Catherine D. Yates
This unit includes research into how objects create and hold memory and how memories can inform storytelling. It investigates how reflective and creative writing can come from the scientific and imaginative study of objects. The unit builds research and study exercises, using familiar forms to honor the connections we have to one another. The unit is interdisciplinary in the sense that students and teachers are asked to use both scientific and literary methods to learn and to gather information. We will draw on art historian Jules Prown’s method for describing an unknown object, artist Anni Albers’s commitment to understanding the origins of materials we use, and insights about material identities from Alison Slater’s collection “Memory as Dress.”
The unit will start by studying our cultural relationship with printed yearbooks and journals as common material objects. We will do this by looking at copies of historical CO-OP yearbooks that we have in our classroom. We will talk about why we value yearbooks, what is special about them, and what role they play in our lives. Together we will identify the key structural elements of a yearbook/scrapbook, such as the different themes and sections. We will analyze, design, and identify material elements of the yearbook genre. After this discussion and study, we will do research into different scrapbooks by visiting the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Peabody Museum of Natural History, and the Yale University Art Gallery to gather information about the history of these objects and how they were put together.
This unit will address the social and political markers of yearbooks. What is it about yearbooks that keep us connected with the past? Is this a positive experience? Why or why not? Why do we value them? What language does the yearbook speak? We will look both at past incarnations of the yearbook and more contemporary versions, such as “The History of the World in 100 Objects” podcast.1
The unit is designed to build a supportive and innovative scholarly and creative, arts-influenced community. This community emerges through principles of hands-on learning and student-centered creativity. The goal is to construct an exhibition or performance designed for a specific classroom setting. We will initiate a tradition of sharing writing through studying material culture. By studying material culture, we will develop our relationships with each other and our creative work.
