Mandeesa

10:35 am: Eva Hesse

January 11th, 1936 Eva Hesse was born at the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg, Germany.  She is the second child of Wilhelm Hesse, an attorney from Hamburg, and Ruth Marcus Hesse. 

At two years old Eva and her older sister Helen were sent by their parents to flee Nazi Germany.  The two girls boarded a children's train called Kindertransport and arrived at a Catholic Children's home in the Netherlands on December 12th, 1938. 

Two months later, Eva's parents were able to leave Germany and get their daughters.  The family briefly lived in London before securing visas to live in the United States.  On June 22nd the family finally made their arrival in New York City and settled in the German Jewish community of Washington Heights.



Eva attends public school in Washington Heights.  The next two years marked major transitions in the life of Eva Hesse.   In 1944, her mother moved out of the family apartment.  That spring her parents divorced and Wihelm Hesse took custody of the girls.  That fall (1995), Wilhelm married Eva Nathanson.  January 8th, 1946, their mother Ruth Marcus Hesse committed suicide.  This was very hard on the girls who were entering Junior High School.


In 1949-1952, Hesse attended high school at the School of Industrial Art.  She graduated from the window display program.  For three short semesters after graduating high school, Hesse pursued an advertising design course at Pratt Institute of Design.  Hesse got a job at Seventeen magazine where she had some artwork appearing in articles.

1955-1957, Eva attended Cooper Union School where she earned a certificate in design.

In the summer of 1957, She received a Yale-Norfolk fellowship and attended the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in Norfolk, Connecticut.  That fall Eva enrolled in the Yale school of Art and Architecture where she studied under Josef Albers, Rico Lebrun, and Bernard Chaet.  Her studies were paid in part by a scholarship from the Educational Foundation for Jewish Girls.



In June 1959, Eva received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Yale and moved back to New York City.  There she worked part-time as a textile designer.

In April of 1961 her life took another turn.  Eva meet a sculptor named Tom Doyle.  They married that fall in a civil ceremony.  Eva and Tom moved to West Germany summer of 1964.  Tom had been invited by the German industrialist Friedrich Arnhard Scheidt to make art in a factory  near Dusseldorf.  The couple were originally scheduled to live in Germany for six months, but the trip was extended to fifteen months.  Tom and Eva shared a floor of the factory where she began creating her first sculptures.  She began exploring sculptures by making reliefs inspired by the qualities of string and plaster. Next she moved to objects using paier mache, paint, tubing, dyed nets, and dangling string.  Following these sculputures she made a greater use of repition and began to incorporate metal into her work.

In March 1965, Eva completed her first relief called Ringaround Arosie.

Ringaround Arosie: Pencil, acetone, varnish,  enamel paint, ink, and cloth covered electrical wire on paper mache and masonite.  Hess described it as, "The 3D one actually looks a lot like a breast and a penis..but thats is okay.  (I) have really been discovering my weird sense of humor." 

Before Eva and Tom returned back to NYC, she had one exhibition called Eva Hesse:  Materialbilder und Zeichnungen at the Kunsthalle Dussledorf.  It was a solo exhibition that included fourteen reliefs that she created while living in Germany and also around fifty drawings.

September 1965, Eva and Tom returned home to the states. 


In January 1966, Eva completes Hang Up.
Hang Up: Acrylic Paint on Cloth over wood,  acrylic paint on card over steel tube. 


Their marriage is over.  Tom moves into his studio across the street. 

August 16th her father dies while on vacation in Switzerland.



1967 Eva creates her Accession series of boxes.

Accession: Hesse made a series of five boxes as well as a series of drawings.  Gouache and Pencil on paper.

Accession V:  the last and smallest of her box series.  This box represents her first foray into the industrial manufacture of objects.  Hesse used rubber tubing to thread
a chaotic texture on the interior of the box.  Galvanized Steel and rubber tubing.  10x10x10 in.

In 1967, Hesse started to work with latex (a material that will eventually deteriorate), fiberglass, and polyester resin.  Hesse really enjoyed the irregular shapes and surfaces that these materials produced, and also the translucency.  Hesse created elaborate, handmade pieces involving obsessive repetition. 

Repetition III: a third series of works made of bucket like forms.  Each form is unique and shaped different from the others.    Fiber Glass and Polyester Resin.  19 units.


  Area:  a well known example of Eva's expirementation with new materials.  Here she uses latex (usually a casting material) has been painted onto ten cut up and wire mesh molds from Repetition III.  They are sewn together with wire and hang from a wire to fall naturally.  Eva really enjoyed how the work Area contrasted with Repetition III. 

