Lesson Title

Images of Exploration: Painting, drawing, and photography as records of Observation

The Rationale for the Lesson

Last fall, I co-facilitated a leadership summit for middle-school age young people in St. Paul on the Pribilof Islands. One of the skill sets about a third of the young people self-identified as very interesting was video production, film writing, and editing. I think it is a pivotal moment when any learner gives another person insight into their curiosity and motivation.

Working on this leadership event with the Aleut Community of St. Paul, the tribal government and the Pribilof School District has been the start of a productive collaboration between them and Bristol Bay Campus. Another possible opportunity is with the Aleut Community, Department of Health and Human Services. This department has created a community arts center (CAC) in the village, which operates as an art studio, offering classes, resources and a safe place in the community for creativity and self-reflection. They have an ambitious and complex vision for creating lifelong learning opportunities on the island one aspect of which is a commitment to building STEAM opportunities for young learners.

A significant opportunity in my own life came from discovering an aptitude for drawing and painting in college. Drawing, in particular, inspired me to think more deeply about seeing, or perhaps more analytically observing. Then in graduate school, thinking about the history of science, I noticed that in the 18^th century, drawing and painting were among the skills in which scientists were trained. Years later for Ray Barnhardt’s Culture, Community, and Curriculum class, I brainstormed a course in this kind of observation that progressed from drawing to photography and dabbled along the way with microscopes, telescopes, and trail cameras.

Given the young people of St. Pauls’ interest in video, reworking this idea seemed a good way to connect their passion with a broader awareness of photography, art, and observation as it crosses between art and science. I could as well see interesting connections with readings for ED 681 Place-based Education in particular Professor Green’s work with children (Green C., 2013) and wearable cameras (Green C., in press).

We see a significant push to enhance our teaching in science, technology, engineering, and math, perhaps as should be. Alas, we seem to forget the importance of art in training our observational abilities. Indeed, we forget the role sketching, drawing, and painting had for explorers before the advent of photography. The revolution in inquiry and representation that photography itself offered to both science and art is, as well, assumed. Charles Darwin, for example, kept his journal of sketches and notes. Before him, Lewis and Clark, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, and John James Audubon employed sketching and painting to inform their field research, for examples. While I would love for this curriculum to stretch back to the fundamentals of drawing, and to introduce the elements of the art form, line, color, space, texture, value, unity, balance, and shape. I worry that this is too far afield from the young peoples expressed interest. Instead, I think this curriculum should focus on photography and videography (Heath, 2014).

Turning this into a semester-long course would be rewarding. The students could practice skills in producing visual arts. Given the framing of the course, it is a natural connection for the students to photograph landscapes, birds and animals, and plants, and the area around St. Paul. Blurring the distinctions between art and science as well is intriguing.

This particular lesson is focused on building the straightforward Pinhole Camera. It is a project-based activity. Students will begin to develop in understanding basic optics and the workings of a simple camera.

Grade/Subject Area

The Pribilof School District sees many of its high school age learners head off to boarding school. However, there are a fair number of middle school age learners on the island. This curriculum lives at the intersection of science, arts, and writing and can speak to several State learning objectives. As well, it can talk to concerns about place-based education. Along with the natural environment of the Pribilof Islands, there is a built environment. Perhaps if the lessons are crafted well, these young people can develop a degree of self-reflectivity about both themselves and their habitats.

Technology or Materials Needed

The original invention of the pinhole camera refers to the camera obscura phenomenon, ancient Chinese, Greek, Indian and Arab all described.

• Pinhole photographs have the nearly infinite depth of field; everything appears in focus.
• As there’s no lens distortion, wide-angle images remain absolutely
• Exposure times are usually long, resulting in motion blur around moving objects and the absence of objects that moved too fast.

Other special features can be built into pinhole cameras such as the ability to take double images by using multiple pinholes, or the ability to take pictures in cylindrical or spherical perspective by curving the film plane. (Pinhole camera, 2018)

However, it took advances in chemistry to allow this phenomenon to be used to make images, so it was the mid-1800s before a pinhole camera was possible. This lesson has four distinct sections, building the “camera,” taking pictures, developing pictures, and the selection of images for display and the written reporting of the project.

