A handful of textbooks reigns supreme over art-history survey courses. To Beth Harris, who teaches the subject online for the Fashion Institute of Technology, these expensive, static tomes don’t do a great job of engaging students. They lack a sense of what it’s like to see paintings where they hang. And, Ms. Harris argues, they present a consensus view that doesn’t convey the messiness, passion, and disagreement of scholarship.
Ms. Harris is trying to change all that. With a colleague, Steven Zucker of the Pratt Institute, she created a “Web book” that takes advantage of multimedia technology to reimagine the art-history textbook online. The free, nonprofit project, called Smarthistory, is winning honors and gaining traction at colleges. Its model could offer a template for similar open textbooks in other disciplines.
Smarthistory’s section on Caravaggio gives you a flavor of its approach. When readers get to the part about his paintings in the Contarelli Chapel, in San Luigi dei Francesi, in Rome, they find an informal, conversational video that Ms. Harris and Mr. Zucker recorded in the church (see above). They learn how Caravaggio uses light, but they also hear about the smell of incense in the ornate chapel and see the crowd jockeying for position in front of the canvas. Two minutes into the video, the chapel light goes off, and viewers hear the clank of the machine as the professors insert money to turn it back on.
“We really just wanted to re-embed the objects in our world,” says Ms. Harris, who is the founder and executive editor of Smarthistory as well as the director of digital learning at a New York City museum. “We thought that that would make them more relevant and more engaging for students.”
Students often take art history to satisfy a general-education requirement, so a lot of them aren’t majoring in the subject. Aside from the videos, Smarthistory also tries to engage these students with links, maps, and Flickr photos relevant to the content.
It seems to be working. Smarthistory, begun in 2005, gets about 65,000 visits a month, up about 60 percent over last year. It won the Webby award for best education Web site in 2009. It has been used or recommended by dozens of colleges, including Princeton, the University of Texas at Austin, and Vassar.
Smarthistory’s creators are really interested in getting more text and video contributions from art historians. But don’t think of it as some kind of crowd-sourced online art-history encyclopedia. Ms. Harris and Mr. Zucker retain editorial control. The content is fact-checked.
“We’re open to contributions, but we’re not Wikipedia,” Ms. Harris says.
9 Responses to ‘Smarthistory’ Rethinks the Art-History Textbook Online
hniyazi - November 24, 2010 at 12:21 am
An interesting project to monitor.
In its current guise, although its creators may not enjoy this descriptor, it is a wikipedia and WGA(webgallery of art) adjunct, a fact not diminished by the significant holes in topics covered, and no means to fill these holes by supplying an appropriate search engine or third party database integration.
Despite its proponents wonderful and positive promotion of it online and in avenues like twitter, its frightening disregard for web 2.0 principles is perhaps ultimately what will place a great burden on it conform to an ever changing user base.
I dare say its current form feels safe and comfortable to academia, which is why they have been so eager to recommend it, despite its obviously incomplete state – a fact which hit home when trying to research the works of Giorgione recently.
The last dig at Wikipedia is summation of exactly the anglo-centric parochialism that plagues art history, so eloquently reflected in poor enrolment numbers, and severe funding cuts, not to mention a plethora of bored students tweeting with an #arthistory hashtag.
Yet despite this, the public fascination with art and its history has not waned, with Gallery attendances rising, and the prevalence of dedicated professionals and amateurs alike embracing web logs and online journals.
Smarthistory’s ability to rise and adapt to these challenges and become globally relevant will be interesting to watch.
Kind Regards
H Niyazi
B.App.Sci
Melbourne, Australia.
22169082 - November 24, 2010 at 9:17 am
I second the first commenter’s remarks, and would add that two disembodied art historians (voice only) talking about a work of art displayed on the screen isn’t much different than what goes on in many art history classrooms – there’s just one voice, but the idea is the same. Perhaps smarthistory will work for larger lecture courses, but in a smaller class one can do a lot to engage students with the art – it’s just more work, done more consciously, by the instructor. Interactive lecture with lots of discussion of context (physical, historical, artistic) can be done.
Like the first commenter, I sometimes recommend parts of smarthistory to my students, but there are major holes in the periods covered, and because of the way I teach the factoids aren’t always what I would emphasize. I haven’t found smarthistory’s approach conceptually in terms of what kind of information is presented to be that different from standard art history textbooks.
otiscollege - November 24, 2010 at 10:51 am
This is a brilliant concept and project, not only because students enjoy learning from a technology beyond the traditional textbook, but because of the pedagogy related to conversation. It provides students with the opportunity to witness that art is subject to different points of view and theoretical interpretations.
tubbsjohn - November 24, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Has Smarthistory considered accessibility at all? I’m not seeing any use of descriptive audio or captioning. By adding a accessibility to something like this you have a chance of engaging students with hearing or visual impairment in an area like art history.
Though it is incomplete as the first commenter points out it is a solid presentation of the content. Wikipedia is of course vast but the interface is lacking a museum-like classiness. Aesthetics do count!
bermane - November 24, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Smarthistory is a great idea and about time, too!
