Exploding the Canon || On a Frozen Fellow and Melding Media

National Art Education Association

On a Frozen Fellow and Melding MediaAuthor(s): David WheelerSource: Art Education, Vol. 49, No. 2, Exploding the Canon (Mar., 1996), pp. 6-15Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193596 .

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A t first it seemed an isolated event of little consequence. In

September, 1991, Erika and Helmut Simon, German hikers traversing a remote area in the Alps along the Austrian-Italian border, hurried to a

nearby refuge to report finding a human corpse, barely visible in a shal- low pool of dark glacial meltwater. Rapidly, however, their chance observation gusted into an international sensation as the facts became clear: the body was not that of a contemporary skier or mountaineer but instead dated from prehistory. Astonishingly, it proved to be the oldest, intact,

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Figure 1. Iceman model. Mixed media; life sized (5'3").

MARCH 1996 / ART EDUCATION

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Before an electrified world audi- ence, scientists radiocarbon-dated the corpse to 3,200 B.C.E., establishing beyond doubt that the wrinkled ambas- sador had indeed rested in his protec- tive nook in the rocks beneath a Tyrolean glacier for more than 5,000 years. His icy sleep had lasted through rise and fall of great civilizations; through crusades and 100-year reli- gious wars; through plagues, local con- flicts, and discoveries of new worlds; through periods of lassitude and renais- sance; through revolutions and world wars; through man's first landing on the moon. Finally freed from refrigera- tion, the "Iceman," with his attendant tool bag, clothing, bits of food, and ingenious mountain gear, afforded archaeologists, paleo-anatomists, and even mycologists a remarkably clear glimpse into the previously hazy world of the Late Neolithic in Central Europe. For those scientists it was the discovery of a lifetime.

It was a fortuitous find for me, as well, for I had long sought such a figure, such a wondrous central attraction to serve as a rallying point for a large- scale, multidistrict, interdisciplinary art project. Here I found the exact man for the job, ready-made to galvanize my brief encounters with students visited in irregular rotation.

As an itinerant arts education spe- cialist, I had learned from earlier experiences that students at various schools spread over a large region cannot long sustain interest in contributing compo- nent parts to a complex project without a clearly defined nucleus. I had come to recognize the need for a striking, enig- matic focus around which to organize their efforts. The Iceman was the per- fect solution-a grisly but undeniably attractive guide figure for an extended exploration into the particular circum-

believe that artists should routinely ask students to journey to "places" of real interest, to points in the interior, to high plateaus....

stances and environment of this myste- rious time traveler; into the nature of daily life in Central Europe in 3,200 B.C.E.; and into the world of the Late Neolithic Period.

Too, I felt fortunate to find in the Iceman a providential metaphor: here was a figure who (like us!) lived at a piv- otal point in human history, almost cer- tainly engulfed in the ongoing explosion of new technologies, settlement patterns, heightened perspectives, and new forms of worship. Perhaps important inferences might be gleaned from his responses to a myste- rious new world.

And, finally, I delighted in the prospect of unexpected bonuses lying in wait as I involved myself with this eerie resource from beyond. Could not this wizened ancient surprise me just as he consistently surprised his seasoned examiners? I little doubted the Iceman's ability to redraw the narrow parameters of the puppet show, but could he take me far beyond, serving as other-worldly shaman into a new approach to art education? By coordi- nating students as sculptors, actors, narrators, puppet artists, and technical personnel, the Iceman Project could communicate information in a new way: part sculpture, part seminar in cultural history, part theatre-a "living" museum exhibit created in large part by children for their peers.

For scientists the frozen man and his remarkable tool kit instantly revolu- tionized certain perceptions of life in 3,200 B.C.E. It seemed reasonable to

think that in the mountain man's timeless whispers might be found resound- ing suggestions for educators as well-the discovery of a lifetime, indeed.

DRAWING THE LINES I conceived of the Iceman Project as

a two-year endeavor that would engage students in grades three through eight in developing an installation/performance work. My goal was to illuminate the discovery and analysis of the Iceman, his suspected origins and community, and the wide diversity of world cultures at that time, such as the aboriginal Australian, the Proto-Eskimo, the Ban-po in what is now China, and the Paleo-Indian in North America.

Construction would include a life- size re-creation of the Iceman's desic- cated body, models of all artifacts found at the site, a full-size version of the Iceman as he may have appeared in life, and fourteen backdrops in low relief to serve as host scenery for hand puppets portraying natives of various cultures. Once assembled, these components would constitute the touring work which would be brought to life by additional students at new locations.