Untitled (Rope Piece): Hesse appreciated this works instability and messiness.  She has said of the work, "This piece is very unordered...when it's completed it's order can be chaos, which is an order in itself.  Chaos can be as structured as non-chaos."  latex over rope, string, and wire.

Chain Polymers: Eva's only solo sculpture exhibition.  Fishbach Gallery, NYC, 1968.

The next three years she was creating her most well known pieces.  She also developed a brain tumor at the end of her career, but continued to work until she became too ill.  Eva died in 1970 at the age of thirty-four shortly after her third surgery for her brain tumor.


"Don't ask what it means or what it refers to.  Don't ask what the work is.  Rather, see what the work does."--Eva Hesse

03:30 pm: Final Project
So the semester is over and I am left to reflect.  I am very happy with the way my podcast turned out.  I am however, not able to post the podcast to my blog until I get home from christmas break in January.  I saved it to my file on the corcoran server and I don't think I can get to it til I get home.  I think?  If I am wrong please some one speak up.

In other news, for those who may have noticed my final project has changed since the original post.  I spoke of creating a web page that was the HOME to the podcast that I was creating.  Unfortunately, that was a bit ambitious of me.  I was able to successfully create my podcast, after quite the drama session, but the web page would unfortunately take more time than I was able to give at the moment.  So I decided to test my skills as a podcaster FIRST and if time allows I can create a web page to host it in the future.  I thought the idea of creating a podcast appealed to me more than a web page.  When I was in high school I created a web page so I HAVE done it before, but I NEVER have dreamed of making a podcast.

So, lets start with the basics.  I knew I had to teach something...and I decided to show how to make a pair of earrings with a relatively simple technique.  My first step was to gather all of the materials that are needed to make the pair of earrings.  I have made these earrings featured in the podcast many times so I know exactly what I was doing and didn't have to practice before I started the assignment.  Once all of my materials were together I made sure to take a picture of everything separate, then take pics of items in groups such as tools and beads.  Once all of those pictures were taken I slowly started to make the earrings.  I was careful to take a picture of each step at the beginning of the podcast...no matter how simple the step may be.  I had to remember that some one may watch the podcast who has NEVER created the earrings before and may need that tiny step by step help.  I was very good about that at the beginning of the process.  Once the earrings were made I took a picture of the completed earrings and then saved all of my images to my flash drive.  

The next day I went to school and uploaded my images.  From what I remember about Christina's podcast was that she used images.  I was reading her blog and there was no software that I could find that allowed images.  I took matters into my own hands and then got a hold of Christina who explained to me that she used garage band to create her podcast.  Now I was presented with a problem.  I have a PC...no mac with a friendly garage band.  I knew I would have to create this at school.  So Christina gave me directions to upload the pictures on my podcast and I am FOREVER thankful! Thank you so much Christina!!!!!

I went to school and successfully uploaded the pics onto garage band...it was almost too easy!  The pictures easily fell into place and garage band was SO EASY to maneuver.  As we know I ran into problems the day I was recording/day of final presentations.  However, the next day I went in and finished the assignment.  The only complication I had from that was trying to find a quiet place to record.  I went down to the print making studio and used their computer lab (luckily Carolyn loves me and let me close the door to the lab so I wasn't disturbed).  

I found that when recording, I was making little clicking sounds with my tongue when I first started to record.  When I played a segment back, I heard the clicking noise about 3 times in a minute.  I was like...WTF!!!!  Do I really talk like that.  So I had to re-record and I made sure to not let me tongue click the roof of my mouth.  Also, I like to think that I am fairly entertaining when I speak!  However, when I first heard my voice on playback I sounded rather monotone and boring.  I realized it also had to do with the fact that I was trying to be quiet in the lab.  So I let myself go and say things in an animated way and of course things sounded way better.  It was just an interesting process, because I NEVER thought about those things before.  I didn't realize how much I clicked the tongue against the roof of my mouth before I talked...just strange.

If I had to do it all over again I would add more images to the end of the podcast.  I was watching it and I talked about three steps in ONE image.  I hope that it won't be too confusing for the viewer.  In reality I should have used about 3 images for each step.

I imagine that my audience is anyone who is interested in jewelry of any age.  

I am very happy with my final project and very pleased with how quickly I caught on when using garage band.  I'm fairly silly with NEW technology and I take a while to grasp it, but I was pleasantly surprised with myself.  I would recommend it to anyone!!!

