Making+Virtual+Murals+Unit+Plan

=__Making Virtual Murals__=

3.2 Identify and describe the role and influence of new technologies on contemporary works of art. Note: This unit addresses standards in all five strands of the California State Standards for Visual Arts, Grades Nine through Twelve Proficient, but it particularly emphasizes “The Role and Development of the Visual Arts,” as specified by Standard 3.
 * Standard addressed:**

__//Note//__: This lesson is suitable for first- or second-year Drawing, Painting, Design, or Arts Foundations students who will work in collaboration with Digital Design students typically in grades 11 and 12.
 * Grade Level:** 9-12


 * Suggested Length/Duration:** 3 Weeks


 * Concept:** Understanding the role of new technologies in socially-relevant works of public art, such as murals.

To create an engaging and thought-provoking “virtual” mural with a narrative theme that is based on a contemporary socially-relevant issue. Final projects can appear together as a large screen projection instillation for public viewing (i.e. Open House, Gallery Art Show, etc).
 * Goal:**

To derive inspiration from the historic mural, “America Tropical” and to utilizethe advancements of digital technology to create an original artwork in a manner similar tothat used by contemporary mural artist Judy Baca and the Social and Public Art ResourceCenter (SPARC) muralists. This unit also provides a unique opportunity for traditional art students to be exposed to the digital art making process that they may not otherwise be familiar with.
 * Objective:**

To develop a deeper appreciation for social and public art, to gain knowledge of the use of new technology in mural making, and to exercise problem solving skills in creative teams while bridging the gap between different arts curriculum.
 * Purpose:**

//__Note:__// Ideally, students work in teams of five, with three students from a traditional arts class and two students from a digital design class in classes that are scheduled concurrently. Each team works together to combine their unique skills to create an original work of art in the form of a “virtual mural”—a multilayered Photoshop Image. Traditional arts students develop the narrative theme for the “virtual murals” based on contemporary social issues and inspired by Mexican Mural artist David Alfaro Siquieros’ historic and controversial mural, “America Tropical”. They also decide where their “virtual mural” will appear, so that they can plan for its physical dimensions. If possible, digital photographs of the intended locations should be taken to create a final composite image of the “virtual mural” in situ. The traditional arts team members provide pictorial elements that include original artwork, photographs, and background designs that are used to tell their stories. Digital design team members facilitate scanning, importing, and/or uploading the pictorial elements into workstation computers where they digitally manipulate them. Eventually, all the elements are combined in a single Photoshop image bearing the “virtual mural’s” completed design.

Traditional art team members require access to a variety of painting and drawing materials to meet their creative and experimental needs, including newsprint and tracing paper for preliminary sketches, drawing pencils and erasers. Magazines and other photographic resources should also be made available. Materials used for the final art work may include colored pencils, colored pens, soft/oil pastels, charcoal, fixative, and better quality paper for final work, tempera/acrylic paint, canvas boards, brushes, paint and water containers, newspaper and paper towels.
 * Suggested Materials:**

Digital design team members require rewritable CDs, Flash Drives, or other portable storage device. They must also have access to digital cameras and, if possible, a digital scanner.

Teacher must supply 3x5 inch cards, handouts, and a group folder.

Teachers must have access to a computer with Internet and a video projector.

__//Day 1//__ //PowerPoint Presentation in 3 Parts (30 minutes total)// Tropical, (located at Olvera Street’s Plaza Art Center), without prior historic context. (10 minutes) the next class meeting with a word, or phrase, on a 3x5 inch card (supplied by the teacher) that suggests a socially relevant issue that might affect their lives either now or in the future. //__Note__//: The 3x5 inch cards are to be used as “entry tickets” to the next class. Everyone in attendance must have one.
 * Suggested Procedures/Activities:**
 * Part 1: Whole class discussion in which students view and analyze Mexican mural artist David Alfaro Siqueiros and his 1932 mural titled, America
 * Part 2: Historic background of American Tropic. (10 minutes)
 * Part 3: Getty conservation of America Tropical. (10 minutes)
 * //Questions and Answers about the PowerPoint Presentation//
 * //Homework:// Students are asked to think about the relevance of America Tropical in today’s political, social, and cultural climates. They must return to

__//Day 2//__ Review of the main concepts from the PowerPoint Presentation shown on Day 1.

Students are asked to recall and discuss aspects they remember most.

