Final Project: Being a Visual Explorer- Dialoguing with Visual Environments and Contemporary Artists

Final Project:
Being a Visual Explorer- Dialoging with Visual Environments and Contemporary Artists


Creativity arises from our ability to see things from many different angles of view.

Goals of this Project: The primary purpose of this project is to participate in a set of activities that will help you to look at the world differently and prove useful in developing a 2 page project sheet for young learners to respond to their visual world and contemporary artists. A secondary purpose is for you to (a)have fun refining your creative visual acuity with objects and the world around you, (b) explore experimental discovery, and (c) participate as a resource/researcher/creative collective by posting 5 times to a community blog.

As a result of this lesson students will:

Refine and use all senses,
Develop ways to look and dialogue with the visual world and gain new insights about it,
Make connections and notice patterns,
Develop a project sheet that connects student to their visual world, appropriate contemporary artist and literature, and
Using technology (a blog) to create and explore with a community.

Part One: Begin by selecting and completing 4(10pts. each) of the 1-9 activities. Complete one activity per week for the first four weeks. The activity and a short reflection are to be posted to the blog site dedicated to this project with your name and the title of the activity.
For example, "Lindsay L_Passage of Time"

Part Two: Use your experiences, the community responses and any resource you found helpful to complete the required final activity #10 (60 pts.) an Original 2 page, age appropriate, Project Sheet for a group of students as evidence of your translation to a student activity related to visual art.

Resources:
Blog site: http://ARE4314blog.blogspot.com/
Children Literature sites: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/baldwin/baldwin.html
Contemporary Artist sites: http://www.pbs.org/art21/ ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_artists ; http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/women-artists-20thb.html; http://www.zeroland.co.nz/living_artists.html ; http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/afa/

Activities 1-10 requirements: You choose 4 (#1-#9) along with required #10 to be posted to blog weekly.

1. Record and document the passage of time. Write 1-2 short sentences of what you did and why. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Rollo May, When you are completely absorbed or caught up in something, you become oblivious to things around you, or to the passage of time. It is this absorption in what you are doing that frees your unconscious and releases your creative imagination.

2. Collect objects (3) that relate to your childhood or inspire your imagination. Write short 1-3 sentence about each of these objects. Take one of these objects and change it location or scale to change its meaning, document. Post results (images of collected objects, sentences about each, and one transformed in scale) to the blog.
Quote: Carl Jung, Sometimes a tree can tell you more then a book.

3. Collect colors (minimum 10) from magazines, photos, or your environment that resonate with you. Give them original names. Pick three and use crayons, color pencil, or oil pastels to make samples of 3. Post your results to the blog,
Quote: Andrew Wyeth, I love to study the many things that grow below the corn stalks and bring them back to the studio to study the color. If one could only catch that true color of nature - the very thought of it drives me mad.

4. Collect materials (minimal 6) based on their texture. Glue the textures to a sheet of cardboard measuring 4” x 8”. Invite three people to close their eyes and describe and guess the materials. Post your sample and findings on the blog.
Quote: Van Gogh, It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper understanding.

5. Using the texture sample activity above create a 4” x 8”, create a relief copy measuring 4” x 8” using clay. Get clay or material from ARE4314 instructor. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Andrew Wyeth, I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it... I always want to see the third dimension of something... I want to come alive with the object.

6. Write down 50 visual things about a journey (e.g., a trip to class, a trip home, or a walk where you live). Write a piece of Haiku from the list of words in your post. Tell us what your journey was, post your haiku, and your list. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Wallace Stevens, I am what is around me.

7. Document lettering/words (5) you find out in the world. Take notes and record where and when you find them. Write a few sentences about why you made these choices. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Beatrice Ward, TYPE WELL USED is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle of the transmission of words and ideas.

8. Document parts (3) of a building(s) that most people take for granted. Document it in a way that keeps us guessing. Write a few sentences about what you did and why. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Italo Calvino, The human race is a zone of living things that should be defined by tracing its confines.

9. Record everything you consumed or purchased in one day. Use a white pencil/marker on a dark colored paper to do a small drawing of each of the items and write a description. Post your results to the blog.
Quote: Bertold Brecht, Before familiarity can turn into awareness the familiar must be stripped of its inconspicuousness; we must give up assuming that the object in question needs no explanation. However frequently recurrent, modest, vulgar it may be it will now be labeled as something unusual.

10. REQUIRED: Create a two page project sheet that has (a) age appropriate activity for students, (b) age appropriate minimum of 3 goals for the project (c) a materials list (d) resources to include a connection to a contemporary artist(s), a connection to age appropriate literature(s), a quote, and (e) criteria for evaluation and or questions for discussion. You will have an opportunity for a short 5 minute share of the blog and your student project pages as part of the class final presentations. Post your results to the blog by last lab class. (Deadline Final Project posted by June 16) (60pts.)