Lesson Plan #1 - March 15, 16, 21, 22

Occupy I.S. 187            

What do you imagine Occupy protesters stand for, or want? What would you do if in charge of the protests? These questions and more are posed to students in Occupy I.S. 187. Putting into practice the contemporary idea of art as social activity and incubator for critical dialogue, students discuss their opinions of the movement and its effectiveness, while also dissecting the subjectivity of individual photographs and symbols from the media that have come to represent the 99% and 1%. Addressing the power of images and the Internet in the Occupy movement, a power utilized by corporate media and the everyday citizen alike, the class works to analyze content from the perspective of four different groups: the protesters, the Wall Street workers, the police department, and the media.  Form, arrangement and subject matter can represent the same event in a myriad of ways. But who has control over public perception? How can we detect the ideology behind a photograph? Is it possible to be objective? To decode photographs and digital images brought in by students and presented by Ms. Dunn, students are asked to come to a consensus about the intentions of the image, what the photographer chooses to represent and what they imagine actually lies outside of the frame. As Ms. Dunn provides suggestive examples, thought-provoking case studies, and unique techniques for interpretation, the lesson focuses much more on critical thinking and talking about visual culture than object making. In this open forum, asking targeted questions takes precedence over quick answers and the gap between art and politics is reduced.

  

Lesson Plan #2 - May 2, 3, 4, 7

Flag Mania: Cultural Branding and the Power of National Symbols

At the end of the Occupy I.S. 187 session, students will be asked to conduct interviews with family, friends, school teachers or community members as part of the next session. The interviews will serve as a starting point for lesson #2, an artistic re-interpretation of whichever national flag the student and/or their interview subjects most identify with. Students will be encouraged to address a national mythology or ideology in their revamped/updated flag, but may also address more personal or local symbols from their daily life. Postings on the blog will provide context for the project by including examples of artists engaging with national identity and the flag as symbol. The introductory discussion for this session will center on the use of symbols, as well as the difference between nationalism and patriotism.

Students will be given a sheet of paper on which they will depict an alternative flag for their country of choice. In the process, Ms. Dunn will encourage them to think abstractly and use symbols rather direct narrative representation or imagery. Traditional formats, like the separation of the flag into three sections or colors, can provide structure for the new content students will add.

Lesson #3 - May 11, 14, 18, 23

Hand Made: Labor, Craft, and Mass Production

This lesson plan would centers on the issue of outsourcing, the way the United States exports manufacturing responsibilities to countries like India, China, and Vietnam. Unfortunately, the laborers in these countries must succumb to horrible working conditions, often becoming human capital. Ms. Dunn, who uses textiles in her own artwork, will engage students in a quilting project for this lesson, showing them how much labor goes into textile manufacturing, but also the beauty of alternative economies (making your own clothes, growing your own fruit and vegetables, etc.) Ms. Dunn will bring in her own knitting machine to show the type of machinery workers in the outsourced countries may operate, countries where reforms the students learned about in their social studies or law class (New Deal economic reforms banning child labor, etc.) do not exist.

Students will consider artists such as Miriam Schapiro (and others involved in the Pattern and Decoration Movement), Faith Ringgold, and Rosemarie Trockel in their exploration of labor and process within contemporary art. How does the type of labor that goes into the artwork (here stereotypically feminine or domestic actions like knitting, sewing, and quilting) speak to the issues it grapples with? What constitutes private labor and public labor?