(13/3) Lesson Plans for Digital Drawing

Lesson Plan #1: Make a series of ‘Selfies’

Objectives: Students of this age group, especially in this technology driven generation, tend to be comfortable with using their smartphones on the go. To foster interest-based learning, the following assignment encourages them to use their phones in a way that they would in their free time. It’s convenient and they can even work on their projects on the go and outside of the art classroom.

Building off a classic assignment of the self portrait, the goal of this lesson is to incorporate new tools of digital drawing through the app Brushes to encourage self expression and free form mark making. 

Target Audience: 5th grade

Tools: iPhone/smartphone, Brushes app

Instructions:

1. Take a series of 5 selfies: tell a story using your face as the canvas. Think about how to express an emotion with a photograph
2. Once you have selected your 5 images, think about the order of them.
3. Introduce the medium of Brushes, how it is similar to Photoshop on the go.
4. Encourage students to use both brushes and pens to “add to the piece”
5. Next, invite students to subtract from the piece with the eraser, thinking about positive and negative space.
6. Compile your 5 images into a slideshow or any creative platform, and present to the rest of the class
7. Facilitate a class critique, ask the students: how does this reflect your perception of your self identity? What were the challenges? A mini art critique that engages the class in giving one another feedback. 

Takeaways:

This project encourages students to create a story, a personal narrative using their own face as the canvas, and utilize technology to enhance their message. Students will be able to use the guidelines to adjust to their own interests and messages that they are interested in telling. Furthermore, they will learn a new tool that they can use on the go, hopefully encouraging them to use this Brushes app in their own personal lives. Coupled with the rise of social media in pre-adolescents, they can use this medium for their own profiles and presence online. 

Lesson Plan #2: Paint the Noise

Objectives: Linking sound with sight, this free form painting assignment on Photoshop encourages middle schoolers to paint within set guidelines. While this may seem limiting, it actually forces the students, when introduced to a new material, to really experience the program and familiarize themselves with the fundamental tools of shapes, lines, color, and filters. 

Target Audience: 7th grade

Tools: Speakers, a sound of choice: dog barking, police sirens, rain fallling, national anthem, etc, Photoshop

Instructions:

1. Show students examples of iPad drawings by David Hockney, and also examples of sound wave paintings. 
2. Introduce the students to fundamental basics of Photoshop, play a Lynda tutorial or assign as homework before the class. 
3. Play the noise of choice, and ask them to paint using Photoshop a visual interpretation of it. 
4. First, only ask them to use shape tools, next, ask them to use the fill tool and add only three colors, third, ask them to use filters.
5. Print out all the images and hang them on a white wall, to mimic a gallery or museum space. Foster a class critique on one another’s pieces. Invite specific students to speak about one another student’s piece by drawing a name from a hat.

Takeaways:

This project creates a sensory experience, inviting students to link up their sense of sound with their sense of sight. Introducing them to Photoshop is a very exciting opportunity, and can be overwhelming, hence limiting the tools they are allowed to use initially can be a fruitful practice. By having a gallery-esque set up at the end of the lesson, students will feel like they can be artists, and also have a glossy, colorful printout to hang up, hence taking ownership and pride in their work. 

(13/2) Final Project Process

My themes for the final project are: Scanography, Painting, and Mapping. I gathered yarn and string of shades of blue and use the scanner and moved it around, hoping to capture the idea of movement. I chose this color scheme of blues and silvers. Silver represents technology in my mind, while blues are zen-like and soothing. I wanted to create something peaceful despite having the printed scans It created these beautiful moments where the colors of the yarn interacted with the light, and I wanted to incorporate that into the painting. I started out with a 18x36" piece of canvas, and blocked off sections using painter's tape. My original idea was to use gel medium to apply the print outs of the scans onto the canvas. See below:

I used photoshop to capture the moments of "rainbow" light that occurred; I decided to zoom in on these little clips by using the rectangular tool or the circular selection tool to create these shapes that I planned to superimpose onto of the painting. My work on the computer:

Found out that the gel medium didn't work as well I had intended, instead of a smooth transfer it created a mess! I decided to overlap these attempts and actually apply the print outs itself with glue onto the canvas. Using superglue, I was able to achieve a more seamless application. Before:

After! Combining both tools (traditional and technology) I made marks using the scanography printouts and also painted triangles that were more organic and freeform. I'm trying to push and merge these two tools. I like to think of the result a "map" of my mind while using my phone (which is often, I must admit.) 

I decided to add yarn across the piece, and tie on some interactive elements, the line across the piece mimics the motion of doing a scan.