THE REPLICATION OF THE CORPSE

Work on the project began in January, 1993, at the Hartland School in Latham, New York, a small school for dyslexic elementary students. With its emphasis on art as an alternative learn-

I ART EDUCATION / MARCH 1996



ing matrix, the school provided a con- ducive atmosphere for replicating the Iceman's body. Over the course of 16 sessions, I led 13 industrious students in the creation of a wooden armature, a wire-and-plaster "musculature," and in the application of the clay surface that approximated the appearance of the corpse.

Working from videotapes of the Iceman on an operating table in Austria, we coaxed as realistic a copy as

possible from our art materials. Once satisfied with the model, I transported the figure to my studio for a final skin of fiberglass-reinforced polyester resin, a lightweight but strong material which would lend the figure durability. The Iceman, dormant for millennia, could now purvey, in model form at least, his influence in the classrooms of upstate New York (Figure 1).

THE-WORK IN PROGRESS "Anything dead," said a teacher at a

subsequent school, appraising the com-

Figure 2. Models of the Iceman's clothing and tools.

Mixed materials; life-sized.

motion wrought by the model of the leathery man. Perhaps she was right; perhaps morbid fascination was the ini- tial drawing card (although never my intention). But there were other cards to be played, and I carried the confi- dence that the electrical charge occasioned by the mummy would shortly boost responses to the figure, especially as students were assigned the responsibility of creating for others new perceptions of the Iceman and all he had to offer.

My itinerary fanned out from the Hartland School, and over the next 12 months I worked with approximately 300 students to develop supplementary components. In workshops at schools, museums, and art centers in the Capitol District, the Adirondacks, and the Utica area, student artists found themselves caught in the updraft of the Iceman's miraculous tenure in the glacier and acted as eager contributors to the grow- ing number of project pieces.

Over and over the process was repeated: I would send ahead of my visit reprints of magazine articles and a videotape detailing the discovery and analysis of the Iceman. Upon arriving at a new host site I would build on this introduction by showing students the replica of the corpse and any other materials already completed. Then I would help the young people to develop their assigned components. Thus the replication of the Iceman's gear (Figure 2), the 40 or so puppets, and the 14 backdrops were added to the work.

Working with plastercraft, wood, and cloth, students assembled the hand puppets portraying representatives of the various world cultures active in




Figure 3. Sumerian stone carver rod puppet; plaster-

craft, wood, and cloth; 12"high.

3,200 B.C.E., depicting a Sumerian stone carver, for example, an Egyptian celebrant, or a South Sea islander, cap- tain of an early outrigger (Figures 3, 4).

The backdrops were first modeled in clay, shaped from polyurethane foam, or assembled from found objects. Portraying a Chinchorro settlement in what is now Chile, a field of huge stone monuments at Carnac, or a village on an Aegean island (Figure 5), the students roughed in the scenes and worked the imagery to its final state of readiness for the application of the fiberglass (applied in my studio).

All of the participants left their own marks, helping on a small scale to establish the appearance of the work, blending their own skills with the efforts of others they would never meet. The melding of media, disci- plines, and enthusiastic co-workers was succeeding, all because of the magnet- ism of the mummy, an attraction which never failed.

All that was left to complete by June, 1994, was to replicate the Iceman as he may have appeared in life. This figure would be the capstone, the culmination of this mutual effort to bring the cadaver to "life." Middle school students at Sage Junior College of Albany's sum- mer art program were more than happy to do the work (Figure 6). Over a three- week period we first crafted an armature from chicken wire (pressing it over the body of a student with dimen- sions nearly identical to the Iceman's) and then molded the body and clothed it in plaster, relying on a recent news report that detailed the climactic efforts of the scientists engaged in recon-

Figure 4. Early Eskimo kayaker rod puppet; plaster-

craft, wood, and leather; 8" high.

structing the Iceman's attire. As with the other pieces, the "living Iceman" was coated in resins out of the presence of the students.

POST-PRODUCTION PERFORMANCES

In September, 1994, the work moved into its final phase, in which new students in new settings learned of the Iceman via the magazines and videotape and then worked with me to present performances for teachers, parents, and peers.

A 40-minute performance of the work typically involves a core group of 30 to 40 well-rehearsed students who narrate the story, act out certain scenes, operate the puppets, and serve

as art directors, prop masters, and light- ing and sound personnel. Live acting made up the opening scenes as students in the roles of Helmut and Erika Simon and local authorities discover, extricate, and transport the Iceman to a lab in Austria. Further interpreting the words of the narrator, additional student actors next portrayed the team of archaeologists examining the Iceman and poring over his tools and clothing.

