Al+does+Jack

Legend:
 * **Jack's original instructor prompt in bold.**
 * Mine in regular type.

Hi, Jack. Initial thoughts: I like that you've chosen the subject matter of musicality in/of poetry because, to me, it seems like one of those that are always there in the academic consciousness but is not discussed very often as not many scholars have training in both literary and musical criticism. So your cultural studies-y approach is innovative, and a nice accessible method to get this subject matter out there. One thing I'm concerned about before even beginning is that, in your blog entry, you seem to shift perspectives from grad student to an audience of peers, teacher to an audience of your own students, and opera afficionado to a much wider audience than either of those two. So it's a tad confusing in some parts, but I'll try my best! That's it for now. More by Saturday...

Hi again, Jack!! I'm back and finally tackling this mother... I'm a little confused as to what these first few questions are supposed to be, and what role they play in the assignment or in the lead up to one. Are these questions part of the assignment? Or ar they just questions meant to provoke thought? Or are they questions for class discussion? I think we've been operating on so many levels in this class (student, peer, would-be educator, independent blogger) that I think the lines get blurry in both our explication of things and their interpretations!! The open-endedness you've created is pushing me to treat it as a class discussion. I hope that's okay.




 * The opera house as an icon or object says "culture," meaning high culture. But what does this mean? And has it always meant the same thing? Opera––just the mention of the word––produces a reaction in all of us. What do you think of, for instance, when you see this image?**

Art, history, art history, and the institutionalisation of all of the above. The funny thing is it could be any number of kinds of building--a library, a museum, a hotel, even appropriated by commerce into a mall. Here's a section of the Pantheon in Rome as a McDonald's.




 * Do you think any differently about this one?**

Yes. The Sydney Opera House feels more accessible because the image and the design at least attempt to break down the norm. I'm still weary, however, and am not sure of the reality. It's not as "uptight" like the previous opera house, but it does stand in the middle of water, so it does also have a distancing "moat" thing going on as well...




 * Does your reaction change when you see these images?**

Only slightly now. Depending on the audience, Eno is either making the represntation of opera even more accessible, or defiles it. Ultimately, however, it's a temporary installation that still leaves opera untouchable. It can just wear different masks. What's funny is that you may not be able to superimpose projected light visuals onto the previous one, but this one seems to actually demand something like this to happen because its smoothness and whiteness make it like a blank canvas waiting to be worked on.


 * All photos are taken at night. The top image is of the Paris Opera House, the second is the Sydney Opera House, under normal lighting conditions, the last three are again of the Sydney Opera House, but under lighting conditions that were part of an art installation by artist and musician Brian Eno, in 2009. First, is there any difference in perception between the Beaux Arts architecture of the Paris Opera House and the Modern architecture of the Sydney Opera House? Does our perception change when we see an even more modern idea (an art installation) applied to an existing cultural edifice?**

I think as a lower division undergrad, the above would've been the extent of my response--unless you push me to do a formal response with word or page count, in which case I would've had to do more critical thinking and research--but you didn't. Another major concern I have is: are students equipped to read architectural designs? What kinds of leadup activities could you have that would better prepare them for this assignment/discussion?

Also, I had to hold back some bias there because as an Aussie and architecture school dropout, I have some I guess "irregular" responses. As a Melbournian, I hate Sydney with all my being for taking the international limelight, especially when they're pretty much only good for business/commerce. Film flourishes north in Queensland/the Gold Coast, and other arts by Melbourne. On the other hand, I love Jorn Utson, the architect's work. The legend goes that he based this design on turtles fucking.


 * In grappling with this big idea of the cultural object, which represents societal ideologies and underlies our thinking often without our knowing it, ask yourself: is opera an art-form reserved exclusively for the rich, or is it equally accessible to all? What do you think Walt Whitman, the poet of the //Everyman// and an avid opera goer, thought about opera? What was his relationship to music and culture, to song and self, to self and culture?**


 * The following lesson is designed to help us address the large questions of art and culture by looking at music and what Whitman might have thought about it and how it relates to //self// in his 1855 poem "Song of Myself."**


 * This is an interior view of the Park Theater, the opera house that preceded the current Metropolitan Opera House (the Met), it was the place to see opera in Whitman's day.**