(13/3) My 'Seflie'

This class has both expanded and challenged my pre-existing views towards technology. Coming from a traditional art background, I was always most comfortable within the realm of ‘safe’ materials such as paint, pencil, clay, etc. I never had formal training with photoshop or illustrator, and felt like a dinosaur despite being in my late 20s. I knew that I needed to modernize myself first, in order to even incorporate technology into the classroom. I believe I have met my learning objective, and built up quite the arsenal of ‘technology’ vocabulary and tools. This survey course has provided me with the basic knowledge of all these different mediums, many of which I had never even heard of before! I thought that the order of the mediums was also very well thought out, and reduced my initial fear of technology by ‘easing’ us into it. One learning objective that I believe changed for the better throughout the semester was the potential of collaboration with classmates! This has been something I struggled with in the past, working with others collaboratively on an art project, since I believe that aesthetics can be subjective. However, the emphasis on working together instead produced meaningful work, and I was pleasantly surprised about how I was able to push myself beyond my ‘safe space’ to try out new ideas, themes and techniques. There are definitely specific mediums that I hope to learn more about, for instance, Scratch, as I believe it is a powerful tool that I hope to teach to my future middle schoolers. I’m also eager to use stop-motion as I believe it’s an easily accessible medium should the school not have the resources for one-to-one computing. I’m eager and excited to bring these new tools into the classroom to foster interest-based learning, and also re-define and re-vitalize art lessons by incorporating technology. The possibilities are truly limitless.

Showed my process - tons of documentation of all the different projects per week, and I like that it's all on the blog so I can access it.
Explained my outcome - I enjoyed the class discussion time with my peers, was able to get feedback on my work, and suggested on how to push it in terms of meaning and message.
Linked to vocabulary - learn a lot of new vocabulary of how to properly discuss art, also I enjoyed the readings as they provided me with both a theoretical and practical framework of how to think about the weekly assigmnent.
Found multiple possibilites - I thought that re-visiting scanography for my final project really pushed my understanding of it as a medium, and to mix it with painting (something I am more familiar with) 
I preserved through the work - for the projects towards the latter part of the semester, I did face some technical difficulties. I also had some blocks on how to incorporate themes and topics I am interesting, but managed to apply the technologies to my crafting work (something I am passionate about in my free time).
Eliminated carelessness - there were times that I felt like my projects were not as neat as I had hoped, but I thought that going through the process of making it once taught me about how to use it effectively. I think if I were to revisit the tools again, I would be more time efficient and overlap different pieces of technology to make neater, more professional looking projects. 

(12/2) Takeaways from the Readings

1) ”Making" is especially useful for an art classroom because of the mathematical connections, as discussed in the article that mentioned how Piaget wanted to accommodate ALL learners, and it is common for those who are more artistically inclined to be weaker at math or science. At least I speak for myself when I say that I always prefers art over math! "Making" not only is a form of interdisciplinary learning, but can engage students through interest based learning, and often there is not one "right" answer. The stress is taken away from trying to produce a perfect final project, rather the emphasis is on the process of creation and the math needed to be done along the way.  

2) “Making is strongest of human impulses and one of the most significant means of human expression”, this line really stayed with me as why it’s important to incorporate making into the classroom! It’s a wonderful way of self expression, and there are many possibilities for lesson plans that are “make your invention” or “how do you solve problems in your daily life with objects that you make?” For instance, when I was looking through Thingiverse, there are many great models of iPhone plugs, an LED holder, earphone racks, useful items that may not exist out there by solve daily household or logistical needs.

 3) The last article of the readings brought up a crucial problem with the Maker movement, the lack of representation of minority groups and the obvious economic barriers. However, this can also be turned into a learning opportunity for the classroom, and students who do have access to a FabLab can be encouraged to create social justice projects, or collaborative works that address this underrepresentation. Alternatively, the teacher can start a group conversation about how this movement is dominated by white males, and what are their thoughts on it? It’s a good way for middle schoolers to start tackling harder questions of inequality and injustice that might otherwise be difficult to unpack.  

(12/1) Soft Circuit Project

I decided to make a festive soft circuit, used conductive thread to do a simple parallel circuit, here are pictures of my Christmas tree!

(11/2) Final Project Idea

My idea for my final project is to make a map of the "colors of my mind". Building off my scanography experiments, I want to use different colored/patterned papers and perhaps also colorful yarn and move it around on the scanner bed to create paintery strokes. I plan on printing them out, and use gel medium to transfer it onto a canvas to assume to the traditional painting format of a stretched canvas. I'm interested in imperfection and how a computer generated image can be distorted. I want to experiment with layering more than one image on top of each other and play around with the process.

(11/1) 3D Printing Project

For my 3D printing project, I worked with Nebular. We had decided to make an animal, namely a bunny. Initially, we tried to make a model with the pre-made shapes on Tinkercad but found this limiting. We looked at Thingspace of preexisting bunnies which were really detailed, but wanted to come up with our own unique design. We decided to try out importing an image from Google images of a bunny silhouette and used an online convertor to make it an svg. 

