Presenting Windows98 Connecting Art History and Current Events with Art and Computers
Presenting Windows98
Connecting Art History and Current Events with Art and Computers
About Newgrange (circa 1998)
The typical Newgrange student is of average to above average potential but due to a learning disability has not found success in a traditional school environment. Our approach to remediate the situation is to discover with students how they learn and then teach them individually in ways which make sense for them. Sometimes the changes are a fine tuning of the teaching process and sometimes the changes are radical. The Newgrange program for art and computers is quite different from typical programs.
The Newgrange art room is a place to learn traditional skills and reinforce learning in other curricular areas. Topics to be covered in language arts, science, math, social studies and history are referenced in the traditional media of drawing, painting, printmaking, paper making, sculpture, and graphic design, as well as in art history. Concluding every project is a critique, in which students practice oral presentation skills and appropriate social skills with peers.
The art room is also our computer lab. Although each of our classrooms is equipped with three or more multimedia computers, we teach most computer skills in the art room. Why? Because it is not associated with a prior history of school failure. Virtually every student loves computer technology and has some proficiency or a strong motivation to learn. Placing a computer lab in an environment associated with failure (reading, writing, science, math, etc) diminishes motivation. Placing the lab in a "fun" environment decreases students' stress by focusing on how to use the computer creatively rather than as a word processor.
Finally, computer lab assignments and art assignments are linked together to reinforce the most important concepts of each media. Students are thinking about art as they work at the computer and thinking about computers as they work on their art projects. Each platform enriches and informs the other, developing understanding and connections between disparate regimens.
Making Use of an Unwanted Gift
At least once a year teachers get useful gifts. I'm not referring to apples or certificates or even a new bottle of aspirin (although those are all useful, too); I'm talking about the regular everyday things that are topics in the media and/or are featured in advertisements. These current events reach nearly everyone in our culture, and thus are a great starting point for teachers who need a common point from which to present their lessons. My useful gift in 1998 was Windows98.
Until recently Bill Gates wasn't known as a philanthropist, but the ad campaign to introduce his company's new operating system had so many people talking about windows that I just had to take advantage of the situation.
Now let me say up front that I'm not a Microsoft apologist or stockholder, I just like free stuff. I'm always looking for ways to use or reuse things that others don't want; it's my way of stretching the Art Department budget. Just as dry cleaner hangers make great material for sculpture, and old bed sheets make excellent couching cloths for paper making, media ads and stories that are interesting to students can make great introductions to lessons if we know how to make the connections. And, as we know, making the connections between things is critically important, but often difficult, for students diagnosed with learning disabilities.
So, I began to brainstorm, seeking possible connections among the Windows98 story, a wider cultural context, content from art history, specific art skills, and computer technology. I settled on a lesson using stained glass windows and the media of drawing and painting to compare and contrast two relatively recent art movements, Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
The Introduction
The first lesson began, as usual, with a series of questions and a discussion. After asking who had heard about the new software product Windows98, I asked students about windows in general....what were they made of?....what were they used for?....and what about stained glass windows?....are they a form of art as well as protection from the elements? Although everyone had heard of Windows98, the other questions brought a variety of answers, many contradictory. A good way to start something new!
After the discussion, I announced that our next project would be about windows and that we would use paper and markers, paints and the computers to make our own stained glass inspired designs. Fears about skills were addressed head on; we would start slowly by tracing another design and gradually build up to the final project of creating our own.
We Always Begin with Music
Our first task was to have each student choose a model to work from. Bunni Bing, my teaching assistant, showed the class several coloring books with pages of heavy black outlines printed on translucent paper. The pages were designed to be colored in so that the finished drawings would resemble stained glass images, but we had something different in mind.
Reminding students that everyone becomes an artist when (s)he enters the art room, we asked each student which image (s)he preferred. We then distributed the pages to students with instructions to trace the designs onto clean sheets of heavy tracing paper. With a CD of Horowitz' favorite Chopin playing in the background, students began to trace their images.
An Aside
We often play music in the art room. Far from distracting students, the music seems to produce a calm, relaxed environment that is appreciated by everyone. It also gives us an opportunity to talk about another art form and its various permutations in a wide variety of settings. Whether it's classical, popular, jazz, rock or third world, students learn that music is an expressive and diverse art form valued by all cultures.
The Lessons Continue
Each art room class opens with an introduction designed to focus attention and stimulate creativity. After the initial lesson, it is our practice to divide the class into alpha and omega units. On day one, the alphas will have art and the omegas will have computers. On day two they switch. For the purpose of clarity, I'll describe each process separately.
The content areas for this project were Art Nouveau and Art Deco, two relatively brief styles which were deeply influenced by the events and beliefs of their times. For perhaps three to five minutes, I brought up a tenet or characteristic of the period we were studying, asked for questions to check comprehension, then split the class in to art and computer sections.
The art sections progressed from tracing and then coloring in a design from a book to learning how to decipher the components of a stained glass design. Noting the differences and similarities in how Art Nouveau and Art Deco stylists used outlining, spatial relationships and various subjects to express their ideas visually, students began to create their own images from sketches and translate them into stained glass designs which they rendered in marker and paint on heavy tracing paper.
Digital Artistry
Meanwhile, the computer sections took a different path to the same destination. Using scanners, students copied stained glass drawing designs into the ClarisWorks 5.0 drawing program, then reworked the drawing designs and colored them using the polygon and bezigon drawing and painting tools. After getting comfortable with the computer based drawing process, students used digital cameras to take head to shoulder self portraits.
Again using the drawing component of ClarisWorks 5.0, students imported their portraits into drawing files and began to alter the images. First, they traced heavy black outlines around their heads, necks, and shoulders. Next, they did the same for their facial features and clothes. Third, they created fragmented frameworks to surround their portraits. Then, they erased the original portraits, leaving just the outlines, which now resembled stained glass window drawings. Finally, they created imaginary scenes around their stained glass portraits, and then filled each piece of their "windows" with an appropriate color.
The Field Trip
It was nearly time for the critique. Wanting to make sure our students had additional experiences to enrich their understanding of stained glass media, I asked
our Assistant Principal to make arrangements for us to visit Holy Angels Church to see their stained glass windows. Over a period of 2 days, we escorted the classes to the church next door to see the stained glass windows and hear Father Sam tell us about them. The students learned the windows came from Germany, and that the church was constructed and the windows were made during a period of time we had been studying! This led to conversations about architectural details and changes in neighborhood characteristics and demographics. For example, one student observed how the shade from the now much taller trees enhanced the window artists' imagery by helping contrast the happier images on the left side and the more somber images on the right. The comments and questions demonstrated a developing understanding of the art and the context of its creation.
The Critique
The work displayed during the critiques was amazing. Students who had worried aloud about their skills just weeks before stood up proudly to show their final projects and talk about their progress. The audiences were attentive and interested. As always, comments and questions were positive (our rule no put downs!). And, whether showing work on paper or on the computer, students demonstrated an understanding of the techniques, lesson content, and cultural context that many earlier observers would not have believed possible to achieve. Thanks, Mr. Gates, for helping Newgrange discover Windows98!