I signed up for a workshop to teach from our own art with sarah jaffray (super grateful for the opportunity) which took place over three 3hr sessions, one each week in feb. it was definitely intense and gave me a lot of anxiety, but i learnt a lot and feel a lot more confident in the clear expression of information and some nuances to teaching that I never would have been aware of...
5.2.21
6-9pm Sarah teaching workshop. it was really good. she always structures her sessions in a way that is very clear and makes sense. hr 1 we introduced ourselves and why we signed up then she gave us a mini workshop just to note down what we liked and disliked from the way she taught - to figure out a little our preferred teaching style. hr 2 we were split into small groups looking at three images and thinking of a narrative to talk or teach from the material. we then came back and discussed more. this was very useful - I’ll attach the notes I scribbled down. hr 3 was all about audience and how to consider different audiences... from today’s session I definitely learnt a lot, and I have starred the points I thought was most useful (a lot) but being a teacher you need to care, have a lot of resilience, be prepared and flexible etc etc. it’s a lot to juggle. I think the hardest thing for me upfront is probably the confidence. not even just for presenting (I thought about it - teaching is almost like presenting but also performing. maybe that’ll help me) but the confidence in my perspective / thoughts about certain works. I am also worried about not having enough general knowledge of art history. How does one string it all together? you have to be well read or done a lot of research And care a lot. I can never remember.. and I will be confronted with questions I don’t know the answers to. but Sarah said it is good to say ‘I don’t know’. you just have to not give people a way in, e.g. ‘I’m not an expert on this but..’ anyway, learnt a lot today, and our homework for next week is to read an essay and also prepare for a mini presentation to experiment with the teaching experience - she said you learn while you teach. and that she wants this to be a safe space where we can experiment with our style of teaching. Still, it’s pretty nerve-wracking. but I think if I am truly interested in what I’m looking at, and I have done enough preparation in research surrounding the artist (not necessarily present that) I think it should be okay. I hope I can get comfortable in delivering content one day.
11:30pm after dinner and shower - was going to immediately prepare for the presentation and I begun looking at my blog for some artworks .. realised I haven’t actually went in depth on any particular ones. but there are some that jump out at me. like janiva ellis, Paul Nash, sugimoto, parr, and carol Rhodes (think I might choose one of hers?) I realised I now need to differentiate between giving a presentation and ‘teaching’. I might go back to recordings of lectures I enjoyed to see what I liked about their delivery. Sarah said to think about how I like to be taught, which makes a lot of sense. Will be much more enjoyable too. I think I’d like to see nuanced connections perhaps a poetic aspect to it as well, whether in delivery or content.. and keep it informal.. but try to be really clear in the talking points and slides visually.. will see how it goes.
looking at my blog for some artworks .. realised I haven’t actually went in depth on any particular ones. but there are some that jump out at me. like janiva ellis, Paul Nash, sugimoto, parr, and carol Rhodes (think I might choose one of hers?) I realised I now need to differentiate between giving a presentation and ‘teaching’. I might go back to recordings of lectures I enjoyed to see what I liked about their delivery. Sarah said to think about how I like to be taught, which makes a lot of sense. Will be much more enjoyable too. I think I’d like to see nuanced connections perhaps a poetic aspect to it as well, whether in delivery or content.. and keep it informal.. but try to be really clear in the talking points and slides visually.. will see how it goes.12.2.21
oh, a victory (I think??) was the five min presentation for Sarahs workshop. I guess I was spending all my time this week on it.. I basically did a version, then redid it, then rehearsed it over and over again. So it went pretty smoothly, I remembered roughly all my points, no surprises. I don’t know how well it came off, but zeena commented how it was great and how she loved the way I invited the audience back to the first drawing. It is good though, Sarah said, to think about the strengths and weaknesses of each presentation and think about your own and how to make it better. The self-assessment/differentiation part after you teach a lesson. Im not ready to deal with difficult students.. but I realise you really do gain confidence as you do more of these. I think, if the uni wanted us to present something for five mins I wouldn’t be as panicky. Thankful for sarah’s workshop though it is really tiring in a good way.
sarah's feedback on 5 min presentation:
"thanks for your presentation – it was really good and the timing was perfect. I thought your description of the image from the start was very good – it got us all looking closely from the beginning. I also thought your use of terminology and applying back to what can be seen in the specific artwork was done very well. Your key concept of 'perfection and mistake' was also very clear.
