In Art, I made a mixed media self portrait, which is where different mediums and materials are used to make 1 artwork. Mine included spray painting on a canvas, collaging, and digital art as well as the use of paint pens. I will show all the planing and the artwork Here’s they are:
Audience Insight: What key message do you want your audience to understand about you as they view your artwork? How did you communicate this message?
I want my artwork to communicate certain personality traits. In the artwork I communicate who I am. I do this in ways like using the light bulb to indicate I have a bright mind, and the brain symbol to show that I am very thoughtful. One of the other symbols I used was “∃!” which is a symbol in mathematics that represents uniqueness. (I also like math so that works out).
Risk and Experimentation: During the creation of your artwork, how did you take risks and experiment in order to effectively express your intended message?
Definitely! At first, I was really unsure about what color scheme I wanted to use. I just tried the black and gold, which worked out REALLY well!
At some points as well, I thought I was done, but figured out I could keep adding certain stuff to make it look better. I am happy with my final result!
This is a reflection about the DT tissue box unit that I had.
In the unit, we were assigned an aesthetic choice and were challenged to make a tissue box inspired by that design aesthetic. I was given cubism as my design movement and made my tissue box around that.
The process included the full range of design thinking, from prototyping, to the final product, it included everything.
We had access to Vex Robotics competition-standard equipment and were tasked with 3 challenges. We had to take a standard base bot and build it for the following 3 challenges.
Speed challenge: We had to design the fastest robot we could that via a controller could be raced around the classroom. I learnt about the concept of gear ratios and utilized them to attempt to make my robot faster (but failed and made my robot drive backwards.) Gear ratios were new to me. We were still a little bit successful.
2. The Autonomous test
Basically the speed test but there wasn’t a controller. A bumper was utilized and the code was written so when we hit a wall, the robot would turn around automatically and go the other way. Our robot didn’t work that well and for some reason the code wasn’t working.
3. The Stack Test
We had to build a claw on our robot that enabled it to stack blocks, and the more blocks we stacked, the more points we got.
In language arts, I did a socratic seminar about narrative writing. During the unit, we were tasked to choose a narrative draft, and revise it. In the seminar, we talk about what techniques are used to make our narratives better. The Equity Maps app was used to track this seminar.
This is the equity maps report. It talks about my involvement in the seminar and has statistics like the average amount of time spoken, how much I spoke, and other useful information. I chose this because it gives accurate numbers and statistics.
This information says that I get myself involved in the conversation. (as shown by the time spoken info) I spoke 6 times, whereas the average is 5 times. I spoke VERY close to the average time spoken. I got 1 minute and 32 seconds compared to the 1 minute and 36 seconds as the average. I made a fair contribution to the seminar.
In art we got the chance to meet graffiti artist Kool Koor in a workshop, where he walked us through how exactly he makes the art he does. It was an experience I enjoyed.
(At the end I will also show my artwork my partner (we were in groups) and I made.)
He walked us through a DNA exercise where you draw, but don’t think about what you draw. Then, take 2 or more reoccurring symbols and that’s your drawing “DNA”. I reference this a few times in the post, so I thought it would be useful to put this in here.
What is Kool Koor’s current source of inspiration?
His current source of inspiration is the cosmos, which will never fully be explored. The Bronx graffiti scene is also something that inspires his art. In 1976, he actually saw art pieces being made with graffiti, which was one of the first things that got him to start making graffiti art.
How did the specific culture of New York graffiti influence his foundational aesthetic choices?
The specific culture of New York graffiti shaped his foundational aesthetic choices by the law. You had to be fast when doing graffiti, because it was illegal. You had to be fast, and it was also quite rebellious. It had the aim to make a statement boldly about culture, identity, social issues, or anything else. That rush specifically influenced what you could and could not do with graffiti. The color curation is specifically chosen in terms of showing a statement, Now in studio work, he still puts aspects of his graffiti past in there, but now as studio work it is more formalized.
How does Kool Koor’s aesthetic choice combine chaos and energy with fine art and detail? How does it reflect his personal culture?
