Juxtaposing: “to place (different things) side by side (as to compare them or contrast them or to create an interesting effect)” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juxtapose.
As an artist, Fred Wilson explores the concept of juxtaposition. This lesson will allow students to explore juxtaposing sounds, images and objects. Juxtaposition, for Fred Wilson involves placing two objects next to each other that at first may not seem connected, but actually have connections that the viewer can discover. Viewers create their own ‘ah ha’ discoveries about history, erased and overlooked stories, politics, and community.
Students can create a museum exhibit of their own using photos, oral histories, and artifacts from their own lives juxtaposed with untold and overlooked stories preserved at the Center for Brooklyn History.
An Introduction to Fred Wilson’s Maryland Historical Society Exhibit
In 1992, the Maryland Historical Society was planning a huge conference. They were going to invite the directors of museums from all over the country to their museum. “Let’s create something snappy for all of these museum people to see,” the museum director said. Artist Fred Wilson was invited to come and create an exhibit that would help make their old antique furniture meaningful to these directors and the local community.
To create the exhibit, Fred decided to do two things: 1) Talk to the local community and the museum maintenance staff about their interests and beliefs about their community and the historical society museum and, 2) Explore the interesting objects hidden away in the museum's basements and backrooms. What he discovered led him to create the first exhibit of its kind in America.
In the video, Fred Wilson's Manacles, A Talk with Teens About HIs Work, filmed at the Center for Brooklyn History, he describes the exhibit he created and tells about the explosive reaction at the Maryland Historical Society Museum. We suggest using the following activities to help students understand how Mr. Wilson create juxtaposition with his work using the video.
Activity 1: Using the Interview Video Segments and Writing a Response to the Video
Step 1: As a class or individually, have students watch the following segments of Fred Wilson describing his work, then discuss. If possible, have them take notes on his discussion.
Step 2: Have students create a sequence of events describing what Fred did to create his exhibit and the result. [ie: speaking to the local community, thinking about juxtaposition, exploring basements and back rooms, setting up the exhibit, the explosive response]
Activity 2: Juxtaposition
Step 1: Have students study the word juxtaposition using the above definition and develop simple examples of how two unalike objects or ideas may have deeper connections.
Step 2: As a class or individually, have students create a word web around the word juxtaposition.
Step 3: Using objects in the classroom, ask student to put unalike objects next to each other. Then, have them share out, either to the class or in pairs, why they picked the two objects and what similarities and differences each object has with each other.
Activity 3: Captioning
Step 1: Explain to students what a caption is (a label that says what something is.)
Step 2: Discuss that Fred Wilson effectively uses captions next to two juxtaposed objects to start the viewer down a journey of discovery. His captions don’t explicitly reveal his thoughts on why the two objects should be placed together, but the captions entice the viewer to begin to think more deeply about how these objects are different but also in some way connected. Fred’s caption are short provocative museum captions that are similar to Instagram captions, or similar to poetry. “Experts propose that museum visitors spend less than 10 seconds with each piece of work they look at and only 7 seconds with the exhibit label. Make that label memorable!”
Step 3: Have students review Museum Labels & Exhibit Captions .
Step 4: Using the objects the students selected, students will write a short caption that invites the to think deeply about the similarities and differences of the two objects.
Activiey 4: Personal Portrayals
Step 1: Now that students have written a caption, have them create descriptions of their own lives and community:
Step 2: Ask students to describe themselves using 25 words answering the following questions: How do you know these things about yourself? How is your identity related to groups, communities, or other social structures? How is it related to personal experience?
Step 3: Now, have them create a series of lists that represent their ideas about personal identity, family history, learning from school, and philosophies or belief systems with which they are familiar. Turn these lists into a visual web, collage, or short story that connects related words to tell a story about themselves or their family.
Step 4: Now, have them choose what they would use to visually demonstrate their caption that would describe. Have them consider,
- Which objects or images that might be taken for granted when seen daily?
- Imagine how you would tell the history of the community you live in now to someone 20 years in the future.
- How would you illustrate the intersecting and sometimes competing narratives and perspectives in your community?
- What objects would be important to this history and how would you display them?
- What objects would you exhibit together and why? What would be the best way to present these objects to a broad audience?
- What stories from your community will be important to tell in the future and why?
Step 5: Have them display the items and caption.
Connections to Historical Objects
Untold Stories: The Center for Brooklyn History has unearthed untold stories from Brooklyn’s past. Using above acitivities, use lessons from the “Muslims of Brooklyn”, “In Pursuit of Freedom” and “Brooklyn Resists” curriuculum to tell stories that are usually overlooked or untold. Discuss that these resources function as the basement and backrooms of Brooklyn’s history. Just as Fred Wilson listened to the Maryland community and searched through the basements and backrooms of the Maryland Historical Society, students can use the materials in this curriculum to explore hidden Brooklyn’s past and present.
Below are links to photos, artifacts, and oral histories of three CBH curricula you can explore with your students and to look for juxtapositions between their own lives and those in the CBH curriculum.
Oral histories:
Students can juxtapose their own lives or the lives of people in their community by recording a short description of their own. A caption can provide the listener to ask why these two stories were placed together. These stories help reveal overlooked and unknown stories in Brooklyn. Here are some oral histories excerpts by topic in the archives of the Center for Brooklyn History.
The following oral histories tell the stories of Muslim immigrant experiences in Brooklyn. A link to each short oral history excerpt is just below a description of each story. Invite students to wander through these excerpts and look for possible juxtapositions with their own lives.
Here is a few links to lesson plans and some of the oral histories associated with them, you can use to teach juxtaposition.
Anti-Drug Patrols Part 1: The Call
Anti-Drug Patrols Part 2: 40-Day Patrol
American Dream in East New York
East Pakistan Becomes Bangladesh
To access of oral histories from this collection, please click here: Muslims in Brooklyn
Using Primary Source Documents
The two following lesson units “Brooklyn Resists” and “In Pursuit of Freedom” provide students with plenty of original documents that they can juxtapose with their own lives and then caption.
If students were looking through the archives of the Center for Brooklyn History, here is a sampling of some original documents they would find. Students will discover overlooked and unknown stories about Brooklyn embedded in these documents.
Here units with various types of primary source materials you can use. Please choose one or two to use.
- In Pursuit of Freedom
Creating an exhibit
Have students juxtapose images, oral histories, music and original documents from their own lives and from images, oral histories and primary source documents from three Center for Brooklyn History curriculum units. Students will create captions for the juxtapositions that will help viewers think more deeply.
Resources for creating an online exhibition
Jamboard is an online interactive whiteboard developed by Google. It’s free, great if your school is already using Google Classroom or other Google software. The interface is simple to use.
Padlet is an online interactive whiteboard. It is easy to customize, colorful, great for longer lessons and in-depth conversations, and kid-friendly.
Infogram creates infographics. This free website requires public publishing in order to view the completed product, which allows users to become digital producers. Students who don’t do art can use infogram as a piece of art or to create engaging data.
Tip 1: Go beyond Powerpoint. Projects can include music, Google images, and embed YouTube video clips.
Tip 2: Create a classroom environment. Have spaces where small groups of students can brainstorm, role play, debate, or analyze a document, video clip, image, map, chart, or other piece of historical evidence. Students can interact in real time using platforms like Google Hangouts, Google Docs, Google Slides, or Microsoft Teams.
Tip 3: Encourage peer to peer feedback. Have students respond to classmate’s posts or comments on a discussion board, offering the opportunity for dialogue and interaction. It also allows all students to voice their opinions and to do so in a thoughtful and informed way.