In terms of what to work on: Although your idea was clear by the end, I suggest starting with the concept so people know where you are taking them. I also think you can make this more personal – why have you chosen this image? It is interesting to hear why the artist has picked the work. The default for a lot of new teachers or speakers is to passive voice, but don’t worry about including ‘I think’ or ‘I believe’. We are working from facts, but your presentation of the facts is distinct to you, include yourself.
For Friday, only other suggestion is getting the audience a bit more involved with maybe a question or reflection during the span of the lesson. "
How artists reveal the strange nature of artificial/hyperreal spaces in different ways through capturing a moment in time.
‘artificial’, ’hyperreal’ spaces
(any kind of simulated [constructed by the human] environment that attempts to imitate aspects some other space that exist, especially that of nature, for the purpose of leisure or entertainment )
some significant examples of this that we easily encounter especially in the city
water park, natural history diorama display, those amusement park rides that make use animatronics that move and act like the real thing jungle cruise ride use fake animals)
essentially, Landscapes that are so openly fake but simultaneously, so , real - so hyperreal (walk this line of real and the fake)
[who are we in this]
we are the spectator or the tourist that encounters these spaces. we know perfectly well these are fake spaces, so why do we enjoy or even crave them so much?
—photograph by the British photographer Martin parr who visited one of the largest indoor beaches in the world, the Seagaia ocean dome (which doesn’t exist anymore) and was in japan.
We are almost confronted by the bright, sunny, colourful, leisurely scene before us, with several tourists facing away from the camera, relaxing on this beach.they’re Looking towards the water, where a single lone island holds a single lone palm tree. We also see a painted background on the wall of the dome of the blue sky behind the body of fake ocean.
So to me What is so eye opening, almost uncofortabke about this image is just how clearly this environment is simulated. Parr reveals this by framing not only the passive tourists in the foreground (which almost acts as a stand in for us), but also the retractable roof that opens up to the real sun and blue sky above. It is this clear contrast of the fake and the real that wakes you up to this ‘fake reality’ or ‘real fakery’.
Throughout his career Parr has investigated the agenda of leisure and tourism - something that he believes has a need to be documented since the choices people make in their leisure time defines their identity and culture
Whats funny about this ocean dome is that there is a real Beach just 300 m away,
why would holidaymakers choose a simulated coast when a real one is just within reach ?
When a place of relaxation is constructed by the fake, how real is your holiday?
// lets move on to this painting by geraint Evans.
This painting depicts a lone figure standing in front of the artificial rocky cliff which is towering over an indoor pool simulated to feel exotic and foreign. There’s slashes of real sunlight resting upon the space - and the figure seems to be caught in this abrupt moment of confrontation with this sight. Almost like he, too, is realising the fakeness of the space. What Evans does really well here is slow time down in this way, with this lack of colour and how he rendered this tranquility yet also very clearly expresses a strange vulnerable moment for the perspn as is he is feeling as mesmerised as he is trapped.
A really important text that highlights this phenomenon is
Umberto Eco’s essay Travels in Hyperreality (1973), he uses the example of Disneyland, which is another very constructed space,
he articulates the belief that Disneyland “not only produces illusion but...stimulates the desire for it.” (1987, p. 44) The visitor is expected to admire the perfection of the fake hippopotamus, constructed foliage - all of this simulated landscape corresponds much more to our daydream demands (p. 44) than the real and authentic. You even risk feeling ‘homesick’ (p. 44) for Disneyland - beginning to crave for the wonder on just how real it feels .