We then imported this file onto Tinkercad, and used the heart shape to cut out a heart shaped hole for it’s eye. The printing process was pretty straight forward, we downloaded it onto the Makerbot software and set it to the printer with Jessie’s help. This was a really fun collaboration and I’m happy with the result as its pretty cute!

(10/3) Final Project

Stay tuned :)

(10/2) Takeaways from my classmates

Avery:
Wow! This is an awesome idea...it reminds me of the one picture a day but video really takes it to the next level, the incorporation of sound with image. I wonder if this would be a good lesson plan for the classroom, perhaps a summer assignment?

Ned:
This is really animated and lively! Was it inspired by Francis Bacon's piece that you posted about below? I think it's fantastic to be inspired by others work, and it would be similarly useful to show students examples of other artists' work as inspiration and perhaps a guiding point for students that may not have ideas right from the start.

Katherine:

So fun! I love how this incorporates the themes of home/place and building a game. I think it would be a useful and meaningful lesson plan, as it invites students to contemplate what are their visual symbols of their town city or town, and also teaches them a new tool / problem solving via Scratch.

Trisha:

I love your usage of simple materials that are commonly found in an art classroom. There's traditionally a hierarchy with art over craft and this is a playful challenge to that! It's very detailed and incorporates an engaging storytelling element too. I wonder about how it would work with the addition of sound.

Wei:

This is a BEAUTIFULLY made video! The choice of black and white is very powerful, and your use of light and shadow and layering has successfully created a sinister ambiance. Coupled with the music, I feel like I'm brought to a completely different time and space. I wonder about how you can explore the notion of time and make films that seem like they are from the past, but with modern technology (iMovie, FinalCut).

Seung:
The themes addressed by this piece: birth, growth, decay--it's all stages of the life cycle, and literally it is represented here in a cyclical loop! It's simple and playful at the same time. Would you consider applying this idea of birth and rebirth to other objects from nature?

Dayhe:
Powerful usage of music. It's tied in together seamlessly, and also I appreciate how you two have used commonplace materials, namely pipe cleaners. I echo the statement that it has a drawing quality to the marks made, it also reminds me of Cy Twombly's work!

(10/1) Laser Cut Project: Collaboration with Trisha

For this week's project, I collaborated with Trisha. Our original idea was to create a lamp or light, and eventually settled on a "modern chandelier". We were also inspired by our visit to James Cohan Gallery last Thursday, where we saw a beautiful installation by Spencer Finch. 

For our process: we made two different sizes of pyramids, and tied them onto three different lengths of elastic string to create a geometric mobile. We created triangles with little holes and squares on Illustrator, and used the laser cutter to cut them out on clear acrylic. Our idea evolved throughout the process, for instance to use two triangles instead of four to make the pyramids open as it was aesthetically neater with the glue. 

Also, when we were attaching the hook-screws, the small screws had to be inserted by hand as opposed to using the hand drill for the bigger hook-screw on top. 

The process of making the piece was as meaningful as the final product, which we are very happy with! I think it captured an ephemeral quality and it constantly changes depending on how it interacts with the light.  

(9/1) Scratch Project: Bake an Apple Pie

(9/2) Scratch in the Classroom

When starting to think about my Scratch project, I first checked few examples on the website and saw one called “make your own ice cream sundae”. Inspired by this, I decided to combine the storytelling component from previous lessons to make an animation that is interactive about making an apple pie for Thanksgiving. It was super helpful to look into the code of the ice cream game to figure out how to move from each backdrop and also keep each Sprite organized. This is one of my favorite tools of this course thus far, the possibilities and creative potentials are endless. Next, I would love to make a game. I did have trouble with figuring out how to use the broadcast messages properly, something I’d like to understand further in order to build more complex games and animations, 
(figured it out...) and more importantly, use it in my future teaching. I’m wondering if there are additional courses I would be able to take to master this program. Also, the fact that it’s free to download and can be done completely on the website makes it reasonably accessible as long the student has a computer and internet access!

Two potential ways of using it in the classroom are:
1) Think about the Cartesian coordinate system. Make a Sprite “paints/draws” geometric shapes. Make your Sprite teach the viewer a geometric concept, and share your work about how you combined math with art to accomplish your visual. The process is as important as the outcome.
2) What are some games you like to play? Try to recreate one of your favorite games on Scratch. Discuss ideas of appropriation and modification. After students are done with their game, invite them to play one another’s game. A potential option is to work collaboratively on this, as the open code of Scratch allows and encourages group work. 

