Month: February 2019

Expressive Arts Week 6

This week we were not in the University campus for our input. We all met at Kelvin Grove Museum in Glasgow. While we were here we learnt about all of the opportunities for school trips to all the different Glasgow museums and the different workshops that are taken place here. I would love in the future to be able to bring my class to a museum for a day out of school I think they would learn loads while having fun. While we were here it was really busy due to “Dippy on tour” which is the big dinosaur from a London museum that is touring other British museums.

While we were here we were tasked with finding 10 pieces of art to take a photo of that all connect to a theme and tell a story. I decided that my theme was going to be love, as this also connects with my evocative object due to the meaning behind it and my love for the actual object.

The first photograph I have is a drawing by Leonardo de Vinci of a brain from different viewpoints. I felt that this started off my theme and story well as your brain is the thing that allows you to love and makes you fall in love with something or someone.

The next two photographs to go along with my love theme is of birds and its called mother and child and then a statue of a child and parent elephant. These demonstrate the love between mother and child, How the bird has to go and find food for her and all her children in order to care for them and how the elephant protects her young. This is a perfect example of love.

The next is a drawing of two people in the past during the war who were at the railway station and they are having to say goodbye to each other before the man went off to war. This makes me feel a lot of emotions as the heartbreak in the photo due to the love the two have for each other. I found this drawing in the fragile art section of the French art.

The next one I thought at first was just a statue of a father and child hugging as the child went to sleep which showed love but then when I read the information about the statue was that in fact the child’s mother had died during child birth and the father was looking after the child, I felt like this showed unconditional love that the bond between a parent and a child demonstrates.

The next photo may not seem like it fits in with the theme of love as obviously as the rest of them, but when you think about the meaning of the it does represent love. It is of a tutankhamun and a mummy. I felt as though this represented love as the person who has been wrapped as a mummy would have been loved when they were alive and now will be remembered and loved. Just like anyone’s loved one who passes away.

The next drawing that I also found in the fragile art section in the French art part of the museum is a drawing of a nurse caring for a wounded solider during the war. This shows a different type of love it could represent a persons love for their job and caring for people is this persons love, or it could show the different type of love that a nurse has for each and every patient they care for as they want to help them.

The next two photographs have the same subject matter and the same meaning towards my theme of love, but one is like a cartoon colourful oil painting and the other is a real photograph. Also, one shows the beauty and the other shows the pain of the subject. The first is the cartoon one of trees getting cut down which shows how we love our planet and we love the wildlife, but we also love materialistic things which damages our love for the planet. The second shows the beauty and the side of the planet that we do love to see.

The next two photos I have chosen to round off my story of the theme of love are slightly different as they are my personal great loves. When we walked into the museum and had a quick glance around I immediately saw the giraffe and fell in love. Ever since I was tiny I have always loved giraffes don’t know why but I do so I loved the big statue of the giraffe in the animal section.

The last photo is of a large oil painting that was in the art section. This is of a ballerina dancing, and I loved it due to the colours the meaning and the size of the painting. I have loved and did dancing since I was two, so I fell in love with this painting. It links to my theme as it is my great love but also because you can see that the dancer is in love with what she is doing.

Overall I feel that my photos I have taken and chosen to include in my ten tell the story well and explain then theme well but in different ways that may not make sense to someone ese without an explanation. Overall, I really enjoyed our day at Kelvingrove.

Expressive Arts Blog Week 5

This weeks integrated arts lesson was very hands on and active within the art studio. This week we were linking back to our evocative objects that we have been using throughout the module to base the learning and to bring out emotions and ideas that we may not have if just been asked to do art. So, we were making a concrete poem using 62 words that we had made up about out evocative object. These may be descriptive like my fluffy, bunny etc. or the were emotions such as irreplaceable, heart-warming etc. there were also some words that were about the memory the object brings about mine were hospital, gran, auntie etc.

My concrete poem was in the shape of a bunny’s head. This is due to my evocative object being a bunny teddy. I decided to use wool to do the outline and face features as it gives it a soft fluffy looking touch that represents my teddy and the feelings that it brings about. I then decided I was going to write the majority of the words within the ears of the bunny and put a few special words in paint outside of the bunny to make them stand out more to show their importance. These words were Gran Auntie and then the quote from the song I chose to represent it “Angel in the shape of my mum”. I feel that these words were best to stand out in order for the whole meaning of my object to be conveyed by a glance in very few words. I decided that I would be best to work on the floor, due to the size of my paper and the space at the table due to everyone else working. I felt that because I was working on the floor that I had more room to move and didn’t let the space determine my ideas and creation. This has given me an insight that it would be beneficial for children to be allowed to work where they wanted during their maths lesson in order for them to not be confined by a desk and you may see their imagination flow and be less confined. This concept is discussed in the Room 13: The Movement and International Network (2012) where is discusses the fascination with room 13 which is an unused classroom in a school that was changed into an art studio where the children can work anywhere they want and be as big and bold as they want in the room as it was always messy to allow room for creativity.

I also think that a concrete poem would be a good lesson to do with children in school as it is cross curricular incorporation art and literacy into one piece of work. it would have to be done over a few lessons and the children would need support in choosing the words to include but I think the children would enjoy it. Maybe not using an evocative object as this may be hard for children to chose and understand as they are so young but maybe by picking their favourite toy or something along they lines.

 

Reference

Gibb, C. (2012) International Journal of Art & Design Education, Room 13: The movement and international network, Wiley Online Library

Expressive Arts Blog Week 4

This week we were in the music studio working with different instruments. We were looking at graphic soundscapes. This was in order to expand our knowledge of music and to give us a series of lessons that we could do with a class that the children could understand and enjoy but being creative and exploring different sounds and medias in order to create whatever they choose.

We learnt what a graphic soundscape is and how it works. It is when a certain sound or instrument is connected with a drawn picture which in turn makes up a key. So, clapping could be illustrated with a hand. They are then displayed in a boxed table which is read from left to right but everything in the one column is played at once. This is used to try and create an atmosphere through sound. The example we did as a whole class was fire works night. So, the individual sounds we had were bangs, talking background music etc. I thought this was a really good idea to start with as there are many different noises going on at the same time in a fireworks display. Also, most of us and children in a class will have been to a fireworks display or at least heard of them from afar. So, this means that everyone can have an input into the sounds being made to make the final sequence. We then went into smaller groups and got to chose what our soundscape was going to be and make it and the graphics to go along with it then we preformed them in front of the class.

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I feel that this would be a really good activity to do with a class of children that could be split into a number of lessons. Such as discussing and coming up with ideas for themes. Then exploring the different instruments and online resources to come up with the different sounds that are going to be used. Then an art lesson where they make their graphic soundscape drawing all the little images and making up a key. Then finally putting it all together and sharing it with the class. I think this would be a really effective task to do with children to get them engaged with music and to get to explore different instruments that they may never have seen or used before. It is also cross curricular as it brings in digital technology using the internet and recording tools to make up the different sounds they wouldn’t be able to make with the instruments available. It also brings in their creativity and art as they have to draw and make their graphic soundscape. And then obviously music for when they make the final product and use the instruments. One experience and outcome that could be connected with this lesson would be “Inspired by a range of stimuli and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 0-18a / EXA 1-18a / EXA 2-18a”.

 

Reference

• Education Scotland (2004) – Curriculum for Excellence; Experiences and Outcomes [Online] https://education.gov.scot/scottish-education-system/policy-for-scottish-education/policy-drivers/cfe-(building-from-the-statement-appendix-incl-btc1-5)/Experiences%20and%20outcomes [Accessed on 5th February 2019]