Interdisciplinary Approaches to Consumer Culture

Activities

The following activities are warm-ups intended to take anywhere from ten to twenty minutes and are created to encourage creative thinking. As I stated earlier, one of the biggest obstacles I foresee in teaching this unit will be to encourage creative thinking about Stuff, to avoid the kitsch and trite work. The activities introduce some of the creative thinking tools used by Nicholas Roukes, in his Design Synectics and Art Synectics books. The tools introduce ways to think about, respond to, and create works of art that have more personal meaning and content. Again, thinking about the overarching questions this unit is built on: does the Stuff of our material culture give shape our non-material choices – our ideas, beliefs, values, and norms or is it that our ideas, beliefs, values, and norms, are reflected in our Stuff? Here, students will begin to understand how to look at and manipulate these consumables (Stuff) in a way that can create a specific social, political, or personal message.

Objectives for each of these exercises will be introduced immediately following the initial activity. The practice with objective writing (copying of), is an opportunity for me to be reflective in my teaching practice. Each student copies the objectives in his or her sketchbook before any discussion begins, and they are given time to write down or highlight anything in the objectives that they don't understand. This 'privacy' allows them to consider language, context, and expected outcomes. I can reflect on this as I monitor the class during this time or when I am doing sketchbook reviews.

Objectives: 1. Visual Literacy -Identify the art and design elements of a given object. 2. Critical Response- Construct creative and convincing arguments to defend the analysis of art (Stuff) 3. Visual Literacy/ Contextual Relevancy - Identify the specific tools for creative thinking that are applied to the activity and be able to apply those tools to personal work.

1. 20 Questions. (…or so )

As students enter the room there is an image projected of a light bulb. (any ordinary object will do). In groups (four or five students), they need to answer the following questions about the object they see. 1. What is it? 2. What is the function of this object? 3. What is the origin of the object? 4. List seven things/associations you have with this object. 5. Describe its texture. 6. How is the color of the object relative to the object itself? Why? 7. How is this object beautiful? 8. What other function could this object have? 9. Re-name this object. 10. Invert the object and give it a new function. 11. What is opposite of this object? 12. Create a list of seven words that how the object makes you feel. 13. How was this object produced? 14. If you were to reproduce this object, what changes would you make? 15. Etc.

Students will be given between fifteen to twenty minutes to complete these questions. Students will then be asked to copy the objectives and as a class we will address our conversation around the objectives before we share responses to assignment. Classes will then share/discus their responses to the twenty questions. The art studio follow-up assignment will be to appropriate the light bulb into a work that reflects one or more of the responses from either their own group or from the class.

2. The Missing Link.

As student walk in the classroom there are five random objects (Stuff) on their table. In smaller groups (two or three students), they are asked to brainstorm and make a connection to each of the objects- to create the missing link(s). It would be most helpful to do this activity as a follow-up to the 20 Questions activity so students will have had guided experience in attempting to reconfigure an object and in part, begin to create new narratives for them. The objects will be reviewed and we will focus on some of the key terms Roukes has identified in his Art Synectics book: Repeat, Combine, Substitute, Subtract, Analogize, Isolate, Transfer, Superimpose, etc.

The art studio follow-up assignment will be to create a work that reflects the 'missing link' as two or more of the objects become the main subject for the piece.

3. Market Manifesto –A declaration of product as social commentary.

As students enter the room they find a number of packaged products for them to select (cereal boxes, candy wrappings, detergent containers, soda bottles-any common, name brand will do). This plan may work better if students are asked to bring in an empty package from a product they are familiar with, have a brand loyalty to, and use regularly at home. Working independently they are asked to write a manifesto claiming how that particular product of our consumer culture, defines our cultural ideals. Given the nature of manifestos, and having already become aware of art movement manifestos such as the Futurists and the Dadaists, students will be free to follow any number of writing styles and formats as long as they follow the intent of a manifesto as: "A manifesto is a written public declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. It often is political in nature, but may present an individual's life stance. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds." ¹⁹ We will take time here to consider the consumer survey mentioned early in this unit. There are a number of 'consumer surveys' online that may at first glance seem fairly superficial, but I think they will be a great way to start the conversation about the individual tendencies we all have when it comes to buying Stuff. These surveys ask questions on how we purchase items, where we purchase them, and when we purchase items. Another great resource for this is the business or DECA program in my school; much of their curriculum is focused on understanding consumer trends and marketing.

Essentially a creative writing assignment, it is recommended to tier these warm-ups in this order. The other exercises provide guided questions and group sharing whereas this requires independent thinking and personal perspectives and/or histories with the product. The art studio follow-up assignment will be to create a work that reflects the 'Manifesto'. This, like all of the follow-up assignments can be applied to a Drawing, 2-D Design, or 3-D portfolio students.