MEDIA ARTS
The Media Arts class is an exploration of non-traditional and new media including video, photography, animation, web design as art, sound art, and more. The course if focused on utilizing new technology, including the personal technology such as cell phones, to develop creative works. Students design and propose their own project-based learning from the ground up including doing independent research into media and techniques; scripting, planning, and scheduling; developing technical skills; presenting formal proposals; creating evaluation rubrics; and more. MOST IMPORTANTLY, this class is about you working as an artist.
Look at the bottom of the page for some projects from past MEDIA ARTS classes!
Look at the bottom of the page for some projects from past MEDIA ARTS classes!
WEEK ONE
Research and inspiration:
NEW MEDIA is a challenging term to define. It's meaning is constantly shifting as artists invent new ways of making art through their relationships with technology.
As with any new thing, examples of works by others can be helpful in developing an understanding; HOWEVER, students should be cautious NOT to give more importance to these examples than is warranted. They are only very narrow takes on NEW MEDIA within a very broad field of ideas.
As with any new thing, examples of works by others can be helpful in developing an understanding; HOWEVER, students should be cautious NOT to give more importance to these examples than is warranted. They are only very narrow takes on NEW MEDIA within a very broad field of ideas.
ASSIGNMENT: ReSEARCH
Investigation of ideas behind and definitions of both ART and NEW MEDIA ART are extremely important, especially given that NEW MEDIA ART is a rapidly evolving area of the arts and students likely have little experience with it. Download this Word file for your Media Arts introductory research prompts and questions. Save it to your Google Drive or student folder. You will complete this assignment by typing into the document and submitting it when a due date is provided. (25 points).
WEEK ONE RESOURCES: SOME EXAMPLES
Click and view the following examples of some of the possibilities of NEW MEDIA.
A crowd-sourced tribute to Johnny Cash by thousands of artist contributors.
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A CNN slideshow of great art photography made with smartphones or tablets
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A short film on the sound art of Christine Sun Kim.
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Artist Michael Paul Smith creates viral the story of an imaginary town through fool-the-eye photography
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PROJECT 1: DEFINE IT, plan it AND GET STARTED
How you create and how you are graded:
In most classroom situations, the teacher identifies the objectives for students and the end product for each project. In our class, you set your own goals and define projects that will help to meet them.
The below process steps are required for every project except Project 4 and the Final Project (exam). Each step is graded as an assignment. You are required to turn in evidence of having done the following for projects 1-3:
1. BRAINSTORM IDEAS (minimum of 2 full pages of listing or other brainstorming/ working out ideas...SEE THE DESIGN PROCESS GRAPHIC ORGANIZER below this list and the video) and RUN IDEAS UP AGAINST THE "REPORTER'S QUESTIONS" (TO SEE IF IT IS DOABLE. "Reporter's Questions" button BELOW)
(10 points)
2. PROJECT PROPOSAL (WHAT IS IT? WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? WHAT WILL YOU NEED?- See the "Proposal Form" button BELOW)
-RESEARCH the processes you will need to complete your project, identify key need-to-learn skills and ideas.
-WRITE THE PROPOSAL: Include description of project, all of the things you expect to learn and what you will need.
-CONFERENCE WITH THE TEACHER- RECEIVE REVISION ADVICE AND OBTAIN APPROVAL TO BEGIN)
-REVISE AS NECESSARY (SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO REFINE OR CHANGE IT TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
(50 points)
3. DEFINE QUALITY BY CREATING A GRADING RUBRIC (WHAT WILL AN AWESOME VERSION OF YOUR PROJECT LOOK LIKE? WHAT WILL A LOW-QUALITY VERSION LOOK LIKE?)
(25 points)
4. EXECUTE THE PROJECT (MAKE IT!)
(100 points)
5. EVALUATE THE PROJECT (APPLY THE RUBRIC TO YOUR FINAL PRODUCT. WRITE A REFLECTION AS TO HOW THE PROJECT TURNED OUT.)
EACH OF THESE AREAS HAS POINTS ATTACHED TO IT.
(15 points)
TOTAL PER PROJECT: 5 grades totaling 200 points
In most classroom situations, the teacher identifies the objectives for students and the end product for each project. In our class, you set your own goals and define projects that will help to meet them.
