ART 'n Design2

2017-18
- Artists’ quotes
  
  Renée Magritte
2015-16
1. - An experimental year, mostly based on following your projects and talking about them.
  - Highlights included a series of shop-window performances inaugurating the school’s use of MacGregor’s, a former clothes shop in rue Adrien Dubouché. There were dervishes and garden installations, plus a couple of coach trips.
2014-15
1. 13th October
  - Find a place you've never been to in school so far; draw, document, plan installation.
  - Listen to rare audio interviews that have been turned into nifty animations... www.blankonblank.com
  - We saw videos of an installation at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Your job was to identify the two Chinese artists who made these geriatric dictators in their electric wheelchairs.
2013-14 (Double click to close)
1. 24th September
  - Write a short text describing the school or parts of it in a new way (e.g. imagine it is a tropical forest / fourth circle of hell, headquarters of a dubious sect, workshops for making art ? Naaah...)
  - Colour; selected terms to describe colours / everyday expressions based on colour.
  - Odd laws; a quick look at some weird but genuine laws and rules that luckily have been forgotten by the police.
2. F 27th September
  - Visit current show at the FRAC; Download the questionnaire I would like you all to complete... ----> Sculpture Bonanza.
3. 8th October
  - Playing for Change project; Stand By Me
    - The Playing For Change crew heard Roger Ridley singing “Stand By Me” in Santa Monica, California and were inspired to find other musicians who could add their voices to his. The song transformed Playing For Change into a global movement for peace and understanding, with over 35 musicians participating in this particular recording of Stand By Me. Find out more here + One Love ----> Is this an example of social art or just a crypto-commercial venture ? What does it really achieve ? Can you find any other projects like this?
  - Nkondi statues with ritual nails and sympathetic magic in deepest Creuse. I’m thinking of the votive ox statue in St Goussaud’s Church -
    Doua vei per an nous van à Sèn Goussao
    Li fa la devouci per notre gros betiou
    Las fillas lou garçous li vant de lour couta
    Li piquas de l'épingas par lou fa marida
    Or in other words, stick a pin in the ox at St. Goussaud's if you want divine help in finding the boy or girl of your dreams ! Anyone interested in going there to take some photos ?
  - Inventory - A Taxonomy of Bruises The Partitio Contusionum is a manuscript found by archaeologists near the ancient city of Petra in 1844. It was originally from 10th century Arabic sources that were copied and translated into latin some time in the 12th century. How do you classify different types of bruising? Today doctors and forensic scientists organise bruises by size, colour, texture and associated pain or soreness in 6 degrees of severity. The ancient Arab doctor who compiled this document divides bruising into 4 main categories and 93 different types! His vision of the world is dominated by moral values, religious and hierarchical laws that offer a change in perspective on our present ideas...
4. 22nd October
  - Crime & Punishment - Quiz; match gruesome punishments to crimes committed in ancient civilizations (Babylon, Mesopotamia, Egypt).
  - Exercises: Life is a journey/ People are animals/Strange jobs (Takashi Horito & Kenji Mamoto). Use of gerunds & infinitives/expressions/phrasal verbs that you may find handy.
  - - Mark Wallinger; racehorse called A Real Work of Art / painting of unicorn "Ghost".
    - Tracey Emin; talking about real life and works like "Bed".
    - Antony Gormley; representing the body as a place and not a surface.
5. 19th November
  - Splitting Hairs: Art, craft, sport or fetishism ? Alfie West wielded razor blades with unparalleled control, splicing human hair into as many as 18 strands. His simple constructions using split hairs are oddly fascinating and slightly unsettling.
  - Argentinian artist, Nicola Costantino deliberately plays with this sense of unease in works such as Savon de corps or Human Furriery which according to psychologist Carlos Kuri, go beyond the implied eroticism of contact with human hair, skin or fat to become an “aesthetic of the ominous”. Our discomfort comes from imagined (or actual) contact with things normally kept hidden or secret... that perhaps also remind us of our own mortality. A contemporary version of the age-old vanitas perhaps ?
  - Experimenting with human emotions can be dangerous. I showed you an extract from one of the Benrik Diaries (they promise to change your life). Every week you are given a task or mission designed to test your own self-will and and everyone else's as well. The challenge set was to spend a week as a pathological liar (Don’t worry, it’s not hot ! He fancies you like crazy, he told me so ! Of course I’m wearing a condom ! I double-checked your parachute myself ! Try the experiment at your own risk. But telling a few white lies might be fun... hihihi.
  - Different ways of looking. You now know how to use blink, glare, glance, stare, peer, wink and gaze: Also terms linked with vision, such as shortsighted, blind, astigmatic etc.
  - We finished with a few exercises revising tenses (present simple / continuous) and more advanced uses of sense verbs, look, sound, smell and feel.
6. 17th December
  - Download your end of term homework here or download image files from here.
    Instructions Write a story using one of the pictures as your starting point or as the story's final image. Be as inventive as you like and feel free to use any form of narrative. Deadline: Friday 20th December (in my locker at school) or during the holiday break if you send your file by email. Best solution??? Use Tuesday afternoon (17th December) to write your homework.
7. 6th May
  - May Exam
    Instructions Basically write about any 3 works you have made this year. Each description should be brief. Help me understand what you are doing, your motivations and where you are heading. This link will give you some ideas on how to organise your answers (and practice for the end of year “crit”).
    Deadline: 12th May.
    
    Or
    
    Watch a short film and write about it. Then read a short text on pottery and translate a few key terms. Instructions are here. Deadline: 12th May.
    
    Or
    
    Caravan Project Take a look at the Airstream caravan that‘s been sitting, unloved in the school car park all year. Your mission, is to imagine how to use it - for a personal project, collective event, one-off or regular activity.
    1. Start by examining the caravan from all angles (drawings, photos).
    2. Look at it structurally and functionally, inside and outside.
    3. Read the following short description and background information. (Double click to close)
      
      The iconic Airstream caravan, designed by Wally Byam in 1932, epitomizes American design in the fifties. Its lightweight aluminium body inspired by aircraft designs using riveted panels, makes it look like a space ship. After World War II, everybody believed that the future would be brighter, faster and more comfortable. The first manned spacecraft were being sent into orbit by the Russians as well as the Americans and suddenly it was fashionable for cars, trains and even household appliances like hoovers, toasters and coffee jugs to look streamlined, as though they had been made to fly through space. Raymond Loewy, a French designer based in the USA, was one of the most successful industrial designers of his time to use and develop this new aerodynamic style.
    4. Present your suggestions using pictures, diagrams and illustrations. Please be as bold and imaginative or as coolly practical as you wish.
2012-2013