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David Bowie Is at the Museum of Contemporary Art

A few weeks ago, I attended the "David Bowie Is" exhibition at the MCA in Chicago. This exhibition is an incredible retrospective of David Bowie's career as a musician, performer, songwriter, fashion icon, and filmmaker. Something that I really liked about this show was the way Bowie was presented first as a hugely influential artist and the various mediums that he worked with were presented as tools that he enabled for creating his persona, his message, and the general picture of his work. In this exhibition, we see a chronological picture of Bowie's career that highlights his influences and the movements that he has influenced, all creating an incredibly rich picture of conversations about gender, performance, and costume during the decades that span Bowie's career.

From a teaching perspective, the Bowie exhibition was full of very rich, striking visuals that I think could serve as good openers to discussions about gender, performance, and identity. The images above in this post I think are good examples of visuals that could be really interesting and exciting for starting a discussion with students of all ages. Bowie was also a super inspiring maker that tirelessly worked to put stories into the world I think this exhibition does a great job of showing that. Another tool that I think would be helpful in the classroom is the section of the exhibit that talks about Bowie's techniques for songwriting, and his use of random word generators to help him come up with ideas. I think this would be a cool technique to use in the classroom as well.

-Miriam Dolnick

Wikipedia into virtual galaxy

For my installations of my posters I focused on spaces that people use daily in shared spaces. The photos that came out best were the ones that I did throughout SAIC and specifically in the Sharp Building. I also distributed them in public restrooms in Nashville, TN and placed them in restrooms at Midway Airport (MDW) in Chicago, IL as well as the Airport (BNA) in Nashville, TN ~Maddie

For this assignment I went to the "David Bowie Is" exhibit at the MCA. This exhibit is one of the most thoughtfully curated exhibits I've ever been to. After buying my ticket and going up to the exhibit, I was handed headphones which was to be expected I mean this is David Bowie after all, there must be sound and music. I hadn't heard much about the show before i went and was thinking I'd have to go to a certain number on the device or type in stuff which would keep me from being able to just stand and enjoy the photos, clothing, film, music, and everything essentially. But, they have installed a type of tracking system in the floor that allows you to put on the headphones and just forget about having to do anything other than viewing the expansive collection. The show is timed to music and other sound recordings like interviews, film snippets, and reviews; so most people going through the exhibit will spend about an hour and a half. Of course, I'm not like most people and I'm a David Bowie fan so i was in there for over three hours, and most likely would have stayed longer if I would have hydrated before I went.

When i was there i kept trying to think about how this related to what I was teaching at that time. I went to view (or rather experience) the "David Bowie Is" exhibit a few weeks after i had finished my elementary lesson(s) at Ogden that focused on recording everyday movement and gesture through art. One thing I struggled with was getting students to randomize what it was they were doing and making. There was a piece in the collection that was a video of David Bowie showing this software he had developed to help him with lyrics and ideas through inputting a sentence or multiple ones and the software constantly generating new combinations and variations. The program was called the "Verbasizer" and was intriguing to me, I think showing students a video of it would help them see what I meant when using the word "random." In terms of children at the exhibit, there were some middle to high school age girls who seemed interested in the exhibit and there were a few rather young children who were between the ages of 3 and 7 and did NOT want to be there. Because of the headphones and immersive sound of the exhibit it was easy to get lost in everything around you, but shrieks for a lollipop can pull anyone out of that world in a heartbeat.

The "David Bowie Is" exhibition is going on through Jan. 4, 2015 at the MCA and I highly recommend that anyone who has not already done so go check it out.

~Maddie

Chi-Contemporary Culture For this assignment, I went to the University of Chicago and explored around what seemed like the entire campus- University of Chicago Laboratory School, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, Comer Children's Hospital, Regenstein Library, Ratner Athletics Center, and other buildings with fancy names that I can't quite recall. I primarily visited to see the Smart Museum of Art, but unfortunately, the museum was closed because I went at a bad time. So instead, I ended up touring the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, which is the main building for the arts, music, performance, concerts, and other exciting programs. Although there weren't any events happening when I visited, I was able to observe the different dynamics and learning environment in the University of Chicago's art department compared to SAIC's. When I peaked through some classrooms, the studio rooms looked very similar to SAIC's and reminded me of the Columbus Building. The Logan Center also had a huge wood shop with tools and resources provided for individual art projects and theater set designs. It was really interesting to see how similar, yet so different the students were, and how they worked under various methods of teaching. For instance, in almost all the painting classes I took at SAIC, the teacher would be present in the classroom and either do a demonstration or check individually on each student's process. But at Logan Center, most teachers would either leave the room for the students to simply work or begin the class with intense lectures, then proceed to assign work with specific objectives and requirements. I found this experience powerful, how even though I didn't go inside the classroom, I was able to draw the vibe from just my first impression, and also how different learning environment can really shape a student's views on art. Because I'm personally interested in introducing new concepts and ideas through various methods of teaching, this experience led me to reflect on my prospective practices as a teacher. Based on my observation on recognizing the similar and disparate ways of teaching and resources offered, I realized how important creating a certain environment is in a classroom. This experience also pushed me to think about how we can present a particular environment or space we want to portray for MANA. - Lily Hong

