Week 13 Response

When I first walked in the room I couldn't figure out what was being projected onto the wall, so I walked over to the projector. It was those balls made by casting clear packaging tape cut in half. It was stunning and apparently and accident. It looked especially great as being large, simple shapes covering a large wall but with really intricate texture that kind of looked like fiberglass. It's a reminder to keep playing and experimenting and looking for new ways to do things.


Today we talked a lot about the use of stations in the classroom. They allow for movement around the classroom and surprise at the activity. It allows the students to feel independent and like a professional artist, for example when used during printmaking. Most importantly though, there is no teacher and no need to be taught. We can leave instructions for them, but cant guarantee that they will be read. The week we did printmaking we did something that may encourage the students to read a bit more. Before we even touched any materials we went to each station and just read the instructions. Doing this before anyone touches anything could help out a lot.

Stations allow for a lot of play, where the students can make their own connections. It can be a way to cover a large amount of material efficiently. It also makes the room more difficult to control. They might get too excited to read instructions and just get started working. We need to figure out a way to create balance between thinking and doing, and not just giving them busywork. There needs to be a definite reason to use the stations.

We displayed the work we created last week. We had to decide if we thought it would be best as a wall piece, a floor piece, or hung from somewhere. The next group would then display their work in a way that was a 'response' to the previous work. They would need to decide if it should be in the same or a different scale, if it is hung or set in a different way and why. We decided to put ours in a window, which looked really beautiful in the light.



Doing this would show the student the art doesn't just stop at the edges of the materials, but how and where its displayed can change the entire piece and even its meaning. It also affects the way you approach it, physically, but also emotionally and intelligently. Here is the way another group chose to display the spheres they made using tape casing.



Lastly, we should always remember there is no one right way to teach, just like there is no one way to be an artist. We should also keep this in mind while teaching, because each student will create art in their own way. We need to figure out how much room there should be, if a question is completely open ended, or restricted in some way.