Teaching Scraps + Reflection + Notes

Here’s a summary of what I shared at the Critical Inquiry Network Learning presentation session on 19 Oct. Compare the pre- and post- paintings!

There’s immense potential gains when art students are introduced to contemporary art. Besides teaching appreciation skills and giving them easy access points to contemporary artworks, students also need to be exposed to the work process that each artist has developed in order to model after them. The key learning point for me was that it takes time and maturity for students to truly see the relevance of other artist’s work to their own. The role of the art teacher is then to catalyse and facilitate this discovery process.

Quoted in bold from “I wish my assignments were more creative!”, Cathy Smilan, 2015

According to Amabile (1996), creativity requires domain-specific skills, intrinsic motivation and divergent cognitive processing that predicates unique and appropriate solutions to identified problems. 

This last factor (own italics) raised my attention to the creative process over the product. The product to me (teacher) may not be particularly unique, but may have been derived from a series of decision-making that can be considered creative. Hence, to collect qualitative data about the students’ “creative voice”, they  need to be interviewed on their process and perception of their work.

The article further says,

Merely brainstorming, providing materials and a space in which, or upon which to emote responses to open-ended prompts is not sufficient. Gude (2010) guides educators to:

question assumptions that any art project will cultivate creative behaviors and then develop projects whose methods support core objectives for quality creativity curriculum such as stimulating free ideation, encouraging experimental approaches to making and supporting students in identifying and manifesting deeply felt idiosyncratic experiences (p. 31). 

This is a good reminder for me that open-ended assignments are not enough. Motivating and guiding creativity through active teaching of skills (that enables creative behaviour) and communication of evaluative tools. Perhaps this is where studying contemporary artists can play a significant role. How do artists’ play with ideas and materials in a creative manner? This cannot be answered fully simply by looking at the artist’s work. One need to investigate the artist’s process and look at other unresolved works...

Teacher’s reflection:

Year 3 students have been painting for 5 weeks. Ideas have developed organically throughout and I have not seen anyone referencing any specific contemporary artist. All of them are definitely more skilled at and comfortable with analyzing art works but the impact on their own ideas is unclear. Stylistic references are frequently made but that may not contribute to creating new knowledge (a creative act).  

In order to collect quantitative data, I will interview the students to find out how much or little they have been inspired by the artists we have discussed in class and/or through their independent research. Perhaps, it is also important to know what deter them from or compel them to reference other artists / look beyond themselves. Do students truly see the value in appreciating the work of others (professionals)? How can “learning from others” move beyond imitation of ideas. I noticed that the students have also been discussing ideas among themselves a lot and this is a habit I should pivot on to think about “a critical and creative voice”. 

Y1 JAP Visit to NUS Museum, Radio Malaya exhibition 

Objective

- to look at woodcut prints up close

- observe subject matter and how they tell stories about life in Singapore

Post-visit assignment

- in groups of 3, recreate a chosen woodcut print into a papercut diorama. Must be at least 6 layers. 

Teacher’s Reflection

need to do pre-visit lesson. students were confused about woodcut prints. 

can collaborate with Social Studies to give the subject matter more context. 

exhibition (focus on history) was quite dense for their age

Term 3 Week 2

Objectives

1. analyze contemporary artworks 

2. identify a “creative strategy” that an artist employ across all/most of his/her works.

Lesson Activity

- introduce equation to unpack artwork

- teacher model 

- in pairs, unpack allocated artist

- presentation of each artists

- in pairs, try to categorise artists into 3 groups based on “creative strategy”

______________

 some “creative strategies” students came up with:

“crazy ideas that seem real”

“fusing realism with fake-ism”

“installations about everyday things”

“unrealistic ---> realistic”

“home”

“relationship between digital/physical world”

_________________

The 3 creative strategies I introduced later:

1. Recontextualize: seeing things in new light

1.1 Appropriation: refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art with little transformation of the original. Meaning is altered due to the change in context.

