SHADOW MACHINES

When writing the Fall ART BRAINS curriculum, I was asked to consider tying in the Data Fields exhibition, which coincides with the Fall session of the camp at Artisphere.  It's an excellent show, but I honestly wasn't overly excited about incorporating it into the camp at first, as it's highly technical with a lot of auditory elements  (very cool, but not my field of expertise, per se). Now that the camp is actually underway, I'm happy to have had this nudge in another direction, because it prompted me to design some classes I know I wouldn't have otherwise. Shadow Machines is one of those, inspired by the illuminated/projected works in the darkened space of the exhibition:

Youth will create small cut-paper arrangements that, when illuminated with a light source,  create compositions of shadows on the wall of a darkened space. The shadows will be the final product of their work, prompting the students to think about incorporating light into their art, and visual mediums beyond drawing and painting.

Everyone was pretty stoked on this project.  It was interesting to see the kids thinking about negative space, learning more about how light/shadows work, and how to make adjustments to get the the shadows looking how they wanted them to look.  I like the idea of the final products being these intangible, shape-shifting penumbra-scapes. The campers were into moving the light source (small LED flashlights) from side to side and closer or farther away from their "machines" to produce ghostly, overlapping variations of the shadows. I've included a video here along with the photos that shows a little bit of that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note: During this class, I showed the kids about one minute of a Reading Rainbow show about shadows. None of them had ever heard of Reading Rainbow, which makes sense, but also feels somehow WRONG. What's the modern-day equivalent of Reading Rainbow? My two-second Google search returned this, and this. Reading Rainbow + iPad + twitter + . . . flash mob? I guess that's all great news (minus the flash mob, no thank you please), but it feels bittersweet to think of Reading Rainbow being shown any other way than on a mammoth, 5-ton television set wheeled from an AV lab to the front of a classroom on a rolling cart (which also contains a VCR to play the RR VHS tape that itself is larger than the entire device that will play the show for kids today. Whew.).

AAS at CPP

Here's what I have planned for ART AFTER SCHOOL at Comet PingPong, using Comet's new outer space-themed back room as inspiration:

October 26, 2011 (4 – 6pm): POSTCARDS FROM SPACE

Youth will create postcards from other planets – real or imagined – either as themselves on a trip or as other-world inhabitants. Postcards will be collected and mailed to each child’s home at a later date. Translations of newly discovered languages and alphabets may be necessary.

November 2, 2011 (4 – 6pm):  TIME MACHINE TREASURE CHEST

During this session, youth will imagine traveling to a time and place in either the past or future in search of lost treasure. They will decorate and fill small cardboard boxes to create “treasure chests” that represent the time period and narratives of discovery they have imagined.

November 9, 2011 (4 – 6pm):  PLANETARIUM

After making their own invented constellation charts (complete with illustrations, labels, and small punched holes), youth will use flashlights to project their constellations onto a homemade planetarium “dome” in a darkened space.

November 16, 2011 (4 – 6pm):  THANKSGIVING ON MARS

What would dinner look like on an alien planet? Youth will answer this question with the creation of a Thanksgiving-esque banquet table full of strange, cosmic grub, drinks, utensils, and centerpieces.

Since I secretly want to make half of my curriculums sci-fi themed anyway, I dug having an excuse to make that the basis of this mini-series.  

Photos from the first day of Fall 2011 ART BRAINS

For the first day of ART BRAINS, campers in both groups made drawings and paintings inspired by selections of instrumental music. They listened to things like Ethiopian jazz, African tribal music, Arabic folk music, and the likes of Brian Eno, Antonín Dvořák, Juan Garcia Esquivel, and some spooky theremin music by Lydia Kavina, among others. I snuck a song from the Dune soundtrack into the older group's class, too! This was my first class with the 5 - 6 year olds, and they were all so sweet and funny. Three of the campers in both groups were back again from the Summer session, which I was also stoked about. Here are a few photos from the day.

Work by Phoenix

Natalie working

Painting by Natalie

Nicole and Phoenix. These guys were excited about the watercolor-esque paintings they made on their napkins by dabbing their brushes dry. They requested the napkins be saved along with their paintings.

 

Elle working

 

Lauren working

Amariah and Olie. Olie and I have the same birthday!

The older group did a lot of experimenting with color-mixing, which they were psyched about. They had great descriptions for the colors, such as "This one looks like the sky right before a tornado."

 

Campers checking out the Data Fields exhibition in the Terrace Gallery of Artisphere.

More Data Fields

Summer ART BRAINS 2011: Mini Big World

Here's one of my favorites from my Summer 2011 ART BRAINS curriculum. We're going to be doing this one again with the 7 - 12 year old group this Fall.

MINI BIG WORLD:  Using drawings, cutouts, cardboard, and paper, kids created  dioramas of imagined landscapes that were photographed and projected large-scale onto the wall.  They then had a chance to be part of the worlds they created, and were photographed within their scenery.

This was so much fun. The campers loved seeing their work made life-size, and of course were pros at hamming it up for pictures. Look how great these are!:

Hank on his alien planet

 Lauren in her forest landscape

Diorama making

Arthur walking through his mountain landscape

Hank and Arthur partying in Arthur's landscape

Dellie under the sea

Io in her kitchen sink!

Amariah in front of her underwater house

Art Brainers

Art Brainers and me

The group with Dan, volunteer par excellence