IIIF for Educators

COMPARATIVE VISUAL ANALYSIS ACTIVITY (MISE)

💡 Concept

Migration has played a significant role in shaping the United States, both historically and culturally. Since its inception, the United States has been a destination for immigrants seeking new opportunities, freedoms, and a better life. From the arrival of the first settlers to the present day, people from all over the world have come to the United States, contributing to its diversity and growth. While immigration has been a source of strength and vitality for the country, it has also been a contentious issue, with debates over who should be allowed to enter, how many, and under what conditions. Understanding the complex history and impact of migration in the United States is essential to comprehending the country's past and present.

🖥️ Activity

In this activity we will practice visual comparison as a methodological research strategy. There is a tendency in the Humanities to overlook the specification of the type of images and the use we make of them, the fundamentals and common criteria in the methodology section. Thus, we will compare two concrete images from the collections, archives, and galleries covered so far. Rigorously, we will offer an analysis of the topics surrounding political murals, farm work, migration, Chicana feminism, changes to education system, etc.

🧱 Materials

National Chicano Moratorium

Child Migrants

Young Lords Photo Gallery

Young Lords Party

Chicana Feminism/ Chicana Art

Bracero Program

Chicano Moratorium (50 yrs later)

+ other photos you'd be interested in analyzing (related to the topics covered in class)

Tools

https://mise.stanford.edu/

🪜 Steps

1. Select two photographies (from the suggested links in "Tools" section or others you'd be interested in working with in your visual analysis
2. Go to MISE
3. Create an account by clicking "Sign up", adding your email address and a password
4. Click in "New Workspace"
5. Assign a title and a description (provisional)- Don't forget to check the "Visible to public" box for both the Project AND the workspace, or else you won't be able to share it here
6. Click on "Open Workspace"
7. Drag your first photography to the center of the screen, where it says "Welcome to Mirador"
8. Analyze the image, every detail: observe the subjects/ objects on the foreground, and background. Select a detail in particular that calls your attention and zoom in to it.
   I recommend you click the left upper corner (in "Toggle sidebar") there you will find a menu to create spatial annotations.
   (if there is an unknown visual element, use Google to find out who/what it is... exhaust all resources before giving up)
9. Drag the second photography to the side of the first one and repeat step #8. Don't forget to zoom in in another detail, similar in terms of content, technique, etc
10. When you finish, click on "Save Workspace"
11. Click on "Share" and copy the "embed code"

👓 Example

These two photographs, taken from the photographic archive of the Argentine Rodrigo Abd, exemplify the consequences of COVID-19 in Latin America. In the photograph on the left, a homeless person can be seen in front of a furniture store. Their pose is almost a reflection of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' painting, "The Grand Odalisque" (1814). Like the woman in the Turkish harem, the man looks fixedly at the observer. However, she is comfortably reclining on a couch, while he rests on the street. The emphasis on oriental features in the French painter's work contrasts with the homeless man in the photograph. In the photograph on the right, the faces of parishioners who have died from COVID-19 can be seen contrasted in an empty church, and a priest anointing the images with incense. In the background, Giandomenico Tiepolo's painting, titled "Venetian Stations of the Cross, 11th Station, Crucifixion of Jesus," can be seen. It is said that Giandomenico deliberately created a claustrophobic atmosphere, seeking to create an almost unbreathable sense of drama, even though the narrative takes place outdoors. To achieve this, he piled up figures in the foreground, including the essential characters for the representation of the drama, as well as some others that help to create that unsettling atmosphere that invites reflection on the events represented. It is also, therefore, an inverted reflection of the "unsettling" image of the empty church.

✉️ Share

1) To embed your visual comparative work to this discussion thread, click on "REPLY"

2) When the text editor opens, click on the html (</>) button

3) Paste the "embed code" of your MISE

4) Unselect the html (</>) button

5) Add a brief comment (150-300 words) about the details, subjects/objects, sociohistorical/economic context, juegos interpictorial allusions, that you found in common and describe in which way this union will help us understand the effects of economic violence, migration, political art, community organizing, etc..

