(ADAPTED FROM UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE PREPARATION – AVI3M AND OPEN – AVI30)
This course provides students with opportunities to further develop their skills and knowledge in De’VIA visual arts. Students will explore a range of subject matter including studio activities and will consolidate their practical skills by examining cultural and historical contexts of De’VIA arts (including artwork by Deaf artists). In this section, students will focus on De’VIA arts appreciation. They will analyse art works and study aspects of Deaf artists from Canada and other parts of the world as well as study De’VIA art history. Within this course, students analyse, interpret, evaluate and examine a range of artwork from applied De’VIA design and fine arts to crafts by Deaf artists.
Note: De’VIA, (Deaf View Image Art) explores Deaf experience on a personal cultural or physical level using formal art elements. Many artworks instinctively or intentionally reflect De’VIA elements such as:
- Intense and contrasting colours
- contrasting textures and values
- emphasis on eyes, mouths, ears and hands
- motifs, metaphors, insights and perspectives of Deaf experience
This presents an opportunity for students to reflect on, explore and integrate their experiences as Deaf individuals and to express their experiences through art.
Reference: For a list of links, please click on “Visual Arts Resources”.
Overall Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- use appropriate visual arts and especially De’VIA terminology to describe art concepts, principles, styles, content, materials, and techniques;
- describe the impact of various historical and contemporary influences ( from both within the Deaf community and from the mainstream community) on Deaf artists’ artwork;
- produce original De’VIA art works, using a variety of materials, tools, processes, and technologies appropriately;
- evaluate their own De’VIA art works and those of others, demonstrating an understanding of the process of De’VIA critical analysis and providing grounds for their way of thinking, feelings including aesthetic judgements;
- analyse De’VIA art works in relation to their (both the Deaf artist’s and the student’s) background, cultural, social, political, and historical contexts;
- analyse ways in which cultural institutions (family, school, organizations, etc) shape our perception and understanding of De’VIA art;
- analyse the influence of De’VIA art on their lives and the surrounding community (including their family, school, local community);
- analyse career opportunities within visual arts & museum studies at the Deaf Culture Centre (curator, archivist, multimedia technician, multimedia producer, program liaison coordinator);
Specific Expectations
By the end of this course, students will:
- explain how the elements and principles of design reflected in a specific work of a Deaf artist support the De’VIA concepts and ideas;
- demonstrate an understanding of various aspects of the history and its influence and especially in the emergence of De’VIA;
- demonstrate an understanding of selected aspects of De’VIA architecture (e.g., Deaf Culture Centre’s bronze door handles, iconic images on the stairway medallions, visual openness through the use of glass throughout the space, marble materials used on countertops);
- describe the relationship between the works of Deaf artists of different periods and the political, social, and religious climates of those periods;
- describe examples of applied art from Deaf culture that have been influenced by new techniques and materials;
- identify style, content, and technique in the art works studied, and speculate on each artist’s intent.
- use images from different Deaf artists’ as source material for interpretation;
- analyse, identify and explain the narrative, symbolic, and conceptual aspects of De’VIA art;
- evaluate De’VIA arts both in writing and in ASL, following standard procedures in critical analysis (e.g., consider their initial reaction; describe the works using appropriate terminology; analyse and interpret the works; evaluate the effectiveness of the works);
- analyse and describe the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual influence that De’VIA art has on their lives and on their personal development as a Deaf person;
- compare examples of applied De’VIA design and De’VIA fine arts and other cultures that have similar stylistic qualities;
- describe how the same iconographic symbols are used in different cultures (e.g., the eye in De’VIA art and the eye in Egyptian art);
- demonstrate an understanding of the use of symbols in creative expression (e.g., “Family Dog” by Susan Dupor, “Audism” and “Cycle of Life” by Pamela Witcher, “Red Curtain” and “In Search of the Call” by Vanessa Vaughan);
- explain how De’VIA elements and the formal organization of visual content (mood, feelings and ideas) are used in both the creation and the evaluation of art works (the decisions and strategies used to communicate particular meanings, the effects of social, cultural, political and historical influences including Deaf artists’ personal beliefs and experiences, cultural preferences/social stereotypes and personal biases);
- explain how aspects of a Deaf artist’ specific works make them visually dynamic and thought provoking;
- analyse the impact of the Deaf Culture Centre in the way in which we (a range of consumers, Deaf, hearing, hearing with relationships to the Deaf community etc.) view and experience De’VIA art, focusing on social and political issues (e.g., the means by which collections have been created; the allotment of exhibition space; the ways in which various cultures are represented in collections).
