular cultures, times, or places.
Explain how experiences, ideas, beliefs, and cultural settings can influence the students' perceptions of artworks. 
Reading: Informational Text Standard 1 
Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
National Standards: Visual Arts:
USING KNOWLEDGE OF STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS
Achievement Standard:
  • Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas
 CHOOSING AND EVALUATING A RANGE OF SUBJECT MATTER, SYMBOLS, AND IDEAS
Achievement Standard:
  • Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art
  • Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning
REFLECTING UPON AND ASSESSING THE CHARACTERISTICS AND MERITS OF THEIR WORK AND THE WORK OF OTHERS
Achievement Standard:
  • Students understand there are various purposes for creating works of visual art
  • Students describe how people's experiences influence the development of specific artworks
  • Students understand there are different responses to specific artworks

Materials Needed:
-Powerpoint
-Camera
-Sun Paper
-Transparencies
-Following books: Not a Box, The Giver

Intro:
Critical Theory is the idea of rejecting the world as it now exists.  

Start off the Lesson by reading Not a Box by Antoinette Portis.  
After reading the book, ask students if they have ever used their imagination to create something else out of an ordinary object.  Ask them what they think the book is made out of.  Ask them why they think the author wanted to make the book out of a box.  

Introduce following artists:

 Yinka Shonibare is an artist who helps people look at everyday people in a different way. He also challenges himself as an artist as he has evolved from painting, costuming, photography, to moving images.  He is very famous for his costumes.  What can you tell me about the picture below?


 
 What is this a picture of?  How is it different from what you have seen before? Why do you think he changed things like the flag? His suit? Can you tell if he is White, African American, Hispanic? What country is he from? Why do you think the artist made this so? 
 Show the students the above picture.  Have you ever seen someone like this before? How is this picture from what you are used to? Why do you think this is?

Alfredo Jaar: He is considered a Critical Theory artist because of the way that he presents his research. He thinks a lot about how to represent his experiences in the most effective way and then tries and tries again until he gets it right.
Teach the students about Jaar's Rwanda Project. He learned about the Rwanda from a clip in the newspaper and found that many people had died. He wanted to show the importance of this event and finally found the following way to represent his research on Rwanda. 
Watch the following clip: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/alfredo-jaar from 1:36-4:52
About video clip: Talk to the students about why his way of presenting his research with one pair of eyes was so effective? What made it so real for the viewer compared to other ways? Why did people understand?
Mel Chin: Teach the students that Mel Chin represents the Critical Theory with the Fundred Dollar bill project because he is making people aware of a big problem in New Orleans, Louisiana where there is lead in the soil which is dangerous for the people there, especially for the children. 
Show the following video about children who have been involved with this project and what they have learned from it. 
video clip about Mel Chin: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mel-chin
QWERTY Courbet. Ask the students what they think this picture is. Teach the students that this is an actual keyboard. Ask them why every keyboard looks the same. Who said it had to look like that? This keyboard still works, it still types, but looks much different. Teach that this is critical theory because he is freeing us from what we would think of as a keyboard and what we are used to.
Talk about the book we recently finished as a class, The Giver  by Lois Lowry. In small groups have students discuss how Lowry challenged the normal society of man.  Why would she want to talk about these bad things in society? Do any of these problems exist in our society? What problems did she explicitly point out? What problems did she infer, but didn't directly talk about? Have students use the following handout to encourage discussion.

Have the students brainstorm and do a free write about problems in the world. Have them think about where they have seen evidence of these problems in their homes, schools or societies. 
Ask students to think over the next couple of days of a problem that they want to challenge and represent. Challenge them to take a picture, using a camera at home or a school camera of a representation of this project. Instruct them to email the picture to the teacher before the end of the week.
Day 2
Assessment:
Students should have taken a picture of something that they want to challenge within their homes or within the world. Their negatives should be printed out on transparencies. Talk with them about the properties of light and why the negative doesn’t look like the picture. Talk about the history of photography
Talk about Man Ray and his famous Rayograms

Explain the process of creating a Cyanograph.
Sun sensitive paper can be found at http://www.bluesunprints.com/store/home.php?cat=251
  1. Remind the students that the paper is light sensitive and so that it must be kept in the dark until the very moment they want to start developing their pictures. Remind them to keep the lights off and not to use electronics.
  2. Do one as a class, exposing each segment of the picture for a different time to determine a good exposure time.
  3. Have the students place their negatives over the photo sensitive paper and cover it tightly using black pieces of paper. 
  4. As small groups, while others are in working on other homework, have students go outside and expose their pictures for the desired amount of time and then cover them up again.
  5. Have students rinse pictures in water to stop the developing process. 
  6. In their small groups have them discuss the problem that their photo represents. 
  7. Have each student write a paragraph about their picture to be displayed below their picture in the classroom. Give the students prompting questions such as: Who can solve this problem? Why is this a problem? Does everyone think this is a problem? What would the world be like without this problem? Do people’s experiences and beliefs effect how they feel about this problem?

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