blurring boundaries: mapping identity with...
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Blurring Boundaries: Mapping Identity with Place throughAutoethnography, Mapping, and Arts-Based Research
Item Type text; Electronic Thesis
Authors Zimmerman, Angela
Publisher The University of Arizona.
Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this materialis made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona.Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such aspublic display or performance) of protected items is prohibitedexcept with permission of the author.
Download date 05/07/2018 18:16:30
Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/203497
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BLURRING BOUNDARIES: MAPPING IDENTITY WITH PLACE THROUGH
AUTOETHNOGRAPHY, MAPPING, AND ARTS-BASED RESEARCH
By
Angela M. Zimmerman
________________________
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the
SCHOOL OF ART
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART EDUCATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
2011
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STATEMENT BY AUTHOR
This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced
degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be
made available to borrowers under rules of the Library.
Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that
accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended
quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by
the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her
judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other
instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.
SIGNED: __________________________________
Angela M. Zimmerman
APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR
This thesis has been approved on the date shown below:
__________________________________________Date: 11/08/2011
Dr. Marissa McClure
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my professors: Dr. Marissa McClure for inspiring me to break
through my own boundaries in writing this paper, Dr. Elizabeth Garber for introducing
me to arts-based research, Dr. Ryan Shin for providing the foundations I needed to begin
this paper, and Dr. Lynn Beudert for always providing support. My sincere thanks to
those who provided emotional, academic, and artistic support: my parents John and
Bonnie Zimmerman, Cerese Vaden, Alex Ledbetter, Alexis Akagawa, Erin Garber-
Pearson, Traci Quinn, Valerie Damon, Jamie Martin, Katie Kindelan, and Damara Jacobs
Morris. I would also like to thank the University of Arizona for providing a fantastic print
shop and graduate art studios.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….6
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………….………………………… 7
Introduction…………………………………………………….………………… 7
Previous Artworks: Nostalgia………………………………………………...….. 9
Identity and Place……………………………………………...…………………12
Valuable Everyday Fixtures………………………………………………..…… 13
Preliminary Case Study…………………………………………………………. 14
Significance………………………………………………………………………17
Boundaries………………………………………………………..……….……..19
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………....20
Liminal Space……………………………………………………………………20
Eroded to a Smooth Surface- Practice-Based Research…………………...…….22
Where the Water Meets the Land – Autoethnography (Artist/teacher) ………... 27
Precariously Preserved in Ice – White Studies and Theory …………………….30
Patterns from a Previous Day- Personal Geographies- Mapping ……………….36
The Route of the Artist/Teacher ………………………………………………...40
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………..…42
Capturing Place through Photography…………………………………………...44
Journaling the Subjective and Objective…………………………………………46
Evidence Shared through Blogging……………………………………………...47
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Critiques………………………………………………………………………….49
Artwork and Mapping……………………………………………………………50
Liminality in the Process of Making……………………………………………..53
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS……………………………………..55
Written and Visual…………………………………………………………….…55
Physical Dialogue………………………………………………………………..61
Identity, Liminal Space, and Mapping in Connection to Place………………….63
APPENDIX A: FIGURES ………………………………………………………..……..70
Images of Older artworks (Fig. 1.1 – 1.5).......………………………………..….70
Preliminary Case Study Artist Book (Fig. 2.1)…………………………………..71
Photographs of Plymouth Wisconsin (Fig. 3.1 – 4.0)……………………………71
Works in Progress – Paper City (Fig. 5.1 – 5.5)…………………………………73
Sample Page on Blog (Fig. 6.1) ………………………………….……………...74
Monotype Images (Fig. 7.1 – 7.6)………………………………………………..75
Further Distortion of Paper Plymouth (Fig. 8.1 – 8.4)……………………...……76
APPENDIX B: LESSONS……………………………………………………………….78
Lesson Plan (Fig. 9.1) …………………………………………………………...82
REFERENCES ……………………...…………………………………………………..86
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ABSTRACT
Liminal space serves as a metaphor in defining the in-between places I feel as an
artist/teacher and the in-between places I live in because of the intermixing of images
from memory and daily life. As an artist embarking on a career as an educator, I have
difficulty visually portraying my identity in my art and feel my future students will find it
difficult to define who they are without proper guidance and knowledge of what could
define a person. I will be a teacher who will not propose a concept or lesson to students
without undertaking the project myself. Identity evolves and incorporates elements of
where we live and what we see every day. The liminal, in-between, blurry, and distorted
perceptions that define my identity are expressed through arts-based research,
autoethnography, and mapping. In this research I create and connect paths that lead to a
further definition of the artist/teacher.
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
My idea of myself as an artist/teacher instead of an artist or teacher has
significantly impacted my life over the last few years. I have programmed myself to
choose one path, that of the artist. Choosing the path of teacher would be secondary or
divert from the path of the artist. I am now at a pivotal point in my life where I can have
both by realizing that one supports the other. The paths I have created as an artist and
teacher intersect, break apart, come together, and have no direct linear destination.
Perhaps this is where I have located confusion instead of diversity and opportunity, that
unclear and slightly blurry destination. Or, perhaps what is confusing is not recognizing
where the artist and teacher work together to create a better understanding of self. What
is not so blurry is where I am now and where I have been. It is what I can learn about
myself in relation to a place in the present that may alter my perception of my future and
push me forward.
In the following research, I embrace multiple paths and methods to achieve a
further understanding of my identity in connection to place. By connecting to place, I
can find ways to distort, represent, and pull out valuable fixtures of a location in a way in
which only I can create. This unique representation of a place serves as a map of how I
can create, learn, and understand myself as an artist/teacher. As an artist I have searched
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for a group, a committee, a collective of other artists to be a part of and to help ground
me in the arts, but with little success. Instead I have built strong bonds and friendships
with educators over the years. I began to collaborate with educators as an artist which
urged me to address deeper sociological, political, or personal issues in art. Although this
collaborative voice is fulfilling, I constantly search for my own voice in my art and the
ability to explain that voice.
I have based this auto-ethnographic research study in art making so that it also
provides a way for me to grow as an educator. The idea of selecting place as informing
and molding my identity stems from the shifts in places I have lived -rural/urban,
farmland/desert, alike/diverse- and the role I now play as a white female teacher and
artist in diverse environments. Although in this research I do not go in-depth into
defining my cultural identity, I find it noteworthy to begin to define who I am in new
places through an understanding of critical ethic studies. Being a white female
artist/teacher graduate student from a middle-class background in the Midwest may
provoke or map out boundaries inside myself as I enter a diverse high school classroom
in Tucson, Arizona as a student teacher.
My research will address the following question:
Through arts-based research, how is my representation or recreation of a specific
place through art significant in establishing connections to my identity and how I
visualize myself as an artist/teacher?
The following sub-questions will also assist me in this research:
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What resides in the everyday fixtures of places that can be mapped through art?
How do I learn through my process of making art, how is this process shared with
others, and what art can I make after this research?
How may this research promote growth inside me as an artist and an educator?
How can my method of research evolve to encourage my future students to form a
connection to place?
Also, how can I expect my students to push their own boundaries in making art if
I am not doing so myself?
Since this research is auto-ethnographic and featuring my subjective voice, I have used
another font throughout this written study to include these subjective thoughts and
insights.
Previous Artworks: Nostalgia
See Fig. 1.1 – 1.5)
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Once in a while I will look through previous artworks I have made with a fresh
eye to search for patterns among the images I have, maybe, not noticed before. Although
there were some nostalgic feelings towards the places I was portraying, the works of art
themselves were of a place that I created through layering and modifications. I find that
feeling blocked as an artist is my attachment to the medium or printmaking techniques.
Where I find fluidity in creating is through making the drawings or collages before I enter
the print shop. If the printmaking techniques continue this fluidity in creating then I feel
I have some success. Another way I create is having strength in experimenting with
techniques, color, or textures in printmaking but with the image struggling in meaning.
Since each way of working has its benefits, it is crucial that I begin to locate where
learning happens and where/when my process changes and promotes growth. This is not
easy to do just inside myself so I will locate other outlets to share and discuss my work
through blogging, critiques, journaling, and photographs.
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My quest for identity began with a search for family or cultural heritage.
However, being a White American female with a family reluctant to speak of the past or
with no record of family lineage, I now look to places I have lived for answers. One key
component for describing place or identity in my research is to address the liminality or
in-between states of being or of a space. If I wish to describe myself as an artist/teacher I
must include that foggy in-between area where I am both or neither. The places I will
create in the artwork will also be liminal for they represent a dream-like memory, an
attempt to detach, distort, or an attempt to connect. The art is subjective, somewhat
abstract, and neither directly nor concretely represents Plymouth or Tucson. It is my
interpretation of a place at a particular moment in my life. This is what I hope to present
to my students when having them connect with a place through art; the idea that you will
change and your connection to the place will change. At the end of this research I will
point out methods that could be paths for more research when having diverse students
connect identity and place, whether those students are rooted in cultural heritage,
refugees, minorities, or white with no perceived link to heritage. These methods can also
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be applied for other artists or art teachers who would like to promote growth in their
artwork and assess their own learning.
Identity and Place
The topic of identity is something I want my future students to deconstruct,
construct, interpret, and to understand qualities that are contradictory or uncertain.
Included in this journey is to recognize the multiple layers, voices, and dimensions of
identity. The journey is endless, evolving, and the goal to obtain understanding is
continuous. This subject also challenges me to interpret my identity at this point in my
life. This research begins upon a new platform within my life as a pre-service high
school art teacher, artist, and researcher. I am right in the moment of combining areas of
my life that I often felt were separate and attempting to blur the lines I had so clearly
defined inside myself. There are numerous moments in one’s life as a teacher or artist for
growth and questioning but the study I will undertake takes place at an anticipated pivotal
moment of transition. This journey strives to visually map my questioning of identity in
place.
Heritage and place of birth or upbringing is experienced or imposed without
choice. Stereotypes are often attached to particular ethnicities, races, and cultures even if
one chooses to not let it be a part of their life. Knowing where you come from, your
history or your heritage is not all that establishes identity. Exploring place and identity in
this research may draw from the past but will be viewed as evolving, transforming, and
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investigative. Beginning from a place I have lived is a possible start in this journey.