Having taught Art History at prep schools and colleges, edited art history online resources, and worked with the AP people who oversee the national test, I know what students want and what they need. Despite some of the nay-saying above, Smarthistory anticipates what students are looking for: straight-forward definitions and a lot of them, all the major artists, and an interactive time-line–it all seems to be here. Add those discussions and Smarthistory makes art accessible, encouraging the students to relate to art, to have opinions, and that’s more than half the battle.
And Smarthistory is flexible enough to keep growing and responding to needs as they are identified.
proforiginalx - November 24, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I teach art history courses at a liberal arts college and am just completing my second term of using Smarthistory for several history of Western Art classes.
Troubled by the prohibitive cost of new editions of art history books pumped out by the textbook industry, I experimented with free and online resources. And then, in consultation with my administration, I tossed the textbooks and rely on Smarthistory (and a few online resources and print resources) exclusively for the daily homework that students do.
The class discussions have improved–as have student written understandings of the works. By giving my classes the opportunity to *hear* visually complex and intellectually challenging works discussed outside the classroom as well, my experience is that Smarthistory reduces the intimidation factor for students when they gather again.
Rather than adding another lecture voice to the students’ experience, I find that the dual(ing) voices in the Smarthistory conversations mixed in with mine and my students’ contributes to a rich multivocal atmosphere for making meanings. In addition to that, I have found that students become comfortable with the Smarthistoryvoices, and will quote from them in class, use them to challenge me, and even parody them in projects. All of which tells me that they are engaged.
Although I teach several film classes, I think that the medium itself–audio, rather that video–adds to the experience. (I still require readings, and have embedded museum audio or flash video in my Keynote lectures as well.) However, I believe that by asking students to look at dozens of works a month without clever cuts or the face of the expert, they have room to let their eyes linger on the art itself. I have written questions for most of the videos so that their viewing is driven by discovery as well as response.
I have also experimented with having students create audio/videos in pairs and the give-and-take that they draw from the Smarthistory model seems to inspire them to really practice ekphrasis, publicly disagree about dominant meanings, and creatively contribute some of their own.
On my course evaluations students consistently rate Smarthistory as enjoyable and highly conducive to their learning. There’s certainly room for improvement–it could certainly engage more radical discourses–but as it’s designed for introductory courses, and not designed for profit or connected to a major institution, I have found that it fosters student intellectual engagement and expands the dominant art education toolbox in creative, and even constructively subversive ways.
drszucker - November 24, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Great thanks to Marc Parry and all those who have left comments. We appreciate your interest and all of your suggestions.
Smarthistory relies on volunteers and as such has grown iteratively—and in response to feedback from teachers and students. We are very aware of Smarthistory’s gaps—most notably in non-Western art (though, of course, there are still gaps in the Western content too). In the last year we have worked hard to fill in those gaps and are making a renewed effort to reach out to potential contributors. And although we are making significant progress, adding two or three new pages per week, there is, of course, much more material to cover (do keep in mind that Smarthistory has no dedicated staff and is largely a voluntary effort).
Nearly every week we hear from an art historian who expresses interest in Smarthistory—but as we know, instructors are hard-pressed to find time for additional projects. A contribution to Smarthistory doesn’t often count toward tenure and promotion. That said, we do have a growing roster of fantastic contributors and are eager to have more scholars help us add this much needed content to our site.
As tubbsjohn noted, we could also be doing more in the area of accessibility. We have begun to look more closely at these important issues and our next grant proposal will include funds for captioning Smarthistory’s videos. We would welcome volunteers to help with this project and hope to find someone with expertise willing to spearhead the effort. Current grant planning also includes more support for teachers—example syllabi, discussion questions, etc., along with a dedicated YouTube channel for student “Smarthistory-style” conversations. We’d also like to acknowledge contributors more prominently on our home page.
Smarthistory is not designed to be a replacement for great teaching, but instead to augment it. We recognize that dedicated teachers use both traditional and unconventional practices to engage students in the study of art history. We encourage students to look closely at works of art, and hope to offer them perspectives that help them interpret what they see. In our experience, multimedia tools like Smarthistory makes art more accessible and spark new conversations among students.
And while we’re commenting, we’d like to thank our contributors, with a special thanks to Dr. Juliana Kreinik, our extraordinary Contributing Editor.
Beth Harris, Ph.D. and Steven Zucker, Ph.D.
Smarthistory.org
hniyazi - November 25, 2010 at 3:09 am
Thanks for the response Beth and Steven. Some of those upcoming features you have mentioned sound exciting! I like the interactive youtube feature especially.
Not content to just sit and offer my sage(!) words, I’ve also put my hand up to help in whatever way you feel I may be of use.
Good luck!
H Niyazi
jackyhood - November 26, 2010 at 9:22 am
Smarthistory is making history; it is an extraordinary site and one that causes students to rethink their preference for bound textbooks, thereby saving money and weight in their backpacks. College Open Textbooks nominated Smart History for the Text and Academic Authors’ Association Best Textbook of the Year 2009 award. Our peer reviewer Dr. Kate Jordahl, gave it an excellent rating. The textbook has now expanded into courseware: at our request, Beth and Steven created syllabi for 12- and 15-week community college classes in Western Civilization and Art History. Instructors will, of course, supplement the site with other materials; they do this with any textbook. I am reminded of the Kenneth Clark video series “Civilisation”; selective, of course; and also awakening appreciation and understanding in millions.—- Regards, Jacky Hood, Director, College Open Textbooks