ITM EX 19: COOPER & OPPENHEIM

Thomas Joshua Cooper, Moonlight - West, Southwest - The Mid Atlantic Oce, 2004 -

The photograph has a mystical feel to it. The composition is balanced by the rock formation and the white line. If the glow behind the white line did not light up the background, then all of the attention would have been focused on the formation in the foreground. This glow also explores the depth conveyed by the composition, showing that there is space beyond the rock formation. Clarity of each surface of the rock formation is created by Cooper’s choice in exposing the photo for a longer period of time so that the light source could be utilize to highlight each uneven edge. Cooper took his time to capture this mystical setting which allows me to imagine him in a trance as he set up the composition for this photograph. The formal elements infer his encapsulation by each detail of the formation and the light that surrounded it. He fell in love, as I would like to say, and it is evident in the time he must have spent to set up the aperture, shutter speed, and focus to capture the state of mind he was in while viewing such a site.

From the description provided about Oppenheim’s process of creating Wolf It Down I can infer that the artist was using similar machinery and tools of those who are stripping the Earth of its resources. In his statement I envision Oppenheim reenacting the process of tearing up the Earth’s surface for selfish desires, but in the end using the same materials to fill the holes in order to make a statement about those who actually do this sort of act on a daily basis. The process described led me to believe Oppenheim to be in state of disbelief as he reenacts the same process that he is trying to speak out against, while still proud as others get the message he is trying to convey in an extremely large dimension.

BUILDING COMMUNITY IN YOUR CLASSROOM

I plan to build a community in my classroom through a variety of projects which encourage students to present their identities to one another as well as work together to create a variety of collaborative projects. My unit for our Advanced Methods class actually was designed around building a community. The first lesson is centered around creating identity boxes and then working as a class to build a super structure of the boxes to represent our class as a community of different identities coming together to form one large representation. The second lesson focuses on working in groups, now that they should have learned more about one another, for a common goal. Students will be designing logos for their Homecoming Week and will be competing to create the best logo to be chosen to represent the school. The third lesson involves a similar campaign element, but students will use the strength of their own community to inform the world about certain issues that they feel inclined to advocate for.

The personal exploration as well as group work that is involved in this unit was planned in order for students to better understand one another and learn to work together, putting aside their differences, for a common goal. My desire was to have them learn about one another so that gang activity, social isolation, cliques, language, discrimination, disability, and socio economic status would no longer separate students from one another as they focus on a project they can all relate to.

Now I know this goal may be a far fetched utopia, but I believe that if students are given a chance to work with one another and are encouraged to explore their identities and share their discoveries, then students will be supported in the steps to understanding one another. We need to foster lessons that support students in a journey to meet people different from their own backgrounds and learn to connect with them on a multitude of levels. It is my goal to achieve this understanding through conducting lessons that are valid to students’ lives with purposeful meanings that are clear to both teacher and class.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

At our field site there are issues in classroom management related to structure. Since the environment is rather unorganized and type of free for all, the students encounter frustrations in looking for specific materials they wish to use as well as projects they have began and are missing when they return the next day.

The organization of materials is also accompanied by a lack of structure in terms of learning lessons. Students have total freedom to explore a variety of mediums and to work on most projects that their imaginations can think up, which is successful in the sense that they are supported and encouraged to follow the flow of personal creativity. But even with the small class size it is hard to answer every student's questions when they are all working on different projects. This freedom also makes it hard to monitor the progress of every student since they can start and stop projects without warning or explanation. Sometimes it is a struggle just to get students to work; often there is at least one artist who will sit unproductively during a class period.

I think it would be great to encourage the class to think of one art form, as a group, that they would really like to learn about and simultaneously create projects in similar mediums so they can get feed back from each other in the process. I would hope this resulted in the class building a stronger creative community through the process of learning a new art form as a group.

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