Personal Archiving for Undergraduate Students
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VRA 2023 New Frontiers in Visual Resources session. Presenters: Meghan Rubenstein and Kate Leonard The Art Department at Colorado College is piloting a Personal Archiving program in select undergraduate studio courses that combines visual and digital literacy instruction with personal reflection and professional development. Meghan Rubenstein, Curator of Visual Resources, and Kate Leonard, Professor of Art, will discuss the drive behind this initiative to develop student competencies within a liberal arts setting. We will share our ongoing iterative process as well as select student activities and learning outcomes that may be adopted to various institutions.
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Personal Archiving for Undergraduate Students
- 1. Personal Archiving for Undergraduate Students Meghan Rubenstein and Kate Leonard Colorado College Art Department VRA Annual Conference San Antonio September 27, 2023
- 2. 1. Introduction 2. Objectives 3. In the classroom 4. Takeaways & Next steps
- 3. Introduction Above: Packard Hall, Colorado College Left: Visual Resources Center (VRC) and Drawing Classroom
- 4. Introduction Artists’ Studio Archives: Managing Your Studio Practice & Building a Creative Legacy. Ambrose- Smith, Beaudoin, Gendron, and Imm-Stroukoff. Packard Hall classroom with scanning cart to the right
- 5. Introduction In the 200-level Technical Drawing course, students prepare analog drawings for digital reproduction, scanning and editing Line art and Greyscale art for output. The process got in the way of the class concept.
- 6. Introduction VRC scanning station Time commitment for classroom assignments required access to equipment outside of regular VRC hours, which led to the creation of the scanning cart. Portable scanning cart
- 8. Objectives Where students encounter technology impacts learning outcomes.
- 9. Objectives Technology is one of the many tools used in collaboration in the studio.
- 10. Objectives Shared language of naming conventions, file type, and file size allows for conversation, critique, and unexpected new ways of organizing peer exchange of creative ideas and solutions.
- 11. Objectives Intro to digital working space • Image size: resolution, pixels, dimensions • File format: heic vs jpeg vs tiff • Naming conventions • Image quality (fidelity) • File storage & backup Software tools • Photoshop • Procreate • Snapseed
- 12. In the Classroom iPad Cart on loan from ITS department File storage in Teams, arranged by assignment (intro drawing) and by student (tech drawing)
- 14. In the Classroom Students use their iPads in a variety of ways throughout the block. They are encouraged to view each other's digital files and they receive feedback early in the process.
- 15. In the Classroom Technology is presented on a spectrum – in the classroom, scanners and printers sit next to a 1940s printing press.
- 16. In the Classroom Access to technology is provided in a variety of spaces that facilitate peer and informal instruction.
- 17. In the Classroom Example of a project: assignment, analog pin up, digital submission
- 18. In the Classroom Art Paraprofessional Casey assisting Professor Jean Gumpper in Intro to Drawing during Block 1
- 19. In the Classroom 20230831_Montague_Test.heic AS103_2324_B1_360_Montague.jpg Casey's notes on the first submission for Block 1 Intro to Drawing: • Image not converted to a jpeg (heic) • Not named correctly • Uneven lighting with shadow of the head of the person taking the photo visible • Image is not straight • Not cropped First submission Final submission
- 20. Takeaways & Next steps What worked: • Giving students access to their classmates’ files • Encouraging peer learning • Moving technology into the classroom and giving students space to "tinker"
- 21. Takeaways & Next steps Challenges: • Access to and maintenance of equipment, especially with little turnaround time between block courses and availability of iPads • Student perception of digital process as extra work and/or busy work
- 22. Takeaways & Next steps What is next: • Discuss with our colleagues how we can be most effective as a department incorporating this type of training into lower-division courses • Set digital & visual literacy expectations for senior Art majors, especially as they relate to Personal Archiving as a practice
- 23. We welcome questions and comments: mrubenstein@coloradocollege.edu 719-389-6375 Meghan Rubenstein, Curator of Visual Resources Kate Leonard, Professor of Art Special thanks to Donovan Dickey-Banmalley, Casey Millhone, Jean Gumpper, and all our Colorado College collaborators.
Editor's Notes
- (MR) I’m Meghan, this is Kate. Today we are sharing a summary of our collaborative work on the Personal Archiving project, an initiative that integrates digital and visual literacy training into our art curriculum. The larger goal is to encourage students to document their artistic practice in a thoughtful and engaged way over the long-term. We will provide a brief introduction to our process, outline our objectives, share our experiences working together in and out of the classroom, and close with our main takeaways and next steps.
