The Concept
We approach the new Millennium with excitement and hope. But before leaping into the future we should explore the lessons learned by humanity over the last thousand years. These collective human experiences bring us to where we are today. Through the marriage of technology and art, we can better appreciate our past.
Student sessions in ten high schools explore the Millennium's centuries
Master-Peace 2000 is a project through which Miami artist Xavier Cortada will work with art and history students in ten Miami-Dade high schools to distill humanity’s legacy over this Millennium.
Each school will focus on a different century–exploring and understanding contributions that scientists, politicians, philosophers, artists and explorers made to our collective human experience. History students will write essays and art students will create drawings capturing the significance of that century and extrapolating its relevance to our society in the next Millennium. Students will be asked to explore different cultures, people, and perspectives as they engage in their research.
The following Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ high schools have been selected to participate in the project during Fall 1999:
Coral Gables High School 14th Century
D.A.S.H. 16th Century
Killian High School 18th Century
Miami Beach High School 19th Century
M.A.S.T. 20th Century
Students using the Internet to create art, exhibit drawings and post writings:
These student writings and drawings will be posted on the Master-Peace website, within the page corresponding to that century. Each art student will work towards creating a drawing that will interpret the century under consideration. These drawings will be included in a student web gallery for that century/school.
History students will be asked to write essays, these will be organized on a writings page for the century/school. Like the drawings, these essays will focus on different time periods within the century, and on the different peoples/cultures living on Earth during that time. Students will be asked to write a commentary on what lessons humanity has learned from the century in question.
These essays will be linked to a discussion forum/message board where the general student body and others can weigh in with their own perspectives. These will focus on that historic moment, but can vary. For instance, students can use what they’ve learned about humanity in reading these essays to address their dreams, hopes, and aspirations in the New Millennium. They can be individual or collective. And can focus on the short term or the duration of the Millennium.
Miami artist Xavier Cortada will then use these writings and drawings in his studio and collage them into ten movable murals, while receiving on-line feedback from the art students. From their classrooms students will use the Internet and see the artist through two live webcams in his studio. They will communicate with him via a live chatroom. This process is called the WebStudio, and is the one utilized with the Elementary Schools during the Master-Peace sessions during Spring.
The Website
The Master-Peace 2000 project will use the Internet to reflect on the lessons humanity has learned over the last millennium. These webpages will be organized be school/century within the new Master-Peace website. The site will include the individual student drawings, essays, and discussion forums, as well as documentation of each mural creating process, from the on-site school sessions to the on-line WebStudio mural creating sessions.
Naturally, these web pages will include the images of the ten completed murals, also making this exhibit a virtual exhibit, available to anyone who logs on-line. For more detail, please see the attached proposal submitted by dot Solutions, the company responsible for designing the original Master-Peace website and WebStudio sessions.
Dedication Ceremonies
All the movable murals will be unveiled in their schools’ auditoriums during the first two weeks of December. Each school will host a ceremony where the movable mural is dedicated, winning/selected essays are read, and students engage in drama, dance and musical, performances about the time period they explore. Participating students will be recognized, and the school principal will be presented with a Certificate from the Office of the Mayor of Miami-Dade County.
The MasterPeace 2000 exhibit
The first five Master-Peace 2000 murals will be exhibited at First Night Miami Beach on New Year’s Eve. Attendees will walk by and see movable murals interpreting the lessons humanity has learned in the last ten centuries. The exhibit will include a “time-line” of world history, as well as video presentations of each of their school unveiling ceremonies, along with other documentation. Likewise, First Night plans to provide computer kiosks, where participants can access the website including the Master-Peace 2000 web pages and all the information contained therein. During June 2000 all ten murals plan to be exhibited jointly in an appropriate venue.
timeline for masterpeace 2000
First week of October 1999:
- Master-Peace 2000 team meets
- Centuries selected for each school
- Schools schedules classroom sessions with artist
Last three weeks of October 1999, First week of November 1999:
- Technical support meetings with dot Solutions at each school to determine compatibility of computer subsystems with webstudio
- Art in Public Places sends press releases to media contacts
- Xavier Cortada visits art and history classes
- Students research their century through traditional and Internet searches (students are encouraged to recommend websites for links on their century for inclusion in the Master-Peace website).
- Students complete drawings and five hundred word essays interpreting the century that will be scanned and posted on the website. These original drawings will also be incorporated into the collaborative mural during WebStudio sessions
- Schools schedule and plan for unveiling ceremony to include dance, music and/or drama presentations interpreting their century
November 1999
- Invitation mailed out for dedication ceremonies
- Interactive webstudio sessions take place using webcams and a live chatroom. Art students participate from computer terminals in their school with Xavier Cortada in his studio. Cortada will receive online feedback from students as he collages their drawings into the 8 x 4′ moveable mural. Each school will participate in three WebStudio sessions between November 1 – 19.
- Student web galleries open on Master-Peace website
- Discussion forums with history student essays open on Master-Peace website
- Murals completed
December 1999
- MasterPeace video airs school-wide providing information about the Master-Peace process and website and asking students to write their messages in the discussion forums
- Dedications of murals, certificates provided to art and history students
- First Night Exhibit, Miami Beach Convention Center (December 31)