Pinhole cameras can be handmade by the photographer for a particular purpose. In its simplest form, the photographic pinhole camera can consist of a light-tight box with a pinhole in one end, and a piece of film or photographic paper wedged or taped into the other end. A flap of cardboard with a tape hinge can be used as a shutter. The pinhole may be punched or drilled using a sewing needle or small diameter bit through a piece of tinfoil or thin aluminum or brass sheet. This piece is then taped to the inside of the light-tight box behind a hole cut through the box. A cylindrical oatmeal container may be made into a pinhole camera. (Pinhole camera, 2018)

Materials:  This project requires a box, or cardboard tube (like an oatmeal container) black duct tape, clear tape, black construction paper, aluminum foil, and pushpin, a flat washer, and nut sized to the tripod mount for a base. Pictures of the construction of the camera are from either:

Mr.Fisher3. (2012, June 14). Shoebox Camera. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Shoebox-Camera/

Pinhole camera. (2018, March 6). Retrieved March 6, 2018, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera

A substantial obstacle to overcome is locating and setting up a temporary darkroom. The remaining materials required include fast photographic paper, paper developer, and fixer (Mr.Fisher3, 2012).

Lesson Objectives

Working as teams of no more than three:

1. Students will produce a functioning pinhole camera – Follow the instructions below and build a pinhole camera.
2. Students will use the camera to take at least four images that speak to their experience of the natural or built environment of St. Paul.
3. Students will demonstrate safe techniques and develop at least four pictures these may be any combination of negative or positive images.– Use the darkroom to load the photographic paper in camera and to develop, both positive and negative images from the exposed photo paper.
4. Students will select four images to be displayed as a collage. Students will write a short (no longer than a single page typed double space) artists’ statement about the collage. Teams will collaborate on writing a short essay describing the learning they accomplished in this exercise. – Include a description of how each picture was taken (length of exposure, GPS coordinates) and what can be seen in the artist statement.

Below are examples of what is possible from pinhole images. These were harvested online and focus on natural landscapes to demonstrate the applicability of this technology and exercise in enhancing place-identity and awareness.

http://shimmering67.rssing.com/chan-10558508/all_p2.html

http://designurge.com/pinhole-camera-photography/

https://goo.gl/images/mgyw4K

Standards

The educational standards for science, art, and language arts archived at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (Alaska Standards, 2018).

Introduction to Science Performance Standards

[8] SE 2.1 identifying, designing, testing, and revising solutions to a local problem

[8] SE 2.2 comparing the student’s work to the work of peers to identify multiple paths that can be used to investigate and evaluate potential solutions to a question or problem

[8] SF1.1 –SF3.1 describing how local knowledge, culture, and technologies of various activities (e.g., hunting fishing, subsistence) influence the development of scientific knowledge

Alaska Content Standards Art

CR 3) refine and complete artistic work

PR 2) develop and refine artistic work for performances, presentations and or productions; and

PR) perform, present and produce artistic work

RE) interpret intent and meaning in artistic works; and

RE) apply criteria to evaluate artistic work

CO) relate artistic ideas and works and societal, cultural, and historical contexts to deepen understanding

Alaska English/Language Arts Standards Grade 8

Writing Standards Grade 8, Text Types, and Purposes, 2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization and analysis of relevant content.

Writing Standards Grade 8, Production, and Distribution of Writing, 4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 5. With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing and rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed.

Speaking and Listening Standards Grade 8, Presentation of Knowledge, 4. Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation. 5. Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

Lesson Procedures

Safety First:  Building the camera and developing the photographic paper will involve using tools and chemicals. Use common sense, follow instructions, and wear safety glasses.

Construction

Cover all the seams, both inside and outside, in the box or cylinder with black duct tape. Use black construction paper to line or black paint to cover the inside of the box entirely. The box lid must be light tight use tape or black paper to secure the top, if necessary.

Cut a small circular opening in the front side of the box to form the lens opening. Cut a piece of black duct tape larger than the whole. Cut a piece of foil larger than the hole but smaller than the tape. Secure the tape and aluminum foil to the inside of the box.

Use a pushpin or needle to make a small hole in the center of the exposed aluminum foil. Twist the pin as it passes through the tape. The aim is to create as little and perfectly circular hole as possible. Make a shutter for the camera on the outside of the box, over the aperture in the foil and tape. The shutter is a hinged flap of black duct tape. Use a small piece of cellophane tape to hold the shutter closed before and after taking the picture. Build the tripod mount with a large flat washer and nut sized and threaded for the tripod mount. Super glue the nut to the washer and tape these to the bottom of the box, or cylinder as illustrated. It may also be helpful for framing the images to make a “viewfinder” that sits or is mounted to the top of the box, sized similarly with the photographic paper to be used (Mr.Fisher3, 2012).

Loading Film

Loading photographic paper must happen in a dark room. Many schools and libraries used to have photographic dark rooms; however, a closet can be adapted for temporary use. Photographic paper is light sensitive, so anything other than a completely dark room will expose the paper. The light of a flashlight covered with several thicknesses of red cellophane located six to eight feet away from the photographic paper or developing trays can be used for some working light. Alternatively, a safelight bulb can be purchased and used in a lamp or overhead fixture. To load the photographic paper, open the box and tape the paper to the side opposite the pinhole. The shiny side should be facing the pinhole. Use ordinary cellophane tape to attach the paper. Close the shoebox and light seal the lid with black duct tape (Mr.Fisher3, 2012).