I will post my podcast on here as soon as I get home from Wisconsin.  If anyone has any ideas on how to help me post it I would be very happy!

Adios friends!

07:55 pm: Saturday
For those of you who want more information just shoot me an email at mandyrach@gmail.com! 


:)

04:37 pm: Final Project, son!!
Hi everyone!  Long time no see.  :)

So I am a HUGE jewelry person.  Its my thing.  I love making it, looking at it, buying it, wearing it, complimenting others who wear beautiful pieces...I LOVE IT.  So I'm thinking about making a website dedicated to my favorite media.

I would provide images of my own work.  Talk about things that I want to make.  Maybe create a forum for other artists to come in, ask questions or give me feedback.  I also want to add a few "how tos" for simple pieces of jewelry that are easy to make, but look like they could be professionally made (believe it or not, quite easy!).  So the how-to may be a video or a step-by-step images of how to create a piece of jewelry.  I will also include links to other jewelers pages.

My website will be geared to other jewelers and/or people interested in jewelry making of all ages.


any other ideas friends?

01:38 pm: The Joys of Webcasting
Webcasting



What is it?

1. A Webcast is a media file distributed over the Internet.

• Webcast uses streaming media technology to take a single content source and distribute it to many simultaneous listeners/viewers.
• Transmission of audio or video content over the internet.
• The webcast may be either live or recorded.

The largest webcasters include existing radio and TV station who simulcast their output.

Webcasting licenses are available for those who wish to broadcast using copyright material.

*****The term webcasting is usually reserved for referring to non-interactive linear streams or events.


Origins:

• Brian Railia of GTE Laboratories was the first to present the idea of webcasting in 1989.
• Believed a user did not need to download an entire file/program to view/listen to it
• James Paschetto of GTE Lab joined Railla to further demonstrate webcasting
• Paschetto was responsible for the first working prototype of streaming Media

Earliest forms of Webcasting:

• Alan Sapertein (Onstream Media) was the first to  feature streaming video in June of 1993 with Hotel View
• Hotel View is a travel library of two minute videos that featured thousands of hotel properties world wide.
• On November 7th, 1994, the college radio station of North Carolina-Chapel Hill became the first radio station in the world to broadcast its signal over the internet.

Modern Day Webcasting:

•  Technology to webcast has become more accessible and inexpensive.  It has allowed indepedent media to flourish
• Presentations or Annual Meetings
• Live sporting events: local and national. Texas Sports Radio Network-allows high school and little league teams to produce webcasts available to anyone who has an internet connection. 
• E-Learning (transmit seminars)
• Recreation: youtube.com

Linkz and Thangz:

www.webcasters.org

www.freebielist.com

wwitv.com/portal.htm

www.lettersfromhomeroom.com

carrotrevolution.blogspot.com/2008/10/draw-this-apple.html

www.nbm.org

www.youtube.com/watch

www.ustream.tv







Random:  Article on Webcasting in Classroom
www.digtriad.com/news/local_state/article.aspx

03:46 pm: I am more internet than you.
Pwn. that. noob. newb? n00b! I don't quite remember the spelling, but internet nerds will know what I'm saying. I don't even know what that has to do with my post, but I am feeling silly.


In other news I found some interesting blogs that I would like to bring to everyone's attention. FIRST, I want to talk about the reading. I can definitely relate to some of the students that Walker was referring to in her writing. I am having a hard time with blogging. I am not quite sure why and I can't put my finger on it, but it's difficult for me. What is the most challenging is finding the energy and self discipline to sit down and blog. I don't know if I am not interested in writing this out, or if I am just not hip in the coming-of-age technology times I should view blogging as a great way of sorting ideas out and communicating. To me, blogging is a chore. Unless I'm spilling my heart out to my girlfriends back home about my saturday night dating disaster I have no interest in it. I'm not trying to be a negative nancy, but I ....I can't help it. lol. Any advice on how I can change my opinion on it, or how to make it fun?


The first blog that I would like to comment on is http:arttalk.wetpaint.com/page/National+Art+Education+Association+2008?t+anon.

What I find interesting about this blog is that it is for people who missed the NEAE Convention. He lists the workshops he attended with a detailed summary and he even talks about two workshops that he lead. I enjoyed browsing through his webpage, because I missed the convention and it was cool to read what he did. The only downfall is that we are reading about the workshops from his perspective. What he took away from the workshop may be different than what some one else took from it. Its a risk we gotta take in the sake of arts.