(9/1) iStopMotion Project

(9/2) Lesson Plan for StopMotion

Lesson Plan for Stop Motion: Storytelling with Personal Mementos 

Objective: 
To introduce students to iStopMotion, familiarizing them with how to use the software. Subsequently, this can be used as a useful tool for personal self expression and exploration, fostering interest based learning

Target Audience: Middle School, 6th or 7th grade

Tools: Computer Lab, iStopMotion, iMovie, Camera with Tripod or External Webcam linked with USBs, Construction paper in a variety of colors and with patterns

Instructions: 

1. Ask students to bring in objects of personal significance, ideally small scale (a few inches). What items are important to them and says something about their personality and who they are? How do they want to be represented through a simple object or two?

2. Show students examples of stop motion artists, and how it has the capacity to tell a story in a short gif. Provide a basic tutorial of the steps necessary, how to use the camera. If possible, play the tutorial on Lynda or use that as a guide to teach students how to use iStopMotion.

3. Ask students to take photographs of their objects to tell a short story. It can be about themselves, or the interaction of two objects. Consider the backdrop of the objects itself and the idea of 3 dimensional space that is captured in a two dimensional format. Utilize the construction paper to create a setting/scene. What story do they want to tell in a few seconds? 

4. Export your stop motion to iMovie. Do you want to add music and edit the aesthetic? How does this change the piece? Leave the editing options open ended. 

5. Upload the finished piece onto a class blog. Invite students to watch one another works, and make a meaningful comment or question on at least three other examples. 

Takeaways:

Students will be introduced to a simple software and easily accessible that allows them to consider how movement is captured. In a way, its similar to film making, and incorporates a video editing program, namely iMovie. This encourages the merging of various digital storytelling tools, and will ask students to consider space, color, time, and sound to relation to one another.

(9/3) 3 Takeaways from Readings

1. Firstly, I believe its really important to eliminate my old mindset and views towards computer programming. Despite coming from the millennial generation, my education was relatively traditional, while we had computers in class, it was always using pre-programmed games such as Mavis Beacon for typing, or Sims City to create an imaginary space. Now, the learning begins even before that, children are able to utilize computer programming for expressive means. I’ve played around before making a really simple project on Processing and I can attest to how interdisciplinary it is. It’s not like using Microsoft Paint, which we may be more familiar with from our childhood, rather even making a simple line requires writing a line of code. It incorporates a lot of basic geometry, using the Cartesian plane, and simple calculations, which opens up the realm of possibilities of combing art with math and science, which are typically viewed as opposites. 

2. The maker movement is increasingly popular today, and I agree the Maker Faire is a wonderful platform. However, from what I’ve heard, it is largely dominated by 3D printing. This highlights the elephant in the room: is there actually equal access to these spaces? I somewhat agree with the point of the reading that there is a growing ubiquity of 1:1 computing. The author does state that most children have their own computer, smartphone, or tablet, but this needs to be reexamined. I think this blanket statement only applies to middle class and above—which neglects a large segment of society still. We cannot truly democratize learning without acknowledging these barriers of entry. There is a fantastic talk by Dr. Leah Buechley, that states the majority of the people on the cover of Make magazine are men—specifically white and asian men. How do we involve underrepresented minorities and women in this movement when there are both structural and financial challenges? This video, which I highly recommend, can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/110616469

3. I’m also interested in this notion that a sense of community can be formed via these technological explorations. Lines between public and private knowledge are blurred, and encourage sharing and collaboration. When I read what was most important to Nick was the comments and sharing similar positive comments in the Scratch community, I was impressed that a nine year boy had the sensitivity to consider the feelings of others. Similarly on Diabetes Daily, there is an online network of netizens that provide one another emotional support. I often think about how to provide a well-rounded education, and my definition of a quality education builds kindness and self awareness, not just information based knowledge. It seems to me that through using these technological tools, games and spaces, it is possible to build and shape character. 

(8/2) Reflections on Sound

I was truly moved by the Story Corps project that was shared on the podcast, and really started me thinking about the sounds around me. I’ve always viewed myself as more of an introvert than an extrovert, and thus, I should be a good listener. But am I? I started to realize that unless we are told to listen, as if our ears were a switch that could be turned on or off, I don’t really play attention to what’s happening. I tend to zone out during my downtime, but really, downtime can be enhanced or made meaningful by listening to the sounds around me. I actually had a lovely conversation with this retired English teacher while observing at a looming class, she shared her experiences running Knitting Club while she was teaching, a career which spanned 28 years. I thanked her for sharing her experiences, and she responded, while continuing weaving, “I’m just glad someone is willing to hear me talk about myself!” This got me thinking: what if Story Corps was combined with an art component, or if we told each other stories WHILE making art? The combinations are endless. The poignant tales shared on their website: storycorps.org are paired with photographs, but what if they were also paired with an artistic response or reaction to this project? Also, another thing I’ve been thinking about is the broader definition of ‘art’, and how I used to think of it as a visual medium—but it really is a multi-sensory medium. From a curriculum point of view, these two subjects are divided into Music and Art, but especially for schools that lack funding for both subjects, what if there was a way to teach both at the same time? 

