DH Blogpost #8-Mapping Accidental Art

Mapping Accidental Art- A Custom Map

About: The intent of my seminar project was to create a visualization of student work from a class assignment on identifying the formal elements in their daily lives.

Focus: The existing assignment is one of the ways that we learn about the Formal Elements in Art (line, shape, color, texture, value, space, pattern). The assignment is for non- studio classes, and one of the course objectives is to obtain a deep and useable comprehension of the art terminology. This assignment, in addition to quiz and discussion, allows for a more creative exploration and presentation of student knowledge, and a more interactive form of assessment. It’s also more fun than looking at a projected art work and answering quiz questions.

To date, the students have been doing the assignment and posting it on our class blog, but the DH seminar let me think about a way to add on to the assignment, which hopefully will be expanded and fully implemented next semester, and will allow students a greater comfort in using visual mapping tools.

I used Google Maps’ “Custom Maps” tool and added titled markers to where the Accidental Art was captured. Screen shot of Accidental Art map.

Our Accidental Art Map

I tried to add the individual pictures to each marker- but without luck- so instead I linked each marker to the specific blog post where the picture, title and student’s written description appear. I would love to have all the info right on the map - image and description - but that’s maybe for a future version.

 

 

 

Screen shot of a marker with link

Here is what it links to- the blog entry with the image and descriptive text.

Another option was to include the descriptive text with the marker, but without the picture that seems strange. (below)

Pedagogical Value & Impact: Using the custom mapping tool as part of the assignment allows for it to be visualized in a whole new way, which I think is engaging for the students, as they become content creators for a map that they can then follow and share. It’s impact as a visualization of our class work is also valuable, as it shows the collective work. Practically, it’s also easy. All the students already have gmail accounts for our class blog, so it’s easy to ass them as editors of the map. In addition, I think introducing and using custom mapping allows students to imagine other potential applications, and familiarizes them with a powerful and fun digital tool.