Share-O-Rama: February 20, 2013
Prompt: Create a philosophical inquiry-rich activity that incorporates an art/design element or principle and a social/human issue or question. Be sure to integrate an artist, musician, or other example that makes the learning activity really engaging, tangible, and vivid.
Introduction:
Texture ~ Our emotions, surroundings, and lives are filled with it. Rough, smooth, detailed, or subtle, rich textures are woven everywhere within and around us, particularly in urban schools where students represent a vivid blending of backgrounds. Economic, social, ethnic, religious, and every other kind of descriptor are woven into intricate meshes within each unique student. Through the process of exploring and experimenting with materials of varying textures, students will gain understanding of how both how the materials interact with one another and also, using the materials as metaphors of aspects of themselves, see how they themselves are intricate weavings of many textures. If you were to imagine different aspects of your life as materials, what would they be? What kinds of textures can represent different emotions, views, etc about those aspects of your life? What happens when these textures are brought together and assembled into you and into a sculptural piece? Vocabulary words include texture, feel, rough, smooth, subtle, overt, identity, personality,
Age Level:
This activity would suit high school students due to its extensive yet gradual nature.
Process:
Students will self-reflect of the various aspects of their lives that help them to define themselves. These can range from the backgrounds I listed above (Economic, social, ethnic, religious, etc.) to personal interests in music, literature, art, etc. They will then gather materials of varying texture to represent each of these characteristics. Here, the sky is the limit – I imagine papers, cardboards, fabrics, impressions in clay, natural materials…anything. The idea is to explore, on a material level, how different textures interact (enhancing or detracting from one another), and also the implications this has metaphorically – how the different aspects of their lives interact and combine (perhaps creating harmony/dissonance?), to make them who they are. The end product will be a sculptural piece – the form is open to interpretation.
Time Frame:
Ideally, this project would take two weeks: a couple class periods for self-reflection, a couple more for gathering, discussing, and explaining materials, and a week to build the sculpture itself.
Texture ~ Our emotions, surroundings, and lives are filled with it. Rough, smooth, detailed, or subtle, rich textures are woven everywhere within and around us, particularly in urban schools where students represent a vivid blending of backgrounds. Economic, social, ethnic, religious, and every other kind of descriptor are woven into intricate meshes within each unique student. Through the process of exploring and experimenting with materials of varying textures, students will gain understanding of how both how the materials interact with one another and also, using the materials as metaphors of aspects of themselves, see how they themselves are intricate weavings of many textures. If you were to imagine different aspects of your life as materials, what would they be? What kinds of textures can represent different emotions, views, etc about those aspects of your life? What happens when these textures are brought together and assembled into you and into a sculptural piece? Vocabulary words include texture, feel, rough, smooth, subtle, overt, identity, personality,
Age Level:
This activity would suit high school students due to its extensive yet gradual nature.
Process:
Students will self-reflect of the various aspects of their lives that help them to define themselves. These can range from the backgrounds I listed above (Economic, social, ethnic, religious, etc.) to personal interests in music, literature, art, etc. They will then gather materials of varying texture to represent each of these characteristics. Here, the sky is the limit – I imagine papers, cardboards, fabrics, impressions in clay, natural materials…anything. The idea is to explore, on a material level, how different textures interact (enhancing or detracting from one another), and also the implications this has metaphorically – how the different aspects of their lives interact and combine (perhaps creating harmony/dissonance?), to make them who they are. The end product will be a sculptural piece – the form is open to interpretation.
Time Frame:
Ideally, this project would take two weeks: a couple class periods for self-reflection, a couple more for gathering, discussing, and explaining materials, and a week to build the sculpture itself.