Gabriel F

Com traços simples, cores vivas e uma alegria singela, Jaco Haasbroek ilustra objetos do dia a dia com tanta graça que não dá pra não sorrir. Lâmpada, sofá, cebola e pimenta ficam muito mais divertidos!

(via)

Street artist and illustrator Daan Botlek is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands and is known for his strange form of character-driven street art. His generally simplistic, site-specific figures often interact with the space around them, passing in and out of unseen dimensions, shedding skin in the process. Kind of like morbid Keith Haring, no? You can see much more of his work over on Flickr. (via Lustik)

Back in April we took a peek inside the near complete transformation by fifty street artists of the Les Bains nightclub prior to its demolition. Included in that post was an image of an incomplete work by graffiti artist Le Module de Zeer. The sprawling organic work seems to split the room in two as various forms dominate the walls, ceiling and floor. Watch the video by Yann Rineau to see the piece come together through to completion.

Smoke Bombs, 2008

Color Wheels, 2012

Smoke Bombs 3, 2013

Firey Eye, 2013

Smoke Bombs 2, 2011

Swiss visual artist Olaf Breuning places no limits on his medium of choice, expressing his artistic vison through peformance art, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation and film. My favorite of his work are these precisely staged photos of various smoke bombs, fireworks and other colorful objects arranged on a loose framework. The pieces have occasionally been lit as part of a “happening” such as his site-specific smoke installation at Station to Station in New York. You can see much more of his photography and other art over on his website, and see a brief interview with him courtesy of the Avant/Garde Diaries.

If you happen to be in London over the next few weeks I strongly urge you to stop by Beers Contemporary Art for Contemporary Visions IV, the gallery’s 4th annual open-call group exhibition juried by Andrew Salgado, Cathy Willis, Kurt Beers, and myself. From nearly 1,500 entries we selected nine artists from six countries including Youngbin Choi, Antoine Donzeaud, Elisabetta Falanga, Catalin Geana, Hyunjeong Lim, Vojtech Mica, Luke Turner, Carl White, and Phil Woodward. Via Beers Contemporary:

The variety of the work is striking, yet even through their unique methods and mediums, the selected artists exhibit a desire to question traditional modes of artistic consumption. Here, notions of aesthetics and the politics of looking are always under scrutiny. Many of the works offer reinterpretations of art historical canon, simultaneously venerating and veering away from their antiquated source material. One senses a reverence for historical precedent, as well as a drive to reinvent contemporary ideas of artistic practice. Also of significance are the themes of fantasy and transformation. Through metamorphosis of the human figure (and the spaces it inhabits), these artists challenge preconceived notions of artistic authority, and pave the way for a new understanding of the impact of contemporary art.

Contemporary Visions IV will run through December 21, 2013, so check it out.

Greece Santorini

Taupo, Waikato, NZ

New Zealand

Muriwai, Auckland, NZ

Motuoapa, Waikato, NZ

If I had to spend the rest of my life trapped inside a photograph, there’s a good chance I might flip through a stack of photographs by Andrew Smith (previously) to make a selection. Smith shoots mostly in locations around his home in New Zealand where he captures breathtaking oceanside landscapes both in and out of water. Smith photographs almost exclusively with a Nikon D800 and then processes his images in Adobe Lightroom, something he documents in detail on his Before and After Lightroom Blog. These are some of my favorite shots from the last year or so, but you can see hundreds of additional photos by Smith over on Flickr.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Frank Lloyd Wright. Icing, gingerbread, cotton candy, candy wrappers, licorice, sugar.

Karuizawa Museum, Nagano, Yasui Hideo. Chocolate, gingerbread, hard candy, cotton candy, sour flush.

The Louvre, Paris, I.M.Pei. Gingerbread, hard candy, licorice.

Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, Neutelings Riedijk Architects. Gingerbread, lego candy, hard candy, sesame candy, chocolate, bubble gum, sour rolls.

Maxxi – National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, Rome, Zaha Hadid. Gingerbread, hard candy, lollipop sticks.

Museo Soumaya, Mexico City, Fernando Romero. Candy balls, gingerbread, sour rolls, taffy.

Tate Modern, London, Herzog & de Meuron. Gingerbread, hard candy, cotton candy, bubble gum.

Recently completed for display at Dylan’s Candy Bar during Art Basel Miami, these towering architectural creations of the world’s most famous art museums and galleries were created with gingerbread and candy by food artists Caitlin Levin and Henry Hargreaves. An array of hard candy windows forms the iconic pyramid extension at the Louvre, while icing and gingerbread form the smooth curves of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Some of the iconic structures are so immaculately detailed that once photographed in black and white they almost look like the real thing. You can see more behind the scenes photos here.