Whether I choose to stay in or move to a place, a layering of experiences and memories
become attached to specific fixtures regardless of culture, ethnicity, or time spent in that
place. Experiences, memories, and meanings also evolve, regress, and transcend
expectations contained in each place I live. My understanding of identity in relation to
place will be informed through creating art and analyzing my process of layering images
and meaning.
Valuable Everyday Fixtures
Since my research begins in my hometown of Plymouth, Wisconsin, and focuses
on a new connection to it as a place, I must attach more value to what I would see there
every day. Everyday fixtures with a place could be anything from a lamppost, corner
store, café, or familiar cracks in the sidewalk. These fixtures become landmarks for the
everyday journeys. However, there are ways to attach more value to these landmarks
than just recognizing them or relying on them being there every day. When reading
Karen Hutzel’s (2007) article of community arts in the West End neighborhood of
Cincinnati, Ohio, I concentrated on her use of locating valuable assets included in a
community. Even in neighborhoods where crime is high, resident’s income is low, and
where the list of improvements seems endless, residents will still be able to locate assets
that create inspiration for growth. Participants responded to their community focusing on
the social, physical, and human assets and to “respond to the resources already existing in
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the neighborhood” (Hutzel, 2007, p. 306). This asset-based process utilized map making
and photography to focus on specific locations as valuable or interesting (Hutzel, 2007).
This study initially inspired me to locate other valuable assets in a place and to use these
assets as a basis for building knowledge. The value in the everyday fixtures of Plymouth,
for me at this moment, resides in the architecture. For what little I have found written
about the town, most of the text is about the buildings or architectural styles. The
downtown area is itself a historical map including the old, the new, the abandoned,
transitioning, covering up, and the restoration of its buildings.
Preliminary Case Study
Before I engaged in this thesis research, I conducted a preliminary case study in
the fall of 2010 of building a connection to Plymouth, Wisconsin, through a community
arts approach. Citizens of Plymouth, in order to revive the downtown area, began to raise
money to employ mural artists who would research designs of the city’s earliest business
signs. To accompany these newly painted murals are a variety of architectural
restorations. Motivated by this historical investigation, I decided to contribute to the
fundraising. One individual had made dozens of wooden rocking chairs and sold them to
any citizen who would paint a design of their choice. The chairs were on display in the
summer of 2011 during the community mural event. To begin the project I created a
general representation of my hometown using historical photos of downtown Plymouth
juxtaposed with photos taken in the present. In order to relinquish artistic control in my
process of creating art to include the insights of others in the community I reflected on
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my artistic practices and interviewed my parents multiple times since they have been life-
long residents of Plymouth. My process evolved into using online maps from Google
Earth, photos taken from Plymouth’s online historical society website, photos taken by
my parents of the city, and maps I created through various printmaking mediums. This
practice-based research allowed me to analyze my creative process and map the findings
into an artist book. (See Fig. 2.1)
From viewing all these visual and textual findings in one book format I could not
only see what led me from one point to the next in my process, but also could understand
how I lay out ideas and concepts into the final image on the chair. The benefits of this
form of arts-based research transformed my creative process as an artist and engaged me
in forms of inquiry that are reflective and evolving. This case study also exhibited
methods of compiling findings in a visual format I could use in art projects with my
future students. My presentation of research was not only written, but visual.
In developing a method in practice-based research, I started in a familiar and
comfortable setting, the print shop. What I found was a fundamental way in which I
begin to understand the medium I work with, even if it is familiar. I often allow myself to
make simple mistakes in order to produce work without stopping and thinking too much.
After I see some results I will then fine tune my methods and fix the technical or
conceptual errors. This realization only came with journaling while partaking in the
process. I recognized that I need some tactile result in order to keep moving forward,
even if that result is thrown in the trash later on. Through my process, I ultimately
altered my way of working in order to nurture and expand my knowledge of how I may
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learn through making art. Practice based research can “reveal insights about how
activities that take place in the studio constitute a form of research that is responsive,
reflexive, and strategic and yields actions that construct new reality” (Sullivan, 2004,
p.808). These insights into art as a form of research help to place my thoughts, actions,
and techniques used in the studio into a format for understanding. As Sullivan shares, “a
research methodology, art practice is premised on the need to create and critique which
opens up the possibility of achieving new understanding” (Sullivan, 2008, p. 242).
The interviews with my parents opened up a dialogue and a platform for them to
critique the work and thoughts I had about the artwork on the chair. It was surprising to
know how quick they were to say they did or did not like something about the chair. This
was very helpful in solidifying my concept. This part of the process was a definite
turning point. The sharing of ideas and opening of dialogue was essential in my art
making process.
In concluding this preliminary study, the artist book I created unfolded into a
descriptive, visual, and multilayered mind map; charting my progress through the
research. This is where I begin to expand the map to incorporate my identity and the
intrigue I have with where I grew up. This new starting point is not just a continuation
but a further unfolding of self. As I reach the end of my graduate studies and enter the
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classroom as a high school art teacher, I now take the opportunity to unravel years of
questioning about the choices I make in connecting to particular places through art.
Significance
By describing myself as an artist/teacher and researching through creating art, my
methods of connecting to place as a way to search for identity will open doors for
exploring how I learn, how I create, and how the knowledge I obtain can strengthen me
as an artist and teacher. A further understanding of my identity in connection to place is
expanding on a concept I have already begun to explore and want to explore further. The
methods I use to explore and create through art can also open doors to how I can present
a similar project for my future students and facilitate their views of place and identity.
The art created will serve as a unique map of events and images. The methods,
findings, and art will also be presented using various visual mapping techniques: mind
maps, personal geographies. These maps and personal geographies will include the
valuable fixtures, multiple paths, multiple layers, and liminality contained in a place. The
art in this research is also described liminally. I have included the art created in the
preliminary case study and will describe, at the end of the research, what will be created
after. The art made during this research is in between stages but is still significant. By
keeping this in mind I will be able to better assist my future students to continue to learn
through art and to document what they learn throughout their processes.
Finally, I will address the significance of distortion, deconstruction, and
subjective qualities in my work through practice-based research. Since identity in place
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evolves, transcends, and transforms, the art and research must leave space for many
interpretations and critiques. The liminal spaces I create in the art included in this
research tend to distort the place to give it movement through time and memory. By
deconstructing objects within a place I am able to place them in a way that is meaningful
to me and to my perception of the place. These terms subjective, distortion,
deconstruction serve as a starting point to opening a vocabulary and dialogue with
connecting to place. As Powell found, “An advantage to arts-based approaches is the
ways in which they allow for ambiguity in rendering and representation of data, an
approach that aligns with contemporary concerns with representation” (Powell, 2010,
49).
As a pre-service teacher, I anticipate the various perspectives that my future
students will have of connecting identity and place through art that will transform and
inform my teaching and process of creating art. We will assess each other’s work
through critiques, portfolios, exhibitions, discussions, blogs and other methods. I must
also be comfortable in assessing my own artwork in this way. Assessment through
portfolios, exhibition, and critique (Sullivan, 1993) is an exemplary method of measuring
student progress in the arts. As an artist/teacher I must also place myself in the role of a
student and be open to learning from others.
Boundaries
Each section of time set aside for creating art will also include reflections,
critiques of the work, and discussions, limiting the time for research. The art making and
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research will also occur while taking several classes at the end of my graduate studies.
So I will estimate a total of seven cumulative days of creating visual images and art.
There may even be the possibility of not completing the art during the research for I will
often need time to separate myself from my work in order for it to continue. The artist in
me can sometimes feel that my work is not finished and it may place me in a vulnerable
position. This vulnerability stems from presenting a work in-progress and not being able
to physically show how I want the work to progress or what I envision in my mind. The
vulnerability is also because of my attachment to my art or ideas and allowing my ego to
step down and be open to new ideas. My research will embrace this vulnerability and
determine where the research and art could progress, change, and expand.
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Liminal Space
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Through my investigation into practice-based research, mapping, identity, art, and
education I have selected many resources to aid in my understanding of place and identity
that also support me as an artist/teacher. These resources range from practice-based
research in visual arts, subjectivity in qualitative research, and autoethnography to
mapping, personal geographies, cognitive mapping, white studies in education, and
critical race theory. I began with studying practice-based research in art (preliminary
case study); for researching and learning through art felt the most comfortable and at the
same time the most challenging for me. From there, I researched into autoethnography
because I am writing about myself, as well as about my journey as an artist/teacher.
Autoethnography supports using multiple voices and perspectives and taps into the
subjective and objective thoughts of the researcher, this lending itself well to my methods
of research, especially while journaling.
As I looked further into researching myself I found it relevant to address issues of
white studies and race theory because of my feelings of “lacking” culture in my identity.
The readings I chose brought to light the issues of being white and locating culture inside
myself personally and as an artist/teacher. Although the art I created in this research does
not directly portray the whiteness in me, it did help me to connect more personally to
where I am from and where I fit in within a diverse group of students as a pre-service
teacher.
Finally, I will describe my readings into mapping and personal geographies. I not
only have a fascination with maps and a desire to include them in my art but I have also
found mapping strategies very useful in developing methodologies in arts-based research.
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Cognitive mapping has become a wonderful educational tool for creation and assessment
of work. Along with mapping I will explore the liminal space enclosed in a place and the
areas in the self and place that evolve and are ever changing. Locating liminal spaces is
central to beginning to blur boundaries that either break down walls inside the self or
include one aspect of the self with another.
Liminality will be an underlying theme throughout this research. Liminal spaces
can be found in our natural or man-made environments and can impact our daily lives.
For example, the American roadside has become an “unstable zone between the road’s
discipline and the countryside’s informality, a spatial contradiction that perplexed those
who found comfort in structure and symmetry” (Raitz, 1998, p.385). The roadside in the
early 20th
century was a place to invent the new along with the old and a “liminal space
with few conventions or rules” (Raitz, 1998, p. 385). Cyberspace is a liminal space that
“allows people to construct their self-presentation more carefully, play with their online
identities and adopt unfamiliar roles” (Madge, and O’Conner, 2005, p.85). Cyberspace
allows one to be between stages in their life and have conversations about how to move
from one identity to the next.