- (KL) Meghan and I have worked together for 8 years in the Art Department at Colorado College - a small undergraduate residential liberal arts program in Colorado Springs. Our department has four tracks: Studio Art, Design Studies, Art History, and Museum Studies. Colorado College has a unique curricular calendar known as the Block plan. Professors teach, and students take, one class at a time for 3 ½ weeks, separated by a short block break. There are four blocks in the fall and four in the spring. The intensity of this environment affects how we deliver our curriculum, how we iterate, and how we change our process from one day to the next. Classes are assigned to one room or studio for the entire block meaning classrooms are not shared with other faculty or students during a block. Like any system, the block plan has its challenges, but it also has unique opportunities. One of the advantages of our department, is that we work in close physical proximity and there is a shared eagerness to explore new teaching approaches in the classroom.
- (MR) Our project does not have a single origin point but came together organically following several classroom experiences, including initial work with Kate on scanning cart [she will elaborate], my involvement with a summer printmaking course (which used Artists' Studio Archives as a reference), and workshops in senior seminars. These interactions made it clear that senior majors were, in most cases, no more advanced than first and second year students in their ability to work with digital tools and images, or think critically about the process. These collaborations fostered opportunity to make new processes that could be integrated into the classroom. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yul_staff/17
- (KL) In the Technical Drawing course, students prepare an analog drawing for digital reproduction, scanning and editing art for output. They learn the concept of "prepress work" and how rendering the techniques they use in illustration are determined by the output constraints of the printing processes. For example, when creating an illustration for the student newspaper, students render the appearance of continuous tone using line art techniques such as cross hatching and stippling. Like halftone dot patterns used in photographs, “line art” illustration techniques are visually impactful for single run black and white printing. The challenge I encountered was that while all students could learn the analog illustration techniques, many struggled when we moved into the digital work with even simple concepts of naming conventions, file size, even opening and closing files. That brought me to consult with Meghan to brainstorm ways we could expose students to baseline digital language skills in the 100 level drawing class so all students entering technical drawing could move more effectively to the concepts of prepress formatting.
- (MR) Another issue that arose during this process was student access to equipment for digitizing and editing their work. Because of our block plan schedule, there is less than 24 hours between classes. Our regular VRC hours, which are 8am-5pm M-F, were not sufficient, nor were our number of scanning stations. This led, in part, to the creation of the scanning cart, a portable station for the classroom.
- (KL) This scanning cart consists of a large-format Epson flatbed scanner with laptop. The cart is at table height and has a flat top that allows equipment to easily slide to and from worksurfaces. Additionally, we had a smaller cart with a laser printer, extra ink, and other supplies for students to use to make quick output proofs. Making the technology mobile allowed students to various areas of the studio and it also allowed the scanner cart to be rolled into a lockable closet if needed.
- (MR) In order to integrate digital literacy training into the classroom, we needed to rethink how students encounter technology. While the VRC is a welcoming and flexible space, it is a technical space separate from their classroom and the making process. By providing access to digital tools, such as the scanning cart and iPads (which we’ll introduce in a minute) alongside analog drawing tools, students learn to make choices in the digitization process as they would in an analog drawing process. We also found that allowing for these choices led to unexpected uses of tech in the classroom by students. For example, you'll notice photos throughout our presentation show iPads draped over drawing boards or scattered on the floor among their drawing supplies.
- (KL) Continuation… When digital technology is experienced as just one of many tools used in collaboration, students engage more actively and confidently with the scanners, Ipads, and printers.
- (KL) The studio became an analog/digital hub. A space where the shared language of naming conventions, file type, and file size allowed for new kinds of conversation, critique, and peer exchange of creative ideas and solutions. Here you see students sketching out their ideas for a group project on the studio white board. Unprompted by me, they drew in a way that appears to be related to file previews in an online folder. Each student came up to the board and "uploaded" an idea to the board in a small “preview” square adding a "thumbnail sketch" and a name of their creature. Once they all had their thumbnail studies on the board, they turned to me and asked if Meghan could help them create a new folder on their class teams site named "Animal Drawings" It was such a terrific teaching moment because I could see the work of making their individual archives was now a practiced way of thinking – and it was expanding into the studio to help them communicate and organize in real time. The archiving project was not only giving them shared language, it was giving them a shared system, an architecture, that allowed them to build projects together in real time.
- (MR) Working with the idea that literacy is a process (ACRL), we have focused our efforts on the intro level courses to begin scaffolding learning. We selected basic skills that can be used as tools in the classroom and developed further through advanced work in the department. This meant tabling personal archiving conversations that are conceptually driven…We ask students to document an assignment and introduce them to: image size, file format, naming conventions, image quality (fidelity), file storage and backup. Also work with software, such as Photoshop, Procreate, and Snapseed, depending on the course. (all of this on top of the hardware we have introduced)
- (MR) How does this look in the classroom? We selected two of Kate’s drawing courses in spring 2023, Intro to Drawing and Tech Drawing, to begin to standardize the process. A lot of behind-the-scenes work went into preparing for those classes. We used Teams to set up shared storage for student files, created our own file naming standards (which facilitates our development of a department archive of class work), and selected the format. We were also able to check out an iPad cart from our ITS department (pre-loaded with Procreate & Snapseed). Kate set the assignments that required digital documentation and/or digital tools.