Erin Whittaker via Grand Canyon National Park

Mayberry Photography

Mayberry Photography

Mayberry Photography

Mayberry Photography

Mayberry Photography

Last week on November 29th the Grand Canyon experienced a rare temperature inversion where cool air began to rise from the bottom of the canyon and met warm air above creating low level clouds. Apparently this type of thing happens once or twice a year, but almost never with clear skies which provided an unprecedented once-in-a-decade view of the canyon filled to the rim with fog. Several photographers were on hand including Ben Mayberry who captured some amazing panoramic shots, and Paul Lettieri managed to shoot a timelapse of the event. (via My Modern Met)

It’s fascinating to know while looking at these desaturated images of the Czech Bohemian Forest that the person who shot them, Cologne-based photographer Kilian Schönberger, is color blind. One can’t help but wonder if the condition leads to a greater appreciation for light and composition present in these mysterious, fog-soaked landscapes. That said, these particular monochromatic photos from Schönberger’s Cloud Forest series are more of an exception, as he generally shoots in full color, but the results are equally as magical. You can see much more of his work over on Facebook and Behance. (via Faith is Torment)

Visual artist SUSO33, known for his abstract human forms comprised of quick gestural lines, recently painted this large-scale mural in Madrid depicting a hundred or so of his figures gathering to form a large one. If you liked this, also check out the work of Craig Alan. All photos courtesy Vandal Voyeur. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

As part of his latest project NHDK, photographer Víctor Enrich challenged himself to digitally reconfigure the same building in Munich, Germany in 88 different configurations. The Barcelona-based artist is known for his warped and skewed interpretations of architecture in locations around the world including an extensive series of images shot in Tel Aviv back in 2010. All of the photos are avilable as prints which you can pickup on his website. (thnx, Nacho!)

New York-based photographer Sean Lynch was in Nepal in September and captured these surreal, infrared photographs of Nepal. The photos were taken in the Annapurna Himalayan Range but their unique, reddish quality makes them look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cat in the Hat fall out of the sky with a loud “Bump.” You can see the entire set over on his tumblr site dorialusium.

O Roger Franchini é ex-investigador de polícia e escritor, autor dos romances policiais “Ponto Quarenta – a polícia para leigos”, “Toupeira – a história do assalto ao Banco Central”, “Richthofen – o assassinato dos pais de Suzane” e “Amor Esquartejado”. Se, assim como a gente, você também acompanha os blogs de denúncias internas da polícia e entende muito pouco, regozije-se as colaborações dele aqui no site.

Um helicóptero despeja bombas em lugares miseráveis. Poderia ser a descrição de uma magnífica passagem do filme Apocalipse Now, não fossem policiais militares de São Paulo os pilotos da aeronave e Jardim Brasil, zona norte da Capital, o cenário do espetáculo. Um estratagema de guerra aplicado à população civil para dispersar a patuleia que manifestava contra, ironicamente, a violência da própria PM.

A secretaria de segurança pública se defendeu, dizendo que não se tratava de napalm, mas somente bombas de efeito moral (sempre me vêm à cabeça um artefato que enfrenta a multidão com questões de abissal filosofia sobre sexo, religiosidade, o sagrado e o profano).

Com o aumento das manifestações populares este ano, o debate sobre o fim da violência da polícia se intensificou. E, com a mesma velocidade, concluiu-se que a característica militar das polícias ostensivas brasileiras seria a causa de tamanha brutalidade. O bordão “a PM é formada e treinada para combater o inimigo em uma guerra” tornou-se um argumento de questionamento proibido. Portanto, a solução seria sua desmilitarização.

O debate já começou errado. Até agora, pelo menos, não há um conceito satisfatório de “militarização” das polícias que justifique as mudanças pretendidas pela Proposta de Emenda Constitucional 51. A rígida hierarquização? A obediência às severas normas disciplinares poderia abalar a psique do soldado? Corre-se o risco de cuidar da febre com quimioterapia, por não se saber qual é a doença.

O superficial argumento de “má formação” do policial não sustenta. Fosse assim, bastaria trocar a grade curricular das academias. Na prática, as escolas policiais são instituições tão humanistas quanto qualquer outra. Aliás, uma piada comum para assustar recrutas é a velha “o que se aprende na academia deve ser esquecido nas ruas”. O problema é maior e mais vergonhoso porque envolve nossa responsabilidade. O escândalo da corrupção sempre está no outro, nunca em nós.

Para esclarecer o mito da militarização, entenda que o padrão mundial de segurança pública compõe-se de duas etapas: a primeira, ostensiva, que age preventivamente para evitar que o crime aconteça, patrulhando ruas de modo visível. Acredita-se que a mera sensação de sua presença é fator importante para que delitos não aconteçam. É essa a nossa PM. A segunda, entra em ação quando a primeira falha, ou seja, depois que o crime acontece. Esta, à paisana, é a policia responsável pela investigação que elucidará a autoria do crime, as polícias civis (ou federal, a depender da natureza do crime).

Afirmam que unir essas duas etapas em uma mesma instituição e torná-la “civil” seria o suficiente para o fim dos abusos. O consenso geral acredita existir uma ideologia inata de ódio e desumanização dos policiais militares contra o cidadão, fruto do ambiente castrense a que são submetidos. Será?

Nos países europeus, há corpos policiais responsáveis pelo policiamento ostensivo das ruas: as Gendarmaria, sendo a italiana Carabinieri a mais conhecida. Todas são independentes de outros órgãos policiais e, assim como nossas PMs, têm a estrutura de treinamento militar. Um enorme contingente de homens fortemente armados que, mesmo batendo continência, são um exemplo de instituição democrática.

Acabar com as PMs brasileiras significará, unicamente, apagar um nome pomposo. Porque permanecerá a proteção do cometimento de crimes por policiais quando o objetivo é combater o crime. Os governadores, autorizados pela opinião pública, incentivam a prática de desvios de conduta de seus polícias se o intuito for manter a ordem. Mas quando essa conduta é utilizada contra a classe média e seus usuais componentes, ela exige respostas rápidas para deixar de ser a vítima do problema, pouco se importando com seu grau de responsabilidade na questão.

As polícias brasileiras nunca foram órgãos a serviço do Estado, mas servem, tão somente, aos governos estaduais que as comandam. E os governos não são abstratos, como é o Estado. Ele tem identidade, cara e origem, nome e genealogia. A polícia que se deseja não pode continuar sendo o braço armado do governador para se manter no poder, blindando a ele e seus pares de escândalos e indiciamentos. Hoje, não há um PM ou delegado com bola no saco suficiente para registrar um boletim de ocorrência contra os membros do governo, por mais hediondo que seja o crime. Em troca, podem corromper-se com autorização velada.

Militar ou civil, enquanto autorizarmos que as polícias estejam submetidas aos humores do grupo que detém o poder, de nada importa se ela é formada em quartéis ou universidades. O gatilho da arma que dispara no Jardim Brasil é tão sensível quanto aquele que patrulha o Itaim Bibi.

Siga o Roger Franchini no Twitter: @franchini

Anteriormente - Entre Mortos e Feridos, Grampeamos Todos

Kumi Hirasaka ficou famoso no mundo todo porque escolheu um objeto que as pessoas não prestam atenção, e transformou isso em personagens! Como? Desenhando rostos de Kokeshis (essas bonecas japonesas) em palitos de fósforo. Você abre a caixinha e encontra um time de novos amigos! :D

(achei aqui!)

 

Fotografar o filho é coisa que toda mãe quer fazer. E registrar cenas inusitadas, então, é o sonho de qualquer uma! Se juntar essa vontade ao dom artístico, o resultado só podem ser clicks bem divertidos, como esses feitos pela artista (e mãe!) Amber Wheeler.

A produção foi simples: ela vestiu seu pequeno com peças de roupas brancas, fez as poses, fotografou e, depois, montou os cenários com a ajuda de um programa básico de ilustração. No fim, ficaram essas cenas incríveis!

(via)

O Pedro (esse menino querido aí na foto) acorda e escolhe um disco para ouvir enquanto toma café da manhã. Paulo, o pai do Pedro, tira uma foto e coloca no instagram. E a gente delira! Dá uma olhada:

Gostou? Você também pode participar, é só tirar uma foto com o seu disco preferido enquanto toma café da manhã e marcar com #umcafeeumdisco no instagram! Até eu já entrei na brincadeira! : )

 

Trilogia escrita pelo publicitário PJ Pereira (da Pereira & O’Dell), que dá vida a personagens como Ogum, Xangô, Oxóssi e Oxum, e se unem à pessoas do nosso tempo para resgatar os 16 príncipes do destino, imprimindo requinte e originalidade à mitologia africana dos orixás. Trailer produzido pela Laundry (L.A.), com trilha sonora de Otto e Pupillo (Nação Zumbi), participação especial de Andreas Kisser (Sepultura) e narração de Gilberto Gil. Veja o trailler e espere o lançamento oficial do primeiro livro da trilogia – “O Livro do Silêncio”, nas livrarias de todo o Brasil a partir de 25 de novembro.

Ensino flipado é um método em que, ao invés de aula na escola e lição em casa, a aula é em casa e a lição é na escola.

O aluno assiste as aulas online, em casa e no seu próprio ritmo. Pode pausar, voltar trechos, acessar links. Depois todos se encontram na escola para experimentar na prática o que aprenderam e tirar as dúvidas. O professor, oficialmente, passa a ensinar ao invés de papagaiar a matéria.

Existem várias pistas de que a técnica é boa. As novas gerações já estão muito acostumadas ao consumo online de todo tipo de conteúdo. Pesquisam na internet, conversam pelo Skype, socializam pelo Facebook. É absolutamente natural. O fato das aulas online serem gravadas pelo próprio professor da turma, facilita ainda mais a experiência, como se estivessem de fato no mesmo ambiente.

A Academia Khan e o “Hole in The Wall” (computadores deixados em áreas carentes onde as crianças aprendem sozinhas, sem qualquer instrução) são bons exemplos.

A “terceirização” da entrega da matéria que pode ser consumida em ritmos diferentes ajuda a resolver um grande problema que é a diferença de velocidades entre alunos da mesma turma. Todos chegam para o presencial na mesma página, e o tempo que cada um levou não faz diferença.

E quando estão todos juntos, um aluno pode ajudar ao outro, criando um ambiente de aprendizado e de ensino coletivo (não há melhor maneira de aprender do que ensinando).

O aluno aprende a matéria e, principalmente, como aprender sozinho. Essa é a melhor parte, habilidade fundamental para um futuro bastante próximo.

Enfim, sempre criticamos (eu, pelo menos) as instituições de ensino por aqui. O mesmo respeito crescente que tenho pelos que ensinam, tem diminuido pelas organizações onde o ensino acontece, geralmente atrasadíssimas. Achei que valia a pena dar alguns exemplos como esse, da aula flipada, que é simples e genial ao mesmo tempo.

A única brecha que eu sempre fico pensando em sistemas como esse, com mais autonomia para os alunos, é a questão da auto disciplina necessária para funcionar.

Será que eles têm?

Como um aluno, sozinho em casa, vai conseguir ter concentração e vontade para sentar e assistir a aula, se bem alí ao lado tem o video game, a TV e o Facebook?

No fim acho que a revolução na educação vai precisar ter uma atenção especial em como desenvolver essa habilidade. De novo, a parte comportamental, sempre ela. Eu, como pai e home worker, confesso que não sei como vai ser.

Talvez como sempre foi: medo e/ou encantamento.

SE VOCÊ FOSSE UM ESTUDANTE E PUDESSE CRIAR O JEITO IDEAL DE APRENDER, COMO SERIA?

Encontrei essas perguntas imaginadas pelo Professor Tim Cigelske. Acho que são a base do questionamento da necessária e urgente revolução no ensino.

01. Para que aprender? Para você mesmo? Para passar no vestibular? Para arrumar um emprego? Por curiosidade?

02. Que tipo de coisas aprenderia?  Fatos? Fórmulas? Conceitos? Ideias? Maneiras de se pensar?

03. Quem ensinaria? Professor? Cada hora um convidado diferente? Escritores? Online? Você mesmo?

04. Qual o método? Aula tradicional? Discussões? Perguntas e Respostas? Pesquisa? Auto-didatismo?

05. Quando aprenderia? No seu ritmo? No ritmo de outros?

06. Onde aprenderia? Sala de aula? Fora da sala? Passeando? Viajando? Em casa?

Se você respondeu pensando em você, imagine agora pensando em alguma criança (filho, filha, sobrinho, etc).

Um dia ainda vamos todos (pessoas, organizações, governos, planeta) perceber que estudar para passar no vestibular é muito pouca ambição. É pensar pouco. É pensar pequeno demais.

img: vita khorzhevska/Shutterstock

 

Jack White e a sua Third Man Records (gravadora), acabam de lançar um pedal de efeitos, o “Bumble Buzz”. Talvez a primeira gravadora a assinar um produto deste (com lançamento oportunista durante a tal Bréqui Friday, que por lá, funciona).

vi no TMDQA

Outro dia falei, nesse post no Facebook, que estava faltando criatividade nos Posters dos filmes. Usei como exemplo esses 3 posters aí de cima. E não é que tem gente que se dá ao trabalho de organizar a bagunça e separar categorias de clichês gráficos? A Marina Siqueira me mandou esse trablaho do site Demilked. Então, o UoD orgulhosamente apresenta as categorias Poster de Cinema Manjado:

O intrépido solitário de costas.

Cabeçonas sobre gente pequena na praia.

Costas com costas vistas de lado.

No meio das pernas.

Na cama e algo mais.

Olhão com coisa dentro.

Big Blue.

Preto e Branco em chamas.

Correndo na rua torto e azulado.

Cara feita de coisas.

Lady in Red.

A justiça é cega.

Textão na testa.

Reflexo no óculos.

A praça é nossa.

 

via http://www.businessinsider.com/a-mesmerizing-gif-of-a-perfect-game-of-snake-2013-4?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+businessinsider+%28Business+Insider%29

In a drawing style reminiscent of the whorl patterns found in van Gogh paintings, artist Nicolas Jolly draws using a kind of crosshatcing that looks like the patterns of fingerprints. The thousands of tiny black ink lines vary in length, direction, and thickness to create landscapes, portraits, and other scenes that seem to be pulsing with energy. You can see many of his drawings close-up in his Fingerprints gallery and several are available as prints over on Society6. (via Behance)

Artist Andre Salgado (previously here and here) wows us again with a new body of work completed in the last few months for exhibitions at Le Petite Mort Gallery, and an upcoming solo show titled The Acquaintance at the Art Gallery of Regina. Salgado’s large-scale figurative paintings are comprised of deftly placed smears and drips of spray paint that charge each work with gritty, almost intangible hints of energy. You can see much more over on Saatchi Online and Facebook.

