potential pitfalls of visual culture in the classroom: the oddly-specific reference

story time!:

there was a student in my sequential art class who, during every critique without fail, would grind the conversation to a screeching halt by comparing someone's comic to some hyper-specific, highly obtuse cultural reference, usually to an 80's video game or d-list superhero that next to no one in the class was familiar with. while the comment was meaningful and likely illuminated the comic under discussion to those in the know, everyone else was instantly excluded and disconnected from further dialogue about the work at hand.

and there it is! visual culture pitfall number one, "the oddly specific reference."

so, how can we use visual culture in the classroom, when each and every student will have a different frame of reference?

1. level the playing field: bring in and share content with your class (so everyone is informed!) as it relates to your lessons.

2. show and tell: have students bring in and share their own ideas about content that relates to classwork. you can expand your own frame of reference this way, too, and challenge students to think differently about the way they engage with and consume media culture.

3. visual culture as content: further ask students to explore the role visual culture plays in their lives by having them make art about visual culture, rather than using it as a lens through which to examine other content. consider olivia gude's principles of possibility and postmodern principles, both of which directly address many of the themes and issues that surround visual culture and its role in our contemporary lives. more on that later, since i, ahem, love olivia gude.

are there other practical ways you see visual culture playing nice with the whole class and leading to inclusive, informed dialogue?

an awesome resource with an awesome (albeit not-so classroom-friendly) name:

while probably not something that you could pull up in your classroom to share with your students directly, fuck yeah, advertising! is an incredible resource for advertising that showcases traditional art-making techniques in real-life contexts:

(ad for the new google chrome browser)

...that ilustrates the relationship between form, function, and idea:

(ad for hair loss program)

...that can act as an introduction to other big ideas/questions:

(ad for the american red cross)

...that opens discussion about where the line between life and culture is (if there is one) and how/if we control our relationship with consumerism:

(ad for hp photo paper - what's real, what's not?)

...and that can be used/taught in countless other ways. advertising is a rich and relevant (and often controversial) area of visual culture that is really accessible, often self-referential, and endlessly applicable in the classroom. also take a look at the slightly less profane but still worthwhile creative criminals - both blogs are excellent, frequently updated resources (that are really great about citing their sources and creative/art directors as well).

"why can't we be friends?" - traditional art and visual culture exemplars.

i recently read julia marshall's essay in contemporary issues in art education titled "exploring culture and identity through artifacts" which examines how contemporary art practices can shape and inform art lessons, rather than relying on traditional art-making habits that may not reflect our modern ways of thinking, working, and living.

her investigation of contemporary art practices, which included art as research, art as cultural lens, and art as purposeful critical inquiry also highlighted the role of visual culture (or specifically, non-art visual culture, if such a clear line can be drawn) in modern artmaking processes and lessons surrounding these new practices. she further explored the idea that visual culture exemplars of in some cases have a stronger and more authentic conceptual relationship to art lessons around these ideas than the tried and true fine art exemplars. especially in examples of research-based artmaking exploration, the resources that students are inundated with are visual culture examples, which can include the work of fine artists, but shouldn't be limited to it.

couldn't both ingres' odalisque and contemporary magazine covers be used side by side to examine the standards of beauty at various point in history?

couldn't robert and shana parkeharrison's photographs coexist alongside "reality" television to flesh out the idea of constructed realities?


what other connections do you see between contemporary culture and fine artists' big ideas that could together support lesson plans more meaningful to students?

robin rhode and the age-old question.

at the maryland art education association (maea) conference on friday, i was introduced to the work of robin rhode thanks to teresa roberts, who did a wonderful session on rhode's work as it can be applied to classroom art-making experiences involving flipbooks, stop motion animation, performance, and serial photography.

rhode's work frequently includes references to pop and material culture. the top image is part of a serial called "he got game," titled after the spike lee movie from 1998. the bottom, entitled "untitled, dream houses" (which you can click to enlarge!) shows rhode struggling to collect all manner of discarded physical belongings. he discusses his work as it relates to contemporary culture in the below video from the wexner art center:



coldplay's strawberry swing music video by the art collective shynola uses a similar technique and even touches on some similar themes, but music videos in and of themselves are often considered pieces of visual culture, rather than works of art:


NOTE: the "official" and higher-resolution version is infinitely more awesome, but has been blocked from being embedded. if you'd like to view that one, click here. this one'll get the point across, but man, the fancy version is unbelievable.

what makes one of these art versus culture? if visual culture is informing rhode's work, and rhode's artwork is (presumably) informing shynola's piece of visual culture, then... IT'S LIKE THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG.

no turning back now.

so i am terrible at making decisions. that said, i am putting in writing so i can never take it back the topic i wish to research from now until forever ad nauseum!

okay, it's visual/material/media culture, or whatever you want to call the by-products of our super-visual society.


it's a pretty all encompassing topic, but for whatever reason, the phrase 'visual culture' or the like causes instant polarization. semantics aside, i'm really interested in visual culture as this huge untapped resource for learning about... everything ever. this enormous part of everyone's collective existence, one near-universal frame of reference, has been marginalized and denounced as somehow less valid than 'not visual culture' (a tough thing to pinpoint, by the way). it's important! it's exciting!