(8/1) Sound Assignment by Regina and I

The Pulse of the Human Experience

For this Sound assignment, Regina and I decided to work together. As people, we eat about three times a day if not more. Especially combined with living in the city, we often go out to cafes, restaurants, take out spots to grab food to go or sit down and dine with friends. We decided to make recordings of these everyday spaces. Turns out that there always so much going out around us. Typically, I’m just focused on my own food or my conversation with friends, but there are many conversations all around us. Inspired by the NPR podcast, Regina downloaded a bunch of space noises from the NASA website to incorporate a more structured beat that is very much related to the human existence. In audacity, we cropped down our clips from eating establishments, then layered them with the space noises which were more rhythmic. We utilized “Studio Fade Out” to make them sound somewhat more pleasant together. Towards the end of clip, the noises from the restaurants fade away, leaving just the beeping of our galaxy.

Moving from chaos to tranquility, we have created a multisensory experience from which we begin fully emerged in the commotion of daily life and slowly zoom out to a panoramic shot of our universe. 

(7/1) iMovie Project: Shakin' It Off

(7/2) Video in the Classroom

1. Video is a very powerful form of self expression. Coupled with the rise of cell phones and popularity amongst teens, students often take videos of themselves and their friends. Thus, they already have the basis and raw materials for their potential art projects. They will be self motivated to learn new effects and filters on iMovie and Final Cut Pro especially if it's about topics they are already interested in. This encourages them to spend additional time on projects and even share them with their peers. Furthermore, there are many sharing platforms for videos that are increasingly popular, such as youtube, vine, periscope, and vimeo. These are great platforms for feedback beyond just their teacher and fellow classmates, but everyone else on the internet. 

2. Video is multi sensory, it incorporates sounds, music, and movement. As discussed in class last week, some students are kinetic learners, they may have trouble sitting still and listening to a lecture. Video embraces and provides an outlet for otherwise more hyperactive students, allowing them to express themselves through performance such as dancing, signing, and acting. This engages students beyond just 2 dimensional drawings or paintings, in some ways, it brings their art to life!

3. Lastly, I tend to associate video with TV and movies. Frankly speaking, I believe that students (and myself included) love spending their free time watching shows and films. Putting the student behind the video camera and asking them to be inspired by the large amount of videos they are exposed to opens up a huge realm of possibilities. Ask students to make superhero videos, or dramas, or music videos to their favorite songs. It's one of the best forms of linking their extracurricular interests with school work, and also invites them to reconsider the amount of effort and artistry that goes into making the actual product. 

(6/1) Scanography Projects

(6/2) Scanography in the Classroom

Scanography can used in many ways in the art classroom to engage children beyond the scope of what art class is typically defined as. It gives students who normally may not be interested in art (because they don’t think of themselves as naturally ‘talented’ at drawing or painting) a chance to be included. Children who are not given affirmation at a young age about their artistic skills can be bored by art class and have given up on this subject. This is where the merits of scanners, the fact that they work very fast and that children tend to have short attention spans, comes in handy. The potential of making multiple works of art in a minimal amount of time can keep children occupied and wanting them to continue creating and editing their work. They can also build off their scenography projects to produce a similar work with traditional art materials such as oil paint, colored pencils, watercolors, breaking the prior fear of these materials. 

(6/3) Takeaways from Digital Storytelling Readings

1. I think that Lankshear and Knobel did an excellent job of exploring notion of what it means to be “literate” today. Sometimes, I find myself overwhelmed with the amount of music, film, images, information available out there, and blame it on technology. However, I have come to realize that children today see it completely differently. They are instead energized and engaged by this, and their definition and perception of writing itself—for kids under 15, is completely different. For instance, the most popular app especially with the preteens and teenagers today is Snapchat. Snapchat is based exactly off this notion of storytelling:  we take images or videos of our day, caption them, or draw on them, filter them, and then add it to “My Story”, or add it to another group story, such as “New York Story” or “4th of July Story”, etc. The shared stories are collaborative works, and allow for users to gain more exposure and views. These stories may be frowned upon as being frivolous or unacademic, but I believe this is incorrect. There has been a very thorough story following the upcoming election, with links to relevant news articles that are easily accessible with just a swipe. This encourages learning about new topics—increasing children’s exposure to other stories of typically more serious themes by presenting it via a digital storytelling format.
2. Coming in from an adult or an educator’s point of view, it’s easy to be affected by our own prejudices and frown upon “copying”. Read/Write, and building off the information out there is not plagiarism, and should NOT be frowned upon. Not everything has to be a novel and fresh concept, sometimes building off pre-existing work can alleviate “writers block” and take off the stress of school work or an assignment. For instance, Ryan Adams did an entire album that covered Taylor Swift’s 1989 album, and with proper copyright approval and support from Taylor, this was a method in which Ryan was able to gain additional exposure for his own stylistic take on her original music. 
3. The power of storytelling itself is beautiful platform for children to express themselves. Digital storytelling opens up a whole new realm of possibilities: iMovie, PhotoStory, MovieMaker, seem to be relatively learnable and teachable programs, and the merits of incorporating them into the classroom are infinite. Children are beginning to build their voice and their identity and are very curious creatures. Sitting down and writing their emotions through prose and researching via traditional literature can be intimidating. Furthermore, as Peppler mentions, teens absolutely love photos (even myself, I love photos too), and the immediacy of feedback on this virtual story can be more gratifying than having an English teacher read their paper and give comments back about a week later. Comments can be hurtful, but at the same time, the virtual world can be comforting for otherwise more shy children in the classroom.