A liminal place in nature that has been brought up during my research and is also
a place I can relate to metaphorically is the beach. My hometown of Plymouth lies thirty
minutes west of Lake Michigan and is a place I have visited often as an adult during
many times of the year. The beach transitions daily from the waves moving in and out
along the sand and what the water places on the beach from under its depths. In the
winter the beach is semi-frozen and in a constant state of freezing and thawing.
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Descriptions of this liminal space I have created are “where the water meets the land,
eroded to a smooth surface, patterns from a previous day, and precariously preserved in
ice.” Each of these descriptions brings about a specific memory I have in connection to
the place that I also tie into the major themes of my following research. My subjective
voice will attempt to connect, metaphorically, the liminality of the beach as a place with
features of the major topics I have researched. The purpose of providing this metaphor is
to alternate my subjective and objective voice; this also occurs while reflecting and
sharing my creative process.
Eroded to a Smooth Surface- Practice-Based Research
Elliot Eisner (1995) explains in a few key points how the arts can inform research:
breathing life into ambiguous or incomprehensible events, identifying the unique as well
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as universal language in art, and what relationships the artist chooses to express in art.
The event in this research occurs during the process and action of making. This event
will come to life as I take moments to reflect, document, and critique my process. Since
this is a particularly subjective approach I will include insights and critiques given by
others to accompany my own perspectives. “If something private is rendered in public
and becomes the product of shared meaning, its subjective basis is qualified, and its
objective status confirmed” (Sullivan, 1993, p.13). During the process of creating, I must
reach key moments where the artwork leaves the private studio space or invites others
into that space. This will create an educational setting similar to that of a classroom
where work is created in the presence of others and during moments when the artist feels
self-conscious of their work. It is not uncommon in a classroom (as I have done this
myself) for a student to cover their work when the teacher walks by. I will provide these
authentic self-conscious moments in this research and express insights or realizations of
how to overcome or progress through the insecurities.
Metacognitive skills such as thinking about planning processes, goal setting,
strategies for mapping and investigating information, and reflecting on decisions
and actions are the sort of desired student outcomes sought. (Sullivan, 1993, p. 9)
Evolving and Emerging
The relationship between artist and teacher in relation to place is one of infinite
approaches to express identity. As I had stated in the beginning of this paper, I chose this
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theme during a crucial moment in my educational growth. This theme (artist/teacher)
will evolve and is expected to during this research. The main goal in using this art
practice-based approach is to reach a critical place of transition. Daniel Barney’s (2009)
dissertation explains that arts-based research emerges over time; that an unfolding occurs
which may lead to multiple and dimensional directions. He also explains a latent
potentiality (Barney, 2009) or hidden possibilities waiting to unfold in the research. One
culminates what they have learned through creating into the final product: many art
products or studies could be made before the final piece. Barney (2009) further explains
this nonlinear way of researching as emergence.
Since complex phenomena present themselves in nonlinear ways, in what form
these new possibilities would emerge, I could not predict, only anticipate. Hence,
the study and the art curriculum-as-lived were both influenced by complexity
thinking, which values learning as adaptive and relational. (p. 22)
This adds to Sullivan’s explanation of what an artist chooses to express and how
each choice presents new opportunities to further knowledge and understanding. What
one may learn through art cannot fully be predicted, especially when the process is shared
and is open to accept new awareness into oneself and the world around them.
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Thinking in a Medium and Reflection
There is an overlap of what was learned through the process, what research is
needed for the image, and what is happening in the moment. This layering challenges an
artist to rethink what they know about a medium and how they are able to create new
meaning from it. The artist/researcher has the potential to expand or question research
when juxtaposing or layering. Art practice can be explained as “thinking in a medium”
(Sullivan, 2004, p. 808) where learning happens within the process of making or by
familiarizing yourself with a medium.
Thinking through a process is what this research embraces. Practice-based
research allows me to utilize my studio experience as a site for research and to expand
this site through reflection, critique, and exhibition. The research will permit the
artist/researcher to gain insights from other artists/teachers in order to grow as a teacher.
In other words, this process is reciprocal and continuous while opening a critical dialogue
between teachers and artists.
Research should not be seen as being in conflict with practitioners’ methods but
an expansion of them. Perhaps separation is futile, as what we are trying to do is
integrate and synthesize the best aspects of each into a critical dialogue, which
needs two elements to create it: practice-led research is simultaneously generative
and reflective. (Gray, 1996, p. 10)
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Subjectivity
I will connect identity to place and will evolve my methods of creating art to
search for a result that communicates an authentic attachment or insight into a place.
This process requires many reflections and alterations that cannot be arranged in a logical
or sequential order. I strive to keep an open mind in this research and allow my process
and thoughts to change. “The practitioner-researcher does not wear two alternate hats,
but one hat which integrates or at least allows difference to co-exist” (Gray, 1996, p.7).
Tensions may arise between the duality of objective and subjective, especially in
analyzing the subjective thoughts in relation to the research. Tensions also arise in
“internal versus external, doing versus thinking and writing, intuition versus logic” (Gray,
1996, p.7).
Elliot Eisner explains how the subjective and often emotional experiences one
may have while creating produces a location for others to relate on a human level but
more so when art is a major method use in the research.“Put another way, art is present in
research when its presence enables one to participate vicariously in a situation” (Eisner,
p.4) Researching identity through place strives to generate an experience others can
either relate to or participate in. This practice-based approach challenges me as an artist
to be open to new insights into my work and allow a shared experience as opposed to
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creating in private and gaining insights only when exhibiting. I feel it is imperative for
me as an artist/teacher to wholly understand the benefits of creating a reciprocal
environment in the art classroom
Where the Water Meets the Land – Autoethnography (Artist/teacher)
In autoethnographic research, the researcher is the focus of study, opening a
window for an audience to be more intimately involved in what is studied (Marrais and
Lapan, 2004). To accompany the practice-based approach to research are methods taken
from autoethnography in order to structure my reflective voice. A structure will provide
a balance between emotional, subjective voices against memory, inner dialogue, and
voices contained in the artist/teacher. This approach of recognizing the many dialogues
inside me as I create will better describe the transitions in learning and experiencing
through art. This method of understanding voice in research will not only assist me as an
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artist, but also as a teacher, by helping me to interpret what occurs in the classroom and
to understand student learning. “Working with teachers in autoethnographic or meaning-
making ways may provide for the critical retheorizing of their understandings”
(Diamond, 1992, p.73) which can open new avenues for inquiry. Diamond (1992) also
states that further understanding and knowing of self inspires one to actively “participate
in social and personal change” (p.73). By immersing myself in my artistic process I will
find ways to facilitate student learning in which they question their choices and concepts
through art making.
Autoethnography is further explained as a self-reflexivity and a restructuring of
experience (Watson, 2009) to create a narrative, which can be reorganized to create other
meanings depending on what the researcher chooses to include and exclude. The way I
approach connecting identity with place is not meant to become a linear experience. The
research into self-identity evolves continuously and the findings collected are what the
researcher is experiencing in that particular moment. The significance of the research is
how one chooses to research oneself, whether through art, journaling, mapping, etc. To
better aid this course of action, autoethnographers describe multivocality in the research.
Multivocality
This autoethnographic study will include many points of view- multivocality.
Ethnography involves describing and interpreting culture or social systems of a particular
people through lengthy study (Powell, 2010) I will be interpreting the cultural aspects of
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myself as researcher and artist. The purpose of a visual autoethnography is to unfold
experience (Barney, 2009), restructure experience (Watson, 2008), re-center
fragmentation (Mitra, 2010), and to express the plural narrative voices in my journey
(Mizzi, 2010). The plural narrative voices, or multivocality, can take into account the
competing voices in one’s identity that shape relationships and how the researcher
exposes their “vulnerabilities or tensions” (Mizzi, 2010, p.7). This reflective process
draws from various aspects of my life experiences, perspectives, and identity. Going
back to my hometown of Plymouth, Wisconsin, I will identify perspectives I have had
and now have of the city as a place and how they have evolved or changed. Each voice
will document not only the dialogue that occurs when creating art, but also the tensions
and realizations one has through making connections and seeking further understanding
of self.
The journey will not end there. I will travel to other places of significance in my
life, acknowledge the changes that occur in each site, and recognize the growth in my
conceptualization or representation of identity with my future students. I would like my
students and me to become conscious of the confines we may place around our cultural
identity or perhaps of even identifying ourselves as not having culture or race. I may ask
the question: how is a physical place a metaphor for identity or how is it not? There are
many alternative ways to describe identity and some paths lead outside of the self and
influenced by our surroundings. The dialogue created by art will evolve and influence
new ways understanding identity and importance of place.
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The voices I will have throughout this research are that of artist/ teacher. Each
voice will converse with the other on how to express and alter my approach in connecting
identity and place. “Interpreting the art data will involve an arranging and categorizing to
understand patterns, themes, paradoxes, and issues in relation to research questions”
(Powell, 2010, p.50).
Precariously Preserved in Ice – White Studies and Theory
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If I am to address the topic of identity with my diverse students I will need to
understand what it means for me to be white; or to understand the concept of being “non-
racialized and at the same time non-racist” (Aveling, 2006, p.261)
Critical Storytelling: An educational strategy
Critical storytelling, as an experimental strategy for understanding racism and
knowing how students can make a difference, is approached through deconstructing
identities and making connections with the community (Aveling, 2006). It is explained
by Aveling that this transition and awareness occurs when “students are challenged to
move beyond telling their story and to critically consider their own positionalities”
(Aveling, 2006, p. 266). As Aveling received feedback about critical storytelling from
her students she had found that many of her White students felt guilt and defended their
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position about their race. She explained that the purpose was not in perpetuating guilt but
in “understanding how being White has shaped us, as well as provided us with unearned
privileges, and armed with the understanding, to do something about racism” (Aveling,
2006, p. 269). Reading accounts of how educators have addressed issues of racism and
identity with students lays some groundwork for how to approach the issue with delicacy,
strength, and insight. However, the strategy mentioned has mixed reviews by students
and is in a constant state of revision. This topic is important to question and discuss in
the classroom, especially in relation to identity. This in turn must educate the teacher as
to deconstructing their identity and listening, as Aveling has done, with students’
feedback on the issue.
