2D UNIT IX: Time, Change, and Motion

Project IXH

 Time in Nature

 

Objectives

--To gain experience with sequential imagery to convey time, change, or motion.

--To create moving visual images and symbols that explore the idea of Nature in flux.

Project Overview Your challenge is to plan and execute a mural, cartoon, or animation that uses time, change, or motion to convey an idea about the natural world.

Project References

 

1. Muybridge, Eadweard:
--Masters of Photography series
--Wikipedia link

2. Time Frames

3. Haring, Keith: Flip Book

4. W. Kirk Kennedy: Instructions on animating a juggler

5. .gif animation tutorial

6. Comic Book Index http://www.comic-art.com/

7. "Situationist" Cartoons

8. Judith Baca mural

Vocabulary time, still image, frame, sequential images, cartoon, mural, animation, flip book, zoetrope, frame rate, frame sequence
Materials open
Process

Preliminary

1. Before coming to class, review the theme of The Natural World as found on the website.

2. Make a list of words that evoke the idea of "nature." Compare this with viewpoints--scientific, cultural, spiritual--that convey ideas about the Natural World.

3. Create a "short list" of words that seem to effectively illustrate the natural world through "time, change, or motion" (e.g., the gait of a horse, the changing seasons, a breaking wave).

4. Create a series of thumbnails (minimum of 10) that translate your words into simple sequences of images. Plan out your project, remembering to focus on methods for conveying time, change, and motion.

5. Select the best sequence to use as the basis for your final project.

6. Put all of your "prelims" into your notebook.

Final Project

1. Determine what scale and context would best serve your idea. Will your final project be a mural? A cartoon for a newspaper? A computer animation? A hand-held flip-book?

2. Consider what media would best serve your idea. Will you use multiple photographs? Drawings? Computer printouts? Xeroxes? A combination of each?

3. Notes on possible project directions:

MURAL: If your final project is a mural, you may want to create a scaled version that serves as a proposal for an actual site (this could serve as your final project in and of itself). Consider opportunities for collaboration with either other students or members of the local community. In the latter instance, the way in which you represent the natural world could be arrived at in conversation with a community or school group. Write a 1 - 2 page description of theme of your project.

CARTOON: If your project is a cartoon, you will be producing boards that are significantly larger than the size you find in a newspaper. After completing the boards, use a service bureau to reduce the boards to black and white "stat prints" suitable for reproduction in a newspaper. Alternatively, use a good quality xerox machine or computer scanner to reduce the scale of your boards to typical newspaper size. Consider what issues would be of interest to the readership of a local, national, or foreign newspaper.

ANIMATION: If your project is an animation, your instructor may ask you for a "story board" of the entire project. If time and facilities permit, this story board would provide the basis for an extended project focusing on an animation created using film, video, or a computer graphics application capable of creating animations. Alternatively, consider forms such as flipbooks and zoetropes for presenting animation.

Critique Ideas

 

When you have completed your composition, divide into small groups and exchange artworks with another group from the class. Within your group, work together to respond to each project in turn. Consider the following

1. Describe the techniques for creating time, change, and motion that your fellow artists used and explain how various effects were achieved.

2. Point out any personal symbols the artist used to indicate a particular meaning.

3. Discuss ideas the artwork seems to communicate. After some sharing of interpretations, attempt to state the message of the project in one sentence. (This artwork is about. . .)

4. Explain how the shapes, symbols, or other elements of the composition support its message.

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