Critical Intervention/Personal Voice Action Plan Crystina Castiglione February 3, 2012

Critical Intervention I have become recently interested in the concept of identity and how it is shaped through participatory culture. I believe it is a critical issue not only locally, but regionally and nationally is that the identity of the art teacher and art classroom are becoming lost in the net of standardized testing and academic subjects. Our voices as art educators and ideas as teachers are not as often taken into consideration for what art can do for education curriculums and the higher order level of learning it can have for our students across the board. The even bigger issue, is the identify of our students, how much more lost theres becomes when our political society says they should all rise up to be the exact same. This makes me question what my own identity is in this society as an art teacher, and furthermore, how I can help my students to understand their own identity in a contemporary society through art. If as art educators we can show our students the relevance of the arts to aspects of the society they live in, we can help them to understand themselves, and others, social and political issues associated with identity, as well identitys role in history. The second element to this issue is the evolution of social media and impromptu photographic documentation of a students everyday world as they see it via internet technology. Students at the high school level are trying to find themselves, and portray an image of who they want to be through social media sites such as Tumblr, Flickr, Instagram or Facebook. So how do we as art educators apply this increasingly popular form of social media as a tool to engage students in using these everyday images as means of telling a story, of themselves, what they know, where they come from, who they are? How do we push them to use this mode of art making in way that allows them to learn about each other through images, as well as learn to understand themselves more authentically, rather than just for social gossiping? Blandy states that our role as art educators has shifted, they still need mentors to assist in navigating the ethical issues as well as in accessing the skills and experiences necessary for full participation, (Blandy, 2011, p. 250). There are a few contemporary photographers who address these issues of not only identity throughout history and contemporary society, but also the controversial issues of photographing and putting on display the intimate, personal actions of your everyday life that create your identity. Artists such as Cindy Sherman explore the construction of contemporary identity and the nature of representation, drawn from the unlimited supply of images from movies, TV, magazines, the internet and art history, (Garzon, 2012). These are the themes and

concepts of identity that students can identify with and understand their role in society, as well as portray that through art. This is also ties in with how we can implement elements of visual culture within our art curriculums. Another artist, Sally Mann, began photographing ordinary moments of her daily life with her family that opened a new threshold of art that allowed viewers into the more intimate moments of a persons life. This same concept can be applied to what our students do now through the use of social media networking, the difference being; their documentation of everyday life is more about popular culture than it is about content and meaning. Using both of these artists as influence and inspiration, students would be able to form a documentary of themselves through images that over time tells a story of their individual identities. Personal Voice Action Plan Its extremely important that as educators we stay informed and up to date on technological advances, because our students are always excelling in this area. If we can harness what they know and navigate them to use it in a meaningful way, we can teach them how to do more with imagery than taking a picture of their lunch. I propose a unit on photography that deals with identity much in the ways that Cindy Sherman and Sally Mann molded their themes of identities through images. As an ongoing project students would be required to create an online account that had the same idea as Instagram or Tumblr; some sort of blog that allowed them to upload imagery daily with captions from any smart phone or electronic device. This account would be visible only to their peers within the class, so it would start off exclusive. I would give them a list of imagery they would need to capture everyday to be uploaded and shared with their peers. For example, week 1 they would have to capture 3 images of their daily morning routine, 3 images of their school day, and 3 images of their evening routine. Having them capture ordinary moments in a personal way and sharing them with peers would allow them to understand and respect the fact that they all lead very different lives and we all have something we could learn. Within these criteria, I would give them times where they need to create self portraits of specific identities within our society or certain figures in society that are relevant; seeing how they design, create and shoot these would give themselves and their peer viewers insight into their perception of the world; and thus in turn allowing others to view things differently. At the end of an 8 week unit, I would have them narrow down all of their images and choose 12-15 that really depict all the questions of identity that surround a person; where they

came from, what they want from life, who they are on a daily basis, what they deal with, or the culture and tradition that they live by. With these final I would have them display them in a local art gallery or art centered facility that would allow the public to also view them. Having the opportunity for students at the high school age to display work that they not only created themselves, but tells the story of their identity and generation would change the perception that the public has on how art can truly change the way in which a person looks at the world. Additionally, students would have a larger sense of pride in knowing that the images they created themselves are being shared with their community, and they have the ability to share cross cultural knowledge or messages that they may not have had the opportunity to share within the classroom. The underlying idea behind this kind of a lesson is that they understand the way in which their identities are shaped, and that they can document the way its shaped through their art, and possibly come to understand the world around them in a better way. My theory has always been to keep things relevant, if we as educators are using tools that are the common trend with our students and then merging that with what we want them to learn about; the learning outcome will be successful.

Works Cited
Deffenbaugh, C., Hatfield, C., and Montana, V. (May 2006). Artist/Art Educator: Making Sense of Identity Issues, Art Education, (pp. 42-47). Gagosian Gallery. (2013). Sally Mann, Retrieved: February 2, 2013, from website: http://www.gagosian.com/artists/sally-mann. Garzon, Martha. (March 2012). Cindy Shermans Retrospective at MOMA. Retrieved February 3, 2013 from website: http://www.marthagarzon.com/contemporary_art/2012/03/cindy-shermansretrospective-at-moma/. May, W. (1994). The Tie That Binds: Reconstructing Ourselves in Institutional Contexts, Studies in Art Education (Vol. 35. No. 3 pp. 135-148). National Art Education Association.