Thus I strive for pedagogy of Whiteness within which students might examine
construction of their own identities in order to re-think Whiteness as both a
discourse of critique and possibility. In other words, I want to enable White
students to move beyond positions of guilt and resentment to a space where they
can become effective White allies. (Aveling, 2006, p.271)
Preservice Teachers and Critical Race Theory
Studies of White preservice teachers, who reflect on student teaching, outline
attempts of understanding the complications that occur when dealing with issues of race,
biases, and guilt. Two studies by Sherry Marx and Julie Pennington (2003) describe their
meetings with their White student teachers and their White tutors in a Second Language
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Education course. The two studies were conducted separately and then compared for
similarities and differences.
One of the studies reflected on conversations of Critical Race Theory between
White student teachers and their official supervisor. The second study described the
experiences of Second Language Education student tutors and their teacher. Both
researches intended to address White issues but had no expectations on the outcomes of
the studies. What they found was that their students/ participants had unease in
approaching the topic of Whiteness but that they were able to share their views in a
supportive and trusting environment. Participants admitted to culture shock in entering
schools where they were one of few White people but, given the time to discuss this fear
and unease, they came to understand their situation. “In addition, some students /
participants shared that they were actually grateful for these discussions. They really
needed them” (Marx & Pennington, 2003, p. 104)
The studies concluded with several main similarities in each situation. Students
developed a responsibly centered language to address race and comfort in discussing their
type of racism, to form critical awareness. ”Instead of not seeing White racism at all,
they began to see it everywhere, even within themselves” (Marx & Pennington, 2003, p.
104). They discussed ways in which the racism affected children of color, the fear of
teaching in a non-White school, and the shift in power when entering a community where
you are a minority. Some participants were quick to judge the students they were
tutoring as not speaking or writing in English well (when they could) and feeling that the
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students were insecure with the English language. The studies also found that White
teachers working with children of color perceived it as a charity. A final observation
from the study was that the students/ participants “associate goodness with nonracist
identities” (p.105) and finding racism inside themselves was alarming.
Critical White Studies
There are no conclusions in defining White culture but the stories of others
encourage in building consciousness (Grover, 1996). We are beyond the description of
the United States as a melting pot, for American society is comprised of numerous,
evolving cultures “which could not, or did not, assimilate the immigrant group fully or in
equal degree” (Glazer & Moynihan, 1963, p. 369). When traveling from one coast to the
next in this country one would recognize the distinct and subtle differences in culture,
diversity, beliefs, and geography.
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Assimilation has impacted immigrant groups throughout history, in some ways
making them something they had not been, indistinct yet recognizable (Glazer &
Moynihan, 1963). One’s culture could also be suppressed by spending too much time
integrating into and observing other cultures while your own is left to the side. Whites
often feel a lack of culture and so adopt another culture. Jerald N. Marrs (1996) explains
this phenomenon through a supermarket line. “We are all in line looking at the other
lines around us, but we are not able truly to understand the other lines because we can
never be a part of them” (p. 37). Marrs concludes his writing by asking to look at the
other lines and how they are just as interesting as yours. My personal geography, my
connection with identity is significant and as equally significant as someone else’s. I
would like my students to realize this among each other as well.
Patterns from a Previous Day- Personal Geographies- Mapping
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Personal geographies can be described as an arrangement of features or elements
contained in a complex item such as the self. In Katharine Harmon’s book You Are
Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, a map is not limited to
illustrate a route from one place to another but to describe a situation, a dream, a path
through life, space, or a story. When I address mapping in this research it will venture
beyond the drawn mind map or a specific map of a place. Maps will serve as a platform
for compiling information; visually organizing the search for identity. Katharine Harmon
(2004) begins her explanation of personal geographies as follows:
Of course, part of what fascinates me when looking at a map is inhabiting the
mind of its maker, considering that particular terrain of imagination overlaid with those
unique contour lines of experience. If I had mapped that landscape, I may ask
what would I have chosen to show, and how would I have shown it? The coded
visual language of maps is one we all know, but in making maps of our worlds we
each have our own dialect. (Harmon, 2004, p.11)
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This form of mapping provides an original translation of stories and events in one’s life.
Each voice (multivocality) is present and alters the paths in the map in various ways. The
way in which I will execute this research is unique to me but accessible for others to
interpret in their own way. Visual mapping (personal geography) is a way of expressing
identity through inventing methods of selecting, organizing, manipulating, distorting, and
presenting what is found to be valuable in connecting to place. The following sections
describe cartography and cognitive mapping through various metaphorical and
educational attributes.
Cartography in Education
The teaching of cartographic skills provides an approach to deconstructing
complex issues (e.g., the self or identity, as mentioned above) in a personal geography.
Mapping through complex issues can be described as non-linear and capturing
complexity (Ruitenberg, 2007). A site to begin to utilize cartography may be the
classroom itself where “students and teachers who are separated, categorized, ranked, and
assessed are cartographically represented and analyzed, such that new questions can
emerge about these mechanisms of power” (Ruitenberg, 2007, p. 7). After identifying
and locating educational complexities, the process of forming connections will give way
to questioning the effectiveness of the learning environment.
Ruitenberg (2007) describes these features of the relevance of educational
cartography:
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An alternative or complementary discourse to depict the spatial character of
educational experience or the social aspect to create a visual dialogue.
Using spatial metaphors can describe a movement through discourse by how it is
represented, interpreted or critiqued. In other words, constructing metaphors will
clue into how one creatively connects information and ideas.
Hyperlinked information to enable questioning in rhizomatic (interwoven)
interconnections.
Description of how social institutions are categorized and cartographically
represented.
To interpret academic or educational structures points to “the relevance of
cartographic analysis of boundaries and liminal zones, proximity and distance. Another
example is the critique of the mind-body dualism, and the renewed attention to the body
and its movement in space” (Ruitenberg, 2007, p. 9). Periodically I have transported
myself to the beach where I have made a written metaphor of place connected with the
research and liminal spaces. These metaphors describing liminal spaces are not only a
central bubble where other ideas branch off; as Ruitenberg describes, it is
rhizomatic. The liminal space interweaves in and out of the mapping of ideas
and images.
Cognitive Mapping
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There exist several strategies to restructure knowledge and generate new
knowledge that can encourage students to think abstractly and conceptually (Trepagnier,
2002). Cognitive mapping forces one to think outside one’s usual parameters and
provides a “shifting in conceptual framework” (p.108).
Challenging students mentally to move from a categorical, concrete way of
knowing to a tolerance for ambiguity and the abstract is also imperative in
preparing them for living in contemporary culture, (p.108)
Although this article provided insights on cognitive growth in mapping, the
assessment was experimental and could have been completed multiple ways. However,
the lesson plan explained in the article had students write statements about each
connection they made while interpreting sociological theories which helped in
understanding the map and furthering the research. Connecting two points is quite simple
but creativity is fostered when having to explain the connections. The methodology in
this article was not arts based but it did supply another view of using mapping strategies
in the classroom.
For most students, cognitive mapping provokes disequilibrium because they are
faced with a set of concepts and required to forge connections among them. Many
of the links are not clear to students at first, so the assignment resembles a puzzle.
(Trepagnier, 2002, p.109)
My methodology includes concepts similar to these cognitive mapping strategies.
The disequilibrium arrives in the art making process at various stages and that is when I
invent a new connection, a new method of working, and new understanding. Just like the
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photos of the patterns on the beach, I made a connection because I was searching for one
or had opened my mind to allow one to affect me. It doesn’t have to happen in that
moment but can happen when looking back on that moment. Information and ideas for
the research in this thesis seemed, at some points, to be serendipitous or intuitive,
probably because it is related to art. Although I do not wish to rule these out I think it is
more constructive to think of information as me making connections by talking, reading,
thinking, and inquiring about my topic. Mapping, I found, is also something others can
relate to, it is familiar and technology is inventing new ways to visually connect ideas
through mapping.
The Route of the Artist/Teacher
I have wanted to make a more profound connection to identity and place as an
artist for some time. Now that I am becoming a teacher and studying art and visual
culture education I have found the outlet for making the journey more relevant in my life.
Instead of collecting maps and map related items or taking photos of places and curious
fixtures attached to the places, I am designing this moment in my life where all these
things matter within my growth as an artist/teacher. The familiar and
unfamiliar/unknown collide to produce liminal spaces in which I will be creating and
learning. The following methods of my research weave in and out of familiar and
unfamiliar art making practices. It is in those unfamiliar practices where I begin to distort
and deconstruct my interpretation of a place.
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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
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Methodology
My arts based research allows much room for exploration through art as I attempt
to create a connection to place and learn more about my identity. As I mentioned before
in thinking in a medium, Gray (1996) states that practice- led arts research is both
generative and reflective. Since I am researching myself and my own art process, my
experience has included some disconnects which can only be described as finding a path
through the research in which time was needed away from making and reflecting. This
time was spent visualizing the project in my mind and researching more into mapping
and identity. There is no logic or way to reproduce my experience to achieve a similar
result. In concluding there were some methods that were unsuccessful or not used to full
potential and methods that were successful.
I must point out that this practice-based research puts me in a position of wanting
to showcase the mediums I know well. This slightly ego-driven way of working is also a
safety net when I leave my comfort zone in working with materials. My bachelor’s
degree is in printmaking and I have become particularly attached to monotypes and
intaglio in the last two years. This familiarity with a medium has also deterred me from
using more appropriate materials for the concepts I am working with. I also categorize
materials that are more formal, especially in presenting my work to others, and materials
that are used informally to create studies or templates. This research has challenged me
to find the integrity of the studies and materials I find informal, non-archival, or
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unpolished. The paper models I created in this research held more sincerity and a
genuine connection within my concept while the monotype prints blocked my creativity.
