Monday, November 30, 2015

Create > Perception of Forms and Forces

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Goal Concept:
To fully control pictorial organization, you, the artist must be aware of the psychological forces in a composition and orchestrate them, along with visible elements such as shape, form and color to produce a visual-psychological synthesis.

Access Prior Knowledge:
“A painting speaks only when it is seen as a configuration of forces, generated by its various visual components.”  ~ Rudolph Arnheim

New Information:
The Perception of Forms and Forces
Look at the square with the dot inside it.
Ask > “How do I know the dot is in the center of the square?”
    
It is perceived to be in the exact center because the dot interacts with an “invisible grid” - a psychological force field that is mentally projected to the figure.  This psychological matrix is in the form of an “x” which connects the four corners of the square.  Ultimately the visible and invisible elements lead us to the correct spatial determination of the dot.  

The “invisible grid” is a psychologically projected matrix of visual forces which tells us the dot is in the center.  The dynamic forces are equally balanced.  

In every perceptive act, there is a similar coordinated effort of eye-brain action which scans and maps the forms and force fields involving thousands of subconscious measurements that determine the size, position, proportion and movement of visual elements.

> Think about parking a car, spiking a volleyball, catching a baseball, squeezing through anything, passing a soccer ball or skiing a mogal.  
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Art References:
Barnett Newman > http://goo.gl/LmS2Be
Piet Mondrian > http://goo.gl/dLO2
Robert Delaunay > http://goo.gl/GftAr
Hans Hofmann >  http://goo.gl/lm2EzV


Apply Knowledge and Skills:

Instructional Strategy
  • Identifying Similarities and Differences
Learning Activity

Instructional Strategy
  • Nonlinguistic Representations
Learning Activity
Create > Shapes and Forces

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Goal: Create a visual field showing a network of interacting forces

Studio Activity: Shapes and Forces
Choose one of the following geometric shape compositions.
Understand > the arrangement of shapes creates various relationships between the shapes, the shapes and the edges of the format and the figures and ground.  
Visualize > these relationships as the psychological forces in your picture.
Draw > the invisible forces on your picture.  There is no ‘right ’or ‘wrong’ way to do this exercise.  In your own way, try to sense the invisible ‘push-pulls’ that lead your eyes this way and that way. With a marker, draw big symbolic arrows to suggest powerful forces, smaller symbolic arrows to depict weaker tensions, use dashed lines or solid lines, double lines or skinny single lines..  

Day 2, choose from markers, pens, colored pencils or any other media to accentuate the relationships and forces you identified among the shapes.

Trigger Mechanisms:
Repeat, combine, animate

Materials:
paper, glue stick, ruler, compass, scissors, felt-tipped marking pens, templates

Instructional Strategy
  • Nonlinguistic Representations
Learning Activity
Create > Energy Encounter


Goal: Combine different force fields in a single plane of reference

Studio Activity: Energy Encounter  
Imagine different ‘teams’ of abstract shapes interacting in the same visual space.  Symbolize each ‘team’ in a different way, ex, by straight, curved or dotted lines.  With a sharpie marker “weave” the symbolic team lines together to produce a hybrid energy texture.  Another analogy would be to imagine an army of circles approaches from the right, while an army of triangles approach from the left.  Show the approaching armies and also show the ‘messy’ battle of the two interacting forces in the middle.

Trigger Mechanisms:
Repeat, Combine, Superimpose, Animate

Robert%2BDelaunay4.jpg

Generalize, Reflect & Publish:
Instructional Strategy
  • Evaluate the results
Learning Activity
Reflect > Should I go back and rework anything?
  • How did you combine art elements (line, color, shape, texture, value)  to develop art principles? (Unity/variety, balance, emphasis contrast, rhythm, proportion/scale, figure/ground relationship)
  • Where are the dominant shapes, forms, colors, or textures that carry expressive significance?
  • Why Is the work ordered and balanced or chaotic and disturbing?
  • What gives the work its uniqueness?
  • Is symbolism used in the work to convey meaning other than what one sees?
  • Does the work evoke any feelings?

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing Recognition
Learning Activity
Publish > Share your album to our G+Community > Concepts & Creations category
Display > Add your photos to the Event

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing Feedback
Learning Activity
Critique >
  • Give positive feedback > +1 every image that deserves it
  • Give peer feedback > Give 2 peer images a VTS critique > http://goo.gl/1WWmBY
Self-assess >

Monday, November 23, 2015

Create > Clever Prop Ideas

Create > Clever Prop Ideas


Goal:  Create a series of at least 3 photographs that incorporate a clever prop

Studio Activity:

Trigger Mechanisms:  Mix-media, fantasize, Combine

Visual Examples:


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Create > “Wouldn’t it be a strange world if…”

Goal Concept:

Understand and be able to cultivate creativity strategies and improve time management.