Blog numero duos--

http://newteacherhotline.com

There is a blog in there titled Teaching with Contemporary Art by Joe Fusaro. I LOVED this man's blog. He works in the Nyack Public Schools in New York State. He information for art teachers about lessons and how to spin new ideas from old, dried out art lessons. My personal favorite blog is titled "The Billy Joels of Art Education". Basically the idea of the blog is about how we beat some lessons to death, much like the song "Uptown girl" by BJ that was overplayed on the radio. He gives ideas on how to creatively create new lessons on artists that are usually used in art projects (such as andy warhol and monet).

And finally, this is what made my blogging life. I was searching through google and found this website---www.carrotrevolution.com. This webpage has a great project on it that I found fascinating. It's called Rotoball. Rotoball is an collaborative animation video project that connects students using the web. All grades from any high school in the world are allowed to participate (kindergarten thru college). There are schools from China, Cambodiea, Iowa, and even Fairfax, Virginia that participate. Each class creates a video and submits it to be edited into a long extended video that is available to view on the internet. There are a few requirements for this video, that it must have a black ball in it that transforms into something and then forms back into a ball. The ball must enter from the left side of the screen and then exit on the right. When each segment is watched in the video, it looks as if each school's video is passing the transforming ball along. One segment that stood out in my mind from last years video is that the ball turned into the head of Chuck Norris. haha. What a funny, creative way to get kids to use computer animation and also allow them to work with other students all over the world. I love it.

You win this time internet. For now...

03:40 pm: Digital Media--Blog numero Uno
When I use the term digital media, it means to me using the computer as a resource to obtain knowledge, express myself, and store work. Everyday I use the computer to access information from multiple websites (excluding wikipedia, haha) that I use for research on assignments or intrinsically motivated questions. I also use the computer to express myself. When I was younger I used to have another livejournal account that I blogged in almost every other day. My very close group of friends and I all went to college in different parts of the state and to keep in touch with them we would blog and comment on each other's blog. I felt safe in our online community and trusted my secrets with them. I have not used photo shop or other creative outlets to create works of art, but that I something I would like to do in the future. I also use the computer/internet to store pictures I have taken over the years in a great online photo host called photobucket.com.

To be honest I am really not familiar with digital media in the art classroom. The only thing that I can really relate to is using photo shop to alter pictures and create a new image. Oh, also when I think of digital media, I am reminded of our friend George Rathbone who used videos from youtube as a part of his lesson for the day. It is safe for me to say that I have not had a professor use youtube in the classroom before George. I mainly use youtube for my own enjoyment, and I don't consider it to be educational. However that can change, because there are obviously educational videos out there that I could use. For example, I am teaching myself how to crochet and my friend frequently sends me videos on how to do certain stitches, etc.

I hope to learn my way around photo shop. Last year I took a few classes of digital media last semester and I was quickly lost. I had no idea what I was doing after the first few class periods and I had to ask my classmate what to do often. I would like to be able to do things on my own and not be lost within a few class periods. That is my main concern for this semester. Once I am exposed to other things this semester I am sure I will be curious to learn those things as well.


Everything I do on the computer is 80% of the time recreational. I frequent a few online communities, check my email, and visit community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt for all of the latest celebrity gossip. I use the computer to keep in touch with my family and friends. It is my second best form of communication for friends/family back in the midwest. Texting would be my first form. :) If I am conducting business online it is to simply type a paper or google some information for a paper.

When I was in high school we didn't have a computer. All of my good friends had computers, and I didn't understand why I could not get one for my family. Whenever I had the opportunity I would go online at friends houses, or at my place of work. It was not until I was a freshman in college that I had my own desktop and then became ADDICTED to the internet. I probably had all of the instant messager systems available on the internet (aim, yahoo, msn) and what turned into a friendster obsession turned to myspace, then facebook. Apparently I was making up for lost time? haha. Anyway, my brother who is 5 years younger than myself got a computer when he was in high school AND a cell phone. I was so pissed, because I had neither luxuries. Spoiled brat.

I'm still bitter I guess. It's never easy being the first born!

:)

09:06 pm: Francais movie
Sorry, I do not recall the title of the movie we watched in class. I wanted to put in the subject line "the movie with the image of the child with the pencil in his nose", but I think I'll stick with the more mature subject line.

The movie was very interesting. It is so different from our american class rooms, and the differences were obvious. One thing that I really enjoyed was watching the students cook crepes. I think classrooms in the US should have a more relaxed activity such as the cooking exercise. Teaching should be fun AND educational...not just worksheets and tests. I know it's not very realistic with our system and standardized testing, but I believe that it can SOMEHOW be introduced into a curriculum...or maybe I am just being naive since I have not taught in a public classroom...since I have not yet been a member of "the system".