2. Extend/ Project: imagining possibilities

3. Metaphor: describing one thing as another

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Reflection: It was a bit of information overload. Students did well decoding the artworks but were a bit lost when it came to creative strategies. I think it was too conceptual. Appropriation seems to be the most easily understood because it is visible. Perhaps the examples were too varied. I could have introduced one strategy per lesson and ask them to immediately apply to their own idea sketches. This will also give them more time to digest and apply it to paintings. 

Dialogue with artist, Alecia Neo

Alecia very generously shared some of her projects and her working process. The students also stayed on for an event to listen to other social and art practitioners whose work surrounds the idea of environmental sustainability. 

---------------------- Students’ reflections:

What was one most interesting thing you learnt from talking to artist, Alecia Neo? 

Artists have to get involved with their subject matter to have the full experience before starting their work

I learnt that passion is very important in an art project because projects without passion have very little meaning.

I learnt that art doesn't really always be of a creative idea, it can also be a very legitimate life story too. Art doesn't equal non-factual ideas

--------------------- Teacher’s reflection:

Not all students were present but I think speaking to an artist made socially-engaged art practices more real to them and that research and collaboration is a common way of working in contemporary art. They saw how contemporary artists are not cooped in the studio with their fine art materials. 

Term 3 Week 1

Objectives:

1. emphasize idea/concept and meaning-making in artworks

2. begin to think about the relevance of art in society

Pre-lesson: 

Students watched videos about local contemporary artist, Alecia Neo in preparation for our upcoming dialogue session with her. 

Lesson activity:

- quick art history (Paris Salon, Duchamp)

- discuss art then vs. art now (galleries, artists, artworks)

- mid-point reflection (role of art in society)

- look closely at paintings of Kerry James Marshall 

- exit ticket: compare Kerry James Marshall and Alecia Neo

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Student A’s mid-pt reflection:

I believe that to people in our society today, art is something that children think they can make and only the truly skilled can practice it. To people that don’t do art ordinarily, art is something they cannot do out of their league or abilities. Hence, art plays very little significance in non art enthusiasts, which in today’s world has become the norm in society. 

Student B’s mid-pt reflection:

Art can be a hobby or a profession Art is made for aesthetics, eg Painting or sculpture for decoration. Everything we see involved art (design). Every product we own is a piece of art. However, in society, many people think art is useless

Student A’s exit ticket:

1.  Kerry James Marshal is more of a painter, where as Alecia Neo uses photography and installations to display her art. Nevertheless they both produce artworks that are meant to change the perspective of people who view them. 2. Momento mori- remember that you will die 3. I found the idea of remaking/ satirising older paintings with the idea that Marshall wants to convey along with the ideas of the original painting really interesting.

Student C’s exit ticket:

Kerry James Marshall and Alecia Neo both have very different views on society due to their different backgrounds. Kerry James Marshall expresses his wanting for a more black accepting society and thus makes his subjects all blacks but Alecia Neo tries to spread the story of others, from elderly to migrant workers, though it does not relate to her directly. I've previously seen one of Kerry James Marshall's works before, just that I forgot his name. A new idea is - the value of interviews.

Student D’s exit ticket:

1. Kerry James Marshall responds to society through his work, jotting down how he view society on paper. He aims to show the world how he views and removes how other people views them. A perspective different from what normally we would think, getting rid of the stereotypical idea that black people revolves only around criminality. He hopes to allow people to realise that it is no different from other people in their own everyday life. Alecia Neo aims to capture people in pictures which looks a bit staged as the people look in the camera. The people do an action which seems to be linked to theur own stories. Here, she aims to capture the stories of these different people from all walks of life down, allowing others to relate. Her works tells a story of others. Unlike hers, Marshall aims to capture what he views. But similarly, they aim to capture everyday life and let others appreciate the beauty of it 2. I knew that people like Kerry Marshall is trying to change the perspective of others and make it common for black people as subjects in work and art can be from any kind of product. 3. I like the idea that art can be from anything, including from a work that might look simple and may not be yours.

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Teacher’s reflection

I think the class understood the idea of socially-engaged practice. The artist interviews exposed them to new art-making processes which include getting to know one’s subject matter better through interviews and fieldwork. However, I am not sure how they will be able to link these to their own work.