This feeling of being blocked is partially because I had not kept up with my
drawing skills and monotypes lend well to drawing and painting. When creating some
simple color and textures in the monotypes I felt confident. When I started to paint an
image on the monotype plate I felt frustrated, for I could see I needed to practice drawing
and that takes time. Another explanation is that I just felt like cutting paper and making
models. It was fun and playful, therefore, felt more successful. Play, as part of the
making process, occurs for me when I take time to see what the materials can do and to
experiment with them. Play allows me to relax and use the materials any way I wish. If
the result does not work for me then I learned something from that experience. Perhaps
next year drawing will feel more playful than constructing paper models. Currently, the
art lessons I am teaching and what I am drawn to creating is related to book making,
papermaking, and three dimensional qualities of paper.
My list of methods used is photo documentation, journaling, art, mapping,
critiques, and blogging. Gray and Malins (2004) describe hybrid methodologies as:
a synthesis of many diverse research methods and techniques. So a
characteristic of “artistic” methodology is a pluralist approach using a multi-
method technique, tailored to the individual project. Increasingly, this has
involved the use of multiple media to integrate visual, tactile, kinaesthetic,
experiential data into “rich” information. (p. 21)
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Capturing Place through Photography
I start again in my hometown of Plymouth, Wisconsin. This first attempt at
connecting to place was also the most crucial. I had read what I could find about the
history of my hometown and found a noticeable focus on the architecture. My goal was
to photograph the older downtown area of Plymouth and locate the features I was reading
about. Some of the buildings were also being restored back to their original state so I had
this perfect, yet small, window of opportunity to document the city in this state. The only
prospect I had to visit Plymouth was during winter break and unfortunately, due to
weather conditions, had Christmas day in which to venture out along the streets with my
digital camera; holiday decorations were difficult to avoid in photographing the
buildings. (See Fig. 3.1 – 4.0)
What resides in the everyday fixtures of places that can be mapped through art?
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Art-based research was motivating me to connect with my hometown through the
lens of a camera. To accompany my reflection, I would like to explain that my new
perspective of Plymouth came under my influences of art making and research.
However, anyone can connect in a profound, sudden, or casual way to place at any time
and under any motivations. The experiences and histories people possess with a place is
diverse and infinite.
I took time while photographing to carefully select and compose each shot. I took
one hundred and twenty seven photos and deleted them only if they were blurry. I saved
the photos in my computer, my camera, and jump drive before the flight back to Tucson.
Because the photos were taken in winter on an overcast day, the colors were quite muted,
a little washed out, and almost ghost-like. This quality of the photos would definitely
play into the aspect of time and memory more than if they had, perhaps, been shot on a
sunny summer day. The winter day of the photo shoot set the stage for the work I created
later: a white sky, a quiet setting with nothing open for business, almost no one walking
the streets, and no foliage hiding parts of the buildings.
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Journaling the Subjective and Objective
When making art, I reflect on my process mentally and usually do not keep a
journal or sketch book. One reason is that I have not committed myself to a large project
in many years. Most of the works of art I created over those years were engaging
experiments or intended to be sold. I wanted to make as few alterations in my process of
making to not disrupt the fluidity. Some moments in creating are subjective, intuitive, or
indecisive and cannot be documented in any logical way during the moment. The best
way to document these moments is through journaling afterwards. Each day during the
art making process, I would write about the experience, therefore pulling out the most
significant details and insights. The one drawback to journaling in this way is that the
amount of work I would create in one session, for instance six monotypes, is quite
substantial. It is difficult to remember each detail in these sessions but what I do pull out
is the most significant. Also, if I knew that someone was watching, observing or filming
me subjectively, I would alter the way I worked. Since I usually do not invite others to
watch or film me making art, it would not be an appropriate method for this research.
To accompany the journaling I have taken photographs of my work in progress.
(See Fig. 5.1 – 5.5) Having this visual reference to refer back to later on is essential as I
can merge the visual with the written and generate more comprehension of what I did
during the process. The photos also describe the objective aspect of the journal which is
what I did technically through the art making. My subjective thoughts included how I
felt about what I was working on. The journal was composed in a word document and
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the photos placed in a separate file. When I had the opportunity to place the photos with
the text in the document, I received some advice that changed the path of this journal.
Evidence Shared through Blogging
How do I learn through my process of making art and how is this process shared
with others?
I perceived my blog, Angie’s Personal Geography, as an extension of my journal.
(http://angieartmap.blogspot.com) The blog has the potential to share more information
of my process than a critique but the level of feedback is uncertain. The blog was
constructed in several parts through my process. Each post contained an explanation of
what I did, how it was made, and a photograph of the work in progress. I began with the
photographs taken of Plymouth, then the paper city that was constructed, with
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monotypes, distorted paper city images, and mind maps and ideas of where to go
following. (See Fig. 6.1) I ended the blog with liminal space being the main theme.
Individuals who were invited to the blog were friends that I knew would have
some time to read the blog and give a response, although they were not required to.
These are the instructions I gave: The general theme of this art is connecting identity with
place. The blog is set up to view the process involved in creating art. I will post photos of
my progression through my project as well as my reflections. My approach is honesty in
my insecurities, learning experiences, and growth. I would appreciate any comments or
feedback you can offer. Thank you. I invited twenty-seven individuals and received
feedback from four; one in particular gave the most and responded to more than five
posts. I was satisfied to receive any feedback as I gave only a three week window in
which to view the blog and reply. Since the blog was a last minute decision I could not
utilize it to its full potential but it was effective in promoting confidence in me as an
artist. The feedback I received posed some intriguing questions about my concepts and
images that I did not expect.
Critiques
Throughout the art making I participated in two critiques, one with a fine arts
professor on March 1, 2011 and another with fine arts masters student on March 11,
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2011. I prepared myself for each critique with some questions but would have the other
individual begin an assessment. The critiques begin with my brief explanation of what I
had created, after which I recieved questions, comments, and insights. For both critiques
I did not have to ask any of the questions I prepared because both participants gave
thorough assessments of the work I produced. I took notes during the critiques and then
made lists of the points I found most relevant to my work.
Having formal critiques of my artwork with individuals whose professional,
creative advice and expertise I respect provides the guidance I require to progress through
my work.
The key element for a successful critique is keeping an open mind
for advice, even if it is not what I was expecting. Another key element is the needed
pressure of having a deadline. You wouldn’t want to show up to a meeting unprepared
and individuals have different levels of self-motivation. Scheduling a critique and having
a deadline is a way to get the work done and then to know where to take it from that
point, which sometimes means changing the work altogether.
The blog and critiques are a method of sharing the art I have made in this
research while receiving feedback, questions, and criticisms. Presenting the work later in
a gallery space or other art space will be another outlet to share the work but the feedback
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during the making process relieves some insecurities and apprehensions about how others
will react to the work.
Artwork and Mapping
The total amount of time I allotted for myself in this study is about seven non-
consecutive days. I started with printing all the photos from the Plymouth photo shoot in
color on my inkjet printer and six images to a standard printer paper sheet. The materials
I used were not archival: the paper, glue, tape, and foam core. My process included
cutting out the photos and arranging all the buildings and detail images as they are in the
actual downtown of Plymouth. Where I was going to go from that point was unclear but
categorizing and mapping out the images felt productive and created a visual reference. I
also wanted to re-create the city from memory and found that I did not know where to
place about half of the photos. So I began a process of placing and manipulating the
images where they felt right, where they looked right, and what parts of the images I
would cut into and fold out into a raised three dimensional surface. If there was an alley I
would fold that image back into itself. Since all of the photos were taken from different
perspectives and distances, the buildings soon became distorted.
At this point I did not know if I liked what I was doing so it became challenging
to establish whether or not I could use all one hundred and twenty-seven photos and
manipulate them to create an effect of buildings moving in and out of space along the
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street. The outcome was a model glued to foam core and mounted on the wall in my
studio. This paper city was made in two days. At the end of the second day and while I
was photo documenting the work, I started to experiment with the camera by taking
photos of the paper city close up and from different perspectives, as though I were a
miniature person walking down this miniature city.
I re-printed the photos from this new city I created and placed them in a monotype
print. (See Fig. 7.1 – 7.6) The idea was to paste the photo images to a larger sheet of
printmaking paper and then print a painted monotype from a metal plate on top. This
print technique is complicated to write about but very immediate and quite simple to
work with. The effect I wanted was to create multiple layers of space, place, and identity.
This medium did not lend itself well to the concept and it was not challenging me in the
same way the paper model had. Again, the monotype lends itself to drawing and painting
skills. I wanted to distort space, which I could achieve with the paper models, but the
decline I had with my drawing skills created a separate challenge. In other words, I could
successfully make a monotype but could not successfully create the distortion I wanted.
After the critique of the monotypes, I went back to further distorting the paper city by
creating a second paper city out of the photos from the first paper city. Only after
photographing the second city did I realize that the photos themselves were more
interesting and effective at representing a place in my memory.
The last week of working included deconstructing the monotypes and trying to
expand the edges of the first paper city still mounted on the wall. Every few hours I
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would cut out, paste, and re-organize the materials and images. It was like visual trial
and error and the reason I was less decisive because I was not successfully adding
understanding to my identity in connection to place; this was also a substantial issue in
my critique. The blogging and journaling was occurring during this whole process and I
ended the process with the second critique. Since the graduate student was able to
witness several stages of my process before the critique, I was ultimately encouraged to
continue working on the project like I had at the very beginning and to not be afraid to
make it circle around the room and expand.
I had come full circle in the art making process but the journey provided proof
and insights as to how I devised a new method in which to work. Because it was new for
me I did not have the knowledge or confidence to expand on the paper city and went back
to more familiar mediums and ways of working. The most unfortunate aspect to this
process is that I had limited time set aside during my busy semester to continue working.
However, I still felt attached to the project and continued to think about how I could
incorporate the transition into Tucson in connecting to place. The art project will be
completed after this thesis is written.