(5/1) Digital Photography Project

My first idea works with the relationship of digital photography and traditional art materials. I’m curious about the visual differences between the two mediums, and whether they can be combined to make a visually aesthetically pleasing piece. I would take the photograph of the weeds, and also take five more photographs of similar subject matter: any plants on the sidewalk, vegetables, trees, flowers, etc. Next, I would combine all five images on photoshop and then use and the most traditional material of oil paint and a canvas to create a painting. I’m interested to see whether starting with digital photography but ending with a regular painting makes a difference in the final product. Personally, I have made a painting working on still lives of greenery, literal observation, as shown below, and I’m wondering if using digital photography as a ‘sketchbook’ would enhance this piece.

My second idea, which is what I chose to execute, seeks to turn the literal into something abstract. Digital photography is able to capture great detail, textures, and differences in light. While this is one of its advantages, sometimes it can be too literal and limiting in message. I decided to incorporate digital drawing/painting from last week (in line with my personal objectives), to edit the photograph in Photoshop. I used brushes to highlight the light and bring attention to the relationship of negative and positive space. Nature often is thought as something that stems out of light — sunshine. I changed the adjustments of the photograph, and added a few stylized filters such as palette brush. Here are some intermediary images of the process:

This is the final product, where I cropped it, and I think it shows how such a vibrant, literal photograph can become a quiet and abstract image, showing the scope and potential of this medium.  

(5/2) Impact 25: Twenty Five 21s

I am working with Katherine for our Impact25 Project. Our idea addresses recent events in the media about women’s role in society. Women are faced with increasing amounts of criticism, scrutiny, and double standards. To counter this negativity, women have banned together to create movements such as #WCW, Women’s Crush Wednesday to encourage mutual positivity and support. We would like to build on this community, and have women encourage and mentor one another. Personally, I also read a lot of advice columns online such as Dear Sugar and Ask Polly. 

Our idea is to take this advice column idea, and ask 25 women (our female friends, relatives, acquaintances of a variety of ages): What would you tell your 21 year old self? I know we both would have a lot of “wisdoms” that we’d like to share to our past selves, and am sure that there are many fellow women who feel similarly. We plan on utilizing the most commonly used form of communication today: texting, as our platform. Most of us will respond to a text, or at least read the text response. The language and tone is casual and easily reliable. We plan to take screenshots of everyone’s answer and uploading it onto a website. This website can be easily refreshed and accessible on the go (subway), and creating a hashtag to go with it. Other possible physical responses would be printing out the screenshots on the laser cutter true to size, with the advice etched onto it. This would give the viewer the feeling of actually holding a phone and reading advice from a real life — or virtual — new friend. 

(5/3) Digital Photography and Connections to Children

Digital photography opens up a whole new platform for creativity: it is a material that is easily accessible, most of us have digital cameras on our smartphones that we carry on us daily. Thus, it’s very easy to capture a moment or an image on the go. Most digital cameras today are also lightweight and have many functions and modes. As opposed to before, we were limited by film photography, it requires physical time and effort to go to a darkroom to develop each photograph, making it more time consuming. In a lightroom, the editing options are endless, and can be done with a click, and even un-done and re-done. One digital photograph can be used to create many effects, and can be compared and contrasted on the same screen. Digital printing options are also fast and very clear with inkjet printers.

Today, we are saturated with so many options of how to use our time. Children get distracted easily, and often have trouble concentrating. This is not a problem that should be solved by medications for ADHD, instead, the vivid and fast paced nature of a child’s mind can be captured through the medium of digital photography. They can use digital cameras as a form of entertainment that constantly engages. From taking the photography itself to going back and editing it in many options with filters and in Photoshop, they can constantly entertain and engage themselves.