How would I know if students have developed a creative and critical voice?

(i) I'll define creative roughly as ability to construct new knowledge (in and through art). Either conceptual or technical knowledge.

Knowledge construction replaces personal expression, object-making and aesthetic pleasure as the primary goal of art practice… the cognitive processes that underlie image-making become the focus. (Julia Marshall, 2006)

Creative process: Artists create new knowledge through experimentation, reflection and imaginative synthesis and projection. It also emphasizes how artmaking generates knowledge, not by coming up with new facts but by reinterpreting or restructuring knowledge (Sullivan, 2005).  

Evidence: student's artist statement, reflection and final work. [qualitative]

(ii) I'll define critical as ability to "reflect on cultural issues related to self and society" (Gude, 2004)

June holiday homework!

If I were to assign this again, students will not come back and do a presentation of their process as it was a bit too descriptive/ head knowledge. Rather, they could set up learning stations and demo at least 1 technique for their friends to try/emulate. They could rotate following a speed dating format. However, I did think they were empowered by the choice of medium to pursue. 

I would also set more specific milestones for them to hit so the commitment level is more even. For example, giving prompts like represent “something old”, “something intricate”, etc.

[Before]

Mid-Year Exam portraits. 

Their first-time painting and developing ideas from a given topic. There was no conceptual influence or art discussion. Students interviewed their friends (using empathy maps) and decided on appropriate symbols/ metaphors to represent their ideas. Composition was refined after individual consultations and some referred to other artists for painting styles. 

Eugene Soh

Loi Cai Xiang

by Cornelia Hesse-Honegger

Science or art? What looks like typical botanical illustration is actually making a statement about the impact of nuclear and human actions on our natural world. These paintings show mutated bugs from the nuclear accident site of the Chernobyl disaster. 

The controversy behind Robert Arneson’s portrait bust of Mayor Moscone, who was assassinated before this artwork was commissioned by the San Francisco State.

How does this compare to the usual commemorative public art we see?

In one lesson, reimagine a boring flight of stairs and create a 3D staircase sculpture. It may not lead to anywhere...

This exercise was adapted from RISD’s professor, Clara Lieu’s 3D staircase sculpture assignment.

And of course, I underestimated the time they needed to complete this. They couldn’t finish in one lesson so it was completed as homework. We did a vote the following week for, “Most Dynamic”, “Most Stable”, “Most Innovative” staircase design and further discussed why. I commended those that showed good craftsmanship and those whose work look interesting from all angles. 

Lesson objective: Explore paper manipulation, start to turn something 2D into 3D to express an idea.

Warm-up: As a class, fold, crinkle, roll the paper in 60 different ways. 

This was quite fun for them. There should have been a better follow-up activity. Maybe choose one technique as a UNIT to repeat and create a PATTERN.

Instead, I did this... I got them to work in groups to respond to a random sculpture using the Beginning.. Middle... End... routine: Imagine the sculpture shows either a B/M/E of a story, what will be the story? Create a 3D form to express a key scene or feeling of the story. Didn’t work!

Big Problems I had to address in the subsequent lessons: 

1. Students only know how to use literal/ figurative representation.

2. Did not consider multiple viewpoints when designing

3. Poor construction skills.

Inspired by Brancusi’s Sleeping Muse. I don’t have record of the stories! 

Inspired by Ng Eng Teng’s Freedom Child

So! To scaffold, I demonstrated paper sculpture techniques. We also did a lesson on balance and repetition. They created a toothpick sculpture in groups to show symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial balance. They dismantled the works before I could take a good picture! A lot of frustration with white glue. 

All in all, I’m glad there were a lot of hands-on making with found materials. We got the scissors, penknife, hot glue gun, scouring and misc. skills sorted. 

Class discussion  - Data

top to bottom: Taemin (no. of times I played bball and with whom), Roshan (avg high & low temp in Singapore), Ryan (no. of times I sneeze and types), Aidan (emotions felt throughout the week)