Access Prior Knowledge:

“The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.  Not being able to enlarge the one, let us contract the other.”  ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau > http://goo.gl/xuuca

Instructional Strategy
  • Identify similarities and differences
Learning Activity
Notes

Instructional Strategy
  • Deepen Understanding
Learning Activity

New Information:

Art Ideas - Art Problems
For designers, the problem-solving process begins when a client requests help or the designer identifies a need.  Fine artists generally invent their own aesthetic problems.  Ideas often arise from personal experience within a cultural context.  Combining awareness with empathy for others, many artists have transformed a specific event into a universal statement.  For example, Picasso’s Guernica > http://goo.gl/cTYIL  or Street artists JR > http://goo.gl/jF4KpZ

Sources of Ideas
Regardless of the initial motivation for their work, artists constantly scan their surroundings searching for visuals and ideas.  Often the most improbable object or idea may provide inspiration.  

Transform a Common Object
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Frank Gehry based his armchair on the wood-strip bushel basket.  If you consider all the ideas that can be generated by a set of car keys, a pair of scissors, or a compass, you will have more than enough to get a project started.    

Study Nature
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Ray Rogers is inspired by nature.  His spherical pots suggest the colors, textures, and economy of nature.  Through inventive use of materials you can reinterpret nature.  

Visit Museums
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Make an effort to visit all kinds of museums and galleries.  Carefully observed, the history and physical objects produced by any culture can be both instructive and inspirational.  Unfamiliar concepts and compositions can suggest new ideas and fresh approaches.  

Be Authentic
Regardless of the source, every person approaches each problem on his or her own terms.  Each of us has a unique perspective, and the connections we make will vary.  As a student, you will learn more when you really embrace each assignment and make it your own.  Ask questions, so that you can understand the conceptual substance of each assignment.  When you re-frame the assignment in your own terms and plunge into the work wholeheartedly, the creative possibilities will expand and your imagination with soar.  

The Design Process:
When confronted with a problem or the beginning of a project, the artist asks
  1. What is needed?
  2. What existing designs are similar to the design we need?
  3. What is the difference between the existing designs and the new design?
  4. How can we transform, combine, or expand these existing designs?

Convergent Thinking
The problem-solving pursuit of a predetermined goal (remember the world prose)
  1. Define the problem
  2. Do research
  3. Determine your objective
  4. Devise a strategy
  5. Execute the strategy
  6. Evaluate the results

Learn More:
Read > Developing Ideas for Art > http://goo.gl/2jbp1Q

Art References:

Apply Knowledge and Skills:

Create >  “Wouldn’t it be a strange world if…”
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Goal:
Create art that mobilizes fantasy by arresting or reversing ‘laws of nature.’

Make up a list of 10 impossible situations based on your reactions to “Wouldn’t it be a strange world if…”  Make a drawing, cartoon, collage, sculpture or painting that depicts one of your ideas.  
Check these assignments:
Surreal Interior > http://goo.gl/a3hSa3
Surreal Landscape > http://goo.gl/JheJhc     

Trigger Mechanisms: fantasize, invent, laugh

Visual Examples:

Materials: Paper, pencil, oil pastels, acrylics

Generalize, Reflect & Publish:
Instructional Strategy
  • Evaluate the results
Learning Activity
Reflect > Should I go back and rework anything?
  • How did you combine art elements (line, color, shape, texture, value)  to develop art principles? (Unity/variety, balance, emphasis contrast, rhythm, proportion/scale, figure/ground relationship)
  • Where are the dominant shapes, forms, colors, or textures that carry expressive significance?
  • Why Is the work ordered and balanced or chaotic and disturbing?
  • What gives the work its uniqueness?
  • Is symbolism used in the work to convey meaning other than what one sees?
  • Does the work evoke any feelings?

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing Recognition
Learning Activity
Publish > Share your album to our G+Community > Concepts & Creations category
Display > Add your photos to the Event

Instructional Strategy
  • Providing Feedback
Learning Activity
Critique >
  • Give positive feedback > +1 every image that deserves it
  • Give peer feedback > Give 2 peer images a VTS critique > http://goo.gl/1WWmBY
Self-assess >