The scene then shifted to the 14 backdrops for an examination of the state of the world in 3,200 B.C.E. After the narrator's brief introduction to each scene, the puppet artists (two or three per scene) portrayed the origination of Chinese written language (evolved from marks connoting ownership on

I ART EDUCATION / MARCH 1996



early Ban-po pottery), the engineering involved in raising monoliths at Carnac, the attachment of stone points to shafts in aboriginal Australia, man's first use of the wheel in Sumeria, and the domestication of primitive crops at the Koster site in Illinois (Figure 7). The puppet activity is accompanied by a sound track, music that was on occa- sion supplied by music students under the direction of their teacher.

The work concluded with an unveil-

ing of the "living Iceman" model, a revelation which serves a major goal of archaeology, which is to draw a portrait of the living ancestor.

CRITIQUE The Iceman Project succeeded in

many ways. It expanded the parameters of the "puppet show"; for teachers, students, and artist/coordinator it worked extremely well as a large-scale,

multidistrict project; it taught participants the value of cooperation; and it successfully synthesized art, science, and cultural history within an original multimedia format.

In addition, the project was my con- stant tutor. From the onset I watched its development to discern more clearly issues central to melding the components of a multimedia project in the stewpot of student collaboration. Some of my observations are:

Figure 5. Ban-po Culture pottery makers, rod puppets;

plastercraft, wood, and cloth; 6" high.

a. The implementation of both the construction and performance phases of the project was most effec- tive when preceded by a week-long focus on the Iceman by all depart- ments just prior to my visit. Art teachers pictured man's earliest cre- ations. The science teachers dis-

cussed the goals of archaeology, radiocarbon dating, tree-ring analysis. Math teachers could delve into the improbability of the Iceman's body being preserved and found. History teachers described the time line and prehistoric world cultures.

b. Conversely, there were instances of teachers and adminis- trators making no effort to cooper- ate, to study the potential of the project ahead of time and imagine its best applications. This problem was generally caused by low expecta- tions of the Artists-in-Schools pro- gramming caused by bad experiences with ill-prepared or uninspiring artists. Thus two needs become apparent: more opportuni- ties for artists to train for the demands of the short residency and an obligation on the part of artists to prepare well-conceived exercises in matters of excitement and import. I believe that artists should routinely ask students to journey to "places" of real interest, to points in the interi- or, to high plateaus where hard-won impressions may be bagged.

c. Like members of an orchestra, students in collaborative multimedia projects should be viewed as "inside" the evolving work at hand and thus as particularly susceptible to object lessons in organization. From within a properly framed project come elegant, subtle sensations of the nature and power of composition, of the beauty and value of design. To optimize teaching, there- fore, multimedia projects-especially in their planning stages-need to ben- efit from the same principles that structure any successful creation. Balance, rhythm, organization of parts, proportion, emphasis, and




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scale must be judiciously consid- ered.

d. I learned that the Iceman Project would have most benefited students as an object lesson in inspi- ration, would have most clearly explained the mysteries of planning and composition, would have best acquainted young people with the full sweep of the creative act had I been less of a director. I discovered that the project could have unfolded largely on its own, children vigor- ously grafting "skin," adolescents modeling dioramas, the creation self-generating at this point on the

sonal visions, always "inside" the project. Most importantly, they see the creation as wholly their own.

e. Performance art-that curious hybrid of visual arts, theatre, litera- ture, and music-calls for a talent in "lashing" since the joining of parts is crucial. To look to present performance art for examples, however, is to find a largely fallow field, for the genre is mannered and decayed, too eccentric and ego-involved, too bro- ken down to yield much of interest to teachers and artists working in tandem. Further, its self-conscious attempts to shock are performed for

Because we, too, are at a crossroads, the Icemar

(One can even discover such a guide in the tool kit of the Iceman.)

THE LEGACY OF THE MAN IN ICE These are the lessons of the Iceman

Project, lessons collected over 18 months, learned from materials and media, from teachers and students. I had one more lesson to learn, however, a revelation of the intangibles awaiting those who explore exotic subjects out- side the usual realms of art.

The Iceman lived at a time when the old was rapidly giving way to the new. Equipped with copper, a miraculous new metal, farmers and hunter-gather- ers in Central Europe were exiting the

Stone Age as all over the world humankind

is

especially appealing as a metaphor, a symbol of humanity poised before new horizons at the Millennium.

strength of the original conception and planning.

I see now that the opportunity existed for students to create a pow- erful, original work solely crafted by their own hands (within my guide- lines). I participated too directly in writing the narrator's script and in fiberglassing the figures and dioramas. Student writers and a non-toxic substitute for the resins seem obvious, crucial ingredients now. The trick lies in trusting the conception and in leaving young artists alone. Such a mature approach provides many benefits. Students can play the major role in a large-scale project. They can work freely, ever generating imagery and adding their per-

LEFT: Figure 6. "Living Icemen"; mixed media; life sized (5'3").

a society heady with love of division, conflict, polarity, discord.