Taking Pictures

It may be expedient for each group to use all the pinhole cameras built by the class for this section of the work, rather than taking a single picture at a time. Mount the camera on the tripod to ensure stability. Find a subject, landscape, or built environment to make an image. Line up the camera using the viewfinder or best guess. Record, the GPS coordinates of the site, and the length of the exposure. Exposure length will necessarily be a bit experimental, however, ten seconds if it is bright and sunny and fifteen if it is indoors as a starting place. Finish by closing the shutter securely as additional light will ruin the picture (Mr.Fisher3, 2012).

Developing Photographic Paper

Developing must also happen in a dark room. Place exposed photographic paper into a tray of developer solution. Completely submerge the paper in the developer for one minute. Move the paper into a tray with a water bath to stop the development. Next, put the paper into a tray of fixer solution for four minutes. End with a final rinse in a tray with water. The pictures will need to dry. A clothesline of sorts with a drop cloth below can be used as a temporary solution. Do not touch the image surface until the paper dries as the image can be smudged.

Trouble Shooting

Trouble can arise when:

• the pinhole is too large
• the box is not light tight
• exposure time is too long
• the camera moves while taking the picture
• light leaks in the darkroom(Mr.Fisher3, 2012)

Checks for Understanding Questions

The teacher needs to take time to build a camera and to experiment with each step of developing the images to be able to assist the students as they work through the project. With the ubiquity of digital photography, the use of darkrooms has mostly disappeared. This lesson provides an opportunity to discuss lenses and basic optics. As well, discussion of the basic chemistry is possible and essential. Artistic concepts as well can be discussed throughout the exercise particularly as the students engage in the iterative process of taking and developing images.

In the above, I have focused on building the camera and only lightly touched on place-based learning and or environmental awareness. Probably, these topics need equal weight at the outset and along the way so that students are focused on telling a story about their lives in St. Paul and creating a sense of self-reflection on how the place has shaped them as people.

From my brief time in St. Paul, this sense of place is an outstanding value that is emphasized, reiterated, and shared. There are various lenses that the young people experience it through, cultural, and economic, for examples, but they hear about marine debris first as litter on their beaches, but in turn, this connects them with the broader world. Therefore, it is interesting to speculate on the collages the young people assemble and the conversations about how these relate to a broader world as well.

Closure

This lesson could open up a longer course of study on photography and videography. This is because students are learning the vocabulary of art. They are learning to be more thoughtful in framing and choosing images because pinhole cameras are more demanding to use than our ubiquitous smartphones. I see a natural connection to the Robert Rodriquez: Ten Minute Film School (Paulo De Souza, 2008).

A vital element of his lecture is the idea that much editing can be saved if anticipated by camera direction, framing, location, and timing, by good storyboarding beforehand. This is difficult to convey in the world of cheap and easy smartphones and digital cameras. However, the repetitive, mechanical process of loading the pinhole camera, framing, timing the shot, and then the process of developing begins to teach the intentionality of better camera skills.

Children Input

The initial idea for this lesson grew out the young people’s self-expressed interest. However, this specific lesson lacks that connection at this point. I think I would test the concept by merely asking the kids on the island about their interest. It might be appropriate for school, or it might be better situated in the community art center. In the latter case, I can see the topic as a stand-alone course. Perhaps offered as a one-credit course that is dual-credit to young people, and as college credit provided to adult learners. This format has worked in the community previously. It speaks to the Aleut Community’s goal for an eco-system of life-long learning. No matter, I think the end of the unit, evaluations would be significant for refining all aspects of the lesson.

Assessment

The project will be assessed for:

• teamwork and collaboration
• quality of camera construction
• quality of collage of pictures
• complete and thoughtful project report

A rubric will need to be developed for each aspect of the project. Students will also grade themselves and their partner to makes sure work is equally distributed. As well, the whole class will comment on the collages. The report and collage will take some time to put together. Assigning some of it for homework might be required.

Reflection

I am acutely aware that I am not a classroom, and specifically a middle school teacher. Therefore, I may have designed something that is entirely impractical. However, I do think that the hands-on quality of much of this lesson might engage both genders and in various ways. While there is conceptual content that can be brought into this lesson, optics, chemistry, elements of art and design, the core is practical and hands on. It as well implicitly creates a necessary practice of iterations and drafts, as learners engage with each exposed image. For example, they may achieve an excellent framing but a poor exposure and decide to reload the cameras and return to the spot to experiment with several longer exposure times. I think this is an important lesson for learners that satisficing on work and projects is part of the school culture, but it has no place in personal or professional lives and expressions.