Secondly, the digital camera also teaches children basic technology. Even a basic point and shoot goes beyond automatic mode. DSLRs have the options of changing lenses to suit certain environments and lighting. Children will be challenged to think about the proper aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to best capture the subject. This makes them understand how a digital photograph is taken, and think on their own about which combinations will allow them to get the best result, placing the learning in their hands.

Lastly, digital photography is useful for children’s interest-based arts learning. Digital photography can be applied to anything and everything. Children these days are also heavily immersed with images via the internet, social media, tv, games, movies. Digital photography is the ideal image-based medium, kids can create their own images that suit their personal interests. They can easily share their photographs online via a blog or their social media outlets, and get feedback from their peers and other online communities. They allows for social engagement and will encourage children to generate more material: keeping children entertained, collaborating with one another, and self motivated. 

E-book: GREEN.

(4/1) Personal Objectives & New Opportunities for Interest Driven Arts Learning

In Kylie Pepper's article, I was struck by the emphasis on the distinction between Arts with a capital A and arts with a lowercase a. The number of opportunities for learning increases greater when we redefine what "arts" are: if it includes games, blogs, photographs, videos, music, learning will no longer have the stigma of rigidity. As an educator, I think I will always struggle with making learning enjoyable, especially when teaching digital technologies. In line with my personal objectives, I hoped to master the technological basics of each program / medium, and truthfully did have trouble learning how to use each program. Only when I was motivated by my own creative vision, and sincere enthusiasm to use that tool to make a project about a topic I actually enjoyed, was I involved to master the steps. The hunger to learn came from within instead! Going through this experience myself, I believe will help me relate to my future students.

Today there are many famous YouTube, Instagram, Blogger stars in their teens and the level of video and photo editing prowess they all display is remarkable. Even programs like Scratch have produced amazing games, and allow for collaboration and creativity. I have actually read Tavi's fashion blog before and her blog's aesthetic is truly remarkable. Interest-driven art (with a lower case) is a something I hope to encourage in my future classrooms, especially since the Internet (and having a computer) is a relatively low-cost entry method into the world of the arts. Sometimes traditional Arts supplies can be limiting (for instance, oil paints are extremely costly), whereas downloading most programs online are free--this provides access to lower income students and allows them a platform to express themselves creatively.

(4/2) Digital Collage

Personally, I have little experience with Photoshop. After looking around the internet and watching some tutorials, I created this "colorful building". I used Google Images to source for these photographs and illustrations of government housing blocks (HDBs) and traditional shophouses which are in Singapore, where I am from. A little background: 80% of the population in Singapore lives in these HDB flats that are heavily subsidized by the government, and shophouses are a typical pre-war structure where families have their own shop on the first floor, and live upstairs. There is stigma in Singapore against living in these, but I actually find their architecture quite charming and wanted to up the vibrancy of these buildings. I decided to make my own colorful interpretation of "what it means to live in Singapore". During class, I struggled quite honestly to make just a singular rainbow: and decided to take the idea of a generic clipart rainbow and give it an organic, lighter touch. I layered, clone, played with opacity, imposed different filters, and even used some brush tools to give it a more dreamlike effect since this is my imagined landscape.
This is in line with my personal objective of being able to learn more about new technologies, to be honest I had to watch a tutorial to simply figure out how to place an external image from Google Images onto my photoshop piece. A lot of trail and error and experimenting, but I am surprised to find that it is possible to give a computer generated piece of art a more delicate look.

(3/3) On/Off Experiment Art Project

My artistic response to my self imposed ban of liking on Instagram are my handmade "likes". I started thinking about whether I simply liked so many posts due to the minimal amount of effort that is needed to "like". All it requires is a simple tap on my phone and I could show my friend or acquaintance or complete stranger my affection and acknowledgement. I decided to hand make likes. Utilizing traditional craft materials of paper, a ruler, pencil, pen, scissors, glue, and a craft punch, I made these likes. It took more time and effort to create each like: I had to measure, cut, trace, stick, hand write, using my hands in a more involved manner. I went to a physical store to get the supplies and made 20 actual likes:

work in progress

final product

I think that physically receiving one of these likes, whether it be via snail mail or handing them to friends in person, would make the recipient feel more special due to the extra care required.

(2/3) On/Off Experiment

For my on/off experiment, I decided to quit liking things on Instagram for as long as I could last. Like a typical millennial, I can’t imagine life without social media. My default applications when I check my phone in the morning and before I sleep are text, email, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. I’m a huge Instagram user, just because I enjoy the low commitment nature of it, it’s just looking at images and truthfully doesn’t require much thought or beyond a few seconds worth of attention on each image. I think it’s in my personality to just be one of “likes-everything” types, I like my close friends posts without even really looking closely, I have been called out on this by my best friend who referenced a photograph on her Instagram that I had liked but forgotten the content of. I also tend to like random images of food, crafts, funny quotes, or suggested posts in my feed. When I have a glass or two of wine, my frequency of likes increases exponentially! 