Class Activity with the 3x5 socially relevant issue cards: Students are asked to form groups based on similar socially relevant issues that they have written on their cards. The goal is to end up with several groups of three, each with different socially relevant issues. Groups of more than three needs to downsize by having extra members relocate to groups with less than three. Or, they may split into two groups with the same socially relevant issue, if necessary. However, the desired outcome is to represent a diverse cross section of socially relevant issues.

//Brainstorming//: Student groups must create a written list of ideas/words and phrases that spring to mind based on their socially relevant issue to be turned in with their (revised) 3x5 inch cards.

__//Note://__ At the end of class, the teacher informs the class that they will be working in their groups of three to produce a “virtual” mural based on their socially relevant issue and that they will also be working with two digital design students as a five member team to complete their projects. Digital design students will meet with the tradition art groups in the second week of the project. In addition, the teacher tells them their final projects will appear together as a large screen projection instillation for public viewing. Each group receives a group folder for their 3x5 cards and future paperwork. This folder is kept by the teacher between classes.

//__Day 3__// Students view the SPARC Video, Great Wall, (from YouTube) and the SPARC PowerPoint Presentation from their website.

//Class Discussion//: of the “virtual” mural project process and creation of an Element Checklist that is used to establish what is expected from each individual (i.e. student #1 does a painting, #2 brings photographs and draws, #3 does background designs, etc).

Student groups meet to discuss possible “virtual” locations (to determine their mural’s dimensions). No decision should be made until the next class, because this is also a homework question.

//__Note__//: Students may choose to locate their “virtual” mural on campus on blank interior or exterior walls to create a unified theme. If not, they should think about an appropriate site to display their messages, but they should bear in mind that all spaces require some kind of permission and public spaces may require a city permit. The question then becomes, is it possible to get permission to place the message they want at the location they choose? These are the realities of actual murals. The “virtual” murals need only exist in digital form.

//Homework//: Write a two sentence paragraph on a 3x5 card that states where you think your mural should be and why it should be there? Remember this is a class “entry ticket” for the next day’s class.

__//Day 4//__ Groups meet and brainstorm. They read their 3x5 inch location cards to each other and decide where to place their “virtual” mural thereby creating its dimensions. Then they begin to refine ideas for their “virtual” mural’s narrative theme. They should refer to the lists the made on Day 2. What story will the pictorial elements tell? Large thumbnail sketches are made to establish a composition and show a relationship between conceptual antagonists, protagonists and their backgrounds/settings.

__//Note//__: Teacher works with individual groups for the remainder of the class.

//__Day 5__// Group members decide among themselves what original elements each is responsible for creating and what photographic elements they should incorporate in the work. They should use the Element Checklist to list their ideas and sign off on their tasks. They can use the remainder of the class time to work on their “virtual” mural compositional concepts, preliminary drawings, and to begin a magazine search for photographic images to draw and scan.

//Homework//: Students must have at least one photograph each for the next class meeting to scan and an additional one to draw from if needed. The photo is their entry ticket to the next class.

__//Day 6//__ Traditional art groups meet with digital design students to establish their collaborative teams and to discuss their ideas. Digital designers begin to scan/transfer photo images to their computer workstations.

//__Note__//: Digital design students will likely be working on other assignments for their class during the same time that they are working on the “virtual” mural projects. For that reason, the two digital design team members will alternately work on the “virtual” mural.