I worry that I am understated regarding place-identity and ecological consciousness. However, I think this is due to two thoughts, first, is that Green’s using wearable cameras with very young children was a process of discovery (Green C., in press), second that these middle-school students in St. Paul, already have a place-identity and ecological consciousness. I am interested in leaving the assignment a little open-ended to see what the young people produce. It is always possible to course correct during instruction and as well in subsequent iterations of teaching. Also, given the young people’s existing place-identity by leaving it open-ended, I see the results as more expressive and less an artifice of adult intervention in the classroom.

I was a little surprised at how natural the state of Alaska educational standards was to fit into this interdisciplinary unit. I was expecting that to be more laborious. Perhaps, defining the rubric for grading, and connecting this to elements of standardized testing are more difficult and time-consuming tasks? My surprise causes me to reflect on again why it is so difficult to make progress on place-based education, and on interdisciplinary instruction, or conversely what limits instructors to textbooks and lectures? That, of course, maybe my naiveté with working with the age group and the larger bureaucracy of schools. As a Scoutmaster I would do something like this with those kids and with no second thought, so likely I am missing the broader context of schooling and teaching.

Finally, I wonder if there is a way for these lesson plans to be shared with the class cohort? Receiving a grade is fine. However, peer feedback is often more useful for fine tuning and or clarifying questions like those I ask just above.

References

Alaska Standards. (2018, March 8). Retrieved from Alaska Department of Education and Early Development: https://education.alaska.gov/standards

Green, C. (2013). A sense of autonomy in young children’s special places. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 1(1), 8-33.

Green, C. (in press). Embodied ChildhoodNature Experience through sensory tours. In A. Cutter-Mackenzie, & E. Barratt Hacking, International Research Handbook on ChildhoodNature. New York: Springer.

Mr.Fisher3. (2012, June 14). Shobox Camera. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Shoebox-Camera/

Paulo De Souza, M. (2008, July 5). The Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School. The 1st & Original. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from Paulo De Souza, M.

Pinhole camera. (2018, March 6). Retrieved March 6, 2018, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera

Introduction

Thinking about my process of entering a new discipline or field of study, I look for vocabulary or conceptual points of similarity between the known and the new. One point of recognition came in Seamon’s essay Place Attachment and Phenomenology, particularly his term “place ballet” he says, “…place ballet may be significant in everyday habitual routines regularly happening in place…” (Seamon, 2014). Therefore, for me, there is a moment of recognition and confusion. A mentor referred to the dance form of Contact Improvisation in his thinking and writing. However, specifically to disrupt taken for granted movement, place, knowing and learning. Dance as a trope for movement in place is shared but with very different emphasis. Wikipedia defines “Contact improvisation” in this way:

Contact improvisation is a dance technique in which points of physical contact provide the starting point for exploration through movement improvisation.[1] Contact Improvisation is a form of dance improvisation and is one of the best-known and most characteristic forms of postmodern dance.[2] (Contact Improvisation, 2016).

Ballet is scripted, and rote, Contact improvisation is, well improvisational. Moreover, immediately we anticipate the potential for two types of inquiry as we extend these tropes. Place-based learning as a scholarly pursuit exists at the intersection of several complicated questions. First, how do we know and learn across a lifespan? Second, what is the best way to inhabit and or relate to our natural environment? Third, what disruptive ways of knowing and learning can help us with the first two questions? The intent here is to survey the discipline and literature through the required readings for the course but not to delve too deeply into any single facet. Also, I am not a teacher; rather I am a higher education administrator. I am enrolled in the Online Innovation and Design program and am coming at place-based education ironically from the perspective of asynchronous, online learning. So, I am approaching this newly defined discipline from an outsiders perspective and with different priorities and emphasis.

Body

PLACE

In Place Attachment and Phenomenology, Seamon offers this definition of “place” “Phenomenologically, place can be defined as any environmental locus in and through which the individual or group actions, experiences, intentions, and meanings are drawn together spatially” (Seamon, 2014). In the article, Place-Identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self, the authors define space and place as equivalent and interchangeable terms (Proshansky, Fabian, & Kaminoff, 1983). Conversely, in the article Defining Place Attachment: A tripartite organizing framework, the authors review the literature and say, “The definitional diversity reflects the growing interest in place attachment, and can be seen as progress in the concept’s theoretical development” (Scannell & Gifford, 2009). For these authors, it seems like “place” is a taken for granted. Perhaps this is too quick a move instead Schumacher and Bronet, and Schumacher add to the conversation because they do not take this definition for granted, and in doing so, they set themselves up to develop a critical theory.

