Grade 9 students have begun their graphic design unit and were asked to create a composition using only the letters of their name. They selected whether to use Photoshop or Illustrator. The purpose of the task was for them to become familiar with fonts, layout as well as some of the text editing tools. The task was done without any instruction on the teacher’s part, except for the information below.

Task: What Type Are You? (60mins)
Using Photoshop or Illustrator, create a document/composition using only the letters of your name.
-You should experiment with various fonts.
-You should experiment with size.
-You should experiment with rotation, overlapping and/or mirroring.
-You should experiment with kerning etc.
-You should limit your colour palette, but may use colour in any way you see fit.
-You should consider layout, spacing and/or white space.
-Your composition should have an attractive balance.
-You may use repetition.
-You may play with orientation.
-You may play with opacity.
View the images below or directly through Flickr here. During the next class, we will critique the work.

Following up from my previous post, I’ve also been trying to set up my units with an overarching task, which guides and pushes students to create their final product and overall guides the course of the unit. However, I and we (meaning the school), view their process work as equally as their finished end product or solution. Investigative and research work are documented and required to show their growth and knowledge. I try to apply it to the real world, but to be honest, I still need to refine and develop some. Here is a taste of a few that I have done so far:

Grade 8 Art Unit on Character Illustration Task: You work for Pixar! Pixar are about to develop an animated feature film based on Typography. You will be assigned a typeface.  Pixar requires you to personify your font into a human character. You will need to think both creatively and critically. You will need to research your font, gather resources for inspiration, develop several thumbnails for your character in a variety of styles and then decide on the final one.

Grade 8 Technology unit on MashUps Task: You will create a remix or mashup of your choice. You should recombine elements from published works in a new, thoughtful way. Your mashup may focus only on the visual, video or audio only, or both. Your product should correctly follow fair use policy and not infringe or plagiarise. You should consider where you will find or gather your source material and the technical tools required to complete the task. What technical skills do you think you will need to learn? You should also evaluate the purpose and character of your use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion used and the effect of the use on the market for the original. Depending on your creation, your video should be no less than 30 seconds and no longer than is appropriate for its type (if you’re making a movie trailer, they generally run 60 seconds. Music videos tend to be the length of the song.)

Grade 7 Technology unit on Minecraft Task: You are a member of an engineering team in a virtual environment! Your team wishes to create a new development for a theme park. Each team is creating a themed street or area of the theme park. Each individual is responsible for creating a structure in that street/area. Your engineering team must negotiate with the rest of the class as to how to organise and unify all the group work together. You will need to work collaboratively and cooperatively. What roles, jobs, duties and responsibilities will this require? You will also need to investigate the Minecraft environment and record findings on how it works and possibly share your research and investigations onto a wiki (time permitting). Your structure will also require investigation into function, appearance and design. You will document your work and progress weekly in your Design Folder with notes and screenshots. Good luck!

Phew. Now that I can catch my breath, it’s time to dedicate some words to this blog. Actually, there isn’t a lot to say. I’ve been busy writing new units for an art and two technology classes. However, they are pretty good units, in my opinion. I’m willing to share to throw it out to you. Good? Bad? Crazy? etc.

I revamped a grade 10 unit on creative interpretation. This unit gives grade 10 students a taste of what to expect in IB art. The primary focus is on how to develop ideas. Students look into what creativity is and select a theme to visually represent. Here is how the unit is structured:

Unit Question: Where do good ideas come from?

Significant Concept: We are influenced and inspired by the world around us.

Another new unit is grade 7 technology. This unit is based on Minecraft, where the focus is on cooperation and entitled “Fair Game.” Students will be developing a theme park, where each group is in charge of an area and each individual in charge of a structure. All groups must negotiate with each other to come to an agreement as to what the park will look like and require. It’s an MYP technology unit and broken down like this:

Area Of Interaction - Environments: How do we behave and interact with each other in offline and online communities? Is there a difference? What are our roles, responsibilities and duties when working collaboratively? What part do we play and what are the interrelationships of different environments? In this unit, students will work together to make decisions based on creative thinking, communication, and collaboration. They will consider both their immediate classroom environment and their online environment in a gaming context.

Significant Concept: How we solve problems depends on the conditions of the environment and group dynamics.

Unit Question: What does cooperation and collaboration look like?

Finally, the last is another MYP technology unit on Mashups for grade 8. The unit is broken like this:

Area Of Interaction - Human Ingenuity: Media can be constructed and consumed. Recent advances in technology have led to the increased malleability of media like text, images, music, and video.  Advances in the speed and flexibility of communication are allowing people to make use of copyrighted content to build a culture of remixes and mashups, exercising reinterpretation and creativity in the process. Media can now be combined, retold and reinterpreted in many different ways.

Significant Concept: Everything is a remix.

Unit Question: Does copyright hinder or cultivate creativity?

I’m excited to teach these and will let you know the interesting things that pop up!

Before starting our second units in grade 7 and 8 Technology, I decided to incorporate a little bit of art and technology. We made some glitched photography, which you can see below or directly through Flickr here. I’ve blogged about this before, where there is a great PBS OffBook video and a link to a tutorial. Basically, you open your photo in text edit and start corrupting the file by deleting, inserting, copying and adding text. Give it a try. It doesn’t take long and the students enjoyed it.

My grade 9s are currently working on observational drawing. We’ve looked at measuring proportions, value and gradation. Their next task was composition. As a new element to the unit, I got them to independently research “What makes an attractive composition?” during class. The next lesson they shared their findings in small groups and added to their list, with accompanying pictures to illustrate the terms and show correct understanding. Through their research, they discovered framing, balance, leading lines, contrast, rule of thirds, positive/negative space, cropping, amongst others. Obviously, this showcased their knowledge better and I was pleased. What worked even better was the next activity.

