WPU/William Paterson University Summer STEAM Workshop 2016

I just presented a Adobe Spark Workshops for Paterson Public School Teachers Attending our WPU Summer STEAM Institute*.  This Institute was a great success and is featured in the NJ news as well as the WPU Education Department Facebook Page which features this Youtube.  In attendance were: public art and content area teachers from Paterson Public School District in Paterson, NJ;  William Paterson University art, science, and math "Professors in Residence" like myself;  the WPU Dodge STEAM Grant Manager, WPU Administrators, WPU Communications people, and the press.

Is Adobe Spark perfect?  Of course not, but it is FREE and it is very inspiring for classroom teachers with little or no art and graphic design background.  It enables both them and their students to tell compelling visual stories in multiple formats in minutes and to share them freely with a wide variety of social media platforms as well as download them to the desktop, and or get a URL for them to place elsewhere, e.g. Google Classroom, or a blog where all students can access them.

While technology ought NEVER replace hands-on art making activities (and plenty of these were also featured at the WPU STEAM Institute), technology does have a definite role to play in the future of art, and STEAM art education, both as a new medium, and as a new communication tool.  T.S.

Adobe Spark
https://spark.adobe.com

Adobe Spark FREE iphone and iPad apps:
Adobe Post
Adobe Page
Adobe Video

Youtube
General Info/Teacher Talking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdLR7MLiKM0

Youtube
Adobe Spark Video/Young Person Talking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHXtueraiXY

Adobe Education Exchange
edex.adobe.com

"Up and Running with Adobe Spark (Use Spark in Your Classroom)"
https://edex.adobe.com/spark/

Adobe Spark Professional Development
https://edex.adobe.com/professional-development/workshop/adobespark/section1/step3

Adobe Spark Step by Step (For Teachers to give to Students)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LfGAvvHdSdZpbhI8a3fG1RLZ0OGioot6iXsACU8w


Adobe Spark Edu Guide PDF Link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ttljGrHxMmLTRiTzcxaHZkREE/view?usp=sharing

*The WPU STEAM grant is funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
See our STEAMEmpowerment Blog:
LINK

It is also part of the WPU PDS/Professional Development School School Network
LINK

No Words

James K. Galbraith, a founding member of DiEM25, spekas on 'Plan X'

The words below are reblogged from Yanis Varoufakis LINK  and Greek Left Review Link. T.S.

 

James K. Galbraith, a founding DiEM25 member, writes exclusively on DiEM25’s site about his latest book and his contribution to the first SYRIZA government’s Plan X – a defensive plan to be activated if Greece’s creditors made good of their threat to throw Greece out of the euro in response to the new government’s determination to re-negotiate the troika’s failed ‘Greek program’. Yesterday, on the first anniversary of the courageous OXI vote of the Greek people, the Greek oligarchic media were trying to exploit Galbraith’s book in order to have Yanis Varoufakis indicted, censured or, simply, vilified. Their venom against OXI and Varoufakis is proof that the memory of the Athens Spring still haunts them. In the article below, James K. Galbraith makes it abundantly clear: The team working in the Finance Ministry, under Varoufakis, was the only side during the 2015 negotiation that did its duty fully and…

Read More at LINK

Auto Portraits: Exploring Myself in the World

I have taken many photographs of myself in a variety of settings and am beginning to see the idea is holding me as a longer term, sustained project.

All the shots are spontaneous, natural shots.  I see nothing (or have just a general idea) in advance of the image until I actually catch the moment, and later see the "film."  Of course, there is no film, this is all digital. I like working this way very much as it allows me maximum flexibility.

 Here I am taking a NYC Subway Ride 2016

I am interested in becoming the setting of my photos, of being a subject who at once blends with her background.  Philosophically this has a meaning for me.  I spend much time and energy fighting, (always with others) as an artist activist, for the things I hold most dear, for example the comprehensive and speedy clean-up of the Gowanus Canal.

 Here I am taking at the Gowanus Canal 2016

But I also like to adopt an opposite posture for my art work, a non-aggressive blending in with things as opposed to fighting them.

 Here I am in Gowanus Brooklyn near a nice tree 2016

This flight as an artist gives me the energy I need to fight the next fight on the ground.  Does this make sense?  To 'take up weapons' such as the pen, the voice, on one hand for a specific reason and cause?  And then to surrender to the surroundings completely as an artist creating photographs?  This is me.  I like to engage with a variety of situations and identities. T.S.

Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

I hope this year as Americans we will all take the time to reflect upon ourselves as a country and on what we truly stand for. T.S.

 Brooklyn NewYork iphone pic c.Triada Samaras 2016

From New York to New Jersey and Back

I have taken many, many photographs on my commute from New York to New Jersey and back again.  I use a couple of different cameras, nothing fancy.  All the shots are spontaneous, natural shots.  I see nothing (or only an idea) in advance of the image until I actually catch the moment, and later see the "film."  Of course, there is no film, this is all digital. I like working this way very much as it allows me maximum flexibility.

Commuting is a journey all unto itself and I will have a lot to say about being behind a windshield while I view the world at large.  There is a sense that one can touch and even grasp the world at large, but there is a stillness and a privacy which comes from being behind not only a camera, but a pane of windshield glass.  I will save the words for another time, however.  Now, the images ought to suffice.

I am starting a new web page featuring some of these photos and am begining the process of editing them for writing.  I am really in love with many of these pics.  I hope you might be too.

So here is number ONE:

Brooklyn NewYork iphone pic c.Triada Samaras 2016
And here is version 2 of Number One (below):

It is absolute dizzying how many small changes one can make while editing.

Number Three (below) is an unaltered iphone6 pic of Downtown Manhattan. 

Yes the world looked exactly like this to my iPhone camera that evening.

New York, NewYork iphone6 pic c.Triada Samaras 2016

While I could indeed edit this one a bit, I like leaving it "naked" as the moment was truly extraordinary.