Bronet and Schumacher’s essay, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design, recounts working interdisciplinary between philosophy, architecture, and pedagogy. I will be working with two versions of their paper. The 1996 version was a conference paper the 1999 version a journal article. Both draw from their work co-teaching an architectural design course, and they had students collaborate in building a setting in which a Contact Improvisation dance troupe performed. However, long before they were able to get to the design phase, they needed to correlate their vocabulary of inquiry.

Design in movement is a complement to traditional architectural design in space. Design in movement allows us to experience, through our bodies, in a way that challenges our deeply ingrained visual culture. If we design, in this visual culture without being able to call the culture into question, we do not take advantage of the full range of design’s liberative potential: it is one thing to design so as to refuse any single authoritative reading in space, but another to discover an alternative to reading itself. We are investigating how design in movement can motivate new ways of liberative building and inhabiting that challenge the hegemony of design in space (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999).

From this, we begin to learn Bronet and Schumacher’s specialized vocabulary. A vocabulary that I think is important to develop before we begin to understand place-based education. Space is no longer taken for granted but vexed by these two. Movement is celebrated, perhaps privileged, over reading. Reading signifies a negative return to a taken for granted type of inquiry, an inquiry that necessarily privileges our visual culture. Bronet and Schumacher offer the Hopi as exemplary of the kind of spatial participation they are seeking to understand and employ because of its disruptive value.

…”Distance includes what we call time in the sense of the temporal relations between events which have already happened. The Hopi conceive of time and motion in the objective realm in a purely operational sense — a matter of the complexity and magnitude of operations connecting events — so that the element of time is not separated from whatever element of space enters into the operations.” Hopi descriptions, to use Warriner’s terms, organize movements rather than presents a tableau. (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999)

Hence, one element of our critical theory is to seek moments, tools, and disruptive practices that are about organizing movements rather than presenting a snapshot, a still life, a view. As a quick summary of the tension, they are trying to create; I offer a composite illustration from this article.

Evidently, Bronet and Schumacher have very specialized meaning for the terms, space, and movement. Schumacher in his book, Human Posture: The nature of the inquiry, steps back one-step more as he develops his definition of “place.”

To be in the world is to have a posture…. The root of the term ‘incarnate’ is to-be-in-flesh, and the term has come to cover embodiments in general, including the sense to-have-form, to-be-real. For example, in his phenomenology of the body, Maurice Merleau-Ponty spoke of a person’s body as the system of all that person’s holds on the world. Not surprisingly, the root of the term ‘system’ is to-place-or-set-together. To be incarnated, to have a body constitutes the order of relations of making a place in the world. As a thing must take a hold on the world, and this taking hold is its incantation it’s having a body, or it’s having a posture.
As a thing makes a place in the world, the rest of the world must give place to it (Schumacher, 1989).

Not surprisingly, Seamon emphasizes movement/rest and inward/outward in his thinking. This is in part because he starts from Mearleu-Ponty’s notion of self and embodiment which parallels Schumacher’s development of posture and place. Perhaps the most significant gap between Bronet and Schumacher and Scannell and Gifford and Proshansky et al. is the nature of the inquiry as the articles for this course are social scientific and informed by literature review. They take for granted social scientific and literature review methods whereas Bronet and Schumacher are philosophical and aiming at interrogating methods and forming a critical theory, accordingly they take more time to define their terms from the outset.

PEDAGOGY

Pedagogy is a conflicted topic for me in the readings and class discussion. There is much emphasis on early childhood and primary education. All of my experience is with 18-22 or adult learners and only a little in the traditional face-to-face classroom. I have experience training in the workplace (and the question occurs to me, what is the role of place-based learning in the workplace?). As a further disconnect (though not a necessary one) my degree program is in online pedagogy (and I do think that online learning has a place in place-based education). On a personal level, I have struggled to connect with the class discussions, folks feeling nostalgic for their place of origin and their childhood. My life took a positive turn once I read Tom Robbins’ statement, “It is never too late to have a happy childhood.” So, beginning again, thinking about my process of entering a new discipline or field of study, I look for vocabulary or conceptual points of similarity between the known and the new. In the reading; Learning to Make Choices for the Future, the authors describe three elements of place-based pedagogy, service learning, civic engagement, and place-based learning.