__//Days 7, 8, 9//__ Traditional art team members work on original art elements (drawings and paintings) while digital design team members manipulate scanned photos in Photoshop (cutting away negative space, adding filters, color enhancement or removal, etc) and saving them in a Digital “Photo” Elements Folder (on a flash drive, etc.) for later compositing. They also scan original artwork as soon as it is ready and transfer it to their computer workstations where it is saved in a Digital “Art” Elements Folder for later composting.

__//Day 10//__ Traditional art group members create a final mural blue print (a drawing) that positions the placement of pictorial elements and background design ideas in the established background dimensions.

__//Note//__: One of the digital designers (the one with the most time to devote to the “virtual” mural project) will be in charge of the final composite Photoshop image.

__Days 11, 12, 13__ Digital designers work from the final mural blue print to make the Composite Photoshop image from saved photo and art elements. Traditional art group members review the composite Photoshop image for approval or revision. Afterwards, all final work is saved to flash drive, etc. During this final stage, traditional art team members must write an “artist’s statement” or reflection about their mural and their group work experience.

__//Days 14, 15//__ Teams present their “virtual” murals for a class critique. Note: Traditional art students who finish early may work on extra credit project of their choice.

Students are evaluated on group participation and planning, concept, composition, and execution. See Rubric below.
 * Evaluation/Assessment**


 * __//Lecture Notes for Presentations//__**

Each student is directed to take a good look at the mural that is being shown on the screen and to try to describe what it is that they see. What are the physical elements that appear in it? What are the symbolic elements? What do the students think the story is about? What feelings does this mural provoke? What does this picture mean to them? What do they think the painter was trying to say? To all the questions, students should try to support their answer with knowledge they bring and evidence they derive from the mural. Does this mural seem like the kind of “decoration” one would expect to see at an El Torito Restaurant, in the garden courtyard perhaps? Well, back in 1932 when it was painted at Olvera Street’s Italian Hall, that’s exactly the kind of setting it was given, only slightly more upscale than El Torito. It was commissioned by a group of people looking to decorate the wall with images of lush tropical foliage and exotic colorful birds. The fact that the mural was not what its patrons expected is part of the reason why it’s become so important in resent years. Does anyone have an idea what makes this mural so important?
 * __PowerPoint Presentation Part 1 – Whole Class Discussion__**

The name of this mural is “America Tropical” and it was painted in 1932 by a renowned Mexican muralist named David Alfaro Siquieros. That’s one reason why it’s so important. Siquieros is one of the three most famous contributors to the Mexican muralist movement of the early 20th century. The other two are Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco. All three of these men had very well defined points of view about social injustice, racial exploitation, colonialism, and imperialist power and they were not afraid to express their opinions through their artwork. Murals, they believed, freed the art from bourgeois society canvases (belonging to the upper classes) and brought it to public spaces where it could be experienced by all people. Siquieros painted America Tropical along the exterior of the second floor of Olvera Street’s Italian Hall, where the Plaza Art Center was located. Historic Olvera Street is the site of the earliest settlement in Los Angeles and, in the 1930’s, was developing into the tourist attraction that it has become today. Siquieros didn’t actually name the mural himself. It was named by its sponsors who didn’t think he would turn the intended theme of a tropical paradise into a scathing political statement. But, not to do so would be contradictory to Siquieros’ nature. Prior to his arrival in the States, Siquieros had gotten himself in a little trouble in Mexico for being a radical political militant and as a result, he fled Mexico to come to Los Angeles where, for about six months, he taught art and painted murals. He painted three murals in Los Angeles before America Tropical got him in trouble again and he was deported back to Mexico shortly thereafter. Apparently, his sponsors did not take kindly to his work. So, why did its patrons find America Tropical so offensive? Sequieros answers that question for us in the book, The Mexican Muralists in the United States. “It has been asked that I paint something related to tropical America, possibly thinking that this new theme would give no margin to create a work of revolutionary character. On the contrary, it seems to be that there couldn’t be a better theme to use”. He goes on to describe the mural, “It is a violent symbol of the Indian peon of feudal America doubly crucified by the oppressors, in turn, native exploitive classes and imperialism. It is the living symbol of the destruction of past national American cultures by the invaders of yesterday and today. It is the preparatory action of the revolution that enters the scene and readies its cartridges to effectively launch the life-restoring battle for a new social order”. Siqueiros was referring to the images in his mural, which portray the central figure as a symbol of the racially exploited native, against the Mayan pyramid, which is a symbol of a lost, but not forgotten culture wiped out by imperial colonialism. The eagle above the Indian is a symbol for capitalist USA. To the right, a Peruvian peasant and a Mexican Farmer stand poised on the sidelines with rifles ready and pointed at the eagle. They represent an anticipated revolutionary uprising. In 1932, moreover, the US was in the midst of the Great Depression. Migrant workers from Mexico were hit doubly hard. In a sense, because they worked in surplus capacity, hired to do what no one else is willing do as cheaply during times of prosperity. With the impending financial crisis, these hard working people were also the first to lose their jobs and they were being deported by the thousands. But, that didn’t seem to matter to the Olvera Street patrons who thought to commission America Tropical to serve the middle and upper classes. Siquieros knew that he was going to ignite some tempers, but he seized his opportunity send the unpleasant message regardless of the consequences he might face. What we are looking at today is not the original mural. The original was completely whitewashed out not two years after its completion. What you’re looking at now is a virtual mural. It was reproduced by the Getty Institute Conservatory.
 * __PowerPoint Presentation Part 2 – Historic Background Lecture__**

