Welcome to Artroom 161 2020-2021

 

It's been a long time since we were all together at school and things have changed a great deal but I'm looking forward to working with you and creating some amazing art this year!  We are going to focus on creativity and mindfulness this week to begin the year on a positive note.

We are going to work on a series of pieces that will be incorporated into a larger project using Adobe Spark next week.  This week we will discuss what it means to be creative and learn a few helpful creative mindfulness tools.

AP Art: The Storytelling of Art

In AP Art we are focusing on writing about our art this week, specifically looking at the Storytelling of Art.  Today we look further at the work of artist  Olafur Eliasson and see how he discusses his own work as an example.

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Digital Media: Vexillological Augmented Reality

To begin working with Augmented Reality we are going to take a note from Roman Mars, host of the 99% Invisible (one of my favorite design podcasts), and work to create a better flag for our town, Smithtown.  We are going to watch his TED talk and learn about vexillology, the study of flags, and then critique our town flag based on the basic design rules that he shares written below.

1. Keep it simple. (The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.)
2. Use meaningful symbolism.
3. Use two to three basic colors.
4. No lettering or seals. Never use writing of any kind.
5. Be distinctive


Our flag is definitely what we learned Vexillologists would call a "SOB" (a seal on a bedsheet) so we are going to help our town out by creating a new flag design that represents the 21st Century.  We are also going to use the Quiver app to create a virtual augmented reality video show off how great our new flag designs would look flying over the school and in town.  Be creative, be original, and be timely because we are in the last few days of school and this project is due on Tuesday 6/2!

UPDATE: Here's a few of my favorite flag redesigns so far, there are some really great designs!

The last step of the project is to record your flag design with augmented reality with the Quiver app and their flag template and share it, below is an example from Jak.

2014 Japanese Student Visitors

Next week we will be welcoming two visiting students from Tokyo, Japan for a two week stay through the Japan Society in NY who's Going Global project some of us worked on last semester.  The students will be staying with Gabby and Allison from my AP Art class and they we be participating in a talk that I am putting together with my classes for next week. 

This visit is a great experience for all of us to learn a bit about a new culture and teach them about ours.  The video above is from a terrific TED talk Derek Sivers gave that gives some perspective of how the different cultures view things and opens you mind to how we might view things differently.  I encourage you help welcome the girls next week, to be open to the experience, and most importantly to try not to judge things that you think might be weird, they are just different.

To give you a sense of how different school is in Japan, below is a photo of me and a class of Japanese students from the Nagoya area of Japan in the Aichi district.  The school had some elements like dress codes, student cleaning periods, student led field trips, and grade charts posted on the walls that were different but when class began the learning and students were very similar.

 

 

We'll be doing an art project I designed while in Japan next week based on the Tanabata Festival where you will interpret the myth visualy and use the color palette from Japanese woodblock prints.

Photography: JR and Vik Muniz

We looked at contemporary artists JR and Vik Muniz in photography class this month and today we'll have a quiz reviewing some of what we learned.  Here are two clips to check out from each of the artists to learn a little bit more if you're interested.

Media Art: Film production

This week in class we are studing how films are made and we began by screening the TED video above from producer and director James Cameron who's known for creating the two biggest moneymakers in film history Titanic and Avatar. His story is pretty remarkable and inspirational and he ends his talk with a terrific quote-

"Failure is an option but fear is not"

We will also be looking at clips from producer Lynda Obst's documentary based on her book
Hello, He Lied and Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches which gives insight into the real world of film production and what's involved.  There will be a short test on Friday on the basics so make sure you take notes!

Photography in the classroom

The Art Honor Society & Media Art Honor Society are teaming up with Mr. Needles Media & Photography classes to participate in JR's amazing, TED winning photography Inside Out project

Scott McCloud

Here's an interesting video from Scott McCloud who is a terrific animator and author discussing art, life, and cartooning.

Two important things to note:

first: how Scott gives some of his personal background and how that relates to his concepts and art (remember pulling from your own experience generally results in the most original and interesting work you have to offer)

second: how Scott's "out of the box" narrative style of presentation reflects the "out of the box" variations in cartooning that he discusses (like he mentions this is just his nature- getting in touch with your own instincts and nature will inform your art and in a larger sense your choices and views in life)

As an extra credit assignment try to create an "out of the box" comic that uses space and direction in an interesting way (due when we return from break)