Anthropo-Morphing Moments into Making
This unit was developed for High School Art I Total of 22 students: 10 Freshman, 6 Sophomores, 4 Juniors, 2 Seniors ●12 girls, 10 boys ●One physically handicapped student ●One L.E.P student ●Two students classified as gifted ●
Goal and Rational for this Unit ●
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Encourage deep noticing through a series of scaffolded exercises involving image collection, selection, and distillation while building a visual vocabulary for capturing expressive features, gestures, moments. To build the students ability to “capture” an expressive gesture or moment through the creation of an anthropomorphic figure which personifies a human characteristic or condition. To allow students to practice seeing and thinking like an artist, introducing them to the notion of conveying meaning through work. Student's ability to demonstrate their artistic thinking through this exercise, regardless of experience and formal skill level, provides an opportunity to build trust and excitement with a new class of students.
Rational for Exemplar Artists and Artworks ●
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To introduce the first portion of the unit, students will be shown examples of submissions to MontBlanc's “The Beauty of a Second” film contest and the playlists created by viewers. http://www.montblanconesecond.com/#/en/the-playlists Students will be shown examples of anthropomorphism throughout art in order to illustrate the meaning of this term. (Wallace and Gromit, Patricia Piccinini, Deborah Sengl, Terry Border) Students will view the work of sculptural ceramicist Beth Cavener Strichter as a professional example of anthropomorphic personification of human characteristics and conditions.
Enduring Ideas Throughout time and across cultures artists have sought to capture expressive gestures and human conditions in their work. This process requires the deep noticing of subtle moments and the impressive potential of everyday objects and occurrences. Through non-human forms, the artist is liberated to explore the essential qualities of human behavior and experience.
Essential Questions ●
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What do your own image collections say about your identity? Your aesthetic sense as an artist? How do we see things differently when we are looking through the lens of the camera or with the eyes of an artist? Can one moment or image tell a story? How? What defines a “human” characteristic or quality? How do we recognize them? What is an “expressive gesture”? Can non-human objects or beings exhibit expressive gestures? How? Are certain gestures universal and how do we recognize them? Why do you think that we, as humans, have a tendency to see elements or qualities of ourselves in non-human beings and objects?
Key Concepts ●
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Capturing beautiful, impactful, and/or expressive images requires concentration and deep noticing. The impact or effectiveness of an image can be increased using basic photography/videography techniques (i.e. framing, composition, depth of field, etc). Artists look for inspiration in the world around them. Part of an artist's job is to convey the meaning and beauty contained within our surroundings and experiences that others may not have noticed. There is a difference between looking and “seeing”. Basic sculptural and ceramic hand building techniques can be used to create expressive forms. Anthropomorphism and Personification: definition of the terms and how they are used by artists. Editing is a process of uncovering the most essential qualities of an image and/or story.
Objectives ●
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Students will learn to “see” everyday objects and moments with “new eyes”, realizing new opportunities for inspiration. Students will begin to develop a vocabulary of images which embody aspects of their identity and aesthetic as an artist. Students will master the principles of editing and selection in order to convey the most impactful or essential moment in a series of images or video. Students will explore characteristics of human expression and behavior. Students will work in both two and three-dimensional media to investigate the process of translation that occurs between inspiration and art object. Students will acknowledge universally recognized gestures and dissect the visual elements that differentiate them. Students will investigate the emotive potential and limits of non-human forms.
Cross Curricular Correlation This lesson works to train the eye and build a more acute awareness of one's surroundings. An exercise in seeing the world differently, it's benefits and applications transcend curricular boundaries by building the qualities necessary to look closely, notice details and phenomena, and ponder the significance of the mundane.
Relationship to the Developmental Needs of Students ●
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An engaging and challenging lesson without the level of intimidation often present in single media based courses which immediately disclose disparities between skill levels. The lesson activities provide opportunities for students to use technologies they are already familiar with in a creative and artistically investigative way. Adolescent students will be interested in dissecting nuanced human behavior Students will rely on metacognitive awareness to dissect the process of interpreting emotive gesture and attend to abstract concepts through metaphor and symbolism. This unit also addresses identity and personal aesthetics. Giving students creative tools to express their identity and individuality provides them with a productive outlet for their emotions, uncertainties, and the experimentation that naturally takes place during this period.
