Visual Culture Art Education
What is Visual Culture and how does it impact students? It seems like a harmless topic that describes things that we see visually. The art side of me agrees with that idea, but I think it goes a bit deeper as it influences all of our lives. As a high school educator of 15 years I have noticed a shift in the dress, language, and actions of students that I have taught and I wondered what the cause of these changes was. As I pondered this topic, I thought, "where are they getting this style of dress, use of language and shift in actions?" So, I decided to ask.
Many of the students made comments like this is what my boy wears referring to some famous music artist that they see on television. When I delved a little deeper with the questions many went on to say that they were dressing like a particular rapper or hip-hop artist. That’s when the light bulb came on that this could possibly be coming from popular music videos and I began to piece together an idea to learn just how much the visual culture that they see in popular music videos impacted them. The result of this initial brainstorm was a research study where adolescents explained just how much the visual culture of popular music videos impacts them.
I would love to hear from all of the art educators in regard to whether there are things that your students are displaying that you think come from the visual culture that they see on a daily basis. What do you think of the visual culture of popular music videos? If you haven’t watched one lately, I challenge you to do so. You may be surprised to see what the adolescents are consuming in regard to what some call harmless entertainment. Let me know your thoughts. The monthly mentor segment is a great tool so let’s use it to get the word out about the influence visual culture appears to have on our students.
Thanks,
Zerric Clinton ABD
Art Teacher
Cairo High School
455 5th Street SE
Cairo, GA 39828
This is an important topic, and I hope readers will engage Dr. Clinton (who successfully defended his dissertation today) in a dialogue about the potential manipulations of popular culture (e.g. music videos) on children and adolescents. Zerric has developed a very useful strategy to help young men critically reflect on media influences in their lives and who benefits and how from the uncritical acceptance of them at face value. Zerric has considerable insight into this and also great passion for making the world a better place through encouraging his students' self empowerment. I think this is the start of something that can really help a lot of teachers and I hope you'll take advantage of this blog to explore the possibilities for teaching and learning in the art classroom.
Posted by: Tom Anderson | April 01, 2010 at 10:30 PM
Zerric,
Very timely topic. I appreciate you putting it on the table. As an elementary teacher, I don't believe I see as much influence as middle or high school teachers may see; I like to think parents are editing those influences some. But you definitely do see what is popular happening in dress and technology. Bob
Posted by: Bob Reeker | April 02, 2010 at 11:45 AM
Although I am not a teacher I do see the change in children as they get older in their everyday ways. From talk, walk and especially the way they dress. Looking at videos young people do not realize that the people in them do not normally dress this way on an everyday basis and this is "TV". Also they do not realize that there is history behind a certain way of dress that is quite degrading. They are either aware or just don't care. I can say honestly that I did not realize that visual culture plays a very important part in how the young people see each other and has influenced us all one way or another at some point.
Posted by: Denise Clinton | April 05, 2010 at 09:20 AM
I recently had an experience where a student asked me which girl he should go out with. One that wore Nike's or Jordan's. I realized that to him it had significance that I knew nothing about. He said one girl was always cutting him down so I told him the other one was probably a better choice...
Posted by: DeNeal Pederson | January 23, 2011 at 07:47 PM