Edited by: George Szekely & Ilona Szekely
Kim brought me this book back from the National Art Education Association conference in New York earlier this year. This book is not only an excellent resource for teachers of video at any level, it also provides excellent argumenta as to why art teachers should include video in their curriculum. Of course, there are a lot of things that seem obvious in this book if you've already been teaching video (I know what the difference between a pan and zoom is, thank you), but there are also quite a lot of innovative ideas as well. Here are some of the suggestions, ideas, notes, and quotes that I found most useful:
- Media Log Assignment: Have students log their responses to various media at least once a week in a journal (online or in a book).
-Analyze a commercial in detail, log every shot, style of music, graphics, selling tactics.
-"Its not about art activities...If you've been teaching for a while, you realize that it is about connecting with an idea; it is about being invested in an idea" - John Toth, Video Artist
-Video is empowering, can transform shy students into confident ones.
-Artists use the tools of their time - this is why art programs need to teach video.
-Two kinds of video -one records what happens, the other manipulates (I disagree, its probably more accurate to say that those are two ends of a spectrum, since every shot is chosen and therefore manipulated through simple selection- and every shot is also based in part in recording what is possible).
-Don't bother with video taped performance art. Its not the same thing. Tell me about it.
-"The ability to animate starts at an early age with an understanding of what it means to have an inner life...children learn about the world they live in by animating everything around them. Animation, perhaps, is one of the most natural types of play children do." - Renee Shaw, Video Artist/ Teacher - One of my favorite ideas in the book - animation taps into childhood experimentation in a natural way that mixes art and play.
-Media literacy means questioning, recognition of power associated with who dictates knowledge and information.
-Video art and "media Literacy" are often at odds, as the idea of 'media literacy' has been co-opted by the conservative movement to moralize about content (i.e. Joe Lieberman- my example). Video art is about self expression.
-Knowing that their work will be shown and presented to a larger audience is a motivating factor for students.
-The shift in the way that students today interact with their world (the media) can't be ignored and must be embraced by art education.
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2 comments:
I agree with all that. I'm curious about the notion of media literacy being co-opted by the cultural conservatives. I hadn't heard of that before.
You know, I hadn't either- at least not in a way that connected media literacy as its practiced in the classroom too media censorship as its practiced at large- but the artist who discussed that made some excellent points about it. In fact, that was perhaps the most interesting revelation that I found in this book.
The editors suggest contacting the authors of the book to expand and continue the dialogue, and in his case, I might just do that.
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