I stopped liking things and felt extremely uncomfortable. I was thinking to myself, would my friends think I don’t like them anymore? Or would my acquaintances forget that I exist as a person? The first day, I got through without liking anything, but then the problem arose that I wanted to post a picture on my Instagram. I posted one and my friends and even other random users started to like it. I was beginning to feel guilt because of the like-for-like culture, that it’s supposed to be a collaborative, friendly social media platform and me not ‘liking’ someone’s posts back would be considered rude. By the end of the second day, I couldn’t take it anymore. The third morning when I woke up, I was back to my usual ways—liking away. 

(1/3) eEtiquette Quotes

just because you can delete a sent email or a snapchat can disappear, doesn't mean that it's trace isn't still somewhere in the "cloud" !

reminds me of how my fiancé absolutely hates when i use my phone -- it's actually impossible to multi-task with a phone and chatting at the same time.

one of my personal pet peeves is when people type or text in all caps, i find it very aggressive and aesthetically unpleasing.

(4/4) Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or Be Programmed?

Firstly, I was struck by how Internet in its infancy stages, or simply just a few decades ago, was described by Rushkoff as a totally different platform as we view it today. Connecting via a phone line feels like such an antiquated memory, and to call going online “an intentional act” (4) is counterintuitive with the way we live presently—always online. While Rushkoff refers to deeply considering what we say as a luxury, I tend to think that part of the charm and appeal of the internet is that there is a lack of deliberation and consideration. For instance, most people today can type and text faster than they can handwrite with a pen on paper. This increased speed allows for free flow thought without censorship and pause. This may be frowned upon as ‘word vomit’ for a more formal setting such as school or work, but for communication with friends and family, it is a valid and valuable mode of authentic self expression.

On the flip side, I do agree with Rushkoff that there are absolutely negative impacts of this increased speed of communication. His point that our human nervous system lives in the present, but technology is timeless, making it impossible to keep up, resonates with me.(29) 

While Internet didn’t change from asynchronous to synchronous, it still exits outside of time, but our response today is different: we get affected, and because of the increasingly high speed, it causes anxiety. Personally, I do believe we can still retain our autonomy by being selective in when to use our phones or laptops, and who to respond to. Rushkoff argues that we are unable to do so as our culture and society has grown accustomed to always being connected. I think that studying the millennials and recent generations will provide an alternative contrast. For them, they do not know a lifestyle of not being connected, and perhaps they will not feel this anxiety and need for adjustment and to go offline. I’m curious to read more on the role of technology with regards to children who were born into a world where Internet always existed.

(3/4) New Museum

I have selected the New Museum, established in 1977 and located in LES, as it is one of New York City’s newest museums and alternative space, and entirely dedicated to contemporary art. The very definition of ‘contemporary art’ means that incorporates the present, the art of today by living artists of the 21st century. Naturally, such an institution will seek to represent new media and technologies, and aims to present such art in a way that will do the work justice. In 2003, they moved into a few building with facilities to adequately showcase and document art mediums beyond traditional painting and sculpture to highlight film, video, photography, performance. Just from browsing their website, they have a tab dedicated to online art, called ‘First Look: New Art Online’ that exhibits numerous Internet Art projects. 

Under the New Museum umbrella, in 2014, the museum launched an initiative called NEW INC. NEW INC is a cultural incubator, especially a giant “maker space”, similar to our classroom! It is eight thousand square feet large, and their fabrication equipment includes: basic prototyping labs, HP Z830 machines for high processing and graphics, MakerBot and Ultimaker 3D printers, laser cutters, physical computing tools, and a Canon equipment suite with cameras, projectors, and large format printers. NEW INC runs a 12-month program for artists to have access to this creative ecosystem while receiving business and entrepreneurial advice, pushing them to invent new forms and practices. One example is how a recent fellow, Sougwen Chung, created drawing robot D.O.U.G, as shown below:

Another relevant initiative under the New Museum is Rhizome. Founded in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe, it is the leading international born-digital art organization. It serves not only as a listserv, but also facilities, commissions, and exhibits digital art. Yearly, they have a conference called ‘Seven on Seven’ that pairs seven artists with seven technologists, challenging them to make a collaborate and create something new and revolutionary. For instance, last year, artist Ai Wei Wei who was strangled advised against entering the United States at the time, collaborated with Jacob Appelbaum to create a piece called Panda-to-Panda. This work featured twenty stuffed animal pandas that had the stuffing removed and replaced with shredded Snowden documents and an SD card with unknown contents. A documentary on this project can be viewed here: (https://vimeo.com/130467553)