“…Disneyland not only produces illusion […] but stimulates the desire for it […] Disneyland tells us that faked nature corresponds much more to our daydream demands,”
“…you risk feeling homesick for Disneyland, where the wild animals don’t have to be coaxed. Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can,”
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Both Martin parr’s photograph and geraint Evans’ painting reveal to us how strange our relationship is to artificial environments, by including the spectator in the space, almost as a stand in. They both also contrast the real and the fake with, in this case, sunlight.
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What does a perfect simulation feel like? I want to direct your attention to something a little bit different. This is a photograph by Hiroshi Sugimoto, who photographed a series of dioramas found in the American Museum of Natural History
The diorama is a constructed scene viewed through a glass panel . Made up of by three main elements: a painted semicircular backdrop, scientifically accurate vegetation, and taxidermy skins mounted on meticulously sculpted animal bodies - creating an illusion of nature that is not only educational but utterly immersive.
This work is almost contradicting the previous two initially , bc by photographing this set up in this way we, the spectator, are looking at this illusion as it’s supposed to be perfectly perceived. How does sugimoto do this? I think its to do with this lack of an edge in the photograph, the glass, display, in the same way parr revealed the retractable roof. But there’s also this lack of colour which somehow further diminishes any sense of faker y upon first glance. Yet you feel it - how can you feel that the animals are too still, in a still photograph? The orchestrated perspective of the backdrop to the animal seems dramatic and rehearsed, resulting in a context that speaks more to the cinema than that of a museum.
Curiously, you are able to tell this is an illusion, especially when you observe the backdrop of the scene. I think sugimoto is actually also doing the same thing, he’s revealing the illusion - even though upon first glance it seems unsettlingly real - of this artificial space, just in a perhaps more subtle way.
I chose these three works because of my personal feeling towards these spaces, attracted to them, but also almost repelled at the same time. I think these artists really successfully capture the nuances of this feeling.
But yeah that was a lot of information but I just wanna give us all a moment to reflect on how we each personally feel towards artificial or hyperreal environments. how often do you encounter them? Have they ever made you feel strange or do you just enjoy them, like how they are supposed to be I guess, experienced?
But yeah if we could just all think of our experience I would love to hear one or two simple words just to summarise how we feel about them.
// 5 min presentation
-for Avery, one of the main tools is contrast.
-colours contrast
-focused and rendered eel, and ink wash water and sky
-tape intentionally let it bleed
control and non control (imperfection) if everything was perfect the drawing would be dead
Life long project depicting scenes from an imaginary island.
-describe Avery’s drawing as diagrammatic, as voyage
it’s not trying to be the thing in itself. It’s referring to something that is elsewhere. And as such, what I try and do is only describe what I need to describe, so if I draw a picture of somebody sitting in a chair, I don’t need to draw the chair, because as soon as you draw the chair you get bogged down in concerns of what kind of chair to draw,
For him, describing only what he needs to describe is enough to make a way in for the viewer. Hopes these drawings can be a vessel for the you and I to visit his island. So a drawing as investigation, voyage.
Passage
‘Perfection is insurmountable’
(too great to be overcome) Their sides are so smooth and the edges so sharp that it is impossible to get a foothold. A pickaxe would have bound off them.’ And that came to mind because of what you’re saying about the fact that perfection perhaps leaves us with nothing to connect with.
Want to go back to this drawing encourage everyone to think about what a ‘perfect’ drawing’ means for them. For Avery, the contrast between control and non control gives a perfect sense of tensions within the drawing keep it alive, and makes it accessible to viewers like us to make our own way to his incredible island with a degree of our own imagination. And that giving every single detail sometimes sets boundaries that seem inaccessible. The island, he describes, has no real borders, and that infinity is really felt through this version of imperfection.