Visual Learning Conference

Saturday, September 29, 2012
3:30-5:00 PM, WCC 230

John Barr, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Ithaca College
Lauren O'Connell, Professor, Department of Art History, Ithaca College
Jennifer Germann, Assistant Professor, Department of Art History, Ithaca College

“iPad Paris” is an educational application built by an interdisciplinary team of Ithaca College faculty and students.  Our project seeks to transform a study abroad course on French art and politics into a more dynamic and integrative learning experience by interweaving insights from several contemporary discourses:  the emerging field of digital humanities, the visual turn in liberal arts education, experiential pedagogies for the 21st century learner, and the mobile-device revolution in personal computing.  Our presentation outlined the project’s objectives, the collaborative design process that brought it to fruition, and its relevance to a range of disciplines seeking to harness “the visual” for new pathways to understanding.

Lauren O'Connell's training is in the history of architecture and urbanism (Ph.D. Cornell University) with research focus on France and Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Her scholarship explores architecture as a medium of cultural encounter, the history of attitudes toward the architectural past, the writings of architect Viollet-le-Duc, and the architectural evolution of Paris. Her teaching engages her with architecture around the world; recent projects include the study of pre-industrial "green" building principles (Architecture Across Cultures) and the incorporation of 3-D computer modeling in “Great Spaces,” an introductory course in the history of Urban Design. In summer 2010 Professors Germann and O'Connell led a successful short-term study abroad course called "Art and Politics in Paris: Reading Power in Space and Image."  In 10 intensive days the group visited palaces, public spaces, and museum collections great and small, exploring ways in which visual images and environments have historically been used to express and contest claims to power. The pilot course will be offered again in summer of 2013, integrating the custom iPad application to be featured in the team’s Visual Learning Conference talk.

John Barr has been teaching Computer Science at Ithaca College for 21 years.  He has an eclectic background, including a BS in Political Science from M.I.T., an MS in Computer Information Systems from Boston University and a PhD in Computer Science from The Pennsylvania State University.  John’s work in digital humanities began in the mid 1990’s with projects such as Virtual Voyagers (with Lauren O’Connell), a series of Quicktime VR (virtual reality) movies that placed students in the midst of famous squares in Europe and Japan.  Other projects included the virtualization of an archeology dig site, interactive multimedia applications for teaching humanities, and a project that attempted to let students “jump into” classic paintings.  Current projects include re-envisioning visual education in the liberal arts through mobile applications (iPad Paris); the development of a social networking web site (think Facebook) centered on document annotation (think Kindle books) and supplemented with serious analytic tools as a modern approach on the textbook (Classroom Salon); empowering psychological counseling through ubiquitous technology  (idiagnose); and using geographic information systems to teach computation to humanities faculty and students.

Jennifer Germann’s teaching and research engages questions about the intersection of gender, power, and representation in early modern France and in the contemporary world (Ph.D. Art History, UNC Chapel Hill).  She has published essays on the art patronage of Queen Anne of Austria (1601-1666), the representation of Queen Marie Leszczinska (1703-1768), consort of Louis XV, and Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), the royal mistress; most recently she has written on the life and career of Marie-Éléonore Godefroid (1778-18), a female portrait painter who worked with Napoleon’s first painter, François Gérard. Professor Germann’s courses take a visual culture approach to images and representations from past and present. The classes most relevant to the Paris study abroad trip are "Imaging Authority," which examines the portrayal of historical and contemporary political figures, “Gender and Visual Culture," which considers representation in light of identity, and “The Invention of Art, 1500-1800,” which investigates the development of the early modern European conception of art. Professor Germann most looks forward to returning to Paris with the iPad app and generating new ideas for the exploration of the history of this exciting city.

Moderator:

Stephanie Cox
Visiting Assistant Professor of French, Carleton College