Whitfield Lovell, Hand XIV, 1998, charcoal, graphite, and pastel on paper

Procedure:
Based on your curriculum, focus, and time available select one, two, or all of the three of the following types of collecting to cover with your students. We welcome your feedback in using and adapting these steps.

I. Personal Collecting

Most people have a personal collection. Whether it is fine art, Beanie Babies, or baseball cards, humans have an instinctive desire to gather objects that have personal meaning to them. Many artists also have personal collections; some find ways to use these collected objects in their work. Artists Stefan Hoderlein and Whitfield Lovell both integrate their personal collections into their artistic practice.

Stefan Hoderlein and Whitfield Lovell use their personal collections in symbolic ways to convey ideas about the world. The media or art forms in which they work differ, affecting what is communicated to the viewer.

1. Present Stefan Hoderlein and Whitfield Lovell handouts.  
2. Research new media information from www.artlex.com.
3. Hang up reproductions of artists’ works.
4. Use the handout to discuss the artists’ work and practice.
   
   

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Karsten Bott, One of Each, 1993, detail, Installation at the Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, 1993, 10 x 30 m.

II. Professional Collecting

Many professionals rely on a collection as a part of their practice—forensic scientists rely on extensive databanks of specimens and fingerprints to help solve mysteries of identity; meteorologists collect data on weather patterns to predict the paths of oncoming tropical storms; and anthropologists spend hours, weeks, even years "in the field" gathering information on a certain culture. It is from the fastidious, sometimes meticulous, procedures of anthropologists who gather extensive archives of cultural objects as a part of their practice that artists Portia Munson and Karsten Bott glean inspiration.

Portia Munson and Karsten Bott’s practice of collecting can be compared to anthropologists and other professionals whose work strives to reveal new information about culture.

1. Revisit Brainstorming Webs from Step 1.
2. Review and discuss Other Professionals who collect handout.
3. Compare and contrast the artistic practice of collecting and the anthropological practice of collecting.
   
   Anthropology is the study of humanity—our physical characteristics as animals, and our non-biological characteristics collectively referred to as culture. Anthropology has four sub-disciplines: biological or physical anthropology, cultural or social anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics.
   
   
4. Present and explore an anthropological study.

Suggested Websites:

http://varenne.tc.columbia.edu/hv/at/at_set.html
This on-line book, by an anthropology professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University, focuses on the lives of people in a small town north of Chicago called Appleton. Harve Varenne’s work studies how the microcosm of a small town reveals larger themes about Americans’ self-image.

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/massobs/introduction.html
This website contains the archive work of Mass-Observation, a social research group founded in 1937 in Britain. The founders’ aim was to create an “anthropology of ourselves.” They recruited a team of observers and a panel of volunteer writers to study the everyday lives of people in Britain.

http://library.osu.edu/sites/rarebooks/japan/about.html
This website contains photographs taken by anthropologist John W. Bennett while he was in occupied Japan, 1948-1951.

http://www.andaman.org./index.htm
This website contains extensive information about a study of the Andaman Island peoples.

5. Determine the following criteria for the study:

   Who is enacting the study?
   What are they studying?
   What do they collect in their study?
   What does this collection reveal?
   Why are they studying the subject?
   What is the end product of the study?
   How is this study seen, shared, and/or displayed?

6. Present Portia Munson and Karsten Bott pages.
7. Hang up reproductions of work by Portia Munson and Karsten Bott.
8. Discuss the Aesthetic Questions for each artist.
9. Explore the Other Professionals Who Collect section to further student interest in the practice of collecting.
   
   

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"Raid the Icebox with Andy Warhol", 1969-70, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

III. Institutional Collecting

Institutions are often responsible for collections. Libraries create and maintain collections of books, while institutions like local municipalities collect and archive information about births, marriages, and deaths. A museum is one of the earliest forms of institutional collecting. Museums collect objects, which are put on display for the study, interpretation, and enjoyment of audiences and ultimately for the preservation of heritage.

Mark Dion and Andy Warhol are two artists whose work questions institutional collecting and display in natural history and art museums.

1. Present text on Early Museums. 
2. Describe and discuss:
• Cabinets of Curiosity
• Early Museums
• Dilemma Labels and problems in museum display
  
  
3. Use the Analysis Questions to further discuss issues related to institutional collecting.
4. Present handouts for Andy Warhol, Raid the Icebox and Mark Dion. 
5. Hang up reproductions of work by Warhol and Dion.
6. Explore these artists and ideas using the Analysis Questions.

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