_2014 MACAA CONFERENCE SCHEDULE_ Wednesday, October 22, 6:30-8:30 pm _Hometown Artist’s Rodeo: Southwest School of Art_ Organized by Ken Little, The University of Texas at San Antonio, ([email protected]) The Hometown Artist’s Rodeo started in the 1980′s as a party out at the sculpture Building at UTSA. Students and faculty would bring a potluck dish and some talent to share. There were musicians, comedians, storytellers, and performance artists of all ages. During the 2000′s it was moved to a restaurant/bar in San Antonio called The Cove and became a monthly show. The Rodeo is sort of an artist’s cabaret where people sing, recite, and perform with sometimes very elaborate, sometimes quite strange, but always entertaining material. Thursday, October 23, 8:00-9:30 am _Seeing is Believing_ Chair: Alex Emmons, Oklahoma City University, ([email protected]) Seeing is Believing, proposes to explore the historical and contemporary trends that continue to promote photographs as factual evidence. Since Photography’s invention, society has observed pictures as authentic because of its chemical roots and incorporation of optical tools. Images can be constructed photographically before, during and after they are made and history informs us that they have been since the beginning of picture- making technology. Photographs are believable. People trust pictures. They communicate objective, authentic meaning to their audience even if they have been altered. The truth surrounding photographs is they are subjective and informed by society’s rules. People believe photographs can convey objective views of our surrounding visual world. Today, the general public takes delight in how quickly they can make an adjustment to their pictures using photo applications such as Instagram. At the same time, society is very critical of photo forgery because of the lack of oversight and the speed with which information reaches social media and seems believable. The public critiques current digital technologies as leading to rampant photographic manipulations, when photographers have been transforming their pictures since the beginning. Photographers are standing at an interesting set of crossroads because they are incorporating 19th century techniques, analog, and digital as eligible and valid technical options for making. As historians and artists, we need to explore further how photographic images convey authentic meaning by design and medium. There is a diverse amount of resources examining these ideas yet few address the history of photography, contemporary practice, and the range of photographs that convey an essence of fact but are fiction. For this session, I am seeking papers from artists, curators, and art historians that explore a photograph’s believability from a historical and/or contemporary standpoint. Emmons, Alex; Oklahoma City University, ([email protected]) Convincing Pictures: An overview of Photography’s fictional history Cash, Micah; University of North Carolina Charlotte, ([email protected]) Changed by Culture and Time: Landscape Photography as Document Cardinale-Powell, Brian; Oklahoma City University, ([email protected]) What are you trying to prove? The use of photographic evidence in films Session location: DoubleTree , Aztec – A Room _Loaded Dialogues__ Chair: Mühsam, Armin; Northwest Missouri State University, [email protected] Painting is not only an art but also a research method. For some painters, it becomes a way to tease out what are thought of as hidden meanings, essences that are obscured by nature’s chaotic and confusing surface appearances-simply put, for these artists painting is a method to understand the world. For others, the perception of nature as chaotic and the painter puts order into it is preposterous; in their view, all one can aspire to is to put some order into oneself, as a way of achieving clarity about one’s individual mindset and psychology. This panel seeks to bring together painters who stand on opposing sides of this philosophical problem. It is restricted, however, to a kind of representational painting that depends on the world/reality/nature as the trigger for pictorial explorations, with an attitude that is best expressed in a quote by Max Beckmann: “If we wish to grasp the invisible, we must penetrate as deeply as possible into the visible.” Once this premise is agreed upon, the questions, then, become these: How should one paint – with restraint (analytically) or with abandon (expressively)? Which is the better approach – to accept the visible world and represent it, hoping that the very act of representation will lead to an understanding that transcends mere retinal perception, or to interpret the visible world, not in terms of things but of the dynamic energies that generate them? And finally, which of these approaches lend themselves better to dealing with the philosophical stances described above? Born out of an honest desire to encourage philosophical discussions among painters, this panel invites differing, even opposing views (the stronger held, the better) from professors as well as students, and will also entertain additional questions that may arise from the submitted proposals. Nelson, Adam; Northwest Missouri State University; [email protected] Realism and the Importance of Legibility Mühsam, Armin; Northwest Missouri State University, [email protected] Mirroring or Emoting – A Real or False Dichotomy in Painting? Varland, Joel; Savannah College of Art and Design; ([email protected]); The Legacy of Rudolph Steiner in Post Modern Art Session location: DoubleTree , Alameda Room Thursday, October 23, 9:45-11:30 am _Jobs and Careers? Art Education in the Current Educational Climate_ Chair: Dupuy, Edward J.; Dean, Southwest School of Art ([email protected]) When President Obama announced his plans to improve access and affordability in higher education, many of us in the educational arena expressed some skepticism. On the surface, it seems like a good idea to help middle class families afford college, to ask colleges to keep costs down, to strengthen the community college system, and to improve transparency and accountability--the four pillars of the President's plan (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education). But several unquestioned assumptions about higher education seem to be at work there: Is the purpose of higher education primarily for students to land jobs? Can access and completion be reconciled? Can a college "report card" really give a clear sense of the success of colleges or universities? And more to the point of this conference, where and how do higher ed art programs fit into such an educational climate? This panel hopes to address these issues with papers from various points of view: the community college system, the state system, the private college system, and with a paper by the chair on the Southwest School of Art's decision to open a college BFA program amidst these fermenting (and fomenting) questions. Papers on the "meaning and value of education" generally and on the philosophical underpinnings of art education, in particular, are welcomed. Why is fine art education important? What is the role of the fine artist in the 21st century? What can higher education learn generally from the pedagogical practice of art education? What is the place of the art school in the 21st Century? In short, this panel would like to use the President's plan as a point of departure for a discussion of fundamental questions about education and art. And it hopes to do so from panelists who represent the array of educational institutions mentioned above. Claunch, Jacqueline; former president of Northwest Vista College, now an independent scholar, ([email protected]), Conflicting Messages: Creativity, Jobs, and Curricula in Community Colleges. Symula, Jody; Virginia Commonwealth University ([email protected]) What? How? Arts Career Development Weedman, Matthew; Sam Houston State University ([email protected]) Shifting Perspective: Strategies for Evolving the Conversation of Education and Success. Pagona, Victor; Southwest School of Art ([email protected]) Art Education as a Petri Dish Session location: DoubleTree, Salon De Gala – A _The Continuing Democratization of Photography: Smart Phone Media_ Chair: Feagin, Ashley; Visiting Assistant Professor, Albion College, [email protected] The Brownie camera, invented by Eastman Kodak one hundred and twenty-five years ago, started the democratization of photography with its "you press the button, we do the rest” philosophy. The same evolution is occurring through smart phone media. Today, images are captured, shared, and rarely printed. This new democratization of photography brings new challenges/ opportunities to image-makers and educators. How do we embrace this new form of photography as artists and does it have a place in our photographic curriculum? Facebook and Twitter were just the beginning. Instagram, Vine, and Snap Chat are now common on any teenager and young adults phone. These images being shared are replacing conversations and exploring a new method of communicating visually with peers. This generation has grown up with this tool for self-expression and it is no wonder the 2013 word of the year was “selfie”. This panel is a round table discussion, of artist and educators, who are embracing the use of smart phones as a tool for image making within their own work and/or the classroom. Murray, Jennifer; Instructor of Photography, Loyola University Chicago, [email protected] McBrayer,