DETERMINISMO TECNOCIENTÍFICO

Objectives: Students will learn about George Segal and figure sculpture by creating a Segal-like sculp-ture out of packaging tape. They will choose a pose that best expresses the high school experience and display it in their school.

State Core Standards:

Standard 1 Making

• Experience and control a variety of art media • Create expressive sculptures using art

elements and principles Standard 2 Perceiving • Interpret sculptures Standard 3 Expressing

• Identify subject matter, metaphor, themes, and content in sculpture.

Materials:

• Packaging tape (about 3-5 rolls per model) • Scissors, or letter openers, or bandage cutters • George Segal images, including The Holocaust and Abraham and Isaac

• Images of Duane Hanson’s work (or other figure sculptors: Antony Gormley, Magdalena Abakanowicz)

Art History: Introduce George Segal and Pop art.

What is it that makes his art unique? Expressive?

How is it Pop art? Show them Segal’s procedure through powerpoint.

Demo how to make a tape version of Segal sculp-ture – demo on a student’s arm (see “Tape sculpsculp-ture process”).

Explain the assignment and have students group themselves in teams of three. They need to discuss possible poses they want, make a list of 15 ideas – pick five to write an explanation of how that pose would express the high school culture.

Day 2

Art Criticism: Show the class an image of The Holocaust by Segal. Use the Feldman model to do criticism on it (journal entry). Discuss it as a class.

Rest of class time to start taping their model.

http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Visual___Artistic_Resources/

Public_Holocaust_Memorials/public_holocaust_memori-als.html

Day 3

Art Criticism: Show Segal’s Abraham and Isaac and sk students to discuss. Explain the background of the sculpture and the Kent State shootings. Ask:

Is the sculpture appropriate? (journal entry)

Use rest of class time to continue working on tape figures.

Day 4

Aesthetics: Discussion on the concept of the “ideal figure.” (journal entry) Should there be an ideal figure? What is our society’s concept of the ideal figure? What was it 20 years ago? What about other eras? What can we learn from this? Show images of ideal figures from different time periods.

Rest of class time to continue working on tape sculptures.

Day 5

Introduce Duane Hanson’s figure sculptures.

Discuss his work. Compare and contrast Segal’s work and Hanson’s work. (journal entry)

Rest of class time to work on tape sculptures.

Day 6

Continue as needed until class is ready to install the sculptures. Teams must fill out an evaluation form and explain the meaning of their pose. If time per-mits, address the issue of art materials.

Aesthetics: What are legitimate materials for art?

Show some of Tom Friedman’s work (sculptures made of toothpicks, straws, construction paper, etc), or Marc Quinn’s self-portraits in his own blood and

excrement. Can anything be used, or should the line be drawn somewhere?

Tape sculpture process:

Wrap a section of the model’s body with tape, first a couple of layers of sticky side out, then a couple of layers of sticky side down.

Images and information:

http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/exhibit/

memorials/segal.html George Segal, Sculptor:

“There is a strong connection in my mind

between the image of Abraham and Isaac and the killings at Kent State” Segal explains. “It’s an attempt to introduce difficult moral and ethical questions as to how older people should behave toward their children.” Segal sees the May 4 inci-dent as a “genuine tragedy in that both sides were well meaning, each convinced of its own point of view and unable to see the other’s.”

Duane Hanson Sculpture

Tip# 1. Don’t pull hard when you are wrapping – you could easily cut the circulation off to limbs.

Tip# 2. Plan before starting, so you know what sections your pose will need – the smallest number of separate sections is best.

Tip # 3. When doing the head, leave either the nose or mouth uncovered, and cover it up with tape after it is off the model’s head.

Tip# 4. Anything the model is uncomfortable having someone else tape, the model can tape first and then classmates can tape the rest.

Tape the seam(s) back together with the same packaging tape.

Once you are done doing a section, cut it off with scissors, making the fewest cuts possible that will allow you to get the taped section off.

Display Finished Group Sculptures

Evaluation strategies:

1) Teams turn in a paper with list of 15 ideas and explanation for five of them.

2) Journal entries (scored in journal rubric)

3) Sculpture rubric with categories of:

Expression of idea (5 pts) Proportions and form (5 pts) Craftsmanship (5 pts) Effort (15 pts)

Extensions or adaptations:

1) Use plaster bandages (just like Segal) and do body parts (faces,

arms, legs, etc.) instead of the full figure. Could maybe make relief sculptures like Segal’s with them.

2) Watch Segal video – George Segal: an American Still Life (from pbs)

3) Address installation art more in depth. Use other installation artists as examples (like Sandy Skoglund and Ann Hamilton)

4) Compare Segal’s work with sculptor Antony Gormley or Magdalena Abakanowicz.

Antony Gormley

www.antonygormley.com Magdalena Abakanowicz http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/

Resources:

www.artsandactivities.com/Page/Article0505b.html www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/tapesculpture.html

Introduction

Beginning with images from visual culture, stu-dents focus on how portraits are used in society and what our priorities are in self-representation. They look back at the history of self-portraits to see how artists made statements about themselves through the styles, techniques, and media they chose.

Students explore creating a variety of self-portraits based upon the styles discussed in class, also incor-porating any characteristics they wish to covey about themselves. In art criticism, students use the Anderson Model of Criticism to look at a contem-porary portrait of Chuck Close. Students conclude with aesthetics, determining if any form of self-expression is a valid work of art, and whether or not contemporary methods are just as legitimate as historical methods. As students are beginning to define who they are and what image they want to convey to those around them, so it is important for them to identify with their own personalities and the individual characteristics that make them unique.

Concepts

-compare contemporary and historical methods in self-portraits (AH)

-What is Art? Any form of expression? (A) -History of self-portraits (AH)

-Anderson Model of Criticism (AC)

-explore creating self-portraits in various styles (AP)-portraits in society (VC)

PREVIOUS SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE -Photoshop experience

OBJECTIVES (cognitions, skills, and affects) Students will be able to:

[A] Gain an opinion regarding whether or not

digitally manipulated or computer-generated self-portraits have equal aesthetic value as the more traditional art media (include themes from ‘What is art?” and ‘Artistic Creation”). (A)

[A] Determine what self-portrait individual phi-losophers would choose for themselves based on a packet of information. ( C )

[AH] Make verbal comparisons between the vari-ous subject matter and styles artists have used to portray themselves and the contextual connections of each to the history of art. ( C )

[AC] use the Anderson Model of Criticism to look at a contemporary portrait of Chuck Close and use of non-traditional media. (S)

[AP] Explore creating self-portraits with collage, realism, expressionism, and contemporary methods.

(S)

[VC] identify the influence of portraits on the indi-vidual in society.

The Human Figure