Contemporary Art

Grade 4 students inquired into Contemporary Art this year and we had a blast learning together while exploring new and exciting art forms like Photography, Video Art, and Land Art.

Here was the layout of the unit:
Transdisciplinary Theme: Where We Are In Place And Time
Central Idea: Technology creates new possibilities.
Lines of Inquiry & Key Concepts: Contemporary art includes many different art forms. (Change) Experimenting with new ideas and technologies. (Perspective)

To begin, we watched a short video from SmartTalk comparing the differences between Modern and Contemporary Art. This lead to a great discussion on how technology has influenced art over time and has changed how artists create. 

To begin this unit, students focused on photography while learning about the rule of thirds in order to create a balanced composition. They also experimented with a variety of iPad apps like MegaPhoto to create an interesting image.

Grade 4 students also experimented with video art and how to create a non-narrative art film with a specific mood or theme using iMovie.

Grade 4 students were also inspired by land artists like Andy Goldsworthy and practiced creating patterns with natural materials and capturing their work with photography and stop motion animation.

Routines

I really enjoy doing this project with high school students as it is very open ended and the students are free to choose what relates to them using a wide variety of materials.

As a class we discuss different types of daily routines that the majority of people do every single day. Getting up in the morning, going to school, eating lunch, household chores, and the list goes on. Once the students have compiled some ideas, I ask them to choose a specific daily routine that is personal to them. They can represent their routine any way they wish including charcoal, paint, photography, and any other techniques that we have practiced and implemented through out the school year.

The students have always come up with something completely different and I feel like it is a very successful project. Here are a few examples of the finished projects below: