Stockport Art festival Proposal

For this brief we worked as a group and came up with the following:

We decided we would have an already made stencil on the wall which would then be decorated by the community and people who are visiting the Art festival using their memories of Stockport.

• Quick and easy few minutes task
• People can decorate more than one brick
• Brings together the community
• Adds ownership to the final product
• Adds identity to stockport 
• Each brick is different and personal
• Good for all ages even young children for drawings

High school workshop

This was a difficult workshop as we only had a few hours worth of group planning and discussion so we had to try and squeeze everything in and plan quickly. The started out a little stressful as we had to have a room change because of interview so we had to move tables and equipment into a gallery space which didn't allow us to use the walls for poster as people had their work up for exhibition so we had to make do with putting them on the back of chairs and tables. There was also a communication problem inbetween groups as we were scrambling around moving tables and didn't have enough time to group up in the morning as the high school arrived early. This also cause a problem in the lesson plan as we had to add an extra activity on the end (defence weapons).

I think we could have done a lot better if we had more time for planning at the beginning so communication between groups wouldn't be such a big issue as everyone would know what to do. Also if as a group we discussed what was going on within each table would help make some tables more successful such as the can table it seemed like it was a little difficult to work with as the material is difficult to manipulate. The nature table was a successful table because each student received a senario which they had to cater to the product they produced. I also feel time management was a issue we could have improved as it we weren't all aware of changes that had been made and I felt 20mins per table was a little bit too long for the making process. The communication between the special collections group was also abit difficult as they weren't always present when there were changes being made so maybe if we'd had a person who could run back and forth between the gallery and the special collections to make them aware would of been helpful.

Despite all these changes and issues we came across I felt it still worked well overall as there were more better moments such as the group tour around the Art school and they students enjoyed the tasks as it was an exciting introduction and we got straight into the tasks. The number of people was also helpful as he group could work with the students and interact with them on a 1-1 basis. I think as a group we managed to keep it all together and work quickly even though we had problems at the beginning.

I really enjoyed working with year 9's as they were so imaginative and exciting they enjoyed making and talking to them about their work was interesting and rewarding as we were able to give them an exciting and fun workshop to remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Primary school planning

It was a lot of fun doing a group plan for this Lesson with primary school children. We were given the task to make sure everything was planned right down to the minute and every detail was planned. We discussed every thing we needed according to the brief we were given and then we also delegated tasks to one another and made sure everyone had a role to play.

I was given the task to manage the window box table which was decorating the boxes with the children and making sure that the table was organised and had enough things for the children to use. I was pleased with my role and had a few examples prepared for the children to have a look at.

The difficult part of planning was making sure we over planned and were able to have the children's attention at all times and make it an enjoyable experience for them. It was also difficult catering to all different types of children and how they learn. We were only aware that the majority of the class didn't have English as a first language so we hoped that language wouldn't be to big a problem.

 

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Art Therapy

This was an interesting lecture. I had heard about Art Therapy before but hadn't looked into it or learnt much about it before. After learning more about Art therapy I have decided it's not something that interests me although it was interesting learning about it.

It was fascinating learning about how art can be used to help people with self-esteem issues because art is used purely for expression and the activities are non judgemental because there is no wrong or right. Using drawings and symbolism is a safe way to talk about yourself especially if there is a language barrier and children are unable to communicate.

As part of this lecture we did a few drawing tasks, we drew a sun, moon, tree and a drawing of anything that we wanted to draw. It was a fun task really simple and straight forward. Every single drawing was different it was interesting to see how different they all were even when we all used the same equipment it's a task that would be good for young children as it's fun and simple.

 

 

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Group lesson plan

Our tutor used a number technique to put is into groups by giving each student a number and then the student going to the table with their number. I think this is a quick effective way to get everyone into groups and starting a workshop without having to wait for them all to get into a group themselves and then also working with people in their class that they hadn't interacted with before.

We we're then given a task to write a lesson plan on our window box brief that we were given at the beginning of Unit X the rules were:

• Class of year 10 14/15 year olds
• Make a window box
• 2 hours duration
• Using a green box and 3 other materials. (Scissors and adhesives will be provided)

As a group we decided to split up the 2 hours into different lengthed intervals

• 10mins introduction
• 15mins demonstration
• 10mins materials collection
• 30mins working
• 10mins gathering thoughts and looking at everyone else's work
• 30mins continued working
• 5mins talking about achievements
• 5mins clear up

Our workshop was based on recycling we tried to introduce things as can cutting and using glue guns to give children some responsibility on working with equipment which is potentially harmful. We also thought about introducing a competition aspect to make the teenagers competitive and have a reason to get through to the end of the task. During the feedback part of the session there were a few issues that were raised about our lesson plan which I fully agree with now looking back. One of the issues were the focus of the workshop being recycling too easy and already done for this age group? Also competition causing possible arguments when everyone should be feeling empowered also the 30mins slots should be taken down to 20mins as the keeping attention of the teenagers may be a little difficult. I am going to take all this feedback into account for my next lesson plan and hopefully come up with something a little more exciting!

 

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Lesson planning

This session had a lot of information to take in so I tried to take as many notes as I could but I will only post on my blog the main things that I think are important to remember. We started of the session by talking about the things that teachers do that are really annoying. As a group we came up with these bullet points.

