DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Body In Process

In Between Bodies / Languages

 

Big Idea:

Metaphors are the cognitive tools through which we understand ourselves and the world (Lakoff and Turner 1989: xi). One of the primary metaphoric resources is the human body. We can easily take a quick tour around our body to see how it influences how we conceptualize our reality though figures of speech. So much of our use of these metaphors is reflexive and unconscious that it is invisible in many ways that we look at the world. Through these metaphors, we can see how we understand the world through our bodies, and also how we understand our bodies through these metaphors. Often, these metaphors are taken for granted. People don’t think much when they use them. By messing up with these metaphors and body parts, students will re-examine the relationship between body that influence language and language that reshape people’s perception on body. As Spinoza said, “We know not yet what the body can do.”


 

Autobiographical Project Description:

In this project, students will look at language metaphors related to body through popular culture, commercial advertisement, science technology, and also other culture. Then, they will be introduced to artists who use their body as medium to challenge how bodies are perceived in society through Orlan and Hannah Wilke’s work. They will choose three metaphors that include a body part to interpret, and choose one to replace the body part in the phrase with other body part of their choice to create their own metaphor. In the first project, they will make a greeting card with the metaphor they created as part of the greeting messages in the card. In the second project, they will translate other student’s metaphor into movement and their group member will translate their movement into a new metaphor. They will repeat the process for three times. In the end, they will analyze these translations and refine the movements into a video with a more precise rehearsal.

 

Objectives:

  • Students will be able to use body as medium to problematize how bodies are perceived through language metaphors
  • Students will be able to make art collectively by responding to a series of tasks within a short period of time
  • Students will be able to refine initial ideas into precisely planned performance

Visual Art Standard:

  • VA:Cr1.1.lb Shape an artistic investigation of an aspect of present-day life using a contemporary practice of art or design.
  • VA:Cr.1.la Engaging in making a work of art or design without a preconceived plan.
  • VA:Cr3.1.la Apply relevant criteria from traditional and contemporary cultural contexts to examine, reflect on, and plan revisions for works of art and design in progress

Community Project Description:

In this project, participants will use conversation as both an artistic and social practice to problematize the social use of language to describe body. They will go out into their community and interview people around them on their opinion on a body part. “Conversation is conveniently placed between pedagogy and art; historically, it has been seen not only as a key educational tool but also as a form of individual enrichment that requires as much expertise as any delicate craft.” (Halguera) Through conversation, the participants are not only broadening their horizon with different people’s opinion, but also making people in their community to verbalize their thoughts on body parts and think about it more. The participants will then create an online dictionary together based on the interview to re-define languages used to describe body with the voices of people from their community. The dictionary should be fluid and editable.


Objectives:

  • Participants will be able to use various communication approaches as both art and social practice to reach out people in their community
  • Participants will be able to learn how to design a website
  • Participants will be able to problematize how bodies are perceived through language
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.