These choices are particular in capturing the vividness of graffiti, whilst being formalized due to the fact that is is a studio setting. It has been done in a way where it’s still considered to be graffiti but at the same time it is formalized as studio art. He uses the studio setting as a catalyst for expressing his culture and roots through graffiti, mixing the two.
1. Cultural Influence on Aesthetic Choices
Kool Koor’s background shaped the cultural and aesthetic choices by a few factors, the first one being the law. Graffiti at the time was illegal and that meant just tagging at a fast-paced instead of having the time for elaborate artworks. I asked him a question about this and he said that he still leaves some of his drawing “DNA” in his studio work.
2. Environmental Impact on Art Creation
Firstly, creative processes were impacted because there was more to work with instead of just using spray paint, with all sorts of pens it takes more to think about how these all will go together. I felt these by purposely thinking about where should I put my DNA drawing symbols for balance, instead of just spray painting. I had to think about how and where I would draw things and I had to think about the lines I painted in terms of where it would go.
3. Personal Reflection on Aesthetic Development
The aspects of culture and environment I think will influence my artwork would be the DNA exercise but with my symbols as the DNA. I could utilize symbolism by showing aspects I want to express as my identity, and color choices could also impact that as well.
This unit I learnt about grammar such as parts of speech, and shades of meaning.
What did I like about this unit?
This unit was unique. I don’t think that I have done anything like this, and I love it. In this unit, we were given a simulation of being FBI agents teaching an alien about grammar to understand its motives, why it was here, and what it wanted to do. Not only did I learn a lot but it was quite fun as well. Below is a screenshot of the simulation.
What was I good at?
I think I was good at primarily understanding most of the content, and roleplaying as the FBI agent as it was an important factor in getting the most success out of this unit.
What was challenging for me?
As I said when answering the first question, I hadn’t done anything like this before. It was a new way to teach and to frame a unit that I haven’t seen before. This means I had to take some time to fully understand the expectations of the unit, but I got there in the end.
So for a school field trip I recently went to the MAP (The Museum of Art Pudong) and got to see some incredible artworks. El Anatsui’s red moon series, the original version of the Birth of Venus, and even Vincent Van Gough artworks.
Above all though, the main point of this was to answer one essential question:
In what ways can an exhibition influence the ideas, beliefs, and experiences of an audience?
The answer to this question is what you’ll find in this post.
Let’s cover ideas first.
Ideas
In terms of Ideas we can start to talk about cultures and beliefs, as many artworks I noticed were reflecting some form of lifestyle or culture back then, for example in one of El Anatsui’s artworks, bottle caps are primarily used which reflect to the slave trade (his work is mainly situated in Ghana) and how bottles would be currency for slaves. Some artworks also just hint to what life was like back then or who was important, like shown with the Princess Mathilde (here’s an article about it) sculpture that was there as well.
Beliefs
Beliefs mainly can come from culture, going back to El Anatsui’s artworks mainly express beliefs and culture about Africa or events in the world with some relation to Africa. This also fits well with the slave trade example I gave earlier.
Beliefs play a vital role in an artwork as some form of expression. This could be a deeper meaning about the culture which relates to interpersonal experiences.
Experiences
In terms of experiences, the artworks can give a variety of experiences, like the one I had, (viewing the only remaining Vincent Van Gogh self portrait in person) and this allows you to see more than you would by just looking at the artwork. It allows you to see how popular it is, the curation (an intentional layout of how each artwork is placed and the components of the room) and how whoever’s viewing it interacts with the artwork which can tell a lot about intentions of the artist.
This unit we did table tennis in PE. I’ll be reflecting about it in this post.
Table tennis was a fun unit. I like table tennis. We played solos and doubles.
Multiple essential skills were used in table tennis such as:
Serving (and how to do it legally)
Forehand
Backhand
A little bit of advanced spin.
How did it go?
It went well. From my prior knowledge of table tennis, I was able to grasp the skills easily. I could focus on playing the matches and enjoying the game.
Singles is what I mainly excelled in. Most of the time I was hitting good shots, but some inconsistency allowed me to miss the table or be unable to get the ball over the net.
What could I improve on?
I would say I could improve on doubles. The rule that the same person couldn’t hit the ball twice was new to me and rotating was a new concept to me. I had a bit of trouble figuring that out but otherwise it was good.