Adoro o jornalismo que, quando o tema exige, pressiona o entrevistado, não tem medo de ser inconveniente e nem fica levantando bola para o convidado cortar. Ou sendo capacho para tentar agradar.

Mas fazer uma entrevista, ao vivo, de forma dura e instigante, sem perder a educação ou o bom senso, demanda preparo – coisa que é rara no jornalismo preguiçoso, arrogante ou que obedece ao modelo “linha de montagem” – no qual trabalhamos tanto que não temos tempo para a reflexão. Ou ainda no jornalismo que acaba por defender governos ou pontos de vista hegemônicos por uma questionável linha editorial alinhada.

Separo três casos em que, na minha opinião, os jornalistas levaram um banho dos entrevistados ao vivo. Acho que todos nós já tomamos na cabeça, então considerem isso como exemplos didáticos.

Agradeço aos colegas que me indicaram todos. Dois deles estão em inglês (mil perdões!).

Glenn Greenwald, colunista do jornal inglês The Guardian, que divulgou as informações colhidas pelo técnico de segurança norte-americano Edward Snowden, mostrando como o Tio Sam espiona o mundo, é atacado pela entrevistadora da BBC, que quer – a todo o custo – questionar a legitimidade do seu trabalho. Incluindo petardos à sua vida íntima.

Reza Aslan, um acadêmico que pesquisa o cristianismo, tem sua credibilidade atacada por uma jornalista da Fox News, que não quer saber do livro, apenas busca entender quais os “motivos reais” que levaram um muçulmano a pesquisar Jesus.

Esse é mais leve, mas nacional. Sílvio Caccia Bava, sociólogo, foi questionado pelos apresentadores da Globonews, que não conseguiram fazer com que ele considerasse vândalos jovens que participaram de manifestações na Inglaterra.

Surpresa: hoje encontrei uma galeria a céu aberto!

As paredes do Cemitério do Araçá amanheceram cobertas de fotos das manifestações deste ano. As pessoas passavam e paravam para ver, como se estivessem mesmo numa galeria de arte ou num museu. As fotos eram bonitas.  Uma exposição contundente.

Um cartaz explica a exposição: “Desculpem-nos pelo transtorno. Estamos fotografando a mudança do país.” Confesso que não senti transtorno algum. Ao contrário: gostei demais da idéia, gostei demais do resultado.

O cartaz assina: “Foto Protesto SP”

Muito legal a iniciativa. Muito legal o lugar escolhido para o protesto/exposição. Muito legal a montagem do protesto/exposição.

Mais tarde fui buscar informações e descobri que são fotos de várias pessoas reunidas nesta iniciativa que se chamou “Foto Protesto SP”. Estão propondo que não nos esqueçamos dos acontecimentos e das manifestações deste ano.

Esquecer ou não esquecer. Eis a questão!

 

 

 

Participei nesses últimos meses de um curso online sobre a História do Rock, com o professor John Covach, da Universidade de Rochester.

Já tinha feito alguns antes deste, mas ainda acho difícil acompanhar porque acabo perdendo o interesse nas aulas. Talvez esse esquema de aulas online seja confortável e disponível demais para o meu nível de disciplina. Por isso optei pelo de História do Rock, para pegar ritmo (com o perdão do trocadilho). Se eu não acompanhasse esse, era para desistir mesmo.

Fiquei um tempo sem acreditar que estava diante de um professor, um senhor já, de uma respeitável universidade americana, explicando assuntos como Motown, Led Zepellin e Beatles. É uma sensação nova, essa de assistir uma aula que interessa muito. Sim, já tive aulas interessantes, mas pô, aula sobre “Sly Stone and The Rise of Funk”, “Rockabilly and The Wake of Elvis” ou “Blaxploitation Soundtracks” é novo pra mim.

O próximo curso quero fazer in loco. Olha que Universidade linda.

E novo também para o próprio John Covach, que me enviou ontem por email um ensaio sobre a experiência de dar aula online, já que foi o primeiro a falar para o mundo pela Universidade de Rochester.

Para ler o ensaio, em inglês, basta rolar a página

Se você quiser ter um gostinho das aulas, você pode assistir muitos e muitos videos no player abaixo ou aqui. Dá para hibernar com esse material. Clique em “playlist” para ver o cardápio musical.