- (MR) A student in the 200-level Tech Drawing course, Hurst, allowed us to share her assignment folders so you can what the submissions looks like to us, as well as the students who are able to view each other's folders in the same course (1:33 video). I have copied the naming convention at the bottom of the slide: course number, academic year, block, assignment, last name, first name. We request jpgs in the entry level courses, but students in more advanced courses learn about stable digital file formats. You might have noticed, Hurst has also saved tifs. Another bonus is that by collecting digital images, faculty can revisit a body of student work at home.
- (KL) One of the ways we framed this project was to invite students to participate with us in a “research project”. Each student assigned an iPad, students encouraged to view each other's digital files, and paraprofessionals and Meghan checked images and working with students as needed. We taught skills that would be scalable based on hardware that would be available. Describing the project as a “pilot” program made it easier for me as a teacher. As opposed to feeling like I had to know every aspect of the hardware or software, I could pose a question to the class - “lets figure out 3 different ways to import a layer into procreate” - then have students break into groups - spend 5 minutes problem solving- making a quick screen-record of their solution - and reporting back to the larger group. Using this peer group approach not only took the burden off of me to have all the answers, it modelled a way of approaching problem solving with technology. A number of students reported they had a greater confidence with “figuring things out” with the technology because, as one student mentioned in a review “Kate didn’t always know what she was doing... But in a good way….she didn’t let it phase her. …She would say “I don’t know, but I know I can figure it out.” by the end of the block I found myself thinking that too.”
- (KL) Some students are drawn to machines and technical processes, others are intimidated. Some have no problem working on a two-ton lithography press but are terrified to the point of shut-down by a mutilayered adobe workspace! I am always asking myself how can I find ways to “deescalate” encounters with technology? In that context, there is an intentionalism to positioning technology in the studio to create “low stakes” and chance encounters. When students see a scanner and ipad sitting right next to a refurbished 1940’s business card press they start to make connections and broaden their definition of digital technology. They start to see it as a present moment on a long chronological history of technology.
- (KL) So I would reiterate one of the things I’ve learned working with Meghan on this project is that the environment in which students encounter technology is more important than I imagined … it definitely impacts learning objectives. Providing access to technology in a variety of spaces, facilitate peer to peer learning and informal instruction. In fact we began to intentionally position technology stations in the corners – a place where you can “tinker” out of sight…figuring things out with a classmate.
- (KL) So how did this actually look in an assignment? Here is an assignment on the left with the prompt and the submission language, in the middle is the analog drawing and on the right is the digital image. scan/photograph.
- (MR) What we have presented to this point is four years of our brainstorming, philosophizing, and investigations related to the Personal Archiving project. Where we are now is figuring out how to transfer what we have learned into another class, led by a different professor. Our first test was during Block 1 of this year, when we asked Professor Jean Gumpper to incorporate digital documentation into her Intro to Drawing course. Casey, our Paraprofessional, led the demo using iPads, a photo station, and Snapseed, rather than me.
- (MR) We asked students to document several assignments focusing on the basic elements outlined earlier, using the same storage method [Teams] and naming conventions. For their first digital submission, students uploaded a test image, which Casey took the time to review and provide feedback. Her impression was that students began with the idea that if they just did more or less as she said, they would get good images. Not the case. But repeated assignments developed their critical eye and later submissions were much stronger in just a few weeks.
- (MR) [wrap it up with some final thoughts] We will begin with what worked: The shared space in Teams allowed students access to their classmates' files so they could learn from each other what to do, and perhaps what not to do. It provided a level of transparency about the process and set expectations. We also found that making space for peer learning as a pedagogical approach translated easily into working with digital tools. Neither Kate nor I entered the classroom as the expert, but rather collaborators. A third success was moving the digital technology into the classroom, which placed it alongside older technology. In this space, students could "tinker."
- (MR) There are also a couple challenges (among others) we need to address. One is maintaining the equipment, especially with little turnaround time between block courses. We borrowed the iPads—they are not always available to us. [Time to reset and clean!] The scanning cart is heavily used, as is the VRC equipment, and will be even more so if other classes adopt digitization projects. We also found in Jean's course in Block 1 that asking students to digitize their work, without integrating fully it into the course, led students to perceive the digital project as extra work and/or busy work. How the process is introduced is vital to its success.
- (MR) What is next? There are lot of little things to address, but to end on a big-picture note we share two goals going forward. First, we want to start a fresh discussion with Art Department colleagues related to our work on the Personal Archiving project. In particular, how can we be most effective in incorporating this type of training into lower-division courses? Second, building on the first, we need to set digital and visual literacy expectations for senior Art majors and plan how to get them to the point where they can sustain a Personal Archiving practice after graduation.
- (MR) We have learned, and continue to learn, a lot through this collaboration and look forward to any feedback or questions about this ongoing process.