This week, we were lucky enough to be joined by students from Norway to take part in activities surrounding autumnal and outdoor artwork. I believe each set of students benefitted greatly from having the opportunity to explore the concept of outdoor artwork with students from another country and culture. Both countries have very similar climates and environments so, have very similar surroundings in which they can create outdoor art. However, the different backgrounds and cultures that each set of students meant we each brought differing perspectives and ideas. A study, based on a multicultural model involving students from both Russia and Finland, found similar results. As a result of educational and artistic differences, students in this study could learn from each other and produce unique final products (Kuure et al, 2017).
Visual Arts
This week’s visual arts input focused on land art, in particular the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy is both a sculptor and photographer who uses natural materials to create his work (Andy Goldsworthy, 2019). Diarmuid referred to land art as a “subtle intervention” – something that could always have been there. An example of Goldsworthy’s work can be seen below.
The cohort of Scottish students was split into four groups and each group was led by one of the Norwegian students. We were tasked with going out into the university grounds to create some land art ourselves. My group decided to create a 3-dimensional frame using sticks and twigs that had fallen on the ground. We created one large frame and then aimed to make some smaller frames around it to allow us to photograph our beautiful surroundings from various angles and perspectives. This afforded us the opportunity to experiment with photography as well as land art.
One artistic skill I feel I developed throughout this process was timing. The video below shows one of my peers throwing fallen autumn leaves over two more members of the cohort while other students take photographs. To take a successful picture, timing was key. Although, we were unsuccessful in gaining the desired picture in this instance, we greatly enjoyed the activity regardless. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2004) argues the creative process should be valued as highly as the ultimate creation. This activity can teach students and children alike the importance of enjoying and appreciating the creative process rather than becoming overwhelmed by the idea of creating a perfect piece of art.
Music
In today’s music workshop, we had the opportunity to experiment with the app, GarageBand. We worked individually or in pairs to create an autumnal soundtrack using the tracks found on the app and what we had experienced outside as inspiration. The track that I created alongside one of my peers can be heard below.
I found the app a little difficult to use initially so, I was grateful to be working alongside some of my peers. However, by the end of the session I had gotten used to the system and could use it more competently. As a result, I believe children may need substantial guidance and time to get used to the programme before they tried to create their final track. Nevertheless, I think this would be an extremely effective classroom tool that would allow children to compose music without the worry of standard musical notation. GarageBand could be used to introduce the concept of composition and then children could progress to composing their own music using traditional notation.
I have always believed that practitioners should seize every opportunity for outdoor learning. However, today’s input clearly highlighted to me the positive impact that outdoor learning can have on improving the quality of lessons in the arts. Today, members of the cohort produced two pieces of artwork based on an hour’s exploration of their immediate outdoor surroundings. As such, the outdoors can stimulate individual’s imagination and allows for the development of extremely creative ideas (Scottish Government, n.d.).
References
Andy Goldsworthy. (2019) [Online] Available: www.artnet.com/artists/andy-goldsworthy/ [Accessed: 23 October 2019]
Kuure, E., Pietarinen, H. and Vanhanen, H. (2017) ‘Experimenting with arctic social phenomena. A multicultural workshop model.’ In: Jokela, T. and Coutts, G. (eds) (2017) Relate North Culture, Community and Communication. Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it. London: QCA Publications.
Scottish Government. (n.d.). Outdoor Learning Practical guidance, ideas and support for teachers and practitioners in Scotland. [Online] Available: https://education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/hwb24-ol-support.pdf [Accessed: 23 October 2019]
