Strategies
While there are a number of ways of approaching or understanding how art and the brain are connected, I have found the work of Margaret Livingstone perhaps the easiest and most logical. Therefore, I am organizing the information parallel to her presentation in Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing. While I have used a variety of books in my research (see Bibliography), the majority of what I will use with my students comes directly from her work. She has helped coin two terms— the "where" system and the "what" system— to refer to the dorsal and the ventral stream. In this unit, I am using this division of the visual system to organize my unit. The unit will explore the divisions with a studio activity for each system and then a third studio activity that will focus on optical illusions and how they are explained by each of these systems. To gain their interest, I will introduce the unit by showing a variety of optical illusions. I will not go into depth on any of them and will only make sure that the students appreciate the illusion. This will be my "hook" to engage my students. I will explain that by the time we are done, they will understand how all of these illusions work.
I will start my unit with the "where" system, partly because it is the older, more basic of the two systems, and partly because I know the students have a clear understanding of the illusions of depth, and it will make a good bridge that connects their prior knowledge to this new unit. I will introduce how the brain perceives depth via the "what" system and "where" system. I will then focus on the "where" system by using William Hogarth's engraving, Satire on False Perspective (Figure 2). In this engraving, Hogarth purposely breaks the rules of perspective. As a way to review the students' knowledge of perspective, I will ask them to do the same, by creating an image that also breaks the same rules. I assume most will choose a landscape. I feel that middle schoolers will enjoy the opportunity to break rules with permission. I also know that it will require them to understand the rules in order to break them successfully. As a supplemental activity, I will have the students look at M.C. Escher and his impossible worlds. I find that his work engages students: he did a number of famous examples of impossible objects, although most are variations of impossible staircases. Because of the famous aspects of Escher's work, there have been many takeoffs on his work. I think students enjoy seeing how people have used artists' work and played on it.
During the lesson on the "what" system, I will focus on Pointillism (a style of art that uses small dots or points of different colors) and Georges Seurat and his work in color mixing. Although the science of Pointillism may not be correct, it is important because it was the first time that artists cognitively used brain science to drive their art. In addition, it focuses on color theory, and students should understand this fundamental. I am hoping that by exploring color theory through the lens of the brain, it will make it more accessible and logical for my students.
For the final lesson, I will ask my students to create their own optical illusion. At this point, I will use art examples to demonstrate some of the conflicts between the "what" and the "where" systems. I will show a variety of illusions, and have the students figure out why the illusions work and which visual pathway is involved (some will involve both). I will then have the students do an art project that will use complimentary colors and that will create an illusion of movement. This will enable them to do a culminating activity in which they deal with both the "what" and the "where" system.
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