Place-based learning is an educational approach that uses all aspects of the local environment, including local cultural, historical, and sociopolitical situations and the natural and built environment, as the integrating context for learning….
Civic engage promotes civic knowledge, responsibility, and participation in individual and collective actions in support of the stewardship of community natural and cultural resources, and the resolution of issues of public concerns….
Service learning is a method whereby students learn and develop through active participation in a thoughtfully organized service that is conduction in and meets the needs of a community while also meeting the students’ educational objectives. (Clark, 2008)

I am intrigued by the tension offered here between the natural and built environment particularly in light of Bronet and Schumacher’s work in design, but also in regards to our participation in the online environment. The online environment is a built environment perhaps analogous to our cities though not identical. I suggest that cities, online, and natural habitats each tell us something about our human being taken together and in tension; we have a complete picture. Likewise, as Bronet and Schumacher are crafting a vocabulary to inform a critical theory that permits learners to understand as they shift from space to movement, we need more useful terms to recognize our participation in both online and natural environments. For example, we could meaningfully talk about civic engagement or citizenship in all three environments perhaps service learning as well, though both citizenship and service take on new meanings as we ask about the rights of nonhuman organisms and even biomes. We are cautious in approaching indigenous knowledge, elders, and intellectual property rights; perhaps we need a similar caution as we approach trees, a stream, or river?

In Bronet and Schumacher’s 1996 conference paper, they offer more about the class they co-taught, and it anticipates elements of place-based learning, civic engagement, and service learning.

The transformation of the project from an illegal intervention in a non-occupied, future RCCA home into an active community project was also an issue of movement. Once the directors of the RCCA, three professional dance companies, an international experimental musician, and a video artist experienced the proposals, they were taken over. A 3 beta-cam shoot was held; a professional artistic piece was edited and produced. The RCCA hosted a groundbreaking gala later as well, and three professional dance companies performed in 4 of the installations. The project took on a life of its own. (Bronet & Schumacher, Design In Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design, 1996)

We see the three elements in this summary. This is valuable in drawing connections between the philosophical work of Bronet and Schumacher and the broader notions of place-based education. The specifics of the learning objectives Bronet and Schumacher wanted to create a pedagogical experiment in design and philosophy.

In our experiment with dance/design, therefore, we also tried to blur the distinction between the designers’ bodies and their movements, on the one hand, and the dancers’ bodies and their movements, on the other. In the main project, Dance Infusion, six seven-member teams of first-year architecture students were each asked to design an inhabitable installation that responded to the concept of movement determining space that is to space-in-the-making. The movements that determine the space was to be performed by dancers, who were themselves involved all along in the studio, as critics and as performers. Moreover, finally, the students were led, through exercises, to blur the distinction between designing and building as well. (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999).

A recurrent theme in both versions of the article is to defamiliarize students with the ready-made space and ready-made inquiries. Bronet and Schumacher use a variety of techniques, but one provocative approach is to give students a yam rather than a measuring tape to encounter a known space anew.

So, one of the first things we did is give our first-year students a measurement exercise in which they freely chose a device of arbitrary value (rolling a yam, for example) to measure a site that they and previously designed and produced. We wanted the students to ask whether they were moving in the space of what they were measuring, or to some extent still participating in its making? Does the imagined space of the site already exist? Does the space of the building we intend to make on a site already exist? What, after all, can we say about a site independently of measuring it? We tried to make it possible for student to understand a site not as a ready-made space, but rather as at rest in order of a movement, in this case the order of movement of a necessarily imprecise measuring instrument (exactly as imprecise as pieces of wood, for example, which will be used in building on a site, are quite different from the precise lines of plans and sections). (Bronet & Schumacher, Design In Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design, 1996)

An aspect of this is “unlearning.” We think a little less about unlearning when we think about early childhood and primary age learners – they are after all learning much for the first time. However, as adult learners developing our skills at “unlearning” becomes very important. Also, I suspect that natural environments are more imprecise than built environments and so that may be some why they are so crucial for place-based learning. I wonder if introducing inaccurate measurement and places, and notions of natural boundaries and space-in-the-making is a more tensive play of knowledge or conversely less necessary unlearning. Near the end of the article Bronet and Schumacher review and evaluate each group’s relative success with the assignment. For our purposes here, I am most interested in the groups that struggled in the middle, not those that failed or succeeded. Here we will review one of those projects called the Dichotomy Project.

The Dichotomy Project, which was most impressive visually in terms of form, lighting, and so on, could be read all at once. It consisted of two amorphously shaped, stretched-fabric-over-wood forms seated on electronically triggered ramps that responded to pressure by lighting up specific quadrants of the set…. The location of the audience and the stage like configuration of the elements immediately set up a scenario of viewing all-at-once. This scenario was consistent with the dancers’ interpretation of the space and the difficulty they had developing sequences that were not spatially predictable; we could anticipate how they would use the forms (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999).

