Gesamtkuntswerk in Museum Form

Denver Art Museum is a wonderful demonstration of sensory connectedness. I have been exploring ideas for teaching literature as a sensory involvement beyond the visual, and this forward-thinking museum shows how many areas might be involved in any exploration of ideas. The approach visually goes beyond the artworks to incorporate their presentation, with each room painted in a bold, rich color—no faded pastels here—but strong, forceful use of color. It is quite effective, so much more pleasing than the standard white walls of museums. The approach to audience involvement is engaging on all levels, reaching beyond standard descriptive biography in the wall mounted textual explanations to effectively discuss elements of the arts presented. One room focuses on character in painting while another dwells on place, noting that the same place painted by different artists is shaped by the painter. One particular artist of interest in a discussion of sensory engagement in artistic production painted in the sixteenth century, but his ideas entertain today. The works employ natural forms to paint something unrelated in subject. Denver holds a portrait of a man and a woman by the Italian artist constructed of fruits and vegetables with all the implied hints of taste and smell (the natural science museum which I strolled earlier in the day had offered buttons to emit scents given off as signals by animals). I was beginning to feel that I was part of a bigger movement in my efforts to study a subject through sensory exploration. The staff offered help and suggestions, pointing out a book in the attached reading room on the Italian artist who interested me. Such reading rooms were scattered throughout the museum with one featuring comfortable sofa and overstuffed chairs, a computer, drawers to explore filled with educational artistic materials, bookmarks at no charge – one listing the favorite reference texts of artist, another discussing gilding in art. The walls are filled with bookshelves inviting visitors to expand their artistic exploration. From its architecture by Daniel Libeskind to its audience involvement, the museum challenges in new ways, asking for a response. I continually gasped exclamations to my daughter at the magnificent job the museum had accomplished, nearly crying when I saw the largest library room—overwhelmed by the attention to detail and the effort to engage the audience. Using the ladies room on leaving, I was entertained by a final sensory tactic as the faucets sand when water flowed, each I discovered in a different voice, the 2002 accomplishement of artist Jim Green, appropriately entitled “Singing Sinks.” The artist is present in this museum as a being, a partner in the production, in a way I had never experienced. A startling painting by Colorado artist Daniel Sprick, called “Release Your Plans,” is accompanied by a film covering a wall of the artist explaining that particular complex contemporary work. Another wall holds a self portrait of the artist. Nearby is a studio filled with materials to create a card to send a friend, and the means to mail it onsite. A display of art from the American West incorporates a row of chairs with small tables in front of them, each holding a book entitled “What Does the West Mean to You?” Instructions are at hand to operate the Ipods filled with mood enhancing cowboy tunes for the audience to listen to while writing entries in the blank pages of the journals. No doubt, the responses will find a future use in the museum. Everywhere the engagement of audience is included in the presentation of the artworks. I am overwhelmed—thrilled to be on the same page! The senses are bombarded; artwork presented in an enhanced fashion to appeal to a wider audience.

Summer thoughts

I am increasingly aware of the extensions that technology brings to humans--truly we are extending our own sensory and mental functions through use of technology. It is astonishing to observe the frequency of technology in use. Every other person I pass is wired (or wireless) in some fashion--actually it is far greater than 50%. I have become interested also in the writers of past eras (most notably mid-twentieth centruy) understanding and use of such extensions in the media field. Some of them, like Nancy Hale, avoided media on a steady basis, like television, never owning one, although she accepted visual and enjoyed visual media in the form of film and theatre. Other authors appear to have manipulated media forms for their own devices. I have not accomplished as much this summer as I had wished, but I am ready to focus my energies again.

Summer Goals

I hope I accomplish a great deal this summer to make next year less trying. Here's the list so far: 1. complete research for fall independent study 2. review last year's readings and make note cards of main points to prepare for test 3. read some of fall materials 4. lay out classes I teach for next fall 5. research readings for spring classes That should keep me busy for now! I'm battling a delayed depression from my mother's death. Keeping busy should help.

End of the Year

Well, my mother dying really made it difficult to deal with all of the stresses of a Ph.D. program. I felt like life was a blur for some time there. It's most difficult when I want to call her on the phone and can't. Now there are the additional demands on my time from taking care of estate matters. I was struggling before to help with her care. So, now I am trying to finish up all of those final projects. All of them, of course due the last week of classes. My students don't know how much they should appreciate the structure of my class, which does not have all of their work coming due in the final week. Of course, it's partly for my sanity as well. How on earth could I handle grading their papers when I need to write my own?

Venting

I am trying to decide if it's a generational thing, but it seems to me that people are becoming increasingly self important. Maybe those people just bug me. Shrinks say that if you need to tell/show how great you are, then you are pretty small inside. Actually, it isn't really that those people number even as much as 10% of the population, but I am just very aware of them. I need to just ignore more. It seems that everyone is ADHD, and I think this program is making me become that way. I am simultaneously reading so many different things and thinking about so many different projects that it becomes confusing. I do think it is a mistake to explore works for too long which are believed to demonstrate concepts: we need to cover more ground. I think it occurs to satisfy instructors' needs--keep them in their comfort zone longer. I do find connections endlessly between different areas that I am exploring.

Techno Hazards and Resolutions

I was really amazed at how easy google has made it to set up a website. Thank goodness for google. I was frightened by the prospect of maintaining an ejournal, but now it is merely a matter of finding all of the scattered materials that should be on it. If they had only had us set up the page the first day of the MATX program, life would have been so much easier. Perhaps they will manage that for the next class who will not have to suffer as many start-up problems as we, the guinea pigs, have. It was also quite simple to establish this blog. Now, if my PhD program could just catch up to google, I'd be all set! I have been thinking a great deal about the integration of text and visuals. I seem to confront the subject everywhere that I turn. I suppose it is just because I am thinking about it for a seminar paper, or is the concept surging to the forefront?

Visual Archives

I am interested in learning more about visual archiving. Some applications of technology appear far more useful than others. Digital narrative strikes me simply as an effort to apply new technology to old forms, rather than a true literary advancement. It does seem to mimic though, the current narrative style of short fiction: beginning, middle, no end. Hypertext shifts provide the same indecisive close. Online archives, on the other hand, organize materials in ways which are often extremely useful, as in the case of William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience." It's hard to imagine the difficulties faced by scholars in the past, forced to travel across the globe to make comparisons between the different versions without ever seeing them side by side. I am interested in exploring further different archives for individuals and complete collections. I am thinking of pursuing this for a project.

"People don't see the world before their eyes until it's put in a narrative mode." Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, by H.Porter Abbott (6) I have been exploring connections beween artistic and textual modes. I am excited by an independent study that I am planning which challenges my undergraduate students in short narrative to create a visualization based on the text of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The student visual interpretations will be based strictly upon the text. I am interested in the tendency of some writers to demonstrate "painterly" tendencies in their descriptive passages. I also recognize the tendency of many painters to render narratives in their work, in particular, I think of Degas' Absinthe Drinker. I have used that painting in creative writing class, asking students to provide the story line. The woman's posture shows a story within the image. One of my professors says that that painting, emerging from the impressionist period, denies the attachment of a narrative, but the audiences I have encountered (the student writers) disagree, providing, with ease, a story line.