My thesis is about Place. It is about how children come to understand their physical place in their own world. It is about how I think an increased understanding of place will help children to see how they occupy and affect space in their lives. My hope is to show that physically creative acts (art making, for instance) are an important way of teaching children to engage with their world, and to develop a stronger understanding of place.
My fieldwork is designed to seek data about students understanding of place through two case studies. One study revolves around the aforementioned mapping work. Maps are clearly about place, and thus provide direct, if creatively limited data for analysis. The second study is based around a creative sculpture project that uses materials from, and is completed at a specific place. The sculptures will provide far more abstract data about place, but may provide stronger data about the physical acts of creativity that interest me.
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This is a collage map of Chicago I made for Social Theory
class. The collage process itself was exploratory and physical. The choices I made about materials (all from local papers and magazines), and where to place the outline of the city, and how to include the flag imagery, brought me to a new understanding of the place that is Chicago.
k, that's sounds evocative and interesting, but it doesn't really clarify it for me! Ha! I'm sorry :) It's kind of a different part of the process, but would be really interested in seeing your thesis question & subquestions.
ReplyDeleteif your thesis involves mapping, you should talk with abigail rudner (who i think is also in your class). her work is also interested in mapping and place.
ReplyDeleteanother interesting group to check out is AREA's People's Atlas of Chicago project they did a couple years ago. http://chicagoatlas.areaprojects.com/
One last artist suggestion. Look up Hui-Min Tsen. She's been doing lots of artwork/projects relating to space and mapping.
I really like the concept of the sculptural project. Will be interested to see how it turns out.
i think you're thesis case studies sound really interesting. i can't imagine someone asking me to define my "space" as a pre-teen/teenager (which is the age group you're working with, yes?) but from the sound of your first case study about mapping, I bet the kids will really start to think differently about the places they frequent, where the call home, and what these places mean to their life. The second case study sounds intriguing as well, because your students will most likely create a piece to reflect that certain space since it must be created from objects there. or maybe it won't have anything to do with that space. I'm excited to see what happens!
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