Identity is created through several works of art, not one. Identity can also not
fully be revealed at one specific moment. All I can do is provide a glimpse of who I am
at a particular place and time. I found it difficult to visually express myself as an
artist/teacher but I did formulate a new way of creating my work which enhances me as
an artist while adding more techniques and tools in which to teach art. My idea from the
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start of my project was too big and left me at an uncomfortable stopping point. As I
review my findings from the blog, journal, and photos the answer was there all along-
mapping. If I now observe my project as a map and not just an artwork then I have more
of an opportunity to explain my journey and express part of who I am. Through my
process, the documentation was also imperative. Along each stage I can now pull out
what was significant in what worked and didn’t work in the art and re-organize those
ideas.
This methodology could also not be realized without the experience of creating a
mind map. I used an online resource, Prezi.com, to map my information in an open space
that zooms in and out, has drawing tools to connect ideas, and allowed me to cut and
paste information directly from my journal and blog. By visually organizing my methods
and information I could start to make connections and compile lists of information that
was most relevant to my research. The mind map helped in narrowing my focus and is a
unique image of how my findings and insights move through a space. It was this method
of mapping that I realized the blog as an extension of my journal and not an entirely
separate approach.
Liminality in the Process of Making
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Throughout my methods of photo documentation, journaling, art, mapping,
critiques, and blogging I have been a student/learner as much as an artist/teacher. My
identity as an artist was challenged by adding new materials and ways of creating while
finding limitations in reliable and familiar techniques. By selecting ways to share
information and ideas while learning to map and journal my experience, my identity as a
teacher was challenged. Even if I felt a shift during my research between artist and
teacher, I was a learner throughout each stage. To answer one of my research questions,
How may this research promote growth in me as an artist and an educator? is to realize
that I will continue to grow if I conceptualize myself as learner. My artist ego or
expectations with an art medium may block creative potential. My teacher expectations
should reside in openness to learning from my students.
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CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Written and Visual
When creating the art, photographs, journal, and blog I observed a dependency
the image and written text have with each other in creating an identity with place. My
critiques and feedback explain a strong connection to place but weak connection to
identity. My reflections even strayed away from discussing identity because I could not
translate it into an image. There was no logical reason for not including text in the art
itself; I was challenging myself to not rely on text. However, in the journal and blog I
used both image and text in the explanations of my work and this was also true in
previous sketchbooks I had kept. What needed to happen during the research was to
write more; to write stories about myself, to write metaphors, to write more lists. Now
that I am writing this paper I realize the benefit of writing and revising and textually
making connections being as effective and creative as working visually and tactilely. The
limitations I set within myself were too strict and I need more of an expression of place
and how I feel or connect with the place. The following are some excerpts from my
journal:
I wanted the building’s balcony to pop out so I began cutting into the photo and folding
some parts. This seemed to work so I picked up another building and did the same. I
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liked the distortion I was receiving so I decided to push this effect even more. I altered
the zoom while photographing. When cutting and pasting buildings together it appeared
that they couldn’t make up their minds about how small or big they wanted to be so I
began constructing the area I was most familiar with and went from there. I decided right
away that this project had to be done in one sitting or I would lose momentum and think
too much about what I was doing or not doing.
I felt very self-conscious about what I was doing and felt that I wanted to seclude myself
deeper in my studio so no one would see. I was getting very tired and decided that I must
move on and stick with my process: place a building where I thought it looked and felt
best (according to my memory). Also, I was running out of time.
All the decisions at this point were structural but at one point I had to take a photograph
to see what it looked like through the lens (a second Plymouth photo shoot). I was
surprised by the depth I was achieving through this way of working and continued the
construction keeping in mind how to achieve a greater depth, perspective, and distortion.
When I started the blog, the questions I received asked me more about how I felt
and I received a strong connection with a comment that featured my vulnerability when
working in my studio. The graduate studio area was an open and social environment,
however, I was concerned about the appearance of the paper city developing in my semi-
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private space. While experimenting with art and approaching a new medium I, as a
learner, experienced being in a position of vulnerability or insecurity. I was able to put
myself in a position of, perhaps, some of my students. Connecting to something more
than the technical processes of making art is something my journal was lacking and the
extension of the blog invited me to share more and to be more vulnerable but at the same
time more confident. The following are excerpts from the blog:
How did you decide which buildings to photograph? I see that you mentioned
noticing details you hadn't noticed before. I have experienced that; I could say that
absence from a place where I spent time led to my seeing the whole place through
different eyes when I returned.
I wonder how much of our perception of our own departure from a place might
influence how we view that place either positively, negatively, or with indifference?
What is your experience of Plymouth along those lines when you return there as an
adult?
A response from mentioning my insecurities in the making process - Because I view
you as an accomplished artist whose work I admire and for which I have aesthetic
appreciation, I was surprised, even a bit shocked, to read this! Your admission made
me think of times where I felt ashamed or embarrassed about what I believed to be my
own inadequate creative process, yet I somehow didn't expect that you might have
such feelings.
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…uncertainty about where each building is located. It is more significant to recognize
where you THINK it is, and how you remember your hometown, than to recreate
actual streets. It illustrates what your hometown is to you now that you live
somewhere else.
Find oneself in the position of being able to recreate an existing place as one wants to
create it!
It reminds me (in a very good way) of Magritte's Castle in the Pyrenees. It definitely
gives me the impression that this is the city that exists in your dreams and memory.
I wonder, now, if you felt more in control at first, and then began to feel more
vulnerable as you realized what was happening with the process?
I find the distortion process very exciting!
What kind of figure will represent you? A photo, a drawing, or something else? Will it
be collaged and distorted/abstracted like the city?
A major finding from the blogging was the encouragement and confidence it
provided through instant feedback. The blog also provided a space in which to give and
receive ideas. The blog also is a liminal space that “animates cyberspace as a productive
space with creative possibilities. Liminality thus enables a way of thinking about
cyberspace as a generative space” (Madge & O’Connor, 2005, p.93). The feedback from
the blog and critiques left me with so many thoughts and ideas that I didn’t know what
else to make. When the blog was finished and my time creating was at a stopping point, I
felt that I would have stopped working on my project and probably given up on it. But
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this was also my research: I had to write about it and through writing I did become
excited about it again. I have yet to research which format is more successful- journaling
or blogging- but for my process writing about my research, ideas, and feelings is
absolutely essential.
Another insight about the written and visual aspects in relation to the blog was
how I presented the blog. I expect that the reason only four people participated was that I
welcomed them to my “thesis blog” and that, to me, does not sound enticing. I was also
thinking like a researcher and being careful about how everything was worded so as to
not persuade or suggest a particular response. The question I needed to ask myself was
what sort of blog would I create as an artist/teacher? The way I was thinking about
presenting the blog was also not giving credit to the participants who could make their
own conclusions from my posts and I should not have felt power in persuading their
responses. One way in which I could have formatted the blog differently was to separate
the written posts from the image posts so both would be viewed on their own as
information.
Bronwyn Davies (2000) describes in her book (In)scribing body/landscape
relations a way of writing that is embodied with the landscape; in other words, our body
is not isolated from the land and our bodies change with its environment. Davies also
explains that identity continues to evolve and is open to being changed and altered.
Including a written element to my art and the maps I create in the art could be enhanced
by a written embodiment with the place, especially since I moved from one drastic
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climate (Minnesota and Wisconsin) to another (Arizona). Bronwyn Davies (2000)
illustrates many descriptions of embodiment through an astronaut experiencing gravity on
earth after being on the moon, the textures and colors of the hair and skin after playing
outside on a summer’s day, or imagining one’s body being immersed in the land while
the plant grow around you. This way of writing encourages a more profound connection
to places and is something I would like to explore further. In writing about our bodies in
connection to place Davies suggests a collective biography “in which listening to others
tell their stories helps to fill in the gaps and silences of knowing oneself as an embodied
being” (p.14). This strays from historical fact and supports the way in which one
remembers in the present as well as what moment is remembered in the past. Davies
instead explains truth as the following:
Through listening to the stories of others, through telling out loud the remembered
fragments, through writing the memories down and seeing how language shapes
them and saturates them with cultural patterns of meaning-making, the collective
biography group searches for the kind of “truth” that comes from inside the
remembered event, and also from inside the process of remembering. (p. 43)
Physical Dialogue
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The critiques had provided significant insights into how my concept of connecting
identity to place was progressing during the art making process. A major point brought
forth by the critiques was that my identity was not visible in the artwork and identity
might be how I was distorting place to make it my own.
Feedback from the first critique:
The paper city explains a genealogy through art, a retranslating. The genealogy
meaning that each new interpretation of the city creates a lineage of progression through
connecting identity with place.
The first three monotypes are a little weak compared to the last three where the city is
floating in blue textures. The city appears to be lifting off the ground and ready for a
transition. That it is in a liminal space, in-between transition.
Connecting to place, yes; to identity, no. It is also connection to memory, an erosion or
misconception of memory of place. There is a sense of another place-ness and not
specifically my hometown. The work is more about the place than me but there is a
physical identity in that I took the photos. The experience of self-transitioning needs to
occur like the transitioning of the town. What are my labels and the stereotypes that
manifest themselves through making the work?
Feedback from the second critique:
The monotype prints are not purposefully trying to evoke an emotion.
The prints are more atmospheric and are not nostalgic.
There is a sense of place collapsing into one image like a distorted memory.
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Shouldn’t you put a figure in the work or experiment with other ways to place a figure in
the work.
Continue with the paper city. Make it a space you can walk into and explore.
During the critiques, it occurred to me that there was more to take in then what
was said. There were facial expressions, gestures, and differences in speech. Re-reading
my notes from the critiques brought up the memory of being in that physical, person to
person, dialogue and it is unfortunate that I did not write about the nonverbal feedback.
For example, I remember long pauses where the person giving the critique was thinking,
squinting their eyes, and searching for the right words to use. There was a process of
saying something, taking it back, and trying again until the right words came out. When
this occurred I felt nervous that my work was confusing them and made them struggle to
find a connection. Unlike a conversation, my art was in the middle of the dialogue;
something I created for a critical evaluation which I had strong attachment to. The
nonverbal communication and the feelings I had during the critiques would be valuable
information I would include in future reflections. I have held critiques with students
before and have no idea if it was beneficial for them. Was the formal critique a formality
I was used to having as a supplement to the art? As a teacher I would like to hold some
formal critiques and have students reflect on what was said and communicated to them.
