Between a Rock and a Hard Place; towards the Universal Takeaway.

I loved the first film class I took in high school. It was substitute for an english class which suited me just fine. We learned the basics, scripting, story boarding, filming and editing, titles and credits. During that time I made a small handful of eight millimeter classics; “Football Folly” an animated drive around on your butt in the park chasing a slo-mo monster feature, “Because It’s There”, a spiritual quest equating the climbing of a mountain with long distance running, and “Wasted” an anti-Vietnam War very short mini drama. I’m still working on a film from that time that needed a digital boost. A clip from that effort I call Conversation Bite. 

Sweeping into this weeks project for the Academy of Art University, Technology in Education class project, I was full of confidence but now find myself stuck between a rock and hard place. The project is create a storyboard for a short video and I’m finding myself struggling. Well, if that is what the process requires so let me share a little here. 

At first I thought about doing a “how to video”, how to build a felt doll puppet for stop motion animation. But I asked myself, is that the best use of video in the classroom. Doing a demonstration? Maybe so, but do I have time. Other ideas about using video were presented class included using  a video project to enhance students sense of perception and another was to build some interest and concern  for an idea or concept.

Wouldn’t it be great, I thought to myself, to produce this short five minute video about the Fine Art Sculpture Department (FASCU) at the Academy of Art where I am already taking pictures of many of their classes. I spoke to Margaret Keelan, the associate director for the department who was very enthused about the idea. I asked for some concepts that I might focus on that would feature the departments work. She encouraged me to look at problem solving, a thread that runs through the entire department. She gave me a short quote about problem solving being the universal take.  I was off and running. 

Seok-Don Choi

The internet is packed with information about problem solving as a domain of math. I did find some research created by the Guggenheim that supported the ideas Margaret was talking about. The Guggenheim was looking to support their art education work in the schools with some research that showed improved skills development for students with art education integrated into their work. As part of that study they defended problem solving with six skills they felt they could observe and measure and they found positive results with three of these skills. With these ideas I started mapping out a script and storyboard. 

I started by laying these ideas out just as I found them.

Narrator: The Guggenheim identified six skills to most accurately define problem solving. They did this to assess the universal nature of their art education. These are Imagining, Experimentation, Flexibility, Resource Recognition, Ends and Aims and Self-reflection. They found that three of these skills improved students abilities in other areas so let’s focus on those. They are Flexibility, Connection to Ends and Aims and Resource Recognition. 

I am trying to tie these ideas to the students in FASCU using short quote from Margaret Keenlan along with photographs and video of students working. Without being too apologetic it seems my effort leaves some unanswered questions and need for further development. 

Who is the audience for this?

What is the connection to FASCU?

Will photographs and video of students work really convey the idea of problem solving?
What are the limits to which I can use these images?

With time running short I am sharing what I have which feels rough. This coming week I will continue to struggle with answering these questions, solving these problems while finalizing a version in order to have something to show by the end of the week. 

I’d be happy to get your questions or ideas about this project or my process.