The Culminating Event

Thank you to everyone who was present at our Culminating Event last Friday! It was such a great event that very well summed up what we did during our time in artSpace together. The students got up on stage and performed so well, and without being nervous at all. And there were many bold performers that decided to do solos last minute! I was so impressed and proud to see them release their fears and go for it. They also individually presented their models to their friends and family very thoughtfully....I see some future architects and musicians :)

Thank you so much for a great class. Matt and I enjoyed working with all of you! And thank you Matt for bringing your expertise to the class and putting in 100% every day.

+Videos and pictures will be posted as soon as possible.

It's the Final COUNTDOWN!!

The graphic scores have been so great! The students have been so into it and creating such amazing things. It's been getting them to think and focus. They have been asking such great questions about music and art and how the two are related; this exercise really shows the relationship between the two. Here are some pictures of the students writing their pieces and using the playground as their instrument!

Graphic Composers

We started to explore and compose music today. Not all of us know how to read or write music so we used a different form of musical score to express our ideas. It is called graphic notation. Composers in the early 20th Century started to use this as a way to free themselves from the constraints of regular printed music. Here is an example from that time period:

Students can decide how much freedom they would like in their music, how much freedom to give the performer, what instruments to use, etc. Yesterday was their first attempt so I am excited to see what comes out today after having some experience under their belt. We are video taping the performances and we can't wait to share them with the community next Friday. We hope you can join us!

We are finishing up with the models! They look amazing....pictures of all the finished models are going to be photographed and posted in two weeks. The students did so well being creative and exploring materiality in making their models represent their intentions. As soon as I get the camera to work I will post all the pictures. Good luck with your tests!

Friday Models and Birthday Crowns!

Friday was another great day of working on models. We're all having fun building these models! And we celebrated a birthday! As soon as the models are done we're going to take some pictures outside to look at shadows and day lighting. The students are all drawing floor plans so well. And using creative tools like the projector to draw more accurately. Check out the pictures...

Process

Today we continued our building project. We took the drawings of buildings that look like the things that are sold in the store and started to build models. Drawings of candy basket candy stores, Aztec Temple gift shops, and Gameboy shaped video game stores are starting to come to life in 3-D. We also want to welcome some new students to artSpace that have made a great addition to the class.

Changes

We lost a lot of artSpace members to softball and baseball, but we are so happy to still have a small group of loyal artSpace artists. On Thursday, we started a small project where students made floor plans of the buildings that they had already drawn before. Pooneh taught them how to draw doors and windows and all of the students had to think hard about drawing a room or a building from a bird's eye view. At first the students struggled, but were soon able to imagine flying over the top of the buildings with "Super Man-like" X-Ray vision. Here is a look at some of their work:

Millionaire!

On Friday we played Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The questions were great, and both teams only missed 1! It's nice to know that Matt and I are not boring. I think the candy helped too. With Spring break coming up, ArtSpace will resume in a couple weeks. So stay tuned and we'll be back! Check out the pictures of our game show adventure.

Putting some groove in those buckets

Today we started learning some basic drumming skills by practicing alternating strokes and keeping time. The students also had to concentrate hard to keep track of all of the counts. Not as easy as they originally thought. By the end we were doing pretty good.

3D Painting

We did some more painting of the buckets on Friday. They are turning out pretty great. Painting these buckets have really got us all thinking about what would look good in 3d. Luckily, the paint peels off so you can repaint if you don't like what you're doing! We have also been using up some of the beautiful weather we've been having and working outside! Looks like we'll have some tunes soon
!

Painting the Buckets!

This week we painted our buckets in many different ways. Each student received some experience mixing paint to make a variety of different colors. Trying our best to stay clean, we made all of our buckets say something about us! I have lots of pictures, but blogger is having some difficulties. I will upload them later.....I promise!

Everyone loves Fridays!

Today we split into two groups: one was out on the playground making music, and the second was inside working on their buckets. It was a perfect balance! The group outside was able to hear themselves when Matt instructed them...and they were sounding great! I think everyone has a natural talent for playing drums since we got the drum sticks involved. The playground is going to become one of our instruments as well. Inside, we were drawing on our buckets and finishing up the Fundreds. I was introduced to a lot of new music! Next week will be great when we paint our drums and drum sticks. We'll have some colorful pictures to show you.

Bucket Madness!

Thursday was a ton of fun. We unveiled the drum sticks and let everyone come up with their own grooves. Eventually it went outside and students started to experiment with sounds from the play ground area. Lots of fun. We also worked on our "Fundred dollar bills." The kids are excited to show their support for students in New Orleans in a fun and creative way. There was talk of it even spreading out to the whole Desert Oasis Community.

Today we took a break from practicing our soon to be masterpiece and worked on a side project that is great! We drew on Fundred Dollar Bills! We are helping out New Orleans and Mel Chin in his feat to rid the city of lead contamination. It was a great day that ended with Pictionary. Happy Valentine's Day!

The buckets came in and we got them to Desert Oasis! We started our afternoon with some drum warm ups. And after our hands were sore from banging on the buckets, we looked at 'road side architecture' - architecture that looks like what it sells: an ice cream building that sells ice cream, a donut building that sells donuts, and more. The students drew their own ideas of 'road side architecture.' We're starting to get some rhythm and melody and soon enough we'll have a platinum album!

Groovin'

Today we learned about the basics of rhythm and how to construct a groove. The students got into groups and wrote their own grooves. First they could only use their hands and then later they were given found instruments to explore all of the new sounds. At the end the students performed their grooves in front of the class. The buckets came in today! Once the sticks from Vic Firth come we will be ready to rock!

Launching the project!

Another day of model building! Matt showed a great video of a group making music with found objects which launched our big project. We are bringing music and architecture together to make a musical structure.....a structure that you can play. The models are almost done, which will lead us into making our own personalized percussion instruments. All the instruments will be made from things you can find just about anywhere. Stay tuned to see what happens!

Pimp my House!

Today Pooneh showed everyone some examples of abstract art and showed a great video about architectural process. The students were instructed to draw a house and then to design a 3-D version with various materials in the room. The students had to use a wire and the rest was up to them. They got a good start, but we will see what amazing designs they come up with next time.

It's Friday!

Today we had an art medley! Matt and I almost have every one's names down, and we know the students' likes and dislikes...always a good thing. Our circle of story telling was a success! Someone started the story, then passed the ball to the next who took it off from where the other person left it. By the end we had a very creative story: it started out as a dream, then there was a crocodile that turned out to be an alligator, and by the end they were no longer involved in the story! Architecture pictionary was also great! It was a good preface to the BIG project which will be coming shortly. Matt led everyone in a Simon Says drum rhythm. Too fun!

Getting to know you

Pooneh and I are just getting started at Desert Oasis, but we are very excited to work with all of the students. We spent the day getting to know the students and learn a little bit about their interests. We started making name tags that tell us a little about them. The students also learned the basics of percussion. Pooneh is an architect and I am a percussionist. We can't wait to see what the students create in music and structure. No pictures for today as we get settled with new batteries and cameras, but next time we will have lots to show you!