How would they like to share and critique their work? Would a blog be a better format
for them? Would the critique have to be the same every time or could we use different
approaches?
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Stepping away from my journal, blog, and photo documentation and placing
myself in a person-to-person dialogue about my art in which we were physically present
is, for me, a more emotional, intimidating, and exhilarating experience. In the journal
and blog I had more time to think of what to say but in a critique the words and emotions
come out faster and the individual critiquing the work could feed off my physical reaction
of what I said. Also, the individual can physically view the artwork in person and touch
the work. As a teacher/artist after graduate school I will still seek out this method of
evaluation of my work. This is coming from my personal perspective but I think there is
no substitute for someone to be physically present with the art work and this is imperative
for my growth as an artist. It had been almost a decade before I had a somewhat formal
critique of my art and, through this research; I have revived its value in my life.
Identity, Liminal Space, and Mapping in Connection to Place
The following is a list or terms that have repeatedly entered my reflections and
feedback from others:
Distortion
Not nostalgic
Liminal space
Blurring boundaries
These terms begin to describe my journey in understanding my identity at this
moment in time. I do not want to feel nostalgic about where I am from but instead create
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a new place outside of my past. I want to blur the boundaries of being an artist and
teacher. I begin to distort my perspectives to be open to new possibilities and to think of
my identity as being in a constant liminal space where I am in-between what I’ve done
and what I want to do. The places I want to connect to are metaphors for histories,
discoveries, and a desire for a foundation, a familiarity that map my journey. I began with
researching the history of my hometown and bringing new meaning to the everyday
fixtures I was used to noticing when walking down the main street. The city and
buildings had a past that was beyond my past. I had a new sense of wonder about what
the buildings were before and how there was evidence suggesting which buildings were
valued over others; a fresh coat of paint on the corner pub, polished windows of the local
coffee shop, chipped tile on a front entrance, and a bird’s nest inside an old outdoor light
fixture. I discovered a new way in which I construct a place through art that I can extend
as map of memory, liminal space, and places merging together. I desire a place where I
feel at home and a foundation to grow roots but find my roots extending to various places
at once. I would like Tucson to feel familiar but it is still a place I am discovering.
Sarup’s (1996) book Identity, culture, and the postmodern world describes
identity as a “mediating concept between the external and the internal, the individual and
society, theory and practice. Identity is a convenient ‘tool’ through which to try and
understand many aspects – personal, philosophical, political – of our lives” (p.28). Sarup
also describes identity as a process that is not easy to take hold of, for it is always
evolving. Selecting place was a way in which to explore my identity. In continuing the
project I can further explore the embodiment of place and the internal or external
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concepts of my identity. Art is the evidence of my personal journey in broadening my
understanding of being an artist/teacher. Art is the communication between my future
students and me to build a collective understanding of place and how we individually
define ourselves within the place.
Through practice-based research, how is my representation or recreation of a
specific place through art significant in establishing connections to my identity and how I
visualize myself as an artist/teacher? In reflecting on this research, I have no conclusions
but have instead opened a door for more research which I would like to pursue. I would,
however, like to alter my definition of myself from artist/teacher to artist/teacher/student.
As a teacher I must put myself in the position of my students in order to assemble
appropriate art lessons and to know how it feels to approach a new medium or method of
making art. Also, being a student invites other artists, researchers, authors, students, or
others to inspire and teach me. It is important for me to keep in mind that I am not an
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artist sometimes, a teacher part of the time, or a perpetual student. I am all of these
things at once. Even though some boundaries exist between artist/teacher/student, there
is still a blurred liminal space between them which allows one to inform the other.
My method of transforming photos into distorted paper sculptures creates a space
that is not easily translated on a two dimensional level. Since I will describe to my
students that identity and place are liminal, distorted, and evolving then I will provide
them with the tools and methods to distort images three dimensionally. Whether they use
found images, drawings, or photographs their mapping won’t be restricted to moving in
one direction or another but through a space; a space that moves in and out, behind,
around, through, and curved around itself. My goal as an artist is to research and push
the boundaries of how a map is defined. As a teacher I will challenge my students to do
the same with proper support; support that I can only provide when making the art
myself.
There is no proof but some evidence that connecting identity with place through
methods of mapping can be effective in beginning to define an identity. For me the
defining factor was thinking in the liminal. The places I have been were not specifically
one thing or another. I cannot always define myself as one thing or another. Not all
paths in the map lead to something specific. Blurring some boundaries and allowing
subjectivity to exist provided me with some freedom to make my own connections, even
if those connections evolve into something else. The path I created opened doors into
practice-based research, mapping, white studies, subjectivity, and multiple voices. What
I learned from each of these subjects was to become aware of the evolution of ideas and
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the various paths that define my identity and how I make art. Feeling a level of distortion
in my life right now seems appropriate while in graduate school. I feel it is also
appropriate for students to recognize the multiple dimensions of their identity and where
they have blurred some boundaries. Identity is a term I will not use lightly when creating
art or lessons for my students.
First impressions of students can allow a teacher to make assumptions about their
students: their ethnicity, their attitude depending on the way they dress, or their
personality by the expressions on their face. They will assume the same in their teacher.
However, I exist in different places throughout my day like home, school, face book, the
internet, cell phone, or my car. In each place exist within it a culture and way in which I
define myself. I would like my students to become aware of these cultures and identities
they posses and how they have changed and will continue to change. They will begin to
map these places and identities by selecting what they find important or relevant to
portray. They may choose whether they want to include humor, emotion, personal
stories, frustrations, excitement, or honesty. These choices will also include how they
define their ethnicity but we will discuss the difference between ethnicity and culture.
I will discuss with my students why sometimes there is no right or wrong answer
in how they design their maps, place, or identity. We will define subjectivity and
describe our multiple voices. The assessment of their work will include student
reflections, teacher feedback, and photo or written documentation of their process of
creating. I will also need to create clear objectives so they are not graded subjectively. A
major goal I have as a teacher is to explain the artist process in every lesson. Artists
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create and learn through making mistakes, repetition, research, and applying previous
knowledge.
My future research into this subject will include readings into postmodern
theories on identity, selecting artists who portray a connection or definition of place in
their art, and documenting future lessons taught with methods of mapping, cartography,
and personal geographies. For previous mapping lesson see fig 8.1 in appendices.
This research has encouraged me to continue the art project I have started. I did
not know at the beginning the outcome of my art or if I would continue to be inspired.
My inspiration to create art through this research had its highs and lows. This is difficult
to explain but I felt more inspired when I was reading about the topics I chose and
writing about what I created or wanted to create. I would not present a lesson to students
without providing examples of other artists work, giving them lists or readings about a
topic, or having them write and reflect about the work. What is interesting is how much I
depend on the materials I use to give me the inspiration I need. I must keep in mind that
when I begin an art project I am a student searching for answers.
The finale for this project will be a solo show at the Lionel Rombach Gallery at
the University of Arizona. I will feature elements from the paper Plymouth map and
transition to my life in Tucson. My new map will include my drive up to Mt. Lemmon,
the art buildings on the U of A campus, and the blurry images of strip malls passing me
by when I drive down Grant or Speedway Avenues. I have lived in Tucson for two years
and when contemplating what stands out the most about this place, those three things
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came to mind first. I feel like everything is a blur until I am at school or on top of the
mountain.
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APPENDIX A: FIGURES
Images of Older artworks
Fig. 1.1 Fig. 1.2
Fig. 1.3
Fig. 1.4 Fig. 1.5
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Preliminary Case Study Artist Book
Fig. 2.1
Photographs of Plymouth Wisconsin
Fig. 3.1 Fig. 3.2
Fig. 3.3 Fig. 3.4
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Fig. 3.5 Fig. 3.6
Fig. 3.7 Fig. 3.8
Fig. 3.9 Fig. 4.0
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Works in Progress – Paper City
Fig.5.1 Fig.5.2
Fig. 5.3 Fig. 5.4
Fig. 5.5
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Sample Page on Blog
Fig. 6.1
Angie's Personal Geography - Thesis Art The general theme of this art is connecting identity with place. The blog is set up to view the process involved in creating art. I will post photos of my progression through my project as well as my reflections. My approach is honesty in my insecurities, learning experiences, and growth. I would appreciate any comments or feedback you can offer. Thank you.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2011
The Beginning - Dec. 25, 2010
Photo shoot of my hometown - Plymouth Wisconsin: I started at my roots and decided to photograph the old downtown area of Plymouth with no anticipated outcome other than to focus on some of the architecture. After reading what I could find about the history of the city, I thought I would try to connect on a new level. However, when I ventured out on Christmas day to capture what I could in the extreme cold, I felt I was not going to get anything out of it. I was prepared to not be inspired. But.....
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Monotype Images
Fig.7.1 Fig.7.2
Fig.7.3 Fig.7.4
Fig.7.5 Fig.7.6
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Further Distortion of Paper Plymouth
Fig. 8.1
Fig. 8.2
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Fig. 8.3
Fig 8.4
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APPENDIX B: LESSONS
(Fig. 9.1)
Lead Teacher: Angie Zimmerman
Unit Title: Along the line (map through identity)
Lesson 2 of 2
Grade/age level: Teen (13-18)
Estimated # of students: between 4 and 10
Arizona State Standards:
Within group work during projects students will take notes and document with in-progress
photos. PO 301. Contribute to a discussion about ideas for his or her artwork.
Within group projects students will consult notes and in-progress photos for changes in ideas.
PO 302. Make and explain revisions in his or her artwork.
Within material limitations devised by the teachers, students will research and experiment to
correctly express their ideas. PO 301. Identify and experiment with materials, tools, and
techniques appropriately and expressively in his or her artwork.
Through discussions and viewing artist’s work centered on a single concept, students will
create their own theme and demonstrate that through their work. PO 301. Demonstrate
purposeful use of subject matter, symbols and/or themes in his or her own artwork
Students will participate in group activities that center around communication and building
connections. Their combined effort will result in a single piece of art.
PO 302. Demonstrate respect while responding to others’ artwork.