To MOOC or Not To MOOC?
John Covach

 

[1] At colleges and universities across North America, online education is a topic that has generated a significant amount of
discussion in the past year or so. In many ways, the idea of online education is only the most recent version of something
that got its start in the nineteenth century: the correspondence course.(1) The development of radio and television in the
twentieth century, and then the rise of the internet over the last twenty years, has made it possible to conduct courses with
far less time lag than was present in the early days of distance learning, when lessons and assignments were carried by surface
mail. Each issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education seems to bring word of some new development or wrinkle in the rapid
development of online courses, and perhaps no topic is more controversial than MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses).(2)
While many embrace the idea that MOOCs make college-level learning available to thousands who would otherwise not have
pragmatic access to it, others worry that MOOCs threaten to put traditional college courses out of business.(3) [2] In February 2013, the University of Rochester officially joined Coursera, one of the largest providers of MOOCs in the
world.(4) The university had considered several options regarding online education, some of these claiming to offer the
prospect of revenue generation and increased ease and flexibility for students, as well as the possibility of functioning as an
alternative to conventional classes and counting for credit. In choosing to partner with Coursera, the university chose to
place availability of knowledge above the concern for revenue: Rochester MOOCs are free, open to anyone who wants to
enroll, and do not count for college credit.(5) [3] I was chosen to teach one of our first MOOCs and based my Coursera courses on the History of Rock class I currently
teach at the University of Rochester. Coursera recommends that regular semester courses of twelve or more weeks be broken
up into six- to eight-week courses. Accordingly, History of Rock Part 1 runs seven weeks, while History of Rock Part 2 is six
weeks in length. The courses are offered consecutively, with Part 2 immediately following Part 1; students electing the
sequence thus have a similar experience to those taking the regular semester-length course at Rochester. Coursera has found
that students tend not to stick with lectures that extend longer than about fifteen minutes; they strongly recommend
Volume 19, Number 3, September 2013
Copyright © 2013 Society for Music Theory
To MOOC or Not To MOOC?
John Covach

NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at:
http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.3/mto.13.19.3.covach.php
KEYWORDS: MOOC, online course, distance learning, Rock music, music history, Coursera
Received August 2013

1 of 6breaking up the week’s lectures into a series of shorter videos. Correspondingly, within each week of my courses there are
several lectures, each ranging from about five minutes up to fifteen minutes in length, making a total of about ninety minutes
of lecture each week. Students can either stream the videos from the Coursera site or download the videos for later viewing
offline. Coursera also suggests putting a quick quiz at the end of each of these videos, and perhaps one in the middle as well.
I decided to use these quizzes as an opportunity to review the main points of each video rather than test details from the
lecture.

