The article "Head Games: Engaging Popular Visual Culture" really interested me. I wish there were pictures to go along with the article so that we could see the project. The article is by a doctoral student, David Darts, who conducted his research with his high school students. David's research was focused on students' visual literacy and awareness of visual popular culture. They analyzed well known artists from history, as well as contemporary artists, who are socially engaged. They then created sculptures using donated mannequin heads from a hairdressing school with found object and cultural artifacts. They used collage and assemblage. The sculptures communicated social issues that were important to the individual student. Through the process the doctoral student tried to show them that they are active participants in their world, rather than passive, and quoted another article, "that they have a role in the making of their world and that they need not accept positions as passive spectators or consumers" (Trend, 1992 via Darts, 2006 inside Duncam, 2006).The students chose the location for the installation, offering students the opportunity to actively participate in their everyday visual culture. They chose a gathering space that often held public rallies and protests and, inspired by artists included in their studies, they chose not to inform city officials that they would display their art. Some chose to stand next to their sculptures and engage in conversation with people passing by and others chose to blend in with the crowds or sit far enough away to photo document the experience. Students expressed their positive experiences later on and felt pride from having people interact with their sculptures. Some even expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage in conversation with strangers about their work and about social issues.
When I read this it felt like a story of a teacher who had a very successful unit, more than doctoral research. Then again, I guess that's what some doctoral research is. I would love to do something like this with my students and put the book that the article seems to come from, Visual Culture in the Art Class Case Studies by Paul Duncam, on my Amazon queue. I also googled David Darts and he seems pretty amazing. I'd love to take his class at NYU. Even more so, I'm just jealous. I wish I was that successful doing something related to what he's doing. He even seems to have had most of his schooling paid for - http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/David_Darts.
Thinking of my own path, I'm looking forward to teaching and hope I am very successful. I'd love to master my job and keep up my own work. I look forward to finding what is possible. I hope that it works!
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