Art Class: Seeing is Believing? [Part I]

We started the lesson with the above question. Some children love to debate on this issue as they have personal real-life examples to share. Then we proceeded to watch Professor Richard Wiseman video on "assumption". While some have problems explaining the meaning of assumption, I just asked them if anyone check for faulty stools before taking a seat in class (Usually none of them do). So, by not checking, all of them are making an ASSUMPTION that their stools are good to sit. The children today isn't as gullible anymore. BUT, you can't always assume! The part about discerning facts from fiction especially online is still my thing. So, I like showing them another video "the ball" that is fun to watch.

Throughout the unit, we had discussion about various artwork and artists related to the theme such as the Ames illusion, M.C. Escher's work, notice the anamorphic skull in "The Ambassadors" painting, read story about "The contest of Zeuxis and Parrhasius".

Link real-life examples of what the children are learning where possible. For example, you can share the research by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese Mathematician and his 3D optical illusions that are used to help in reducing traffic congestion on freeways.

Art Club: Excursion to National Gallery Singapore

On 9 Aug '17, Singapore celebrated 52 years of independence. The children visited the National Gallery Singapore to find out about our history through architecture. The pupils went into their breakout groups with their guides to learn about how two iconic buildings were seamlessly redesigned as one. 

Art Class: Kinetic drawing

For the past few weeks, the P1s children have been exploring drawing and painting. To be more specific, we are doing kinetic drawing. I try to include more movement in art class for the younger ones and I can't imagine art lessons to be another pen and paper kind of task.

The videos below give a brief idea to kinetic drawing, inspired by the artist, Heather Hansen. During class discussion, we spoke about how the arts not having to be viewed as a single entity. Some artists can combine different kinds of arts together to make an artwork. An example is Heather Hansen. She uses her entire body to draw. Unlike painting, performance arts such as Dance exist mainly as events in time (Robinson, K. 1989). When the music, the dance or drama ends, there is no physical object left to see or touch. Without recording devices, it is never to be seen or heard again unless it is performed again. Thus, what Heather Hansen seems to do is to reject the theory that Dance only exists in time.

In class, we did kinetic drawing by getting the children to work in pairs. The standing person will do some movement while the artist will try to "record" their movement on the mini whiteboard. Thus, this activity serves as a tuning in for our upcoming art task.

Robinson, Ken. 2008.  The Arts in School: Principles, practice and provision. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London.