[4] Consider the following video, which is drawn from Week Four of Part 1, “The Beatles and The British Invasion
(1964–66).” This video discusses the development of Beatles music from what I call a “craftsman” approach to an “artist”
approach. It is the fifth of ten videos from that week of the course.
The following quiz appears at the very end of the video, after the lecture has concluded but just before the copyright
notices.(6) The correct answers are shown with asterisks.
Which of the following statements describe the career of the Beatles and rock authenticity as
discussed in the video (mark all that apply)?
*The idea of authenticity in rock music means that artists write their own songs and play their own
instruments on recordings. The songs are thought to represent “who you are.”
*The Beatles shifted from an approach that reflected a “craft” in making their music to one increasingly
dominated by the “artist” model.
The Beatles rejected most of Bob Dylan’s work, finding it pretentious and vague.
As you can see, all three responses deal with the most general points made in the video—authenticity, craft to art, and
Dylan’s influence. If a student does not answer the question correctly, s/he can try again until the correct answer is submitted
or even skip the quiz altogether. These quizzes do not figure into the grade and thus serve only as study aides. [5] Each of the videos that make up both of the courses (sixty-two in Part 1, fifty-four in Part 2) was recorded once and they
were done in sequence. I stopped a few times to redo sections, but mostly the lectures were delivered as one would in class—
straight through and without stopping. You may notice that I seem to be looking off camera to my left at certain points; I
have a music stand just out of the shot containing my lecture notes. As I soon found, the notes had to be much more
detailed than the ones I would normally use in class because the video format is far less forgiving of inaccurate data. In class
you can admit you’re not sure of a fact and maybe have a student look it up while you lecture; but in the videos it has to be
right the first time. From this perspective, the lectures are more like a textbook than a typical in-class teaching presentation. [6] The grades for each course are based on quizzes taken at two-week intervals. These quizzes are automated, with all
grading done by the Coursera software and with students able to take each exam up to three times (the highest grade is the
one that counts). Students who earn 70% or more of the available points receive a Statement of Accomplishment; those who
score 90% or more receive a Statement with distinction.(8) There is a discussion forum for the course; each week I post three
questions and students will often pose their own as well. Participation on the forum, however, does not figure into the grade.
Though students may receive Statements of Accomplishment, no student earns college credit from Coursera or the
University of Rochester. [7] History of Rock Parts 1 and 2 were offered over the summer of 2013 with a combined enrollment of over 70,000.(9) Of
those enrolled, approximately 44,000 (63%) participated actively. Video views surpassed one million and downloads topped
600,000 . Most students seem to have watched the videos without taking the exams, or maybe only watched the videos that
interested them. Less than 10% of the students participated in the discussion forums, though even that level of engagement
created a tremendous amount of traffic on the hundreds of threads. At the conclusion of Part 1 we awarded 4747 Statements
of Accomplishment, 1460 of those with distinction; for Part 2 we awarded 3545 Statements, 2978 with distinction.. These
numbers are roughly consistent with other Coursera courses.
2 of 6 [8] Preparing and teaching this two-course sequence was a lot of work. Simply filming the videos took about 40 hours overall
(three hours for each week of the course), while preparing the notes took another 52 hours (four hours for each week).
Creating the individual quizzes for each video and the exams required 40 additional hours, with another 26 hours used to
monitor the discussion forum and take care of other kinds of online course details. That brings the total time to prepare the
course to approximately 158 hours. The video editing and photo research was done by University of Rochester staff, as was a
significant portion of the interfacing with Coursera and the course software.(10) These combined tasks add perhaps as much
as 300 hours to the total time required to mount a thirteen-week MOOC. Of course, once this work is done, subsequent
sections of the course require only a few hours per week of maintenance; the course becomes a bit like a machine that can
run almost on its own (or so one hopes). [9] While I would not recommend this workload for any untenured faculty member, I do not hesitate to admit that teaching
this MOOC was one of the most gratifying experiences in my teaching career.(11) One of the things that made this
experience so positive for me was the ownership the students took in the course. From the opening moments, the students
began answering each other’s questions and solving problems that arose. For instance, we could not play or post any music in
the course because of copyright restrictions. I worried how this was going to work out once I started mentioning songs in
the lectures. But almost immediately students began posting playlists in the discussion forum, employing various servers to
get all the music posted (including a server in Russia). One fantastic student began a Facebook page, where students engaged
in discussion, shared playlists and video links, and created a community dedicated to the course content with a seriousness of
purpose that would gladden the heart of any teacher. It was clear that the course mattered a lot to these students and they
were working very hard at it.(12) [10] There were some surprises regarding the geographic and demographic data on the students.(13) About 68% of the
students resided outside of the United States.(14) About 33% of the students were between the ages of 22 and 29, with
another 16% in the 30–39 age range. 35% of the students had already earned a bachelor’s degree; 26% held a master’s and
5% held a doctorate. If those percentages reflect the active students, that would mean that more than half the students are
not college undergraduates, and most are not Americans. For those concerned that MOOCs will replace undergraduate
college courses in North America, these figures offer some consolation. In terms of gender, 53% of the students were male
and 47% female. [11]There are certainly significant pedagogical limitations to the MOOC format, the most obvious being the lack of real-time
interaction with students. The format of the testing also makes in very difficult to employ anything other than multiplechoice or fill-in-the-blanks questions.(15) It is possible to have students write papers, and Coursera reports good results with
peer-graded papers (the students grade one another). Ultimately it is the sheer number of students that makes it very difficult
to replace the traditional college classroom experience with a MOOC, at least when it comes to humanities courses. Add to
this that Coursera is what one might call a “free culture,” meaning that the course itself should be as cost-free as possible.
This makes requiring a textbook that students must purchase an unpractical option. [12] My experience has caused me to stop thinking of the MOOC as an alternative to the traditional college course. It is
rather something like a very organized series of public lectures based on the structure of a college course. MOOCs are most
valuable as a way of bringing the wealth of knowledge we produce and preserve in the academy to the broadest possible
public—something, it must be admitted, we probably do not do enough. I use my MOOC video lectures in my regular
course at Rochester now; I assign these lectures to students and this frees up class time to focus on particular pieces and
discussions that we might not otherwise have gotten to.(16) In fact, I can imagine that a “MOOC-plus” approach—a scheme
whereby a MOOC (or part of one) would be employed as part of a regular, credit-earning course—might well be a part of
awarding college credit more broadly in the future.(17) [13] The future of online education is rapidly developing; what it may look like even a year from now is uncertain. It is clear,
however, that online education is not going away, at least not in the United States. Last December, thirteen-year olds all
across the country got iPads or some other tablet device as holiday gifts. These young people may not be in our classrooms
yet, but in a few years they will be. And when they arrive, they will prefer to work from their handheld device (rather than a
3 of 6textbook) and they will be comfortable absorbing content online. They will be veterans of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,
Instragram, and whatever else pops up between now and then. They may even hope that college is a series of TED lectures.
It’s up to us to be ready for them: love it or hate it, this technology is coming. We are probably wise to own it before it owns
us.

John Covach
University of Rochester
Department of Music
PO Box 270052
Rochester, NY 14627-0052
john.covach@rochester.edu
Works Cited
Berg, Gary A. 2005. “History of Correspondence Instruction.” In Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, Volume 2, ed. Caroline
Howard et al., 1006–11.
Kolowich, Steve. 2013a. “As MOOC Debate Simmers at San Jose State, American U. Calls a Halt.” The Chronicle of Higher
Education, May 9. http://chronicle.com/article/As-MOOC-Debate-Simmers-at-San/139147/.
—————. 2013b. “The Minds Behind the MOOCs.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 14.
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/#id=overview.
—————. 2013c. “Why Professors at San Jose State Won’t Use a Harvard Professor’s MOOC.” The Chronicle of Higher
Education, August 14. http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Professors-at-San-Jose/138941/.

