1.) What Is the Difference Between Observation and Interpretation? Write a Short Paragraph in Your Journal (5-6 Sentences) Defining Both, with One Example Each
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Observation and Response: Creative Response Template can be adapted to fit a variety of classes and types of responses Goals: Students will: • Practice observation skills and develop their abilities to find multiple possibilities for interpretation and response to visual material; • Consider the difference between observation and interpretation; • Develop descriptive skills, including close reading and metaphorical description; • Develop research skills by considering a visual text or object as a primary source; • Engage in creative response to access and communicate intellectually or emotionally challenging material. Observation exercises Part I You will keep a journal as you go through this exercise. This can be a physical notebook that pleases you or a word document on your computer. At junctures during the exercise, you will be asked to comment, define, reflect, and create in your journal on what you just did. Journal responses will be posted to Canvas at the conclusion of the exercise, either as word documents or as Jpegs. 1.) What is the difference between observation and interpretation? Write a short paragraph in your journal (5-6 sentences) defining both, with one example each. 2.) Set a timer on your phone or computer (or oven…) and observe the image provided for 1 minute. Quickly write a preliminary research question about it. At first glance, what are you curious about? What do you want to know? 3.) Set your timer for 5 minutes and write as many observations as possible about it. Try to keep making observations, even when you feel stuck. Keep returning to the question, “What do I see?” No observation is too big or too small, too obvious or too obscure. You do not need to use complete sentences. 4.) Set your timer for another 5 minutes and write as many observations as possible for 5 minutes without using nouns. (Definition of a noun: person, place, thing. Try not to name anything in your observations. Remember that you do not need to use complete sentences. For this round, it is legitimate to just list word … flowing, linear, active, rounded, ..etc.) 5. ) For the next round of observations, you will get a bit of language from art history. Please note that this is NOT intended to teach you the finer points of visual analysis; that is a more intensive process than we will engage here. Rather, this is simply intended to help guide your looking processes. a.) Watch the video: Visual Analysis Tutorial b.) Download the vocabulary sheet 6. ) Set your timer for 5 minutes, and write as many observations about your image as possible, using the concepts from the video and the terms on the vocabulary sheet as prompts. Again, please note that you are NOT doing a formal visual analysis of your image, but simply paying attention to specific elements such as line, form, color, etc., and writing down what you notice about them. (You may use nouns again. You are welcome.) 7.) For this round, imagine that the image will self-destruct in 3 minutes and your observations will be the only record of its existence. Write as much as you can for the next 3 minutes to preserve a record of the image. 8.) Take a moment to look at your observations. What do you notice? 9.) In your journal, write a 1-page reflection addressing the following questions: a.) Have your definitions of observation and interpretation changed through this activity? Re-write your definitions in light of this experience, changing or expanding on what you wrote previously. b.) What are the benefits of spending a longer time looking at an image? What might you not have seen if you stopped at two minutes? Five minutes? Why might learning to look longer be important? c.) How did the different prompts change the way you looked at the image? What happened with each prompt? o Looking “cold”: what happened when you were just told to look with no additional information? o Making observations without using nouns- If you found this to be hard, why do you think that is? Why might it be important to do? o Using specific vocabulary words as prompts. Did this allow you to find more or different observations? o Raising the stakes: what happened in the last minute when you were describing the image for posterity? Did the kind of language you used to describe shift at all? If so, how? o Revisit your research question – did you find evidence that might help you find the answers? Or do you have a new question based on what you found? If you were to conduct research on this image, what might the first step be? Observation Exercises Part II 1.) Choose a small object that is in your environment at the moment. It can be anything: a pencil, an eggbeater, a small decorative figure, a toy. Don’t over-think it, any object will do. 2.) Set a timer for 10 minutes and describe the object with as much detail as you can. Try to keep making observations about the object, even when you feel stuck. Use as many of the techniques we just explored as you can (use terminology from your vocabulary sheet, try not using nouns, etc.) In addition, try these additional prompts: o Turn it in multiple directions o try not naming the object, o Describe as though you were describing it to someone who could not see it. o What does it feel like? Does it have a smell? How heavy is it? Creative Response Metaphor 1.) In your journal, write a definition of metaphor, with an example. Can you think of an example of a metaphor that is in common usage? Consult https://literarydevices.net/metaphor/ for a refresher on metaphor. 2.) Choose an element in your original image and answer the prompt “This X (person, horse, house, shape..) is like my object because…” 2.) Set a timer for 10 minutes and during that time, describe all the ways that the element in the image is like the object you described. This is a free writing process. Let your imagination take over to bridge the gap between the two elements. Try to write continuously for 10 minutes. Don’t worry about perfect prose or grammatically correct sentences. 3.) In your journal, write a one-page reflection on this process: o How difficult or easy was it to come up with a metaphor to connect the image and the object does this metaphorical reasoning process work? o What did your minds do to make connections? o What did you learn from this process? Creative Response Monolog 1.) Using the metaphor created by relating the image to the object as a starting point, create a character for the person in the photograph. 2.) Using information from observations of the photograph and context from class, in your journal write a 500-word monolog from the perspective of the person in the photograph. 3.) Use the metaphor as a foundation upon which to write the monolog. You don’t need to state the metaphor explicitly, but do use it as a way to develop insight into the character you are creating. Consider the following questions and prompts as you create your monolog: a.) How can you use the metaphor and the collage you developed to help someone understand something important about the image and the story it represents? b.) How can the metaphor and image unlock a key emotional element of the character you are creating? c.) Use details from your observations of the photograph to make your characterization specific. Again, you don’t necessarily need to name those details (you can if you wish) but use them as a way to make your character and their experiences specific. d.) Make connections to the content and ideas of your class – how is the character you are creating making sense of their environment or experience? e.) Think of this exercise as a foray into historical or biographical fiction, which tells stories about real people by drawing from historical or social context (generated in your class) and details about locations, situations, and activities (gleaned from your observations) to create an artistic interpretation of what someone might have thought or felt in a specific circumstance. 4.) In your journal, write a one-page reflection on this process considering the following questions: a.) How does your story connect to the image you observed and the object your described? What about those inspired something about your character or their voice? b. ) How did you connect what you observed to the content from this class? Where were the inspirations and or/links? c.) What might be the power in communicating information through this kind of creative lens? How might we incorporate this kind of creative process in the ways in which we communicate to help audiences make sense of sometimes difficult stories and information? d.) How does this kind of creative response function as research? 5.) Post your images, journal entries, reflection papers, and monolog to Canvas .