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Through the Eye of the Camera: Learning To See and Seeing To Learn

Thomas L. Anderson
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

Subject: Art Education
Grade: Undergraduate and Graduate levels

"The visual world, unlike the conceptually stereotyped world most of us perceive as reality, is constantly undergoing change. The camera helps us see that shapes, colors, sizes, and meanings change with viewpoint, light quality, distance, and intent."

Purpose and Description of Project

Thomas Anderson's program is designed to help college or university level art education students develop perceptual literacy by using photographs to overcome the conceptually derived visual stereotypes that result from indiscriminate labeling and language-dependent seeing. In other words, the students learn to keep their conceptions from interfering with their actual perceptions.

"The students used instant cameras to record their solutions to distinct visual problems in the areas of seeing and understanding form and shape, size, space and spatial relationships, structure, detail, light, and color," explains Anderson. The class first discusses each problem; each individual goes out to take pictures to solve the problem; the class critiques the photographic solutions; and students then mount the photos, one assignment per page, along with a written explanation of the conceptual/perceptual problem and how it was solved.

The perceptual notebooks that are the final product of the students' photographic investigations are not just a record of their findings, points out Anderson. These future art teachers can also use their notebooks in their classrooms to carry out similar projects or simply as examples of concepts and perceptions when teaching drawing.

The project draws on the textbook Art, Culture, and Environment by McFee and Degge. However, Anderson developed his particular lessons himself and concentrated on photography rather than drawing as a recording device.

Activities

Prior to engaging in the 16 activities in this project, students became familiar with the operation of their instant cameras. The procedure for each of the activities followed the same pattern. Students and instructor first discussed a problem based on the discussion questions at the beginning of each lesson; each student went out to photograph something that proved he or she understood the problem and its solution; and each student explained the resulting photos in terms of the problem and solution and received feedback from class and teacher. Finally, successful photos were mounted, one assignment to a page, along with a written discussion of the concept/perception involved and became part of the student's perceptual notebook.

The four categories of problems were: 1) seeing and understanding shape and form, 2) seeing and understanding size, space, and form, 3) seeing and understanding structure and detail, and 4) seeing and understanding light and color. Among the concepts demonstrated by the students' photos were that round things seldom really look round (unless you're directly above or below them), that people and objects look larger or smaller according to how far away you are from them, and that parallel lines (such as railroad tracks) appear to eventually meet. Among other findings were that different lighting can drastically change the mood of the same scene, that three red objects may really be distinctly different colors, and that the form of an object often reflects its function.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Anderson and his students used Kodak cameras and Kodak film with the rationale that students should get the quickest possible feedback on their visualizations so that they know immediately whether they are dealing with a perception or letting what they know conceptually get in the way of full seeing.

Outcomes and Adaptability

Anderson judges that the project was "an unqualified success in teaching the participants how to use their perceptual abilities, how to visualize the world without interference from their conceptual knowledge base, and how to transfer this knowledge, with the help of the products they developed, to future students."

The program's replicability is demonstrated by the fact that, according to the teacher, "many of the future teachers who completed the program indicated they would be using it as it stands or in modified form to teach the concepts involved at the high school and middle school levels."

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