The below process steps are required for every project except Project 4 and the Final Project (exam). Each step is graded as an assignment. You are required to turn in evidence of having done the following for projects 1-3:
1. BRAINSTORM IDEAS (minimum of 2 full pages of listing or other brainstorming/ working out ideas...SEE THE DESIGN PROCESS GRAPHIC ORGANIZER below this list and the video) and RUN IDEAS UP AGAINST THE "REPORTER'S QUESTIONS" (TO SEE IF IT IS DOABLE. "Reporter's Questions" button BELOW)
(10 points)
2. PROJECT PROPOSAL (WHAT IS IT? WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? WHAT WILL YOU NEED?- See the "Proposal Form" button BELOW)
-RESEARCH the processes you will need to complete your project, identify key need-to-learn skills and ideas.
-WRITE THE PROPOSAL: Include description of project, all of the things you expect to learn and what you will need.
-CONFERENCE WITH THE TEACHER- RECEIVE REVISION ADVICE AND OBTAIN APPROVAL TO BEGIN)
-REVISE AS NECESSARY (SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO REFINE OR CHANGE IT TO BE SUCCESSFUL.
(50 points)
3. DEFINE QUALITY BY CREATING A GRADING RUBRIC (WHAT WILL AN AWESOME VERSION OF YOUR PROJECT LOOK LIKE? WHAT WILL A LOW-QUALITY VERSION LOOK LIKE?)
(25 points)
4. EXECUTE THE PROJECT (MAKE IT!)
(100 points)
5. EVALUATE THE PROJECT (APPLY THE RUBRIC TO YOUR FINAL PRODUCT. WRITE A REFLECTION AS TO HOW THE PROJECT TURNED OUT.)
EACH OF THESE AREAS HAS POINTS ATTACHED TO IT.
(15 points)
TOTAL PER PROJECT: 5 grades totaling 200 points
CREATIVE RESOURCES
Use these questions as a guide to help you decide if your project idea is sufficiently developed to begin your proposal.
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Make a videogame, build a website, create a short film, record a song or sound effects, make an animation, and more with these helpful tutorials from around the web!
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The design process is a system to develop your work. Use this graphic organizer to make the design process happen for you.
Project 2: outside your comfort zone
There is a Roman proverb, "audentes Fortuna iuvat" that is loosely translated "fortune favors the bold." The only way to truly get better is to challenge yourself and move outside your comfort zone.
For this two week project, you are required to work in a medium with which you've never worked before. Try something new. If you are a photographer, try creating a work of art using only sound. If you had success creating a Flash animation, create a live-action work of video art. If you did your last project on your own, consider working with a partner. If you worked with a partner, work alone. Regardless of what you do, make art in a different way and with different artistic goals than on your previous project!
For this two week project, you are required to work in a medium with which you've never worked before. Try something new. If you are a photographer, try creating a work of art using only sound. If you had success creating a Flash animation, create a live-action work of video art. If you did your last project on your own, consider working with a partner. If you worked with a partner, work alone. Regardless of what you do, make art in a different way and with different artistic goals than on your previous project!
Project 3: YOU're driving the bus!
Art isn't about checking boxes and it isn't what happens when someone tells you what to do. For this project, you may try something new, combine several things you've done before, create a new project using a previous technique, work alone, with a partner, in a small group... whatever. Brainstorm, write your proposal and get approval, and move forward!
project 4: (final project/final exam)
SPECIAL NOTE: THESE ARE TWO SEPARATE PROJECTS. THE FINAL EXAM MAKES USE OF YOUR PROJECT 4. DETAILS OF REQUIRED PROJECT 4/FINAL PROJECT SUBJECT MATTER WILL BE ANNOUNCED BY THE TEACHER SLIGHTLY PRIOR TO START DATE.
PROJECT 4:
The FINAL PROJECT (EXAM) Media Arts project is a collaborative video project, but you must first complete your solo project 4 to be used in the final. For project 4, you will be assigned a theme and must complete a video project that is no fewer than 4 minutes in length and no longer than 5 minutes in length. There may be other limitations or requirements which will be announced prior to the start of project 4.
