11/16: Visual Artists for Technology Lesson Plan
9/14: Creativity
Dave Engledow
- Began as a photojournalist until his daughter, Alice Bee, was born in December 2010. He began taking humorous photos of himself, Alice Bee, and his "World's Best Father" mug. The photos quickly became an internet hit and evolved itself into the series, World's Best Father.
- Big Ideas: Identity, humor, family
- Key Concepts: To humorously portray himself as the person he never wants to be - a neglectful father.
- Boundaries: His media is photos taken himself of himself and his daughter in a humorous, unreal, or dangerous situation. All his photos also include his mug, and his techniques include the use of photoshop.
- Key artwork: The series World's Best Father
- Knowledge: He acquires knowledge through his past experience as a photojournalist, as well as his growing experiences as a father.
- Artmaking Problem: He expresses his big ideas through the photoshopping of images to create a realistic, but untrue scene that he would never really wish to happen.
- Technical Strategies: Images always include himself, Alice Bee, and his mug. The images are then altered with photoshop.
- Conceptual Strategies: humorously portray child neglect or impossible situations with Alice Bee
Martin Grohs
- As a 24-year old from Germany, he has been into photomanipulation for the past four years.
- www.martin-grohs.com
- Big Idea: Image manipulation, surrealism
- Key concepts: His work is about manipulating photos in a realistic way in order to create a surreal image.
- Boundaries: Subject comes from real photos but altered to portray something that is not real.
- Key artwork: Breakfast, Be Cooking, Ugly Habit
- Knowledge: He acquired knowledge through practice and experimentation of how to alter photos.
- Artmaking problem: often has to create what a client wants.
- Technical strategies: uses photos, and software such as photoshop, illustrator, and Cinema4D
- Conceptual strategies: visual pun, surrealism
Jason Lee
- jwlphotography.com
- Began as a wedding photographer, but began photographing his two young daughters in order to share them with his mother who could no longer see her granddaughters because of a disease.
- Big Idea: Family, humor, documentation
- Key concepts: His work was created to document the lives of his daughters so that his mother may still watch them grow up.
- Boundaries: His subject includes his two daughters and depicts them in humorous scenes of relevant experiences.
- Knowledge: He acquires his knowledge through the experiences of his daughters, as well as their ideas.
- Artmaking problem: He expresses his big idea according to what is most salient in his daughter's lives.
- Technical strategies: Photos include his daughters and are photoshopped to create a humorous and often impossible scene.
- Conceptual strategies: Play, documenting life of daughters
9/28: Cat Soup
What is this animation about? (big idea/key concepts/themes, etc)
I took the big idea to be the relationship between life and death. It almost seemed to portray a unique perception of spirituality. Many of the images were dark and crude, but life can be dark and crude as well I suppose. The artist was very frank in their expression of ideas, and the disturbing events were very strange and symbolic.
What artmaking strategies (conceptual/technical/visual) does the artist use to illustrate the theme?
The artist uses animation to show the journey of the cats through the space between life and death. Conceptually, the artist made the message very vague. By traveling through a stream of consciousness, the viewer is forced to connect many of the dots.
Give a personal response or idea on how the animation might help you create your own animation.
Although I did NOT like Cat Soup, the style in which it was presented was admirable. The images were well put together and the scenes flowed well from one to the next. It was almost like a stream of consciousness that seemed to have no system, yet it all related. For my own animation, I hope to make my images flow well in order to make a cohesive piece.
What is creativity?
I think of creativity as the ability to solve a problem within certain boundaries. When creating an art piece, for example, I must figure out how to communicate my desired message while following the limitations of the medium, the amount of supplies, size requirements, etc. There is no right or wrong answer, but how creative one is determines how effective their end result is. This definition of creativity does not only apply to art-making, but to any other activity as well. Creativity and logic go hand-in-hand therefore it is an essential skill to learn.
How can creativity be taught?
Creativity cannot be taught through direct education, but rather through practice. An art educator could explain the meaning of creativity for years but the students will never become creative unless they experience it themselves. Educators can create the framework for a creative experience by posing a problem and giving students boundaries in which to solve it. As students are encouraged through their explorations, they will gain the confidence to think creatively in all areas of life and education.
Why creativity NOW? Why do you think creativity is especially important now?
Creativity is an important characteristic needed for independent thinkers. Students must be able to think outside of the box rather than just following directions. If students are only taught how to complete assignments, they are missing out on the process of learning itself. Practicing creativity is essential for teaching students how to learn outside of the formal classroom setting. There are so many issues and experiences that cannot be addressed in the classroom, therefore equipping students with creativity will better help them to adapt throughout their lives. It will also benefit society as a whole to solve cultural, political, economic, and many other major issues.
How can technology (digital media) be used to implement creativity in learning through the visual art?
Although many art educators do not have the same experience in technology as their students, it can be a useful tool in teaching creativity. Just like any other medium, using technology creates a unique set of limitations for art-making. It is important for art educators to realize the influence of technology upon the generation in which they are teaching. Students have to be technologically literate in order to succeed in the modern world. As art educators, we must make sure that our students are not only capable of using technology, but of approaching it with creativity. Stressing creativity in the technological art-making process, therefore, is more important than teaching the use of technology alone. This means that it is ok for the art educator to learn the uses of programs along with their students.
A good example of implementing technology would be assigning students the task of expressing an emotion by using digital techniques. As the students formulate their ideas, they must also explore the skills needed to complete the assignment. The educator can make themselves available to guide students through their learning, but it is the freedom that allows students to creatively use digital media. In this photo example, the student created an interesting composition as well as the expression of fear or anxiety.
Source: http://www.simsbury.k12.ct.us/uploaded/HJ_Content/Photos/ArtAwards2011/Justin.jpg
I like the idea of digital media being a "unique set of limitation in art-making". I think that students tend to know the technologies that we are working with in classrooms, such as computers, cameras and videos. However, they might not have ever used them in a way that applies to art before, which can be new and fun.
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