IMAGERY, IDENTITY AND CULTURE: THE MAP OF CONCEPTS AND INTERSECTIONS

IMAGERY, IDENTITY AND CULTURE:  THE MAP OF CONCEPTS AND INTERSECTIONS

Spring, 2019—Renée Cherow-O’Leary and Doris Caçoilo

CONCEPTUAL FRAMES:

The Powers of Ten – a micro and macro look at ourselves from the atom, the cell and our DNA to our local and ultimately global selves

The New York Times—for present views of our current lives and environment, the historical moment we live in and must respond to

WIRED Magazine—for visions of the future and the impact of change that is coming, already seeded in our present, and the potential for both immense potential for good or for destructive impulses to challenge our humanity and our social order; a way to see how the digital revolution, the wired world has already ultimately transformed us and will only grow as in “Mirrorworld”.

Judith Butler, bell hooks, Jackson Katz, Ru Paul, Jelani Cobb—Considerations of race, class, gender, ethnicity that affect self-concept, presentation of self in the world, and connections to social movements that create awareness and activism.

Judith Howard—The Social Psychology of Identities—how many choices we make each day to “construct our identities” but also how identity is formed from everything from our DNA, our gender identification, our ethnicity, race, education, social class (economic status), religion, geographic location, education, even aspiration and inspiration (energy to achieve)

Neil Postman—The Disappearance of Childhood- and Jesse Green, The Gay History of Classic Children’s Books—Reconceptualizing Childhood and media’s impact; the role of parents in the construction of this new childhood in such mediated experiences as “The Longest, Shortest Time” Podcast

Erik Erikson—Stages of Psychosocial Development—from birth to the obituary we are forever changing and changing our relationship to those around us, to our cohort (our generation—Millennials, Gen Z, Boomers, etc.)

Personal Narratives and Cultural Narratives and Mythology—the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, our origins, our families and their connections to place and to historical events, and the stories that animate our faiths, the heroes we believe in, the legends and stories that are at the core of our culture depending on how it is construed.  There are many lenses.

Our Roles as Citizens of a Specific Place/Country and the rights, responsibilities and commitments that we make to our social world in that place.  Our growing awareness of ourselves as global citizens, people whose decisions affect not only us individually but possibly everyone on earth.

Our Connections to our Technologies--a time to ask “What does it mean to be human?” as artificial intelligence, robots, virtual reality, augmented reality and other inevitable connections to “machines” that expand our potential but increase our interaction with “non-human increasingly intelligent entities”

Our Roles as “Earthlings”—the impact of climate change, earth and the growing impact of our connections and technical facility in space upon our human civilization; Example: Paul  Nicklen “If we lose the ice, we lose the ecosystem.”

Our Roles in the Cosmos—Our connection to our solar system , to the exoplanets and space beyond, to the possibility of making contact with extraterrestrial beings.

Our Beliefs in a Religious or Spiritual Connection to purpose, to the meaning of life, and to our moral development and the ways we interact with others.  

IMAGERY: 
Susan Sontag—On Photography 

Marc Burnett--The Apprentice—How Trump Was Made by Reality TV

Montclair Art Museum –Imagery of American Identity throughout history

Newark Museum—Wendy Red Star and Kambui Olujimi—Decolonizing Photography and Narratives

Guggenheim Museum—Hilma Af Klint, Paintings for the Future

SPEAKERS WHO ARE CREATORS OF IMAGERY AND EXPLICATORS OF CULTURE:

David O’Leary—Project Blue Book in Los Angeles

Michael Mandiberg—CUNY Professor and artist and social activist

Docents at MAM

Videos throughout the course about course themes

INTERSECTIONALITY:

All of the above can be rearranged like a Rubik’s Cube; each time you turn one or other lens, new elements come into view.  But all aspects are part of the whole depending on the focus and impact of imagery on identity and culture; the impact of identity on imagery and culture; and the impact of culture on imagery and identity.  

STUDENT RESPONSES:

CONVERSATIONS WITH STUDENTS FROM MANY DIFFERENT AREAS OF STUDY

STUDENT PRODUCTION OF ART

STUDENT WRITING 

THE BLOG AS A PLACE TO PUBLISH AND SHARE

FURTHER THOUGHTS??