Mormon Tabernacle Choir

A very thoughtful colleague who plays in the orchestra for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir gave me two tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert last Saturday night. While the whole experience was an adventure (from taking Trax, to the Christmas lights on Temple Square, to dinner at the Lion House afterwards), what I most appreciated about it were the aesthetics of the experience. The design of the building is beautiful (I especially appreciated the textured walls and the captivating design of the ceiling). The scenery for the performance was nice, and they did a lovely job of using lighting, costuming, dancers, and scenery to contribute to the intimate and festive feel of the evening. My friend, Lucia, added the sparkle of her own personality to the event. The evening was a nice respite from the cares of my everyday world!

Michigan the Magnificent

Photo Collage by Dundoo

An Aesthetic Feast

What do multiple literacies look like, feel like, and sound like? What happens when you layer aesthetic, conceptual, discursive, emotional, intellectual, rhetorical, and visual elements using mixed media? Take a look at Dave Werner's Portfolio to find out.

The design of the site and the thinking that it reveals are intriguing to me—especially as you explore pages like the reflect/respect page (be sure to watch the video and click on the process images). Note the multiple paths to navigation, the mix of non-linearity and linearity on every page, and the convergence of inquiry with social activism, community engagement, and arts-based education. I also liked the way the site invites you to interact with it, and in the process, helps you to establish a relationship with its author, its content, and its form. You can see and hear Dave's mind at work (and come to understand more about HOW and WHY it works as it does) as you explore it.

The portfolio is a good example of many of the values of the iGeneration—inter-tainment, identity, individuality, information, innovation, interactivity. It engaged me in considering how our representation of content gets tangled up with our values, and how that influences the ways we choose to represent ourselves personally and professionally. I also couldn’t help but think of the research on cognitive flexibility, complexity, design, engagement, perception, multiple representations, and visual thinking as I was exploring this.

It would be interesting to show this to educators and teacher candidates and ask questions such as:

• What do these ‘products’ reveal about what the person who created them understands? What do they reveal about what he may not have considered? What do they reveal about him professionally? What do they reveal about him personally?

• What kind of experiences could prepare someone to create such products? What kinds of experiences would preclude the development of the skills required to create such products?

• What kind of technological pedagogical content knowledge would be required in order for a teacher to facilitate the development of such products or skills?

• What implications might this have for the kinds of things we do in our classrooms and for the kinds of assignments we give to students (PreK-12, undergraduate, graduate, doctoral)?

• What might this mean for the future of education, as well as for cultural, economic, political, and social contexts?

• What questions should we, as educators, be asking that we currently are not?

Of course, there are many counterarguments. (Incidentally, it would be interesting to see a visual representation of some of them.) There will be many who will find the site overwhelming and who will argue vociferously that it has nothing to do with education, literacy, the future, or the challenges inherent in those endeavors . . . .

For me, however, it is the happiest site I've encountered in a very long while--an aesthetically, conceptually, emotionally, and intellectually pleasurable experience.

Of Design & Dragons

I have always been a cartoon-lover. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because of the possibility inherent in cartoons--the chance to bend the rules of reality in worlds that combines dreams and fantasies, happiness and humor, the best of the imagination . . . .

The other day, I stumbled across a cartoon that has absolutely captivated me: Jane and the Dragon. There is something romantic about castles and dragons and princesses, and the content of this show is fun and uplifting, but more than anything, I'm entranced by the aesthetics of it. The breathtaking, artistic rendering of the characters and the way that the static expectations created by the colored pencils are broken by the animation are intriguing.

The Mosaic

In a flash of torrential trauma
Words intrude--
Hard, jagged edges
Ripping into her reverie,
Puncturing her peace,
Shattering her soul.

Stunned,
she stumbles,
then stands
sloshing, slogging,
through painful puddles
of gray grief

until sunshine emerges—

Evaporating
the wailing wind
into a weak whisper . . .
"Seek safety . . . in the shadows!"
it sighs,
. . . solace within the shards!"

They sparkle
in the scintillating sunlight
she collects—herself—
Colors connect,
catalyzing
catharsis.

—and energy expands

Filling the void
with multiplicity,
Mixing media
Restores reason
and roundness
to a Still Life.

Cherice Montgomery, October 8, 2005