Adapted from Tatsiana Zhurauliova. 1. What is represented in the object? Make an inventory of items. 2. Materials: list the materials and describe their visual qualities. 3. Format and size: round? square? small? large? what is the support of the object? 4. Line: identify the linear elements. Are they emphasized or deemphasized? What kind of lines are there and where do they point? 5. Geometries and formal echoes: what shapes are in the piece and do they repeat? 6. Color: identify the colors and their qualities. Are they bright? saturated? How are they distributed? 7. Organization of forms: How is 3d space implied? Is it implied? Is there negative space? 8: Relation to viewer: how does the object engage the viewer? Where are you located in relation to the object and what it depicts? 9. Temporal extension: does the object imply a narrative or action? Does it attempt to invoke timelessness? How does it do those things? This is the framework I use for performing and teaching art history and formal analysis. I learned it from Dr. Zhurauliova in her 20th Century Art class. One of the things that I think works really well is the way each element feeds into the next. I simplified the language to make it easier to use with children but did not rearrange any of the content. I find that by the first three questions are really good warmups for people that might be intimidated by art history or art. These elements are very easy to identify from the tombstone and has the effect of giving someone new to the process very concrete things they can identify. Once they get through those, looking for other elements doesn't seem as intimidating. I have applied this framework to 2d and 3d objects from painting to decorative arts and found it useful in all cases.
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In Spring of 2017 I was elected artistic director of U of C Commedia, which meant that I was in charge of planning and implementing a 10-week training course in fall to teach our new members movement, mask work, and improv theater basics. From this experience I learned a lot about structuring a long term instruction plan and about ways to encourage people to be silly together.
One of the things that was most successful was the flexibility of the schedule. I built in some redundancies so that if folks missed one day they would still get all the information they needed and in case I needed to cancel a rehearsal we wouldn't fall behind. The most successful individual training session was in week 7 when we wrote the showcase scenario together. The noobs (our official term for them in the bylaws of the organization) learned how to write a scenario by reading two successful shows that we had previously performed and then by thinking through the different parts of each show. We then thought about how each noob wanted to introduce their character to the larger performing arts community. With their newfound understanding of the structure of a Commedia Scenario and keeping in mind our discussion they dictated to me while I wrote down what they said on the chalk board. After they wrote their show, we did a pass through to make sure that all the loose ends were tied up and to be sure everyone accomplished their goals for their character. Not only did this give them ownership over the final product of their 10 weeks of training but also created a crop of people who were able to write shows for the group this year. One of the things I would do differently would be to ease into the serious training. We started doing serious Commedia stuff in second week before the noob class had really gotten to know each other and that meant that they were uncomfortable doing silly things in a serious way. In the moment, I switched back to doing fun, silly improv exercises before switching back to serious training to give time to get comfortable experimenting and being silly. This was extremely beneficial for them, so in the future I would plan to do that rather than have the first movement day be so early since it was a bit of a wash without that willingness to experiment. In the library setting, this would mean establishing a tone that promoted experimentation and a light atmosphere in the beginning in a more intentional way than I may have in the past. |
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