Wednesday, October 28th...54 Students Out (And Me!)

This (very early) morning my daughter Anna was up at 2:30 and then 4:00 trying her best to not wake Mommy and Daddy while she was, in her words, "threwing up". How's that behavior for an almost 5 year old!? What a trooper!! As a result, I stayed home to tend to the kid (who is doing much better, thank you very much!) But don't count me out of the school day doings just yet! As I write this blog account, I am now 2 hours and 14 minutes into a video chat session with all my classes using Skype. Isn't technology wonderful!! (Note to viewer: I'm currently in dress code from the waist up!!!)

First and second period classes seemed to go off without a hitch. Special shout out to Jack Horton, Jordan Wang and Robert Merfield for kicking off the first of ___ (fill in the blank) video chat/distance learning events for the Intro to Media Arts Semester. After a bit of scrambling around and a few minutes of shaking off the "novelty" of Skype, the students, with me remotely, screened the Comic Life Tutorial I posted on yesterday's blog. Then they went off to their respective computers (for the first time this year) and got familiar with the program in preparation for tomorrow's formal walk through. Homework for tomorrow's class will be sent via email...so check your inboxes Media Arts students!

All told, this was an unexpected, but in the words of Bill & Ted: "A most excellent" use of the technology in the classroom. Below are some screen grabs of the class.

Until tomorrow....

Jack Horton setting up the screen at the HUN TV booth iMAC.

Robert Merfield and Jordan Wang looking pretty groggy. (1st Period blues...)

2nd Period class, l to r Devan Birch, Gilles Merckx,

Eddie Paparella, Quashea Hendryx, taking in the

distance learning project.

Tuesday, October 27th... 61 Students Marked Out as "I"

Sixty-one students have called out for being ill (I). That's up from yesterday's count of 48 students. I believe we have confirmation of several H1N1 related illnesses on campus (day and resident folk combined). Classes continue. For those students who missed today's lesson, here's what we did:

The scheduled 'quiz' for today, covering the 5 handouts: 4 Shepard Fairey news articles and an excerpt from Lawrence Lessig's "Remix" on Greg Gillis was given today to those students who were present. It took the form of an oral exam where we discussed the topics in the handouts. First period class (Devan, Gilles & Eddie) did a fine job, coming prepared by reading the work and demonstrating their understanding of the content in the articles. Eighth period class, with everyone in attendance, did not do as well. NOTE TO MEDIA ARTS STUDENTS: DO THE ASSIGNMENTS YOU ARE GIVEN!! YOUR GRADE DEPENDS ON IT!

We covered new ground in unearthing more information on the web about our three media artists. A video posted on fora.tv (an excellent online video resource) of a Lessig & Fairey talk at New York's Public Library from March, 2008 showcased our artist's view on copyright laws, fair use, etc. Watch the portion of the video after Shepard Fairey is introduced--those of you who were out of school today.

We also reviewed a recent article concerning Shepard Fairey and a new twist on his battle with the Associated Press. Please read this article, as well.

Tomorrow we begin assembling what we've learned about Fairey, Gillis and McCloud into a coherent (I hope!) outline on which this research project will be based. The 8th period class got a sneak peak at the format the final "papers" will be presented in: comic book style!! Below is a sample page I mocked up demonstrating the potential/fun in working with the program--Comic Life (watch this video, too).

Until tomorrow, mein kinder.

--Mr. Hoban

Cool Concepts, Thanks To Scott McCloud

Students:

In a continuing effort to make it up as I go along, I thought it would be most righteous of me to provide you, the eager young minds in Media Arts, with several points I find MOST important in Scott McCloud's TED talk. Feel free to absorb this information, which may mean that you might have to investigate further what Mr. McCloud means by certain topics. As an assistance to your understanding, I have provided the times during the talk where he mentions each concept.

Engage!!