Historical, Critical, and Aesthetic Perspectives â—?
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Student's will critically analyze the symbolic and expressive capacities of anthropomorphism and personification as it is used in the visual arts. Post modern artists have appropriated these elements from historical paradigms (i.e. Hieronymus Bosch, Giuseppe Arcimboldo) Throughout this unit students will practice deep noticing, both in their surroundings and in the process of viewing work.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch, detail from Triptych of Haywain,1500
Patricia Piccinini The Young Family 2002-3
Guiseppe Arcimboldo, 16th Century
Terry Border
Lesson Sequence Part One
The Beauty of One Second Films
http://www.wimp.com/beautysecond/
Materials ●
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Personal image collections Digital film recorder(personal camera, smart phone, or flip camera). Students may share if necessary. imovie(or similar video editing software)
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Access to computers/labs
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Projection equipment
Creating a One Second Video ●
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View and discuss 1-second video submissions. Brief VTS sessions with selected videos Students will be given 1 week to capture film footage Students will be instructed to select and bring with them to class 5 photographs that they themselves have taken throughout their lifetime which they think capture a moment and are beautiful and/or compelling.
http://www.wimp.com/beautysecond/
The Pictures We Take â—?
Using the image collections which the students provided, they will engage in an activity that involves anonymously trading image sets, analyzing, and answering questions, and guessing who they belong to.
Capturing the “Humannessence” ●
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Students will be instructed to create a second 1-second video with the specific goal of capturing emotive gesture. Meanwhile, class time will be spent editing the previous video, discussing and defining emotive gesture, and veiwing/VTSing/discussing specific examples of one second videos which capture emotive gesture.
Making a playlist
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When video editing is completed, students will work together in class to create a playlist which exhibits a pleasing tempo and flow. This final playlist will be projected, in a loop, in a lobby or some other “public” viewing space in the school.
Inspiration into Object
Materials ●
Polymer Clay: Sculpey® (oven hardening) or Plastalina® (never hardens)
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Sculptural tools (needle tool, loop tool, rib)
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Referential source materials
Anthropomorphism and Personification ●
What do these words mean?
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How are they used in art?
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Why might an artist choose to convey human characteristics through a non-human form? What advantages and disadvantages might this decision present? Do we relate differently to anthropomorphic characters?
Patricia Piccinini The Foundling, 2008
Patricia Piccinini Vespas 2006-2011
Deborah Sengle
Untitled, 2006 Von Schafen und Wรถlfen, 2008
Terry Border
Beth Cavener Strichter The Four Humors
The Sanguine
The Melancholic
The Choleric
The Phlegmatic
Nick Park Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtfb4m6xGCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk6zbY8i4_8&feature=relmfu
Creating a clay figure â—?
Students will spend 2-3 Class periods creating and anthropomorphic figure and possibly a short animation staring their character.
Assessment â—?
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The short films and sculptures will contribute to the one page portfolio mid-term and final assessment. Students will record evidence of planning, process, and product stages in their journals as well as reflections on class discussion and activities. Student's conceptual thinking and skill level demonstrated over the course of these activities will contribute to the formulation of a siding scale grading system ranking students as novice, apprentice, and veteran level art students.
Rubrics
Student Success ●
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The Student embodies success when he/she understands the connection between the inspirations that an artist collects from their surroundings and how they are translated into works of art. A successful student continues to notice nuance, phenomena, and beauty, seeking out the extraordinary in the mundane. The successful student recognizes subtitles in human expression and behavior and has begun to build a visual vocabulary for communicating universal ideas about the human experience. The student sees a richer world, filled with meaning, wonder, and possibility.
References Beatie, D. K. (1997). Assessment in art education. Worchester, Massachusetts: Davis Publications, Inc.
Border, T. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/
Cavener-Strichter, B. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.followtheblackrabbit.com/
Piccinini, P. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
Sengl, D. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.deborahsengl.com/
The beauty of a second. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.montblanconesecond.com/
Walker, S. R. (2003). Teaching meaning in artmaking. Worcester: Davis Pubns.