Chicago Contemporary Culture Project

A few weeks ago I went to the Shedd Aquarium for the first time in my four years of living in Chicago. The experience was surreal. I went on a Friday afternoon after my Childhood of Anthropology class. Therefore, I approached the experience with an anthropological perspective, forcing me to critically analyze the exhibitions. I explored the entire aquarium for free, thanks to my “educator pass.” I went first to see the jellies (accompanied by my curated Ray Charles soundtrack), which was easily the highlight of my experience. I found their pulsing dance and tangled tentacles that trailed after them mesmerizing to watch. I felt overwhelmed by the detail in nature and privileged to see them up close. For some reason, perhaps because jellyfish don’t have recognizable faces, I wasn't as aware of these creatures being trapped.

To my embarrassment, I found myself following the norm and spent a half the time attempting to preserve their beauty with my IPhone. While engaging in that act and watching others obsess over capturing the photos, I thought about how the exhibit was curated for taking photos, for example the pink and purple painted walls of the individual tanks enhance the jellyfish and make for pretty pictures. The exhibit made me wonder if digital capturing is as important as the physical viewing?

After that Jellies exhibition, my experience went increasingly downhill. To see these huge animals swim from wall to wall in proportionally tiny tanks for human entertainment made me feel sick. On the other hand, I told myself that perhaps this exposure to animals will inspire us to protect our wildlife and oceans. This issue went unresolved for me and the emotional result was an uncomfortable sadness for these animals.

There were more children than not at the aquarium. In every exhibition, I noticed them ignore the giant animals swimming above them and instead rush to the informational screens, tapping them repeatedly. I was struck by this inclination and intrigued by it. It felt as though there was a need for adults to capture their current memories with photographs, while the children rushed to the posted screens and waited for something to happen.

Perhaps for our show at MANA, we can play with the idea of individual and public screens: watching, playing and pressing them. Part of teaching is using screens for education while attempting to pull students away from their personal screens. The most recent project I did was about selfies, attempting to view their artistic qualities through an art historical lens, thus blurring the line between mass culture and fine art. What if our show existed only virtually or there were only projections of art? How engaging are spaces for the average (non-art) viewer, when screens aren’t present within them?

Jellies Exhibit

(Maria Ambriz)

I posted the Spanish version of my instructional in laundromats and grocery stores near my apartment in Pilsen.

Benito Juarez Community High School- teacher bathroom

When Things Fall Apart

(Maria Ambriz)

Stacia Yeapanis currently has an ongoing exhibition at the Lillstreet Art Center called When Things Fall Apart. This is part of her series of collage installations using cutouts from magazine pages. She collects many magazines of different types and cuts out multiple of the same items; food, cars, clothing, make-up, etc. This particular exhibition is different from the rest because Stacia is building the installation over a period of one month by pinning the magazine cutouts onto the entrance of the Lillstreet Art Center and allowing visitors to observe her work, then the she will be inviting visitors to help her take down the installation on December 5th. During her talk to a group of people from my fibers class, Stacia showed us images of her previous work and talked about her interest in people’s desires and how capitalism feeds off of those desires.

I like that the project is ongoing, accessible to visitors, and visitors will be able to participate in the take down of the installation. Mostly I’m interested in the way that process is so important to the artist and the project and that the audience will be able to witness this process and become a part of it. As an art educator, for me the process and experience for both the teacher and students is really important. Another thing that I took away from this talk was the simplicity in which Stacia talked about her work and the ideas that she’s thinking about. (I didn’t feel overwhelmed with complicated concepts, finally!) She uses materials and images that are familiar to most people which I’m interested in my own teaching, to use materials that are low-status or everyday materials.

Jiyun Park

To experience Chi-Contemporary Culture, I visited the National Museum of Mexican Art (NMMA). At first, I only planned on attending the Print Festival, mentioned by cartoonist Eric Garcia, but I ended up viewing the gallery for the Day of the Dead as well. The Print Festival came as a big surprise to me as the workshop for the festival was hosted by Ms. Camacho and her students from Benito Juarez. They shared their classwork with us, which were prints in response to a social injustice of their choice. They encouraged people of all ages to make whatever print of their choice. In the back room, the rest of the Print Festival felt very commercial as Print artists had set up to sell their works.

The Day of the Dead gallery on the other hand, exhibited various Ofrendas filled with plastic and dried foods, artworks, photos, and skeletons. The NMMA also paid homage to José Guadalupe Posada’s 100th year anniversary of his death. Ester Hernández’s “Sun Mad Raisins” artwork was also exhibited.