• Patronising
• Teachers stood behind you
• Boring teacher/speaker
• Being put into groups (although I personally think this is a good effective way to get students into groups quickly and without friends so no distractions!)
• Students not cooperating- teachers not being able to manage behaviour problems
• Doing things you've done before
• Sitting in silence
• Unclear instructions
• Working individually

We than came together as a group and talked about all the different pet hates that we'd all come up with. We also spoke about things that would make an outstanding workshop such as making the workshop fun, exciting and unexpected.

We went in to talking about planning and the different types of learning the main notes that I took down were about the planning to be simple straight forward but detailed enough to take you through the whole time and over I case there are people who Finnish early because maybe the workshop wasn't challenging enough. I learnt to try and cater to as many different learning styles that could all fit into one lesson so you're benefiting every child. Working on your deliver is also important to engage the children from the beginning and to have heir attention also having clear precise aims and objectives to for the children to know what their learning outcomes should be.

 

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Workshop part 2

For the second part of the project we swapped over with another group and wrote a brief for their project after they'd already made an outcome. The group that we rewrote a brief for was a straight forward brief as what they'd done was put different parts together without thinking too much about it but still making it an interesting piece. We bullet pointed a few things that we would explain before starting a workshop with children.

• Artist examples (on a powerpoint to begin workshop with)
• Restrictions such as no glue, tape or scissors.
• Imagination and creativity
• No planning before (get stuck in with materials straight away)
• Reusable material (once its made it can be taken apart again easily)

We then gave feedback to another group about what we'd came up with and I made a few notes on the things that they'd said to add to our brief that I thought were worth keeping a note of.

• Exhibition after so all of the children can have a look and document before taking their sculpture apart again
• Moving from table to table to get materials under a time restriction

I think this second part of the workshop was a great idea as it helps gathering ideas from other people outside your on group and also finding points that maybe the group that initially did the project hadn't picked up on. It's also a good way to use the tips and advice that other groups give to use and keep a note of.

Other groups Window Box

 During the whole process I also took a look at how the tutors were engaging with us. 

• They were hands on and getting involved helping
• Friendly
• Talking about ideas and concepts
• Giving advice
• Making everyone aware of time left
• Encouraging

Unit X Introduction

Today was the first session of Unit X. As I have chosen College One the Education option because I would like to have a career in teaching. We did a workshop on group work today. The session was mainly based around a workshop that you'd do for a group of children (primary or secondary school age range). It as an interesting experience for me as it was a hands on task and also working in a group and interacting with your group.  The task was to create a window box but a non traditional one without and nature elements such as flowers and insects etc. We started off the project by doing a mind map of a few ideas and putting them together. This is a good idea to start off a project as it gets everyone in the zone and everyone sharing their ideas together. We came up with many different ideas as a group such as a compost bin, a recycle bin (as we were making it out of recycled materials) we also came up with some unusual ideas to be original like hanging a a person with a harness outside the window and incorporated the basket idea in making the harness by weaving fabrics together. Our main aim was to be innovative in what we create and think outside the box literally. we wanted to be unpredictable and different but also enjoy making the harness.
           As a group we worked well together, I found we worked in a good flow we were all working on the harness together and getting our hands dirty and had a laugh making it together. We quickly became comfortable as a group working together. I think this is a good workshop to do at a school or in the community as it invited people to open up and be friendly and involved with other people. It helps you be confident in a group and work in harmony. Its also a good ice breaker as well because  whilst your mind mapping everyone gets a chance to speak and talk to one another.

Workshop & Colourways

I'd decided to go to a Colour workshop this unit and I really benefited from learning different techniques on photoshop that change the colours for you easily and also an easy way to use photoshop to make colour ways using the indexed colour button. I tried to make it as simple as I could for myself so I kept the colours to a minimum but just enough to show a different set of colours. I went all out and make a colour way for each of my prints in both of the collections. Its great seeing them in a different colour palette I must say I like a few in different colours. Here are a few from both the collections.

Seer-sucker Workshop

I decided to along to a Print room workshop as I haven't been to one yet because I have decided to take a risk and not use the print room this time (I have used it many times in the past) and opted to using more digital in my work as I feel I am not very confident in using Photoshop because of my lack of experience. So we had a seer-sucker workshop which was very interesting although I won't be using it in this project I probably will in the future! Teresa showed us how to make the mixture and explained how to be careful and what containers to use as it gets dangerously hot and is a very toxic formula. Once she had done the whole mixing procedure she used showed us how to use it by using the screen. the results were very interesting as wherever you placed the mixture the fabric would scrunch up and make a interesting effect! I didn't take any pictures unfortunately but heres one I have found online which is similar.

Photoshop Workshop

Today we had a photoshop workshop where we were taught to use the tools on photoshop to place your pattern into an object as I am doing interior this time  have used an interior space. It was extremely useful as I feel it reflects what you are trying to show and also put what your doing into perspective. I placed one of my photoshop designs in to have a look to see how repeat patterns looked and I loved it!

Twitter Workshop

Today we had a quick Twitter workshop to show us the ropes and setup our own hastag. I am already a twitter user but I think this was a useful workshop as I've learnt about websites such as ifttt.com that can help us use the social networking sites quicker as the posts get pinned on to your other accounts. We made a hashtag for our projectg as #revoltculture but I dont think we would be using twitter as much as we do facebook as we fing on facebook we can have better conversation and is also similar to a blog.