 * Here are some questions to consider:**


 * Whitman's "Song of Myself" is a poem right? Is it also a song? What does Whitman mean when he calls this poem a song? Is he suggesting that it is lyrical, such as a song lyric? Is he saying that the poem has musical qualities, that the poem is musical? Would he go so far as to say that the poem IS music? What does Whitman mean in the second part of his title when he uses the word "self"? Does it mean that this poem is just for himself, that it is not to be shared with others, that others do not have the same feelings––they don't have the same song? Is Whitman exploring the relationship between himself and song, between humanity and music? In terms of this probable relationship, what can we learn about Whitman and his culture and ourselves and the culture we live in? Is it possible to learn about art and culture by reading "Song of Myself"? If we can, are there ways that let us into the text, that would help us investigate a possible intersection of art and culture? If we investigate and understand something about Whitman's times by reading the poem, can we extrapolate and possibly apply what we learn to our own times and culture? Might Whitman be trying to bridge a gap between high and low? What is high art/culture? What is low art/culture? Is opera high art? Is a rock concert low art? Are people who attend opera high(er) class? Are people who attend rock concerts low(er) class? Was opera attended by the same audience: high(er)/low(er) class(es) in 1855 when "Song of Myself" was published?**


 * To address some of these questions, listed below is a list of student activities:**


 * First, students will read "Song of Myself." They will underline, highlight, and annotate musical references, paying particular attention to words such as: "song," "sing," "singer," etc.**


 * Next, students will be exposed to the Walt Whitman Archive and to the "Token X" tool from the archive's resources page. Students will use the tool's various functions, such as its word frequency database, its highlighting function, and its keywords in context function to corroborate their own highlighted and marked observations from their initial reading of the poem.**

As many of us experienced during the leadup to these exercises, Token X is novel for a moment, but I still fail to see how it offers pedagogical uses more than just good old reading with notes in the margins. If anything, it's somewhat of a distraction. I do still like the focus on music/song, though, because I think that any time we can emphasise the lyrical qualities of poetry to students is an effective way of making poems more accessible to those .mp3-listening youngins.


 * Students will also do some outside research. They should become familiar with the author of "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman, to get a feel for what life might have been like when he wrote the poem. They will also research the term "opera" to find out about its cultural role both at the time of Whitman and now.**

How do you propose students do this? Right now, it just feels like, "go out and Google 'opera,' and see where it takes you, and report back to the class on what you find"--which is fine for us (maybe...), but definitely I think wanting of more guidance for an undergraduate class. So class discussion? Or online research? Or how about one of the new-media-interactive activities we've been doing in this class? I had maybe a couple of weeks of the Harlem Renaissance in an undergrad survey class, and knew very little of it. In the creation of our YouTube videos and glogs, I've actually learned a lot, and, even though I don't necessarily see them as media in which educators transfer information to students effectively, I see more indirect didactic values--i.e. asking them to make videos and glogs about opera, I would imagine, would get them to learn a lot about it.


 * Finally, students will reconsider the image of the opera house as a symbol, a cultural object, that represents not only an ultimate house of song, but for various reasons has developed and maintained an historical distinction as the epitome of high culture, with all its accompanying connotations (snooty, snobbish, only-for-the-rich, incomprehensible). They will consider the question: how did Walt Whitman, an avid opera goer himself, view, think about, and feel about opera? The response to this question will take the form of a written project, which can be an essay, a creative paper, a poem, a song, or something else. Surprise me!**


 * Considering that ALL major entertainments today (rock concerts, sports events, theatrical extravaganzas, such as Cirque du Soleil) are are structured with the same price points: $25-$250, does the perception of high and low culture have anything to do with expense? Did Whitman perceive a difference in economic terms? Please also consider that historically opera has been musical melodrama designed as popular entertainment.**

You yourself say that opera, as a cultural object, has changed in value(s). I don't know my opera history, but I would imagine its modern day equivalent to be something like the television soap opera... or maybe even popular film like the //Harry Potter// and //Twilight// series--not sure. It's tough to say because there's nothing with the aesthetic qualities of melodrama and the scope/presence of a large, live audience today. It's either the first, but on television, or the latter, but with more subdued dramatic values. One thing that occurs to me, though, is how //Pretty Woman// did wonders to break down the hoity-toity image of opera just by having Julia Roberts' character--a street prostitute--dress up for it, attend it for the first time, and be moved to tears from it.


 * If he were alive, would Walt Whitman be going to the opera today? To rock concerts, to other entertainments? Would he have attended Brian Eno's art installation in Sydney last June? It was free and done in the name of global warming awareness!**

I don't see why Whitman wouldn't attend today's opera. He might be asked to leave the premises for looking and smelling like a derelict, but he would certainly find ways to make opera still a relevant art/entertainment. I would imagine that he'd also be on board with the activism involved with Eno's installation, and just that whole notion of using the arts to express social and political activism.


 * The San Francisco Opera offers a biannual Opera at the Ballpark event, where recorded operas are projected on astronomically huge screens. The events are always free--aimed at creating new opera audiences. The Ballpark events, which draw crowds of around 30,000, greatly extends the War Memorial Opera House's seating capacity of 3146, and broadens our conception of the term Opera House.**




 * I bet ole Walt would be there if he could!**