Art Class: How to Transform Yourself into a Cyborg (Part II)

Hi Teachers! We had a good laugh in class last week. I showed everyone's work under the visualiser (document camera) and it generated much reactions.  Check out my previous post here. The children didn't mean to laugh at their peers' work in a bad way. It's entertaining to see the children imagine their friends looking like hand drawn cyborg in real life. 

The children had some practice with drawings of smaller versions of the robots before committing to drawing on the coloured papers. I find this practice useful for most art tasks as it strengthens their stamina in drawing. Some children do claim that their hands are tired from drawing after a while. The reason I use an A3-size papers is also to increase the visual impact of their efforts. They use bold chisel tip marker for better grip that also highlight the visual effects compared to just making do with pencil lines. The marker ink does bleed through the coloured papers so they put the back of their sketchbook underneath to catch the ink. 

Art Class: How to Transform Yourself into a Cyborg (Part I)

 

Hi! we are excited to participate in this year's SYF. The theme for 2021 is Artist & Technology. In class, we begin with some discussions first to grasp students' understanding about the theme. I've prepared some robot printouts in advance so the children can practise drawing in their sketchbooks. I encourage them to mix and match the robot parts so their drawings do not appear identical to another child's. 

This is one strategy to allow children to build confidence in artmaking. If I were to just say use your imagination to draw, I know there will be children who will be stumped in making their first mark. Besides, to fill up the sheer size of their A3-size sketchbook page with drawings is a challenge if you lack stamina in drawing. Because art classes are bounded by time, it is also no excuse for me to say my students took too long to think and therefore they cannot complete the work. Showing them some ideas and simple line work can help them to be more self-directed so that they don't have to keep approaching me to seek approval. 

In 2016, I visited the Big Bang Data in ArtScience Museum, Singapore. The show must have left a lasting impression because I saw a statue of Neil Harbisson and of course a lot of others. Neil is the world's first officially recognised cyborg and he had an antenna implanted in his skull 🤯😱. Watch his TEDtalk here.