__**PowerPoint Presentation Part 3 – Conserving “America Tropical”**__ Forensic science and digital imaging have made it possible to create a record for history of works of art that time has treated harshly. The Getty Conservation Institute was designed to do just that so that they can find ways, through science and engineering, to restore works of art and preserve them over the long term. In 1988, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) entered into an official partnership with El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument (a department of the City of Los Angeles) to conserve the Siquieros mural America Tropical. At that time, staff of the GCI carried out a preliminary analysis of the paint remaining on the surface of the mural. Over the course of the next three years, several consultants worked on the mural and performed the first phase of conservation treatment. In 1991, the GCI installed an environmental monitoring station adjacent to the mural to collect data on the surrounding environmental conditions. From 1993 to 1994, the GCI conducted an investigation of the organic paint components; also in 1993, GCI staff carried out a digital capture of the mural to provide thorough documentation of the state of the mural’s surface. The walls of the Italian Hall—including that on which the mural is painted—were seismically stabilized by the City of Los Angeles in 1995. In 1997, the GCI undertook a thorough condition survey of the mural in preparation for final conservation work. In 2002, the mural was stabilized after the old shed was removed. A new protective box, designed and built by staff from the J. Paul Getty Museum, was built to cover the mural.

__//Note//__: For specific information about “America Tropical” log onto http://www.getty.edu/conservation/field_projects/siqueiros/siqueiros_images.html#siqueiros12

For more information about conservation refer to the Getty Conservation Institute Website http://www.getty.edu/conservation/

__**PowerPoint Presentation about SPARC Mural Lab**__ //__Note__//: This PowerPoint presentation can be found on the SPARC Website and it is not downloadable. To view this PowerPoint presentation, log on to the Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab at http://www.sparcmurals.org/sparcone/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=90&Itemid=105

For more information about SPARC log onto http://www.sparcmurals.org The “Great Wall of Los Angeles” Video Documentary can be found on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJRL_AhQ3u4

Resources for the Historic Background Lecture include: An essay entitled, “America Tropical” (“Tropical America”) by David Alfaro Siqueiros 1932 (Figure 1) written by Isabel Rojas-Williams, CSULA Masters Program Student

Information from the following Websites: http://www.olvera-street.com/html/siqueiros_mural.htm http://www.ci.la.ca.us/tourist/tropical.htm

Book, Mexican Muralists: Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros, byDesmond Rochfort.

BY: Molly O'Hanlon