Since I had in mind to incorporate student works from Benito Juarez for MANA’s exhibition, I wanted to immerse myself in the Pilsen community a bit more to understand its environment better. When I arrived, I hadn’t expected for the Print workshop to be run by Ms. Camacho’s art class. They were very enthusiastic about volunteering their time at the workshop and they were very helpful in assisting both Spanish and English speaking attendants. When I asked some students if they got extra credit for showing up, they responded saying they were there “out of free will” (they also told me about the first amendment which I found endearing). Visiting the NMMA was an eye-opener for me since I have never experienced such an immersive Hispanic culture before. To me, the Day of the Dead was one school day where only shallow physical aspects of culture were shared (Sugar skulls, Papel Picado, the dead being something to be celebrated and not just feared…). While attending the gallery space, I had a chance to listen to a museum guide who spoke passionately about the history as well as the injustices faced by past Hispanics, and what certain Ofrendas said about the dead and their families.

Listen to Jiyun Park Psychogeography on #SoundCloud

I went to a couple of different events in the past week that I wanted to talk about together. The first was the Chicago Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier on 11/23 and the second was the sit-in at City Hall on 11/25 organized by Black Youth Project 100 after the grand jury decision came out in Ferguson (photo above taken from BYP100's instagram). In retrospect, both of these events were resources for teaching- by giving examples of organizational structures for group play and discussion.

I was only at the sit in for about an hour during my lunch break from work, but attending just for a little while drastically changed my outlook for the rest of the day. When I arrived on the 8th floor (outside the mayor's office) the crowd was asked to discuss experiences of trauma in small group healing circles. The group of three women I sat with discussed personal confrontations with police and their reactions to past and current police violence. It felt good to actually sit with people and just listen, as a contrast to all the news and stories from posts online. A box of donuts got passed around. Hearing other people talk about their experiences and how it relates to trauma caused me to remember moments of police violence that I have witnessed and the intense emotional wave that came from feeling powerless to stop it. One of the points someone made, that I hadn't thought about before, is that you can call in and report any crime in the city anonymously except when you are reporting a crime committed by an officer.

The Toy and Game fair became related to this protest after the fact, since protests a few days later, against Black Friday, highlighted the importance that is given to commerce over the lives of people. The fair was just a giant store, which was not really a surprise. There were quite a few opportunities to play with the games and toys without needing to buy them, but this was obviously set up as a sales pitch. Some of the tension was broke when I walked by the man in the picture as he was trying to get people to come over to his booth- he was selling "balloon pops" for $1, which was actually blowing up a balloon with a bicycle pump until it popped. But right as I walked by (and no other kids or families were near) he yells, "Pop a balloon for $1, $1 for something you can do for free at home!"

-Marie

Caitlin Weres: "8 Ways to be a Good Customer" public poster project

Admittedly, this post is a bit late because I waited until Black Friday to install my posters in public places. I felt that, on the most profitable retail day of the year, it would be especially appropriate to remind people of the ways in which they can respect the workers whom they will be interacting with. With the potential customer in mind, I targeted them on their journey to the retail location (on the L), as they look through the sale ads for the day (in the newspaper), and as they are shopping inside the retail location (in the bathroom stall).

Caitlin Weres

This semester, I learned quite a bit about curating and planning an art event from my friend Katie Vota: an MFA student in the Fibers and Material Studies department at SAIC. I attended her opening reception in the Leroy Neiman Center Gallery on October 2nd for the show titled "Borderlands" which was an exploration of how we create borders between our bodies and within spaces expressed through the medium of structures woven from recycled bike tires. The show itself was quite a physical experience that allowed attendees to perceive each other in the space and interact with those outside the space in new ways. Katie was present to have discussions with the attendees and dressed to match the aesthetics of the work. She explained that this is a practice of hers because it helps her to feel unified with the work and become an equally important part of the exhibition.

I realized that small details like this shape the experience of the viewer but we often don't consider them until we start planning an event or show of our own. I was really able to understand and appreciate the whole experience much better because our conversations in the months and weeks leading up to the event. We discussed how one considers making work for a particular space and population. We discussed how one considers choosing a time at which people will be likely to attend an event. We discussed how seemingly minor decisions such as what food will be served impact whether or not those who attend enjoy their experience. In this instance, Katie explained that she chose pita, falafel and hummus as appetizers instead of the traditional cookies, cheese and crackers plates because it would be more accommodating of various dietary restrictions.

In summary, Katie Vota and her show "Borderlands" taught me about how all of the creative and logistical decisions made by the artist and their curating team impact the viewers' experience later on. There are so many details to be considered, yet this incredible power to provide someone else with a uniquely designed experience can be utilized in meaningful ways.

YoungJin Choi

Since I was doing a step by step out of season I tried to put it somewhere people would see them, but also with a contradicting context.

So i found this pretty awesome. What do you guys think?

-sadaf

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