Visual
Literacy: Reflections from a New Art
Teacher
Is it through the
formal halls of academia or from a practicing artistic tradition extending
almost the entire length of one’s life?
Perhaps it is both. At any rate,
the need for conceptual understanding and experience cannot be underestimated
for their ability to assist in one’s artistic and pedagogical practice.
My background is
fine-art photography, which I have had the pleasure of teaching at the
post-secondary level. Over the last
several years thanks to the portable knowledge available in all sorts of
electronic devices these days, I have begun to develop a stronger appreciation
for art in general. This new discovery
of art has lead both to a greater understanding of the subject and to its
language, i.e., the language of art.
However, it has also indirectly lead to some frustration as I realise
that I have been missing a whole aspect of art that I now feel is important to
being a fine-art photographer.
I have come to believe that just
focusing upon photography has left me ignorant about several artistic aspects
that help me understand things such as colour scheme and composition. Yes, you can learn such things from photo
books, but a deeper appreciation and understanding for where certain techniques
come from helps establish an artistic foundation that becomes an intuitive background
knowledge for moving forward as an experienced artist and better able to
translate one’s visual literacy in ways that truly express one’s practice and
reach out to others. As Thomas Spoerner
(1981) aptly wrote, “… visual literacy encompasses more than vision alone: it incorporates all the senses into a total
perception.”
As an art teacher I
have come to appreciate the importance of a good foundation upon which to
anchor artistic practise. Some artists
may prefer a laissez-faire type approach, but I am speaking of formal education
that must follow the British Columbia curriculum learning outcomes. I acknowledge this this is an acute topic
between freedom for the artistic expression and limited artistic freedom
dictated by a school curriculum. But in
the case of children in a formal educational setting, I believe structure and
formality as well as summative assessments have a certain merit and I will
leave it at that.
Spoerner (1981) suggests that the
first step to designing a curriculum is to define visual perception skills that
could be investigated photographically and that foster skills such as: perception, object, shape, space, movement,
colour, time, events, representation, people and illusions. These are the same skills one could introduce
when teaching the Elements and Principles of Design in a visual arts
class. There is a clear cross over
amongst the various art disciplines – not a new discovery, but a valuable
observation for those of us new to this aspect of teaching. Following is a direct example of my current
teaching experience and how visual literacy not only helps me construct my
pedagogical practice, but also helps students construct concrete examples we
explore through our class.
Teaching high school
art at a private school offering the British Columbia curriculum in China is a
real honour and I am very grateful for this opportunity. In the remainder of this article I would like
to share an experience I found particularly surprising and immensely grateful
to be a part of as an art teacher.
This last semester (Sept – Dec
2013), I was teaching Studio Arts to grades 11 & 12 students where we were
working with 3D art projects. Thus, I designed
two different projects for students to choose from, each with its own
rubric. On the one hand they could form
small groups to design and build a small settlement. The other option was to design an extra-large
chess set playable on a large portion of the first floor of the building. The result was three groups working on
village scenes and one large group of students tackling the chess set. Each group needed to pick a theme and
consider all the details and logistics, perspective, scale, form and shape,
which were just some of the things they would have to consider for each
project. Along with the rubric, the
students were given a detailed assignment sheet to guide them in their purpose.
But as the projects
got underway, I was completely and pleasantly flabbergasted! I had envisioned medieval villages so akin to
the popular video games young people play online. Instead students produced a snowy village
with Despicable Me characters, a modern city scene, and a philosophical
blending of the beautiful from the ugly as mentioned in their artist
statement. This last one, blended found
and re-purposed things such as busted up chunks of concrete a pulled apart
microwave oven, and computer parts.
Students had taken the basic idea of the assignment and translated it
into something unique to their background experiences and understandings of
visual literacy.
The chess set group
chose a video game theme and had a big task to construct all the pieces. At times this group appeared to be working
like a factory assembly line – it was very satisfying to see students so
engaged in their tasks.
One of the challenges I found for
these grand projects was allowing enough time to satisfactory complete
them. But just as most were wrapping up,
a new multi-purpose art gallery was opening on campus and my students were
invited to showcase their work for the opening.
I feel this situation is very apropos as it provides the student artists
with a conclusion to their work that is indicative of most artistic practices,
i.e., display for others to enjoy. Art
is something to be seen, questioned, pondered, and talked about. By just creating art, receiving a grade does
not complete the artistic process, at least from my perspective. Viewing art also validates what the students
do and shows them that the study and practice of art – their art, is valued and
has a purpose. If some of the students
go on to study art in post-secondary institutions, they will have had the full
experience of being an artist from conception – planning – doing and
sharing. For other students, it will
hopefully encourage them to respect and support the arts in the future and
enhance their abilities to creatively deal with future challenges.
References
Spoerner,
T. M. (1981). Look, snap, see: Visual literacy through the camera,
Art
Education, 34(3), 36-38.
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