Footnotes
1. For a history of the correspondence course, see Berg 2005.
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2. For an introduction to MOOCs, see “What You Need To Know About MOOCs” in The Chronicle of Higher Education,
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/.
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3. There are, of course, many shades of opinion between these two extremes. Kolowich 2013a gives some idea of how
passionate these debates can become.
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4. For more about Coursera, see the early notice of this for-profit company’s activities at http://www.marketwire.com/pressrelease/coursera-secures-16m-from-kleiner-perkins-caufield-byers-new-enterprise-associates-bring-1645322.htm.
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5. This is also true of most of the universities currently partnering with Coursera. The issue of whether or not such courses
can or will count for college credit is a lively one in academe. It is worth bearing in mind that MOOCs are only one kind of
online course. Online courses with smaller enrollments can and have been used to substitute for regular college courses, as
did one I taught on rock music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over ten years ago. Many schools have
used online education effectively, including the University of Rochester, which offers non-MOOC courses in several of its
professional schools.
4 of 6Return to text
6. The quiz formatting is part of the Coursera software and cannot be replicated here. It is worth noting that students who
download the videos for viewing later also cannot see these quizzes.
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7. Coursera subtitles all lectures in English, while also incorporating a function that slows the video down or speeds it up.
The slow-down function, in conjunction with the subtitles, is often used by students for whom English not the primary
language; the speed-up function can be used to review lectures before exams.
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8. Instructors are able to adjust the numbers of times an exam can be taken, when the exams are due, and how much credit is
subtracted for late submissions, as well as many other variables. They may also decide what percentage qualifies a student for
the certificates.
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9. Almost 43,000 enrolled in Part 1 with about 28,000 in Part 2. Some of those in Part 2 had been in Part 1, but many in Part
2 were new to the course.
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10. The videos were edited by Will Graver, who was also in charge of the video shoots. Will had my notes and could thus
insert those points into the video. The pictures were researched by Eric Fredericksen, who also took care of much of the
interaction with Coursera and with technical online aspects of the course.
Return to text
11. The remarks that follow may be compared with those of others who have recently developed and taught MOOCs; see
Kolowich 2013b.
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12. In one post a student explained that his method was to watch each video and stop every time I mentioned a song and
listen to it. I probably mention 100 or so songs a week!
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13. The following remarks are based on a voluntary survey that students of Part 1 were asked to complete (almost 8000
responses). They are therefore not scientific and may only provide a rough profile of the dimensions discussed here.
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14. The three highest represented countries outside the US were Brazil, followed by Spain and India. The forum had
discussion rooms for non-English speakers, and these included Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese study groups,
among others.
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15. I often employ approaches that combine multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank to make the questions demanding without
being tricky.
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16. We have made the videos for both parts of the History of Rock available on the University of Rochester Institute for
Popular Music website (http://www.rochester.edu/popmusic/courses/rock-history-pt-1.html). Colleagues are welcome to
use them freely.
Return to text
17. This approach has been referred to as the “blended approach” and was part of a dispute at San Jose State University
5 of 6regarding the use of MOOC videos from edX, an organization formed by Harvard and MIT (see Kolowich 2013a and
2013c). Using MOOC videos in a blended course that enrolls less than 100 students is not a MOOC, and one can see how
categories of online education and resources can become confused and the debate become fractured.
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6 of 6

Quantas vezes você já trocou de aparelho porque quebrou um componente?
Pois bem…

Author information

Autumn by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Autumn by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Winter by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Winter by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Spring by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Spring by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Summer by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

Summer by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

A few days ago Colleen Theisen who helps with outreach and instruction at the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa shared an amazing gif she made that demonstrates something called fore-edge painting on the edge of a 1837 book called Autumn by Robert Mudie. Fore-edge painting, which is believed to date back as early as the 1650s, is a way of hiding a painting on the edge of a book so that it can only be seen when the pages are fanned out. There are even books that have double fore-edge paintings, where a different image can be seen by flipping the book over and fanning the pages in the opposite direction.

When I realized the book Theisen shared was only one of a series about the seasons, I got in touch and she agreed to photograph the other three so we could share them with you here. Above are photos of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter which were donated to the University of Iowa by Charlotte Smith. How much fun are these? Keep an eye on the University of Iowa’s special collections Tumblr as they unearth more artificats from the archives.

Update: Because this post is getting so much attention, here are some more amazing fore-edge paintings found on YouTube.

Sammy Davis Jr. and Martin Luther King Jr.

Quan

Patricia Monfort Garcia

Brian Oldham

Nils Rohwer

Alejandro Vega

Ksenia Tsykunova

Illustration by Pat Perry

Tanner Perez

Joel Hawkins

Mark Littlejohn

Flickr Finds returns with a collection of great photos spotted on Flickr the last two weeks. All the photos above are linked to their respective creators, please click through to see a lot more of their work. See previous Flickr Finds.