Open course ware

STEPHEN CARPENTER: I have two activities that I've prepared. So interpretation, this idea of constructing meanings or developing meanings about works of art, or we can think of interpretation as someone is speaking one language and then we take that language and we are able to-- not only do we speak and understand this language, then we can take those ideas and those words and turn them into a different language that someone else speaks. We can have interpretation function in that way as well. So it's about taking ideas from one context into another or one mode of representation in communication into another. But in terms of art and art practice, art criticism and interpretation work together. So this image I think is useful for our purposes here. Imagine that this image was the poster for a movie, full length, feature length movie. And imagine you were responsible for writing the copy-- for writing the text for the voiceover of the movie trailer, but all you had ...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: Part of what I do is work with people who are preparing to be K-12 art teachers. I actually work with artists. I've taught studio-based courses in ceramics, drawing. And I'm also working with grad students who are interested in engaging in research about and through and within art practices, visual cultural practices. So there's this range of folks with whom I'm working. So one of your-- I'm trying to negotiate a place to enter, Larry. And one of the things that you said was how explicit am I with, as we've been calling it, this hidden agenda, a hidden curriculum? LARRY SUSSKIND: Not as an agenda STEPHEN CARPENTER: No, but it's the same thing, right? In many cases, it's the same thing, right? Because you have an agenda that you're trying to cover, whether it's an official agenda, we can correlate that to the official curriculum. And I'm pulling this term, these curriculum pieces from the work of George Posner ...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: We think about conventional activities to expand thematic and conceptual exploration. So the traditional ways or maybe more conventional ways you might think about art education or learning studio practices-- sculpture, working with clay, working with wood, working with paint, or drawing practices-- those are fine if we want to develop a set of skills. But what about thinking about concepts and themes and issues? Well, we might as well get started and do some of that now. So we're going to make a little transition. I'm going to set up a still life over here. And we're going to do some drawing. The range of ways in which people draw is perfectly acceptable, perfectly acceptable. So if you're concerned that it's tough for you to draw a conclusion or draw a straight line, don't be concerned by that. It's the process that we're interested in, not the visual representation. We have the three chairs in the center. With your mar...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: Welcome, everyone. It's good to have you here. I see some familiar faces and some less familiar faces. So that's fantastic. So what I wanted to do is prepare to talk. And within the talk, I have some images, a few videos to look at, and there's also a audience participation component, because that's just how I roll. We have to practice what we're up to. So this segment, this talk, is one that is looking at pedagogy as not simply pedagogical strategies in general but to look more at the ways that I translate this idea of pedagogy through lenses or filters of disruption or of criticality. And so part of the work that I do professionally is prepare teachers of art for K12. But I also work with graduate students as they conduct their research, I also do my own research in scholarly kinds of moves about the ways in which visual imagery, visual art, visual cultural production, functions, as modes or spaces for teaching and learning. Jasper...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: What I wanted to demonstrate is how this press works. I want to show how to make a proper water filter. And this is a ceramic water filter that I'm going to create here. And that's essentially a focus of the first talk. This is bisque-fired filters made with clay and sawdust. Dry clay, dry sawdust, about 50/50. And when the sawdust burns out, it leaves pores. Now, the clay is naturally porous, but the sawdust allows for more porosity, and so the water can flow through. If you have water that's contaminated with microbes and pathogens that might create things like cholera, E. coli, Giardia, you can put that water into this filter. It will filter about one to three liters an hour. And that water is rendered about 95% free of those contaminants. If we add a small amount of colloidal silver to the filter by brushing it on-- usually, it's a less than a gram with about 500 milliliters of water. That silver acts as a natural antimicrobial and w...

STEPHEN CARPENTER: So we have heard from the introductions and the backgrounds of the people sitting around the table, their numerous interests and numerous starting points or ways to connect to issues of water, of community, of access. And so the range of disciplinary interests I find quite fascinating. And in terms of the work that I've been doing with curriculum, it really speaks to this notion of interdisciplinarity, and some folks use the term transdisciplinarity. But in some ways, when we're interested in key issues, social issues, those disciplines go away. It's about people. It's about something beyond science or beyond art or beyond whatever that discipline might be. So our multiple areas of expertise really come into play quite nicely here. This year, not only do I have the pleasure and the good fortune to be able to visit three times here at MIT as a visiting artist. But I'm also a visiting artist and visiting learner at a local elementary s...