Our first week of the Integrated Arts module was all about the visual arts and music. We had a lecture in the morning that introduced us to the module and explained what we were to expect for the weeks to come. Then we split up into our two groups and headed off to the workshops. Firstly I attended the music workshop. Here we started with talking about the mood a piece of music can make someone feel. We listened to five sound files varying from the sounds of the rainforest all the way to the summer hits of Calvin Harris, and we were to note down how that piece made us feel (relaxed, tense, sad, excited etc.). We shared with the class some of the adjectives used to describe our moods and although we were all listening to the same piece of music there were varied moods. Then we moved on to musical appreciation, where we discussed the idea of using music to inspire us to think creatively through literacy and art. For this activity we broke off into small groups and listened to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 three times and created a story around what the music made us feel what what came to mind when we listened to it. My group had the idea of a winter scene where a man was trying to go to a Christmas fair but an avalanche stopped him in his tracks. He had to escape from the avalanche by sliding through ice tunnels and then jumping off a cliff into a snow bank for safety. The story ends with the man reaching the fair and dancing in the snow with his friends. I think that this was a great activity to do as it lets your imagination run wild and the only barriers to creating a story is your own imagination. This would also be a really good activity to do in a classroom as it lets the children have limitless creativity.
In the visual arts workshop we talked about our own expressive arts experience from when we were at school, and how that has impacted our idea of teaching the arts in school. Then we did a short exercise where we were given a long piece of paper folded into four equal parts. Then we were to copy the drawing that was being done by the tutor on a bigger piece of paper on the wall of the room. After we had completed this, we discussed our art abilities and how lots of people feel they can’t draw when in fact they can, and this activity proved that point. Over all our first week went well and I am excited for the rest of the module.