-Mr. Hoban

McCloud Concepts & Some Vocabulary:

"Learn from Everyone

Follow No One

Watch for Patterns

Work like Hell" (5:45)

Comics are essentially a visual medium,

but try to embrace all the other senses within it. (7:54)

Resemblance

Abstraction/Abstracted (8:10)

Visual Iconography (8:30)

Sequence--an important aspect of comics (9:15)

Comics present a temporal map (9:19)

Art form collides with a given technology (9:38)

ex. Paint on Stone, Bas Relief Sculpture

artifacts of modern day comics (9:59)

Moore's Law (10:31)

McLuhan-esque mistake(11:02)--appropriating the shape of the previous technology to the content of the new technology

Interactivity/Hypertext comics (11:35)

Spacial relations in comics (11:50)

Computer Monitor as 'page' VS. Computer Monitor as 'window' (12:50)

A Durable Mutation (13:47)

"All media provide us with a window back into our world." (16:00)

It's Been A While...

Over two weeks since my last post...not good. But, alas! Here I type...

Last Thursday's school day was annihilated by the scheduled Career Day at The Hun School of Princeton. What remained after the dust settled in the morning were afternoon classes that lasted 27 minutes (never an ideal amount of time to teach). Because of the shortened periods, I instituted the first in, I'm sure, a series of "Special Topic" classes that will pop up throughout the school year as unique opportunities to do something quick, fun and hopefully educational!

Our first special topic was a return trip to our preK days to re-learn and recite the ABC's--except with a media arts twist. I screened the ultra-short video I produced for last year's Student Visitation Day at Hun--a compilation of 26 different text-based logos from the first letter of 26 different companies/ products. I attempted to post this video on YouTube, but when played back no picture appeared, just a blank screen. I checked that uploading of the clip went properly. I also double checked that it was indeed the correct video. Everything seemed to be as it should. The only explanation of the technical glitch, that I can figure out, is that YouTube immediately recognized the "unsanctioned" use of corporate logos in a video post and stripped away the video signal from the piece. Wow!! That's power!! As a result, no video to show!

Anyway, the "Logo ABC's" video was a nice lead-in to another hands-on assignment where the students used pastels to design their own initials using the corporate logos from the video. The purpose was for their final renderings to be as close a match to the colors, shapes, size, and dimensions of the original logos. To succeed the students had to study the relationships between the various points on the logo. They needed to understand the concept of negative space. They needed to demonstrate a willingness to try techniques of different color applications to the paper; shading, mixing colors (and in general getting a little (or a lot!) of charcoal colors on their fingertips). And above all, I needed to see EFFORT. (There it goes

again...that word 'effort'.) I really like what's been done so far. It's great to see this sort of activity in such a high-tech room! Work will continue on these projects outside of class time till the end of this week, as the students make attempts at perfecting their designs.

This is a screen capture of the Media Alphabet.

Can you identify all the corporate logos?

Which ones spell your initials?

What Is Your Bic Cristal Inspired Art Work??

Here are the notes from class last week--a list of examples where forms of art were used in the Bic Cristal documentary screened during Media Arts class:

-doodling/drawing

-animation/cartoons

-sculpture

-advertising

-the pen design, itself

-performance (i.e. music, etc)

-documentary filmmaking

Tonight's Homework: Leave a comment to this blog post about what you're considering as an art project using the Bic Cristal pen.

Thank you.

The COMMENT RULE still applies: last one in your class to post a comment must comment on all the other student comments.

-Mr. Hoban

I Wish...

The studio, this past week, was filled with flying paper scraps, spent glue stick dispensers, scotch tape stuck on any flat surface and the sounds of freshman working together and alone on their first project-based, in-class assignment.

The "I Wish" List project stemmed from the investigation and follow up discussion of the two web resources-- a viewing of The All-American Rejects video "Dirty Little Secret" and a guided (read: censored) tour of the PostSecrets blog for inspiration and examples.

What came out of the week was, I thought, a very solid and interesting array of thoughts regarding what each individual student wished for: for themselves, for their school and for their world.

For our first public exhibition of the students' work in the Academic Building, I purchased two recycle bins to build a display/representation of the process of creating the postcard pieces. The students and I then got to work attaching the final assignments (complete with a blurb, in their own words, about their wish) to the display board along with the recycle bins and a sizable amount of reclaimed trash left in the studio. The final exhibition is, IMHO, an eye-opener/head-turner!! See for yourself:

(photo credit: Devan Birch)