FINAL PROJECT (EXAM)
All members of the group are responsible for work on the FINAL PROJECT, joining each group member's project 4 together into a longer video supporting the assigned theme. You will be assigned a group with partners whose strengths compliment each others'. Each member of the group is responsible for combining the individual videos into a collaborative group video. Some of the tasks necessary to this are concept design and direction, visual editing, audio editing, and titles. All group members are expected to participate in all aspects of the final project, even if only for a short time for some of the tasks. A basic final project grade will be assigned to all students, then individual students' grades will be adjusted upward or downward from that basic grade based upon their observed performance during the group editing process. This final project is worth 10% of the course grade.
PROJECT 4:
The FINAL PROJECT (EXAM) Media Arts project is a collaborative video project, but you must first complete your solo project 4 to be used in the final. For project 4, you will be assigned a theme and must complete a video project that is no fewer than 4 minutes in length and no longer than 5 minutes in length. There may be other limitations or requirements which will be announced prior to the start of project 4.
FINAL PROJECT (EXAM)
All members of the group are responsible for work on the FINAL PROJECT, joining each group member's project 4 together into a longer video supporting the assigned theme. You will be assigned a group with partners whose strengths compliment each others'. Each member of the group is responsible for combining the individual videos into a collaborative group video. Some of the tasks necessary to this are concept design and direction, visual editing, audio editing, and titles. All group members are expected to participate in all aspects of the final project, even if only for a short time for some of the tasks. A basic final project grade will be assigned to all students, then individual students' grades will be adjusted upward or downward from that basic grade based upon their observed performance during the group editing process. This final project is worth 10% of the course grade.
SOME film and animation projectS BY our STUDENTS
""Dada Girlfriend- A Stop Motion Animation" by Emily McMichael was produced over several weeks with more than 600 images. The artist photographed her mixed-media painting as it progressed and combined the images in Windows Movie Maker to create the final animation.
Maddison Brady's "Rain" animation experiment was created from a series of digital photos of a student model. After photographing the model in all of the poses, the artist turned all of the photos into silhouettes using Adobe Photoshop. Each silhouette was then printed and meticulously hand cut from the page using scissors and an X-acto knife. Once all of the silhouettes were cut, she photographed the progression of the silhouettes across a paper background, while progressively adding melted crayons to create the rain effect. Each second of animation required up to 12 images. Finally, the photographs were combined into the animation you see using the Android/iOS app, Flipagram.
"Tree" was created by student Sara Jansson through the manipulation of images in Photoshop. The tree was built progressively with each updated digital painting saved as a new image. Images were then combined using Windows Movie Maker. The sequence was run in reverse to make the tree "un-grow."
"Ballgame" by Asia Feathers is a hand-drawn animation of different scenes from a baseball game. It was originally designed to have a backing track of an actual announcer calling plays.
"Clay's World" by Joseph Facchinei and Naylani Mower is a humorous claymation-type animation based on Andrew Wyeth's famous painting, "Christina's World."
"It Can Wait" is a dramatic public service announcement created by Quentin McMichael, Becca Kline, and Colton Myers. It is a great example of subtle storytelling and provides a chilling message about texting and driving.
Maddison Brady's "Rain" animation experiment was created from a series of digital photos of a student model. After photographing the model in all of the poses, the artist turned all of the photos into silhouettes using Adobe Photoshop. Each silhouette was then printed and meticulously hand cut from the page using scissors and an X-acto knife. Once all of the silhouettes were cut, she photographed the progression of the silhouettes across a paper background, while progressively adding melted crayons to create the rain effect. Each second of animation required up to 12 images. Finally, the photographs were combined into the animation you see using the Android/iOS app, Flipagram.
"Tree" was created by student Sara Jansson through the manipulation of images in Photoshop. The tree was built progressively with each updated digital painting saved as a new image. Images were then combined using Windows Movie Maker. The sequence was run in reverse to make the tree "un-grow."
"Ballgame" by Asia Feathers is a hand-drawn animation of different scenes from a baseball game. It was originally designed to have a backing track of an actual announcer calling plays.
"Clay's World" by Joseph Facchinei and Naylani Mower is a humorous claymation-type animation based on Andrew Wyeth's famous painting, "Christina's World."
"It Can Wait" is a dramatic public service announcement created by Quentin McMichael, Becca Kline, and Colton Myers. It is a great example of subtle storytelling and provides a chilling message about texting and driving.