Yenawine makes some very interesting statements about the use of teamwork and community when interpreting and digesting an image. In light of research I am doing for another class this semester, these findings in regards to VTS are very exciting and important to my development as an Art teacher. While reading a book called A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, I have realized how important it is for Conceptual Age thinkers to be amble to Symphonize their knowledge to make new and exciting connections. I am able to connect these studies to our VTS research through Yenawines remark staitng:
"A group of people brings a breadth of information and experience to the process, even if it is not experience with art. Importantly, the synergy of people adding to each other’s observations and bouncing ideas off one another enables a “group mind” to find possible, plausible meanings in unfamiliar images much more productively than any individual alone could do. Through the group process, the individual’s possibilities are enhanced significantly."
- Yenawine, Guidelines for Image Selection for Beginning Viewers
The selection of images to allow for this experience to flourish is crucial. From my experiences, I agree with many of the thoughts shared by Yenawine. In regards to Accessibility: "Viewers should be able to glean what they can from the objects without expert intervention, learning to trust that most art can be interpreted to a meaningful degree through examination, association, and deduction" (Yenawine). In short, the images we are selecting should be juicy and ready to dive into. Images that have a great deal of powerful and interesting detail allow for viewers from any background to immediately contribute to and become interested in the discussion.
It seems that no matter what you try, students will try to create a Narrative within the artwork. We should be trying to facilitate this by projecting images that lend to this tenndency in the early stages of the time spent with a group. Students grab onto stories. Another characteristic of the conceptual age thinker, according to Pink, is their ability to tell stories and incorporate stories into their work. We must be thinking in regards to these tendencies and attempting to cultivate within our students the desire and ability to tell rich stories within their work.
Another interesting note that Yenawine made was the tendency for older students to be a bit suspicious of a process where there are several right answers. The point is made that student are used to definite right and wrong answers. This makes it important for the instructor to emphasize that students are on the right track of thinking about the image in the way that the artist intended or at least they would accept their interpretations. Although I am only working with 1st through 4th graders, I do find a tendency in one of the sharper students to always ask for hard answers at the end of the discussion in regards to what the image was about. It is tough for me to not give him answers and encourage him that his thinking of the image was valid. He told me that it should be tradition that I shared what the real meaning of the picture was at the end of our discussions. I suppose that by giving answers would prove some students thinking invalid and therefore discourage them. Leaving the answers open ended tends to give validity to all students thinking and interpretations.
As I spent some time going back over some of the material written by Sydney Walker in her book, Teaching Meaning in Artmaking, I realized a critical benefit to incorporating VTS in my classroom. Walker states: "Although we, as art teachers, may yield to student pressure to move quickly to the artmaking process itself, students will soon lose interest because they have brought little in the way of knowledge to inform their artmaking. Under these conditions, artmaking instruction becomes a constant search for new media, techniques, and gimmicks to sustain student interest." I think it will be my tendency to want to start creating as soon as we can in the classroom. However, if we aren't taking time to spike students interest before we begin, wetting their appetites, they will burn out and lose interest in their creations. By incorporating these VTS sessions, not only are we increasing their knowledge base, helping them learn to talk about art, and helping them learn to communicate, we are helping them become more effective citizens in the world of visual culture.
This is the first image that I selected for our Beast unit. I chose this image because of the combination of animal arts that are combined to create this Beast. These characteristics were helpful in getting the boys to think creatively in regards to the assignment I had created for them. They were asigned to draw the top of half of a beast on one piece of paper and the bottom on another piece. Then the boys were able to mix and match the top and bottom of their beasts with others creations.
I also liked the nature of the photo as it contained rich detail and lent itself to narrative. The boys really enjoyed the image and it successfully unleashed their imaginations on the assignment at hand. It is challenging to select images of beasts based on the criteria laid out by Yenawine. Man images tend to be gruesome or poorly created. The selection process seems to be of the highest importance when constructing a lesson around a VTS discussion. With several little sets of eyes in the room, they truly notice everything and they are eager to share with their friends. In hind sight, I feel like this was a good choice for the first image of the Bodacious Beast unit. RWAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!
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