Angelina Burkley

Art 133
9/20/16
Unit Paper 2
Power
In the 2nd unit the Big Idea we focused on was power. We focused on power in regards
to what it could mean to different people and in different contexts. Some of the contexts we
went over were ideas like how does power relate to scarcity, poverty, hunger and more. We also
looked at power in regards to Visual Culture because visual culture has a big impact on people
and the power they may even see within themselves or the power they portray to other people.
Visual culture is a good subject to focus on for the Big Idea of power because Visual
culture is all around us and is being incorporated into our everyday lives and has an incredible
impact on us whether it is negative or positive, It is also immensely important that we interpret
the images and designed objects with which we live. Images and objects present opinions as if
they were truth, reinforce attitudes, and confirm or deny beliefs or values. (Barrett, pp.7) It is
very important to introduce these ideas to children because they are all around them and children
(depending on the age) are interpreting it themselves whether we know it or not we should be
able to explain to children what they are seeing and they should be able to explain it to
themselves.
Even though I think students should be taught about Visual art/culture I do not think it
should be taught exclusively, I think we should continue to teach Comprehensive Art Education
so that all the different types of art can be looked at and not be excluded, Visual Culture is
considered a part of contemporary art, and both fine and applied arts are given high priority for

teaching and learning. (Hurwitz & Day, pp.81) If I were to teach comprehensive art education
to children I would want to encompass the other types of art education like applied art and visual
culture education within the comprehensive at education because all of them are equally
important. One project I may do with the children may be like the one used as the example on
page 81, Mariko Mori, Star Doll (1998), where I may gather dolls of all shapes and sizes and
colors and ask them to dress the dolls how they see themselves or how they see other people or
something along the lines of that. Some questions I may ask could be why did you put this item
on your doll? Another question i could ask is what is their favorite part on their doll and what is
their least favorite and why?
References:
Barrett,

T. (2003). Interpreting Visual Culture. Art Education, 12

Hurwitz, A., & Day, M. (2007). Children and their art, Methods for the Elementary school, (8th
ed.). Thompson Wadsworth