Publish your activity and its "metadata" before May 12

🤝 Collaborate

Look at the photography details shared by your classmates, read their visual analysis and try finding elements that support the suggested perspective. You can also comment on how it relates to your analysis, similarities and differences. Interact by May 18

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💡 Concept

There is an approach to the study of art, whether it be literature, painting, photography or film, that focuses on the construction of planes and details, similar to what is required in a building project. This is called structuralist theory. It serves to analyze and establish certain spatial categories that relate to composition, scale, and perception.

According to Roland Barthes, every image or journalistic photograph is a message. In this particular case, a clear message is presented, a political action with a strong response from the police force as its denotative meaning, while its connotative reading shows the repression of an inherent right, the excess use of force and the disproportionality of police methods. The image is intended to generate a great impact on the public due to the rawness of the image, as a representation of a situation of violence.

In order to understand the general plane offered by the image, I propose that any significant aspect be identified, such as: subjects, objects, background, framing, textures, shapes, lights/shadows, colors, materials, etc.

Once the details are recognized, we can generate a narrative or decipher the "coded" message by the photograph.

🖥️ Activity

Have you ever had to enter a museum shortly before closing time and had to hurry to see as many works as possible, or are you simply one of those who run through museums, without stopping to look carefully?

Here we will counteract that sometimes impulsive bodily movement that forces us to look at art superficially.

In this activity we are going to recycle some of the photo collections we have discussed before; you are also encouraged to exapnd the search for other IIIF objects that fit into your project.

🧱 Materials

Roosevelt High School Walkouts Photo Collection

Zoot Suit Photo collection

Chicano Moratorium Photo collection

Student & Faculty Protests at UCLA

Agricultural workers Photo collection

Migrant workers photo collection

Judith Baca mural

David Alfaro Siqueiros murals

+Any other IIIF image/ .json link you can find on the web (related to the topics covered in this class)

🛠️ Tools

Storiies editor (alpha)

🪜 Steps

1. Click on "Storiies editor" (alpha)- left upper corner- to open the editor in a new window.
2. Filll in the form (shown in the Tools).
3. Upload a JPG image or a Manifest IIIF URL (in the IIIF symbol left click and select "Copy link address")
4. Assign a provisional title to your "Storiiie", it should reference the your research topic.
5. Add your name to the section "Author".
6. Write your email address (preferably your UCLA one).
7. Write a brief description for the image.
8. Click on "Edit story" to upload the image and start analyzing it.
9. Explore the image first, considering the details you deem interesting/ important, then create your own story zooming in to the detail you want others to see on the screen, then click on the botton (add new +) to add each annotation.
10. In the section of framed views and annotation, make sure to include:

• 4 annotations in total (or more). These should contain:

• A detailed view of the photography (what you want the viewer to pay attention to, i.e. a zoomed fragment of the image).
• A textual annotation (aprox. 20-40 words): description of the image and its meaning.

• A secuencial narrative that connects the annotations and the images (fragments) like the beads in a necklace.
• An idea clearly articulated, proposal or question related to your research topic.

11. Images and annotations can be reordered dragging them up or down.
12. Create a preview of your narrative by clicking on "Preview".
13. When you finish with the annotations, click on Links. Make sure to copy and save the link on a different place Bookmark this link to edit your story in future so you are able to come back to your work. Read the instructions below when you are ready.

Examples

Send

1. To embed your Storiiie in this discussion click on "Reply"

2. Click the html (</>) button

3. Paste the link to your Storiiie -the one that shows under the phrase--:
"Copy this and paste the code below to embed in your own website"

4. Un-select the html (</>) button (by clicking on it again)

5. Write a brief reflection about the narrative created in your Storiiie (60 to 100 words), answering how the elements work once in together, then click "Post Reply"

Rubric