As a lifelong student, I recognize the death-knell of grading in the phrase “a scenario of viewing all-at-once.” However, it seems these learners failed-forward. So, as an aspiring designer of online learning, what can I learn from them? They did not vex the roles of audience-participant sufficiently but rather, at a glance, I can recognize the performance space. That error forces roles and predictability on and within the performance. Perhaps, they did not test their installation sufficiently with the dancers and audience, both in practice and in mind. We see this in the phrase, “dancers’ … the difficulty they had developing sequences that were not spatially predictable.” However, it is the “electronically triggered ramps… {and} lighting…” that salvages this installation for the learners and the dancers and ultimately for the audience.

The person-bodies were quite independent of the architectural bodies. The minimal manipulation of elements on site during layout, construction, and test-inhabitation may have contributed to the predictability of movement…. For example, when the performers figured out the triggers for the lights they began to use those, and found rhythms with one another between their feet on the ramps and the lights going on and off. The props and the bodies referred to one another, with an in-the-making quality that began to establish them as aspects of an order of movement rather than as aspects of a ready-made space (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999).

The praise is evident when Bronet and Schumacher say that: “the bodies referred to one another, with an in-the-making quality…” (Bronet & Schumacher, Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. , 1999). Returning to Seaman’s notion of “place ballet,” we will want to standardize the use of terms and offer “space ballet.” Returning to the classroom, we recall the daily rituals of finding our seat in the ranks and rows of desks. The bell sounds, and we stand to say the pledge of allegiance, sit, and respond to roll call… and so on. Here we see the roles of a student in need of teaching, and teacher ordering space, teaching, and assessing performance, reified by both the space and the ballet.

PLAY

Bronet and Schumacher do not explicitly use the term “play” though it is implicit in their work. We see it in the term “tensive play” which has the provisional feel that we may recall from childhood, when we would say, “Let’s pretend….” We see it when they had the dance troupe leader coach the students into a basic understanding of contact improvisation. And, in their recounting of the most successful group’s design process, a methodology of play is described. We see it as well in substituting a measuring tape with a yam. These college age learners are not children and yet play is important first for unlearning that permits them to switch between eye and body. It seems foundational for collaborative work, among the designers and between designers and dancers as well. Turning to the work of Professor Green, in her essay, A Sense of Autonomy in Young Children’s Special Places, she offers some structure to this topic.

Play, in its simplest form, consists of child-initiated pleasurable activities. Similansky and Shefta (1990) defined three types of play: functional, constructive, and symbolic. Functional play also referred to as motor or practice play, is characterized by repetitive movements performed to gain mastery of a skill. In constructive play, also referred to as pretend or dramatic play, occurs when children use their imagination or role-playing to transform themselves or objects. Additional, exploration is a type of play described as “sort of fingering over the environment in sensory terms, a questioning of the power of materials as a preliminary to the creation of a higher organization of meaning….” (Green, 2013)

First, it is valuable to the topic and the conversation to itemize and define the terms. Green emphasizes childhood in this definition. In turn, I would assert that play has a role in life-long learning. I think for two reasons, first is Schumacher’s definition of making a place, quoted above, as fundamental to incarnation, the second is Tom Robbins reminder that it is never too late to have a happy childhood. We do not just make our place in the world once and for all, as children. Instead, this is a life-span activity, a moment by moment activity. Even if we are deceived by our ready-made-readings, we can through play and movement retrieve movement and the sense of space-in-the-making. I think we need to be cautious in overemphasizing childhood development when we theorize about place-identity.

Additionally, I think taking Bronet and Schumacher’s terms seriously is a way to argue for the necessity for near wilderness experiences for all learners. Participation in natural settings particularly that are close to home is a recurrent theme in the place-based education literature. Alas, the necessary connection between outdoors experience and in childhood is vexed. Chwala points out the inconsistency in concluding that “childhood experiences in the outdoors is the single most important factor….” She suggests a much more vibrant road to development through a more complicated reading.

A close reading of her report, however, fails to support the conclusion. If the importance of a factor is defined by the number of participants who mention it, then the fact that only 42% of respondents mentioned childhood outdoors experiences that led to their concern for the environment – fewer then those who mentioned outdoor and wilderness experiences without a specific reference to childhood (49%) or school or university courses (59%) – argues against such a conclusion (Chawla, 2010).

