{"id":8110,"date":"2014-06-06T14:11:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T19:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=8110"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:39:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T14:39:19","slug":"maymesterart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=8110","title":{"rendered":"Maymester: Walking as an Art Form"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mario<\/a>
Mario Marzan (far left), associate professor of art, explains the Walkabout assignment to students in the Maymester art course, “The Walking Seminar.” (photo by Beth Lawrence)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UNC senior Robert Williams is a passionate walker and biker, but he had never considered walking a mode of artistic expression before signing up for the Maymester course \u201cArts 290: The Walking Seminar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maymester is an experiential summer school mini-term where students can earn three credit hours in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor of Art Mario Marzan<\/a> designed the class to reflect contemporary artists who are inspired by walking as an art form. He wanted to get students out of the classroom to experience a \u201cterritorial investigation of the North Carolina landscape\u201d and to incorporate the University\u2019s academic theme, \u201cWater in our World.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 13 days, students completed assignments such as contour mapping, flora illustrations, psychological landscape drawings and a large-scale group installation. They used watercolors, graphite pencils, camera phones and more as artistic tools. They read works about walking and art by writers including Henry David Thoreau and Charles Baudelaire.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>
Students hiked in the pouring rain at Raven Rock State Park. (photo by Sarah Hey)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They camped and hiked together in the pouring rain, explored Jordan Lake, the Eno River and Raven Rock State Park, blogged about their experiences and forged an almost instant bond for critical discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a class that was more real than just sitting and painting in a studio,\u201d said Marzan, an avid hiker and backpacker whose work explores geographical spaces between individual and cultural identity. \u201cBut rather than sitting and painting the landscapes en plein air <\/i>[French for \u2018in the open air\u2019], I wanted students to move through the landscape and respond to the aesthetics of the path by making art about their experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Walking Seminar course was biology major Williams\u2019 last class as a senior; he plans to graduate in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to do something I had never done before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Artistic exploration via a campus walk<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a cool Carolina morning, students sat on a bench underneath the Davie Poplar tree awaiting instructions for the day\u2019s assignment. They would complete a Walkabout of the UNC campus, walking in a straight line and counting their steps along the way.<\/p>\n

Each student wrote a separate code on a piece of paper which Marzan deciphered. The code unlocked the length of each walk \u2014 which ranged from 30 minutes to over an hour \u2014 and how often they would stop and switch direction, determined by a flip of a coin. At each stop, they took pictures of and collected objects from their surroundings.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>
Robert Williams takes a picture of and collects a bark sample for the Walkabout exercise. (photo by Beth Lawrence)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After completing the exercise, students mapped their collective journeys on a blank wall in a Hanes Art Center studio classroom, using string and markers and incorporating photos and found objects into a collaborative drawing. They taped twigs, cigarette butts, a blue kazoo, a bottle cap, a piece of glass, a dead snake and rocks to the wall.<\/p>\n

They also worked together to negotiate accurate geographical distances for their life-size map.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this assignment, I wanted you to experience campus in a new way,\u201d Marzan told the class. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of adventure that happens. Now we\u2019re putting this up on a big canvas, creating a large-scale installation. Step back and see the kind of shape that your walking journey made; experience it in a two-dimensional form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah Hey, a senior studio art and psychology major, began walking northeast from the Davie Poplar. After about 20 minutes, she reached Bolinwood Drive, took a right turn and headed toward Bolin Creek.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The collaborative large-group installation\/map representing the students’ individual campus walks. (photo by Lea Wright)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the Walkabout, which was interesting and meditative,\u201d she said. \u201cThe forest was very dense, and I walked in and out of the creek. I was excited about the things I saw, like little footprints and interesting shapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camping, cleanup and contour mapping at Jordan Lake<\/strong><\/p>\n

After hearing a presentation on the history of Jordan Lake, the Maymester students hiked down the steps to the dam and saw the rushing water of the Haw River on the other side of the lake. Francis Ferrell of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers talked about cleanup efforts by the nonprofit Clean Jordan Lake.<\/p>\n

Over a two-day period, students picked up trash along the shoreline, walked on the Educational State Forest Talking Tree Trail and camped at New Hope Overlook, a pristine, primitive campsite overlooking the lake.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From left, Francis Ferrell of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sarah Hey, Linnea Lieth, Mario Marzan, Lea Wright, Katy Folk and Robert Williams. The group is standing in front of the Haw River, on the other side of Jordan Lake dam. (photo by Kim Spurr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the New Hope campsite, students sat at a picnic table, surrounded by tents and hammocks, as they discussed dinner: macaroni and cheese, sausages, mixed vegetables, crescent rolls and s\u2019mores.<\/p>\n

Marzan picked up a stick and traced a 20-by-20 foot square in the dirt as he explained their next assignment: create a contour map of their own micro-landscapes, capturing trees and logs and sticks and rocks within its borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to do an actual realistic rendering of the landscape in your square but with a bird\u2019s-eye view,\u201d he said. \u201cExamine it from all sides. What kind of composition does it make from above?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lea Wright, a senior studio art major, said she liked the assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allowed me the time to understand the interior of landscape,\u201d Wright said. \u201cI always feel like I am very observant, but I don\u2019t take into consideration the height and placement of certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mario<\/a>
Mario Marzan (with stick in hand) explains the contour mapping assignment at the New Hope Overlook campsite. (photo by Kim Spurr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Presenting final projects<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the last day of class, students reminisced about their experiences as they presented final class projects.<\/p>\n

Hey was inspired by volunteering for Clean Jordan Lake and by philosopher Slavoj Zizek\u2019s discourse on ecological problems. While vacationing at the Outer Banks over Memorial Day weekend, she created a stop-motion animated video, \u201cCycle of Trash.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Hey wrote in her class blog post that she wanted to express \u201cthe insidious nature in which trash builds up despite our best efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his final project, Williams used the mobile video application Vine to create 360-degree postcards of the Old Well<\/a> and a walk from Franklin Street to the Pit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to do something that documented my time here,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI\u2019ve done the walk from Franklin Street to the Pit several hundreds of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"After<\/a>
After the class ended, Mario Marzan began a walking tour of Spain to support his research. (photo by Beth Lawrence)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Read more about the students\u2019 final projects.<\/p>\n

Marzan said he created The Walking Seminar class based in part on a favorite childhood movie, \u201cStand By Me.\u201d In the 1986 film, four 12-year-old friends set off on an epic journey to find the body of a local boy who has been missing for several days.<\/p>\n

Just a few days after Maymester ended, Marzan set off on his own epic walk \u2014 a 34-day pilgrimage across Spain, the El Camino de Santiago,<\/a> also known as the Way of St. James.<\/p>\n

Marzan said he enjoyed watching students\u2019 shift from skepticism about walking as an art form to embracing the idea in just three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted them to look at art more critically and to think through other problems outside of art that they might encounter \u2014 and to walk, rather than drive,\u201d he added, laughing.<\/p>\n

By Kim Weaver Spurr \u201888<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNC senior Robert Williams is a passionate walker and biker, but he had never considered walking a mode of artistic expression before signing up for the Maymester course, \u201cArts 290: The Walking 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