PAUL DUNCUM LECTURE
An academic autobiography: From Cowboy Comics to YouTube Videos by Paul Duncum
Thursday, September 22, 2016 located at the Miami University Art Museum.
This event was an educational lecture for students and educators attending Miami, and also a celebratory award presentation for Paul Duncum. A theme he pursued to explain was about the presence of visual culture. How it has affected his own life and all the different ways it surrounds and changes others as well. The event went smoothly, there was a reception prior to the event where we were given the opportunity to talk to him if one chose to do so, I personally did not, but I saw many people take advantage of the opportunity. I very much enjoyed the lecture seeing how he began to explore and produce visual culture as he said he designed product’s designs from “Ice-cream to toilet paper”. I resonated with the idea that he wanted to do something with moral work, and not just producers advertisement. As he then moved towards creating children art he saw the world that children lived in, a world of exploring themes that overcame conflicts, good and evil, friendship, violence and loyalty. He explained how in British cultural studies they tried to eradicate violence from children’s drawings. I agree with him that through the violence there were themes achieved by the children that may not always be explored otherwise. A way to apply this thought into a classroom would to work through conflict resolution within students, whether thats through letting them see what a fight looks like within imaginary characters or from their past experiences. Either way I see the need for kids to process through what it means to have conflict existing, without identifying it they will never be able to resolve it creating opportunity for larger problems later in their life. Overall, I enjoyed how he brought a remembrance to the innocence of childhood, that has prepared our minds for responses of conflict and exploration that life has brought through our own experiences. The presentation was fluid and well composed with personal stories or exploration and how he observed others go through similar circumstances.
Thursday, September 22, 2016 located at the Miami University Art Museum.
This event was an educational lecture for students and educators attending Miami, and also a celebratory award presentation for Paul Duncum. A theme he pursued to explain was about the presence of visual culture. How it has affected his own life and all the different ways it surrounds and changes others as well. The event went smoothly, there was a reception prior to the event where we were given the opportunity to talk to him if one chose to do so, I personally did not, but I saw many people take advantage of the opportunity. I very much enjoyed the lecture seeing how he began to explore and produce visual culture as he said he designed product’s designs from “Ice-cream to toilet paper”. I resonated with the idea that he wanted to do something with moral work, and not just producers advertisement. As he then moved towards creating children art he saw the world that children lived in, a world of exploring themes that overcame conflicts, good and evil, friendship, violence and loyalty. He explained how in British cultural studies they tried to eradicate violence from children’s drawings. I agree with him that through the violence there were themes achieved by the children that may not always be explored otherwise. A way to apply this thought into a classroom would to work through conflict resolution within students, whether thats through letting them see what a fight looks like within imaginary characters or from their past experiences. Either way I see the need for kids to process through what it means to have conflict existing, without identifying it they will never be able to resolve it creating opportunity for larger problems later in their life. Overall, I enjoyed how he brought a remembrance to the innocence of childhood, that has prepared our minds for responses of conflict and exploration that life has brought through our own experiences. The presentation was fluid and well composed with personal stories or exploration and how he observed others go through similar circumstances.
CHARITY WHITE LECTURE AND EXHIBITION
Prescriptive Space: Questioning Urban Design and Social Space Through Public Intervention
Thursday, September 29, 2016, Locations by event; Lecture: Art Building, Exhibition: Hiestand Gallery
This event contained an exhibition with a following educational lecture that gave further depth into her series.
Through her presentation I was given the interpretation of how our surroundings manipulate us and our basic human interaction. She drew us to look at that and react and address both in a personal and public reaction how we were achieving these responses. I saw how my own art has hints of an activist perspective and intention. I often have found myself creating pieces that were true of my own experiences but were capable of being used for manipulated responses. I enjoyed how she brilliantly utilized her skills, but placed them in a way that blessed and helped others. And I think that’s what an art activist should strive to be like. Someone who can create skillfully, so the general public is capable of responding and taking action of what matter the artist chooses to address. Through Charity’s presentation in both the exhibit and the actual presentation lecture she let us experience the work ourselves. Then as we continued through the presentations we experienced it as others have with their pure reactions. I can recall my initial reactions, first confusion, of why there were people sculpted like they were laying on a bench. Then I was filled with awe both in shock and admiration. How skillfully she was able to represent a figure, and how culturally we have dehumanized the homeless. As a society we have chosen the look of well kept public places over identifying and responding to the reality of homelessness. Charity did a fantastic job at both inspiring artists to find the art in being an activist, and inspiring us to address the social issues that surround us and that we sometimes take part in. In the classroom environment we often forget how to instruct the freedom of choices through the need to show technique. The cookie-cut projects that have no identity within the individual's talents. Don't hear what i'm not saying, I see the absolute necessity to teach basic techniques. But through that, are we setting them up to produce mechanical outcomes from our students? A balance must be achieved in both constructive teaching and freedom of the human imagination. And how the perspective of an art activist breaking us from the crossroads of technical and abstract. But placing the abstract in the technical places as Charity has done in her recent piece Prescriptive Space.
Thursday, September 29, 2016, Locations by event; Lecture: Art Building, Exhibition: Hiestand Gallery
This event contained an exhibition with a following educational lecture that gave further depth into her series.
Through her presentation I was given the interpretation of how our surroundings manipulate us and our basic human interaction. She drew us to look at that and react and address both in a personal and public reaction how we were achieving these responses. I saw how my own art has hints of an activist perspective and intention. I often have found myself creating pieces that were true of my own experiences but were capable of being used for manipulated responses. I enjoyed how she brilliantly utilized her skills, but placed them in a way that blessed and helped others. And I think that’s what an art activist should strive to be like. Someone who can create skillfully, so the general public is capable of responding and taking action of what matter the artist chooses to address. Through Charity’s presentation in both the exhibit and the actual presentation lecture she let us experience the work ourselves. Then as we continued through the presentations we experienced it as others have with their pure reactions. I can recall my initial reactions, first confusion, of why there were people sculpted like they were laying on a bench. Then I was filled with awe both in shock and admiration. How skillfully she was able to represent a figure, and how culturally we have dehumanized the homeless. As a society we have chosen the look of well kept public places over identifying and responding to the reality of homelessness. Charity did a fantastic job at both inspiring artists to find the art in being an activist, and inspiring us to address the social issues that surround us and that we sometimes take part in. In the classroom environment we often forget how to instruct the freedom of choices through the need to show technique. The cookie-cut projects that have no identity within the individual's talents. Don't hear what i'm not saying, I see the absolute necessity to teach basic techniques. But through that, are we setting them up to produce mechanical outcomes from our students? A balance must be achieved in both constructive teaching and freedom of the human imagination. And how the perspective of an art activist breaking us from the crossroads of technical and abstract. But placing the abstract in the technical places as Charity has done in her recent piece Prescriptive Space.