Guidelines for Mural Design Research

Public Art: Mural Painting Prof. Kong Ho
Spring 2010, Tue: 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Phone: 088 837 4557
National Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria e-mail: koh1@pitt.edu


Guidelines for Mural Design Research:

Discussed Mural Design Ideas during Think-Pair-Share Activity:

Technological images, digital expression, spiritual icons, traditional design patterns, geometrical elements, poetic images, historical figures, ….

Below are the questions for the Think-Pair-Share Activity:
Q1: How do you see yourself and your art in this community mural project?
Q2: What do you want the viewers to see or to gain from this mural?
Q3: What are the most significant factors in visualizing our themes?
Q4: Which actual individual(s) or historical figure(s) should be used as part(s) of visual images for this mural and why?

Suggested questions to guide your thinking process in this mural design:
Q1: What is the similarities and differences between Bulgarian and American cultures?
Q2: How do we interpret the term culture? (history, language, beliefs, values, innovations including scientific and economic, arts, people, customs/traditions, social/political structure, etc.)
Q3: What are the significant symbols or icons of Bulgarian and American cultures?
Q4: What kinds of art work we will commonly use to represent Bulgarian and American art in traditional and contemporary sense?

Suggested topics for organizing your research or discussion:
Try to think about culture in terms of popular culture, such as history, holidays, sports, religion, cuisine, literature, art, music, dance, theater, fashion, television, films/cinema, and architecture, public art, firearms, etc.

Try to list the significant cultural identities between two cultures:
American culture: mainly composes by European ideals, especially British, and the ideals of Greek and Roman in building its capital; and domestic originality formed by cultural diversity or ethnic/racial difference.

American beliefs: democracy/freedom in expression, capitalism, civil liberties, monotheism (mainly Christianity), materialism, competitiveness, …

American cuisine: fusion of multiple ethnic or regional approaches in 20th century, hot dogs, hamburgers, pizzas, pastas, sodas, potato chips, corn cereals, etc.

Bulgarian culture: mainly related to Thracians, Greeks, Romans, Slavs, and Bulgars

Bulgarian cultural identities:
Excellent in goldsmith, 5th millennium BC;
Cyrillic alphabet, the second most-widely used alphabet in the world;
John Ataanasoff, a US citizen of Bulgarian descent, father of the digital computer;
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, famous for environmental art

Bulgarian beliefs: mainly Orthodox Christianity, little Muslim, democracy after 1989, …
Bulgarian cuisine: salads, soups, lucky charms, wines, etc.

Wikipedia links to Bulgarian and American cultures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_studies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thracians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_cuisine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_the_United_States