The following lesson students were asked to bring a camera. Students were required to apply their knowledge and take pictures within the art room. Most of the objects are mundane, but students were challenged to take close-up pictures applying the concepts they researched. Their drawing task will require this and it is an element they are evaluated on.

Students narrowed down their photos to approximately twenty and printed out contact sheets. Once printed, students teamed up to critique the photos. What I liked was hearing students use the correct terms and really analyse their photos. I’m surprised I’ve never thought of this before. Super simple! I think it will kill the questions I usually get asked every year: “Is this OK?” “Is this composition good?”

RIP. I did the activity along with the students. You can see some of the photos below.

Following on from my previous post, I’m still thinking about a “remix” unit for an art class. I’m leaning more towards a still image approach, but am keeping an open mind. The video work of Christian Marclay (“Clocks” info, Telephones video) would be great, but complicated. I’m thinking more about how the combinations of items/images can create new meanings. How do we perceive appropriation? What and how can we “sample?” What and how can we transfer?

We live in such an overcrowded visual culture with advertising, the internet, social media, TV and numerous other experiences. What would be an artist’s intention to sample work? How is it easier or difficult to appropriate work? What are the physical acts involved in creation versus the digital? How are they separate and how can they overlap?

It’s a lot to consider and raises more questions, which I like. So, similar to the tech unit planned, I am leaning towards “How can existing works (images/items) be used to create something original?” as a unit question. With the concept I am thinking of including how context and the manner of appropriation is used (i.e. juxtaposition). Naturally, I still need to refine these areas.

Some activities and artists I would include are:

• An introduction on how artists transformed everyday items into art (Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Jeff Koons)
• A comparison between Warhol’s “Birmingham Race Riot“ (1964) and Kelly Walker’s “Black Star Press” (2006) and then perhaps further investigation with some of the work by Banksy
• Collage (Richard Hamilton’s “Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?“ and various collage activities involving images and text, including the work of Jacques de la Villeglé
• Image Transfer techniques
• The sculptural mashups of Brazilian artist Barrão
• JUNE 5 UPDATE: I forgot to mention Culture Jamming

So that’s where I’m at so far.  The title of the unit, “Image Transfer” or “Mashable”. Remember, everything is a remix and Steal Like An Artist.

If you have further ideas/resources for me, please do drop a comment below. I’d appreciate it.

As digital tools transform the way artists find and rework images, the concept of what is fair use—legally as well as artistically—is becoming more complicated 

In the March issue of ARTnews magazine, there was a great article entitled “Copy Right” (read online here). In it they talk about the art of creative re-use. I’ve always wanted to do a remix type of art unit, but have never really had the time to implement it, or had the chance to squeeze it into a year group. That time has come, but in a technology class.

Recently, my co-workers Kim Cofino, Damien Pitter and I had a full day planning session developing new technology units as our “technology as a subject” class moves up from grade 6 & 7 all the way to grade 10. A remix unit was agreed upon, and I immediately remembered the above mentioned article. You see, I’ll be teaching tech again next year to grades 7 & 8, and though this unit would be for grade 10, I’m still thinking how to make it a transdisciplinary unit with my grade 10 art class.

We’re still in the planning phase but we decided to lift the above quote as the unit concept (Digital tools transform the way people find and rework media into original creations). Of course, something like this is also in the works; “Intellectual property rights must be respected through the creation of remixed media.” Our unit question might go along something like this: “How can existing works be used as building blocks to something creative and original?”

Now, the unit may take more of a video/audio mashup approach, but anything is possible. Which brings me back to the visual arts. As an art teacher, how can I connect and scaffold with this unit? That will be my next post. Stay tuned, and of course, if you have some ideas, drop them in the comments section!

(image credit 1, 2)

OK, I’ll be the first to admit that my intro video on graphic design is not the best I’ve done. I made it for my grade 9 Art Foundation class as a back-up resource to use at home. I won’t really be using it in class as a lesson (click here to view the week by week lesson breakdown). It’s a real challenge to teach graphic design as well as some Photoshop and Illustrator skills in ten 80 minute lessons. No time to waste.

However, I do recommend the book I gathered the info from. My co-worker Jamie R. once summarised it perfectly by saying you could read it in 15 minutes. This is actually true. The other book is not so bad either, and their website is rather good in offering design problems to solve. I’ve also uploaded a more basic version of the video in slideshow format below, though I’m not so sure you’ll find any use in it. It is very basic and does not go into much depth regarding layout, colour or type. If you teach graphic design and have some resources/projects on hand, I’d love to hear from you! Really, please. (And yes, I know the slide designs aren’t great even though it is on design!)

I think this would make a great elementary art lesson. Simply break apart a box and create an image. Here I have made “RoboMouse.” View other great examples at the Doodle Box Project site. I’m not sure where I heard about this but most likely it was either from The Carrot Revolution or The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet blogs (thanks guys). As you can see, the blank broken down box itself looks like an image already.

(slightly cross-posted at i love frank’s drawings)

I have seen variations of this Australian aboriginal art activity in the past, but what I like about my co-workers’ delivery is the crumpled paper effect. Sonya and Gillian did this as an after school activity with grade 1-4 students. They write:

“Students were inspired by an aboriginal painting to create their own ‘rock drawings’ in the style of the Australian aboriginal people. After drawing their animal in permanent marker, they used watercolour dyes in earth tones to colour the paper. When it was dry, the paper was scrunched into a ball to create the rock texture. Further detail was added with cotton buds and paint – the dot painting being very prominent in aboriginal art. A border was created for the work and students helped prepare their work for display.”