In learning to meld media, teachers and artists are well advised to look to masters of the "mystic seam" like the Baga of Guinea, the Maori, the Athabaskan, the Chinchorro. These ancestral peoples, in their rites and ceremonies, fluidly inter- laced carving, music, storytelling, and dance with the beneficial sinew of sacred beliefs. From a study of the culture of pre-contact Eskimos, for example, we learn that the seam can sometimes be more important than that which it joins, that there is genius in transition, that there are certain taboos involved in attaching. In their song fests, joking partner- ships, and rites lies a field guide to the natural integration of forms.

gathered momentum for the rise to civilizations great and small. Spurred by the development of cuneiform writing and the wheel in Sumeria, by the evolu-

tion of Nubian culture, by new inven- tions in Asia, humanity was leaving the old ways in the dust as it began creating temples of stone, great walled cities, modem technologies, and new forms of worship.

Because we, too, are at a crossroads, the Iceman is especially appealing as a metaphor, a symbol of humanity poised before new horizons at the Millennium. As the Information Age revolutionizes the very nature of human intercommu- nications, so did technology vastly stretch perspectives in 3,200 B.C.E. The Iceman's copper-headed hand axe and our laptop computers tie us togeth- er as earnest human beings seeking new paths.

This similarity was obvious to me




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from the beginning and was shared with many of the project's participants. However, it was not until late into the project, in idle moments, that I began to hear the Iceman's whispers, faint and yet succinct suggestions of new forms of perception and response.

In my involvement with the mummy and his puppet minions, I long over- looked the obvious: that in the Iceman's struggle for survival, in his ingenious tool kit, in his embrace of the mysteri- ous new copper are found exact paral-

lels to a child's drive to establish place, to gain in independence, and to absorb new thinking. In the Iceman we find exactly the pursuits of children every- where. The Iceman-so clearly a player in the dawn of civilization; children-so clearly at play in matters of their own enculturation. The Iceman-present at humanity's enlarging consciousness; children-courageous rovers in their own right, in hot pursuit of full aware- ness, of positions in a society ever developing.

Finally I saw children's fascination

with dinosaurs, cavemen, and now an iceman, indeed with all matters prehistoric, for what it is-not a morbid interest in the dead, not a gravitation toward brute strength, not even the modem strains of the call of the wild, but instead a spirited identification with fellow "lower forms," that plodding pro- cession of beasts and early humans inching along on a demanding upward spiral. It is a fascination with proto- types, rising up from all fours, strug- gling mightily for survival, for ever greater intellectual grasp. I saw an earnest identification with the desire for sustenance, light, and air, with a kin-

_ ART EDUCATION / MARCH 1996

V

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dred drive all the more clearly revealed for being so far removed. It is, in short, a handshake with anything aboriginal, not just with "anything dead."

It came as quite a shock to learn that I had not been hauling around from school to school a "wondrous central attraction serving as rallying point for a large- scale multidistrict project." Rather, for children, it was a somewhat withered charter mem- ber of an underground alliance. I had been lugging a children's totem.

Just as the Iceman was discovered by chance observation, so had the success of the project been occasioned, beyond design, by an accidental lashing, a lucky connection to secret things long established, to deeply held associ- ations carried in the psyche of all

new beings wanting to grow. But was the Iceman, this melted

ancient aspirant, trying to tell me even more? Only in the final stages did I hear the faint suggestions that wait- ing for us to discover are startling, all- inclusive themes for children, themes noteworthy in their breadth of reach, themes energetic and expansive, themes gentle and supportive in their poignant address of the timeless per- sonal concerns facing our young people. Such bold and touching new themes may serve as midwives in the generation of altogether new forms of art education.

At last I decoded the Iceman's message. He speaks of new initiation rites, ceremonies in clay and paint, film and music, ingenious projects in the very stuff of passage-not trials by fire for the young, but trials by vig- orous participation in demanding designs, in conceptual projects highly

refined, in grand and imaginative apprenticeships in the heartfelt matters of rising up.

Over five millennia the Iceman calls for a clearer understanding of the clan of the child; for the unearthing of important themes, visionary in their grasp of the secret society of children and keyed to their totems, for projects which support each child's right to a meaningful passage into the community of man. In the end, the Iceman's quiet call is a gentle request from an icy stranger for new treatments of what it means to be a soul on Earth, charged with evo- lution.

David Wheeler is a sculptor and per- forming artist who has conducted over 60 artist-in-the-school residencies in New York, Alaska, Louisiana, and Colorado.

OPPOSITE PAGE and

LEFT: Figure 7.

Performance rehearsal,

New York State Museum,

1995.




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