UNIT SIGNIFICANCE
Personal geographies can be described as an arrangement of features or elements within a
complex item such as the self. For this unit, identity will be the item explored literally
and metaphorically through making connections within the self to communities, the
world, nature, and the imagination. Discussions, research, recycled paper materials,
digital photos of works in progress, and the work of Cao Fei, Keita Takahashi and others
(found in the book You Are Here- Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination) motivate into creating representations and explanations of how geography
or mapping will be distinctively understood and expressed through ideas or concerns
about the world we live in. The concept of personal geographies will aid students to
formulate a theme that will be carried through later lessons and art disciplines.
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LESSON + LEARNER OUTCOMES
We will challenge the idea of personal geographies with these questions:
How can we define identity?
How can we define dreams?
What are maps used for?
How can a map or dream define who you are?
Can a map of a dream tell a story?
Can contemporary artists create a world of fantasy, dream, pop culture, and identity?
How have artists Cao Fei and Keita Takahashi planned and mapped place in the
virtual/video game world?
In the work started from the previous class, can you identify particular elements that define your social/personal culture?
Can you explain how you are mapping your dreams?
Geographies will be explored in natural, imaginative, sociological, psychological, and
personal forms by:
Viewing the contemporary art of Cao Fei, Keita Takahashi, and others (found in
the book You Are Here- Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the
Imagination),
Alex Grey, Psychic Energy System (p.32)
Susan Hiller, Composite Group Dream Map (p. 41)
Nina Katchadourian, Austria (p. 77)
Langlands & Bell, Air Routes of Britain- Day and Night (p. 98-99)
John Fulord, The Walk to South School (p.131)
Historical work,
Oldest known map- Valcamonica, Italy during the Iron Age (p. 8-
9)
Chukchi drawing Siberia, 19th
Century (p. 38)
Natural work,
Tree ring cross-section that explore personal mapping and
geographies. We will build a language of mapping relationships
between humans and the environment, the imagination, and the
self. We will also learn the stories behind the artists work.
Experimenting with simple everyday materials such as white printer paper,
newsprint, recycled neutral-colored paper, tissue paper, black ink pens, pencils
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(graphite & charcoal, black sharpie, scotch tape, and school glue, scissors, white
out, and black watercolor. We will examine how two dimensional illustrations/
ideas can transform into three dimensional sculptural narratives by viewing the
sculptural work of Nina Katchadourian, Austria (You Are Here p. 77) which is a
3-D dissected paper road map. Students will refer to the learning center to find
examples of origami, cut paper structures, and pop-ups; the instructor will have
several small finished samples of these on display.
Challenging the concept of identity through personal geographies by formulating
a theme that will be carried through later lessons and art disciplines. The theme
decided in the previous lesson will be mapping through dreams. Teamwork with
individual input will aid in building several projects that will express
personal/social ideas behind dreams.
Students will:
Work in an environment where students and teachers work together to answer questions and problem solve during studio activities. Students will also be
working within a small group throughout their projects in which they will build
ideas together.
Devise strategies for accomplishing tasks or issues during the art making process. This will be done by careful photo documentation of works in progress, making
lists of ideas in which to weigh relevance to their project, communicating verbally
with group members about ideas and concerns, and working out plans of action
before the creating begins. Unfinished work (decided by the creators) will be
delicately revised and discussed during critiques. All members of the class will
help in offering suggestions or strategies that were successful and explained
through their photo documentation. For example, we will review in-progress
images in the beginning of class. When statements are addressed about how a
particular art method was successful, the creators will explain their process for
others to learn. Students can then build on knowledge gained during these
meetings to help in motivating further methods in creating.
Develop understanding of artist’s approach to problem solving and the evolution of ideas through learning about Cao Fei whose work and Keita Takahashi whose
work mixes ideas of reality and dream. Students will understand their own
processes by photo documenting their in-progress work.
This unit will be adaptable to varying ages, ethnicities, and abilities for it is focused on
forming relationships, communication, and building connections.
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MATERIALS NEEDED FOR LESSON
A. Teacher Materials
Teacher’s own laptop, projector, and white wall or screen for projecting PowerPoint
presentations of the intro to classroom structure/environment, explanation of artists work,
and progression through the students work. The teacher’s own digital camera for
documenting student work and students to use during in progress project documentation.
File folders will be utilized for keeping students' two dimensional works on paper- one
file folder per student.
B. Student Materials
Teacher’s digital camera for documenting in-progress work. Every day and
recycled materials: white printer paper, newsprint, recycled neutral-colored paper,
tissue paper, black ink pens, pencils (graphite & charcoal, black sharpie, scotch
tape, and school glue, scissors, white out, and black watercolor. Students will
utilize these materials to create a narrative in comic/storyboard format that will
transform into a 3-D sculptural map. All unfinished 3-D projects will be stored in
paper grocery bags and labeled with the student group names.
C. Learning Center
The learning center will incorporate books and materials in paper arts- pop-ups,
origami, paper sculpture, paper making. Examples of qualities of drawing
materials and paper art made by the teacher will be on display. All other
information printed on single sheets of paper will be placed in a binder. Students
will be notified of the learning center and its contents before the project starts and
encouraged to explore it during project construction.
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LESSON ORGANIZATION
Beginning the Unit/ Lesson:
Two videos will be shown during sketchbook work relating to their theme of dreams.
The videos are samples of the artists introduced in this lesson - Cao Fei and Keita
Takahashi. Introductions and reviewing of the classroom environment, personal
geographies, and artist’s work from the book You Are Here in a 15 minute class meeting
to acquaint new students to the unit. The theme of mapping through dreams will be
announced and discussed by teachers and students from previous class.
PATHWAY 1
Teaching Approach/Teacher Actions
What is a personal geography?
Findings will be presented from the book You Are Here by Katherine Harmon.
Power point presentation with images of artist’s and other’s work. At the end addressing
the questions:
What is a map?
Do maps exist in nature?
What can a map be?
What have maps been used for?
What was the first map?
Can a map define who you are?
Can a map tell a story?
Through the discussion we will pick a theme within personal geographies to focus on.
This theme will be present throughout the rest of the program.
At this point students will be informed that this theme will be carried through other
mediums the teachers plan to present to them:
Photo, stop motion animation, sculpture, bookmaking, and architecture.
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Learner Actions
-students will address questions and ask more questions about personal geographies.
-we will work as a whole to chose a theme and devise strategies for deciding this theme.
-students will defend their thoughts and ideas.
-students will compromise and work as a community.
-students will express individual concerns.
Documentation Strategies
Notes, diagrams, and maps throughout our planning process towards a theme.
Photos will be taken of any diagrams or maps for later use in power points or slide shows
and class binder.
Environmental Design
All work is done at the main table.
A large table (main table) is arranged near the viewing area of the projector. On the other
side of the room will be staggered group working tables. The main table will be for
discussions and viewing power points. In the center of this table will be the learning
center. Between the main table and the working tables will be a long narrow group of
tables with no chairs. Supplies will be placed here and demos taught here.
PATHWAY 2
Teaching Approach/Teacher Actions
Students will be introduced to their theme of mapping through dreams. We will
view the contemporary art of Cao Fei and Keita Takahashi. The feature explored
through Cao Fei’s work will be her city created in second life and works that
express the idea of cosplay (costumes and becoming a character). The creation of
the video game Katamari by Keita Takahashi has been inspired by artists such as
Joan Miro and Hundertwasser, (examples of selected works will be shown in
power point) Questions to be asked:
How can we define dreams?
How can a map or dream define who you are?
Can a map of a dream tell a story?
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Can contemporary artists create a world of fantasy, dream, pop culture, and identity?
How have artists Cao Fei and Keita Takahashi planned and mapped place in the
virtual/video game world?
In the work started from the previous class, can you identify particular elements that define your social/personal culture?
Can you explain how you are mapping your dreams?
Learner Actions Students will begin to visualize how artists interpret dreams and fantasy. Questions of
culture and identity will begin to focus their attention on the world they create for
themselves. Learning to define dreams will provide knowledge of building identity and
understanding of self. Learning how contemporary artists translate ideas into the virtual
world will give students another realm in which to view 3-D forms.
PATHWAY 3
Teaching Approach/Teacher Actions
Storytelling:
Through the decided theme students will pair up with partners. In these small groups the
teachers will instruct students to remember the images they just viewed and that they can
revisit the PowerPoint at any time. Students will tell a story within the theme of dreams.
The story should be very short and can address any angle from the theme.
We will talk about how this story will also be a map and will later be transformed into
three dimensional forms by:
*visiting the learning center with various 3-D examples
*explaining that in the upcoming weeks we will interpreting narratives into 3-D and
digital forms
*explaining that a map does not have to be confined within one flat sheet of paper, that it
can move around/within a space
The student work done from the previous class will be added to the end of the power
point. This way students that missed the first day of class will see what was done and get
an understanding of how the other students progressed.
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*Also, the idea of documenting work in-progress with the digital camera provided will be
stressed. Teachers will be there to supports and suggest reminders for students through
this process.
Learner Actions
-students will collaborate on how to tell a story and what a story can say
-students will plan a process for working on a larger project
-students will document their in-progress work
ENDING THE LESSON
A. Closure of Lesson: A short discussion will take place about the students work and their ideas in
expressing the theme of mapping through dreams. Each student will be asked to
formulate a question or observation about the other’s work.
Class Evaluation
B. Transition to next lesson: The two lessons transition between working two dimensionally and three dimensionally within a theme and limited materials. This two lesson unit will transition into the next unit by incorporating the concept of personal geographies and the decided theme. Developing story boards and visual examples will flow into developing photo books.
REFERENCES TO MATERIALS CONSULTED
Caofei.com
Harmon, K. (2004). Personal geographies and other maps of the imagination. New York:
Princeton Architectural Press.
LaPlantz, S. (1998). Cover to cover- creative techniques for making beautiful books, journals
& albums. New York: Lark Books.
PBS.org.(2009). Art:21-Art in the twenty-first century. Educators’ guide fifth season.
www.pbs.org/art21
Sakoda, J. (1969). Modern origami. New York: Simon and Schuster.
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