I also enjoyed watching the way he talked to the students. Whenever they did something wrong, say push another for no reason, the teacher asked the student, "well why did you do that...how do you think he felt..." He gave the student time to think about what they did and why. I think that is an important way to talk to students. That way they realize their actions can lead to other things, otherwise if you just yell at them and send them to time out...do the students really digest what just happened?

I do have one question...how did he write curriculum for the variety of age levels in class? How did he teach his six graders math...when he had first graders in the classroom? Did the first graders have a different assignment to work on while he was teaching the 6th graders? And how does he know that the first graders are on task while he is working with another grade level? Or does he teach them all together? I was not clear on how his system worked. I know that I would struggle teaching different grade levels in one classroom. I would feel guilty and wonder if I was giving every grade level the appropriate attention. I wonder if this man is a saint/multi-tasker? Unless I missed something during the video, any feedback is welcome.

Either way, this movie was very entertaining. This man does a good job teaching and it was interesting to hear how he ended up teaching and how highly that status is regarded in French society.

09:54 pm: Teacher-Centered v. Student-Centered...the drama continues.
In the world of classroom management there are many elements to consider, ex. classroom set up, lessons planned for the group of students, etc. That is why we are discussing the two different ways of learning - Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered. Right now we are in the early developing stages of our Art Education careers and this is when it is best to expose us to different educational elements. We can learn about the different issues, discuss them, and decide what we would eventually like to manipulate in the classroom. We know that Teacher-Centered is very different from the other, and it's good for us to learn those differences, compare and contrast, and/or possibly weave the two together to form a curriculum.

Teacher-Centered classrooms are assessed by our good old friend Standardized Testing. Teachers may have a full say of what activities go on in the classroom, but the results of Standardized Testing let the teacher know if they are "doing their job" well. For example, if the students score poorly on the math section of their test, it sends a big signal to the teacher, "hey, you need to step up your game in the math department."
However, with Student-Centered it is hard to figure out if they students are learning anything in the classroom. My idea (I know it sounds really obvious) would be at the end of each unit have a "test" to see if the students have a deeper understanding. Based off of what you wanted the kids to learn from the unit, and also maybe some other skills (teamwork, patience, dedication) come up with a "test" that will see what the children have learned. It does not have to be something formal (paper, pencil) or graded. Just something that show you that the students are learning from student-centered classroom. It could be a group activity that illustrates teamwork and patience (what I mentioned above) that has an overall theme from the unit. Also something that is fun that everyone can enjoy.

I dunno. that assessment sounds better to me than a paper, pencil, and filling in bubbles!

cheers!

10:37 pm: Montgomery County Public Schools Jargon!
Hello to all of you fabulous Classroom management friends! Welcome to my blog!

The web page of Montgomery County Public Schools was interesting. It certainly makes the students sound empowered in their learning environment. It paints a different picture than our traditional idea of students being lectured in a classroom and doing what the teacher says. To me, it sounds like the students have just as much say as the teacher. They have many tools that they can use to make their ideas, criticisms, and compliments heard.

One idea that I thought was interesting is Issue bins. An issue bin is used when the student is participating in a classroom activity, but has an idea, question or issue that he/she would like to address. They take note of the question or issue and post it on a chart that will be addressed at an appropriate time.

This reminds me of something I have heard about from a third grade teacher in Minneapolis, MN. I asked her how she controlled classroom management, and she said that one of her most successful tools was the "peace board". Whenever a student had an issue with another student, they took the child to the peace board and they worked the situation out on their own. A student couldn't not say no to another student when they are asked to go to the peace board. I am having a hard time seeing this work. Maybe I am a bit biased because I have been at Cook and I see how they resolve their issues, by fighting or a teacher intervention. I can not picture a third grader walking up to a classmate and saying, "I need to talk to you at the peace board" and then work their problem out. I feel the same towards the issue bin. I cannot picture a young student thinking, "okay, I am going to write on the issue bin what has been bothering me today."

Maybe I just need to stop being cynical or maybe I need to see these tools in person to understand how they work in a classroom culture.

One more thing. In the same brief paragraph that talks about issue bins there is another tool that is brought up, and that is consensograms. It says that they are used to "ask students to share their feelings about school or a course at the beginning or last week of school." Consensograms are very cute and you get a good clear answer on whether or not the students like the subject, but it does not answer WHY the student has that opinion. The follow up to that answer is very important, because for there you can find out how to improve the subject.



xo