Cordelia Miller ’15, Student Assistant to the Curators, Summer 2013
One of the central aims of the exhibition The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections is to share how crucial physical artifacts are to learning and teaching. What do we mean by “objects”? For our purposes, “object” is a fairly broad category, meaning anything made by humans that can tell us important things about the culture it comes from and the people who made or used it. An object is only as significant as we decide it is; when people use objects and assign value to them—whether economic or sentimental—that’s when they become interesting! A Styrofoam cup reveals just as much about the culture it comes from as a Greek vase does, if we listen to what it has to tell us.
A museum’s job is to arrange objects in a way that tells a specific story, and to connect visitors with the culture and history these pieces represent. Museums are absolutely a cultural necessity, since it’s important for people of all ages—kids, adults, and everyone in between—to learn from physical objects instead of just from reading about the cultures they represent. Why? Because objects are fascinating! The scale of an object, whether giant or miniscule, is intriguing; the minute details visible on objects are also captivating. In museums especially, people are intrigued by objects because of their value—we know a curator specifically chose to display them for their cultural value, and that they probably have a high monetary value as well. Objects are also fascinating because of their histories—for example, the watercolor box that belonged to the painter Winslow Homer is captivating because of the wonderful paintings Homer produced with it.
We do not often take the time to think about Homer’s technique and process, and the paints he used to achieve specific visual effects; the paints also help us consider Homer as a living individual rather than an anonymous figure from the past. Actually taking a trip to a museum and marveling at the objects it contains is such a valuable learning experience that helps history, that of ordinary people as well as of artists, come alive.
According to the principles of Visual Thinking Strategies, a teaching process developed by Abigail Housen and Philip Yenawine, an instructor might begin teaching their students about a specific object by asking a simple question: “What do you see here?” and then have students back up their answers with visual evidence. By asking follow-up questions, such as “Why do you think the artist did that?” and letting students talk for an extended period of time in front of one piece, they can sharpen their observational skills and figure out why the object is interesting or significant.
This method can be used with any item on display in The Object Show, so let’s try one example: a fifteenth century French traveler’s box (late 15th century, 2008.8.a). This small wooden chest would have been used as a safe to carry valuables and important documents during travel. However, without knowing anything previously about this object, a viewer can still arrive at important and insightful conclusions, while building their own observational skills. Some immediate answers to “What do you see here?” could be: “A small box.” “It looks old.” “A picture of a man hanging on a cross, dripping blood; some cups; some dice; and some other objects, but I can’t tell what they are.” Often students may make guesses and try to draw conclusions from what they see, such as, “I think that might be Jesus,” or “This box might have been used to transport things,” or “The person who owned this must have been religious.” The teacher could then ask the viewers to back up their assertions with evidence; students could speculate that the iron fittings were meant to be attached to straps, or point to symbols like the cross, nails, blood, and crown of thorns to indicate Jesus. Especially for those who have any knowledge of art history, the cross is usually immediately recognizable as a Christian symbol. One element that might puzzle viewers at first glance is the print’s location inside the box—some questions an educator could ask would be, “Why is this image here? What function may it have had?”
At first glance, this strategy of inquiry-based teaching with physical objects might seem simplistic, but the processes of Visual Thinking Strategies force people to slow down and just…look. Today, we spend far too much time on the Internet looking for quick, easy answers to our queries, and sometimes we forget that there’s no substitute for face time with incredibly interesting human artifacts. These objects help us slow down, engage in meaningful ways with their past, and take ownership of their history as our own history.
Hennigar Shuh, John. “Teaching Yourself to Teach with Objects.” The Educational Role of the Museum. Ed. Eilean Hooper-Greenhill. London: Routledge, 1999.80-91. Web. <http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1025195.files/ 2011%20Version/Supplementary%20Readings/shuh.pdf>.
Housen, Abigail. “Eye of the Beholder: Research, Theory and Practice.” Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Lisbon, Portugal. 27-29 Sept. 1999. Web.
<http://www.vtshome.org/system/resources/0000/0006/ Eye_of_the_Beholder.pdf>.