Objects as Curriculum Workshop

Daily from Sun, Jan 20, 2019 to Tue, Jan 22, 2019 9:30 am to 5:00 pm

This event is from the archives of The Notice Board. The event has already taken place and the information contained in this post may no longer be relevant or accurate.

Instructors:
Louisa Minkin (Course Leader MA Fine Art, Central St Martins, London)
Ian Dawson (Head of Sculpture at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton)
Tyler Heaton (MFA Candidate, University of Lethbridge)

Workshop Hours and Locations:
Sunday, January 20: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m at FNMI Gathering Place (Iikaisskini)
Monday, January 21: 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m at SU Ballroom A
Tuesday, January 22: 9:30 a.m. - 12 p.m at SU Ballroom A
Tuesday, January 22: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m at FNMI Gathering Place (Iikaisskini)

Get hands-on experience with techniques for imaging objects with high precision and detail using photogrammetry and reflectance transformation imaging (RTI). Photogrammetry creates a high-resolution textured 3D object from a series of photographs while RTI allows you to see the objects as if they are under a raking light or a magnifying glass.

Drop in any time during the workshop hours to get practice with these techniques using the equipment provided. Sessions will focus on Indigenous objects, art objects, and geographic imaging, but all are welcome to bring any small objects to image and work with. The techniques taught in this workshop are inexpensive (or free), easy to learn, and widely available - enabling participants to easily adopt them in their own labs, studios, or homes.

The Objects as Curriculum workshop is part of a new program of teaching and research at the UofL focused on connecting stranded Blackfoot objects in British museums with their home people and culture by leveraging digital tools and techniques. The name for the workshop comes from a story of the late Frank Weasel Head talking to curators at the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University: when he was asked why Blackfoot war shirts from the 19th Century should come back to Southern Alberta, he said, “because these shirts are our curriculum.” The historical objects are crucial for teaching the next generations about Blackfoot knowledge and about art-making techniques because they are the means by which teaching occurs. Our goal is that by working with objects in this way we can inform art instruction on campus, museum studies programs, historical research, field work in the sciences, and Indigenous studies across the disciplinary divides on campus.

This workshop is made possible by the Teaching Development Fund, the Faculty of Fine Arts, and the UofL Art Gallery.