However, if we examine the illustration above and consider the column closely under “movement,” we can see important parallels. For example, the natural boundaries of river/bank impede our progress across the landscape. “Status-in-the-making” interestingly refers to knowledge and skills for inhabiting the outdoors, what to eat, or drink, for example, and that suggests a pedagogy as well. That, in turn, leads to a natural authority, full knowledge, partial knowledge, and those in need of knowledge. To emphasize this point let us return to the classroom, a ready-made-space, with ready-made-roles, teacher, student, parent, for examples. Certainly, we see the political boundaries of school districting, but more taken for granted, the age-graded determination of knowledge, rather than the natural authority, whereby a young person might walk to another class motivated by the thought, the learner-centered thought (to use Green’s terms, child-centered, hence playful thought), “I can do the work.” Accordingly, I conclude that near wilderness is vital to learning because it disrupts our practice of reading forcing us into an unfamiliar inquiry of movement. However, as Bronet and Schumacher show, a gutted building and a community of dancers and designers (even those playing at being so) are able to disrupt ready-made readings and return a built space to that of space-in-the-making. Intentioned and clearly focused pedagogues built environments or natural environments can serve a purpose. I still hold out that the natural environment realized through movement can inspire a centered-learner to their own insights, hence giving a less deft teacher a margin when aiming to create a concern for the environment.
Returning to a comparison of Bronet and Schumacher’s exercise in pedagogy I believe it is easy to see these four kinds of play displayed in the leaning these young adults are engaged in symbolic in the dances and movements with the built environment, functional, constructive, and exploratory in the design and build. Yet I think it is unlikely that these college students attending elite, east coast technology university would have preparatory experiences like the ones we are imagining in this course. Rather, I suspect their preparatory school background was very easily in the column of space. I think play, and unlearning are incredibly important concepts if we want to craft a lifespan approach to place-based identity and education

Conclusion

I have two concerns as I reflect on the readings and the course. First, is the emphasis on childhood, on primary education and on teaching? Second, is that thirty years ago when I left Alaska, it felt like everyone was poised to make progress on indigenizing and place-based education. Alas, on my return it seems we are still talking about doing it.

I have little experience with children, my own, and my children. Chawla’s observation that childhood experiences were not necessary predictors in an adult displaying concern for the environment inspired me to think about my children. I wanted them to camp, canoe, and hunt with me and as children, they had no particular interest in doing so and they were forced on occasional obligatory family trips. My son more so in middle school as a Scout, though his ambivalence increased as he entered high school. My motive was indeed the belief that immersion was vital to them developing an appreciation of the outdoors. Rather, instead, my daughter just completed bachelors in chemistry from Lewis & Clark and a second in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University. She really only discovered an interest in the outdoors and in working on environmental issues in college. My son is a senior at the University of Maine, in the Environmental Studies program, the last three summer he has done field research, his environmental consciousness likewise developing in college. I conversely had an environmental consciousness from my childhood. In the 1970’s public TV was rife with documentaries detailing the extinction of many species and biomes. My grandfather liked John Muir’s ethic, other family preferred Gifford Pinchot and both are celebrated in California and National parks. Alas, I am a college administrator as an adult, completely burned out on gardening and chickens. I barely bother to sort my trash, and I drive whatever car is at hand, the fires of idealism are burned out.

Regarding the slow progress in indigenizing place-based learning, I wonder if the problem is that we are expecting educators to do this work. What if their plates are full? Instead, is the responsibility for this project better placed elsewhere? Perhaps administrators, nonprofits, tribal entities, or with organizations like Teach for America is where the chore should reside. We lament for-profit schools and are ambivalent about charter schools, but perhaps the place for advocacy and innovation is there rather than overburdened public education?

References

Bronet, F., & Schumacher, J. (1996). Design In Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. In C. Barton (Ed.), Proceedings from the 86th ACSA Annual Meeting and Technology Conference (pp. 205-211). Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Bronet, F., & Schumacher, J. (1999). Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. Journal Of Architectural Education, 53(2), 97-109. doi:10.1162/104648899564475

Chawla, L. (2010, March 31). Significant Life Experiences Revisited: A review of Research on Sources of Environmental Sensitivity. The Journal of Environmental Education, 29(3), 11-21. Retrieved January 8, 2015

Clark, D. (2008). Learning to Make Choices for the Future: Connection Public Lands, Schools, and Communities through Place-Based Learning and Civic Engagement. Shelburne, VT: The Center for Place-Based Learning and Community Engagement.

Contact Improvisation. (2016, October 18). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place-based_education
Green, C. (2013). A sense of autonomy in young children’s special places. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 1(1), 8-33.

Proshansky, H. M., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place-identity: Physical World Socialization of the Self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 57-83.

Scannell, L., & Gifford, R. (2009). Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 1-10.
Schumacher, J. A. (1989). Human Posture: The Nature of Inquiry. SUNY Press.

Seamon, D. (2014). Place attachment and phenomenology: The synergistic dynamism of place. In L. M.-W. (Eds), Place Attachment: Advances in theories, methods, and applications (pp. 11-22). New York, NY: Routledge.