Pondering Ideas from the #CLMOOC Chats

We hosted two Twitter Chats for CLMOOC yesterday — two hours of pretty far-ranging conversations and connections around the theme of art and artists in a connected world. (Note: these two curations are only part of the free-flowing conversations that took place. Many tweets were left out for the sake of continuity.)

Here are a few take-aways in my mind, after participating in both chats and doing the curation:

  • Too few of us identify ourselves as “artists” and this might be a result of education or society or our own notions of what an artist is and/or does;
  • Technology might open the door to making new kinds of art but whether technology (apps, software, websites, etc.) helps or hinders artistic expression is often a personal experience, and mostly, the hindernace has to do with fear — of breaking the technology or not knowing enough of how use the technology skillfully — or agency (i.e, this tech doesn’t do what I need it to do for me);
  • We have many students who would lean into drawing and art more readily, if we let them, and some — like ELL students — would benefit more if we gave them more opportunities to express first in ways other than words;
  • Early memories of art seem grounded in freedom of expression, and a wide wonder of joy with paints and crayons and paper. As adults, we sometimes lose this “child-like” passion. We hope the CLMOOC Collaborative Coloring Book project counters this. and provides a creative space to play.
  • Writing and visual arts can come together to create meaning, but they don’t always do that. One medium often seems to lead the other, perhaps based on our own strengths as writers and readers. However, aspects of multimedia composing (such as digital storytelling) might be breaking down these divisions in interesting ways.
  • Art, as with writing, has its limitations. A question about what one wishes they could capture in art brought forth an interesting range of topics, mostly of emotions or the strange gray areas of our day’s experiences.

To all those who took time to participate, thank you. It was a wonderful experience as we near the end of Make Cycle One.

Peace (in colors and more),
Kevin

2 Comments
  1. Thank you for taking time to pull out some of the ideas from the two sessions and to create the Storify archive.

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