Social Awareness and Art
Now back to art classes: I believe that we as art teachers can support social awareness in classrooms. It is not uncommon that we learn and inherit things like prejudice from parents and relatives without questioning. The opportunities that teachers can provide students, through class projects and discussion, to think about social issues are valuable. I believe it is important for our next generation to learn the past history and the current situation of the world and decide to what part they would take in addressing historic injustices. When I offer a project with a social issue theme in my studio art courses, I do get some reactions, including negative ones, especially when the project involves uncomfortable research on the topic. However, students make different comments, which are more positive, after their findings on the topics. Some even express their appreciation of the opportunity to look into the issues.
Math in Drawing Class
What are the relations between Math and Drawing? At a glance, it does not seem to go together. A person may think artists can draw beautiful and proportionate objects, just with their talents. However, the talent is only a small portion of the ingredients for a successful drawing. It takes training, continuous practice, some inspiration, and many steps of calculation. A representational drawing takes logic and practice due to its importance of accuracy in proportion. Its use of math starts with rough measuring process of ratios and angles. Then, math is also involved in the transfer process using a grid system from a small idea sketch to an actual size work, often larger than the sketch. In addition, a contemporary college drawing class uses technology; to print a quality reference image of a subject, to modify and/or print a collage material, and to create digital portfolio with appropriate format and file size, which requires mathematical calculation. As you can see, drawing takes math in the traditional as well as the digital age.
Have you heard of STEAM? I was recently introduced to the concept which incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math.
ReplyDeleteI am very much a math person and did all of my undergraduate work in math and science, so I too use a lot of technical and scientific elements to my work and in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteVery nicely laid out. And interesting. Your green course is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI love when science/math and art can be effectively combined. When I was a kid, I always had much more fun with science or math projects that allowed me to be creative and see things. Even something simple like cutting construction paper into equal shapes in order to learn fractions made a huge difference.
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