ARTPEDAGOGY
  • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS
    • ABOUT THE THRESHOLD CONCEPTS
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #1
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #2
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #3
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #4
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #5
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #6
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #7
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #8
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #9
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS: A CRITICAL POINT
  • KS3 PROGRAMME
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS: KS3 PROGRAMME
    • TC1: MAKING MARKS - ON SURFACES, IN SPACE
    • TC2: EXPRESSIVE APPROACHES
    • TC4: EXPLORING (& ABUSING) ART HISTORIES
    • TC5: PLAYFUL, PURPOSEFUL, ABSURD
    • TC7: A SENSE OF PLACE
    • TC8:VALUE & BALANCE; REPRESENTATION & ABSTRACTION
  • COUCH TO ARTIST
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: A 9-STEP PROGRAMME
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 1 MARKS; WORDS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 2 VIBRATIONS; SENSATIONS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 3 TAKING SHAPE
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 4 PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 5 PLAY, TIME
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 6 HEAD, HANDS, HEART
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 7 ART, WORDS; MEANINGS, CONTEXTS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 8 VALUES & MEASURES
  • RESOURCES
    • #abstractadvent
    • PRIMARY RESOURCES >
      • INTRODUCTION
      • PRIMARY: DADA WORKSHOP
      • Superheroes! (And patterned pants)
      • Robots!
      • Ancient Greece: figures and forms
      • Eek! A wolf ate my sketchbook
      • Ancient Egypt: What a Relief!
      • Shapes and (hi)stories
      • Figures & Factories
    • Why study Art?
    • LESSON RESOURCES >
      • THE GRID - METHOD AND MISCHIEF
      • Noughts & Crosses - playing with art (hi)stories
      • THE ART OF INSTRUCTION
      • PREHISTORY NOW
      • Self-Portraits (Pt.1) About Face
      • Self-Portraits (Pt.2) More than just a pretty face
    • ARTICLES >
      • ABOUT ABSTRACTION: HENRY WARD
    • Preparing for the Personal Study
  • SHOP
  • ABOUT
  • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS
    • ABOUT THE THRESHOLD CONCEPTS
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #1
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #2
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #3
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #4
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #5
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #6
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #7
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #8
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPT #9
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS: A CRITICAL POINT
  • KS3 PROGRAMME
    • THRESHOLD CONCEPTS: KS3 PROGRAMME
    • TC1: MAKING MARKS - ON SURFACES, IN SPACE
    • TC2: EXPRESSIVE APPROACHES
    • TC4: EXPLORING (& ABUSING) ART HISTORIES
    • TC5: PLAYFUL, PURPOSEFUL, ABSURD
    • TC7: A SENSE OF PLACE
    • TC8:VALUE & BALANCE; REPRESENTATION & ABSTRACTION
  • COUCH TO ARTIST
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: A 9-STEP PROGRAMME
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 1 MARKS; WORDS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 2 VIBRATIONS; SENSATIONS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 3 TAKING SHAPE
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 4 PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 5 PLAY, TIME
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 6 HEAD, HANDS, HEART
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 7 ART, WORDS; MEANINGS, CONTEXTS
    • COUCH TO ARTIST: TASK 8 VALUES & MEASURES
  • RESOURCES
    • #abstractadvent
    • PRIMARY RESOURCES >
      • INTRODUCTION
      • PRIMARY: DADA WORKSHOP
      • Superheroes! (And patterned pants)
      • Robots!
      • Ancient Greece: figures and forms
      • Eek! A wolf ate my sketchbook
      • Ancient Egypt: What a Relief!
      • Shapes and (hi)stories
      • Figures & Factories
    • Why study Art?
    • LESSON RESOURCES >
      • THE GRID - METHOD AND MISCHIEF
      • Noughts & Crosses - playing with art (hi)stories
      • THE ART OF INSTRUCTION
      • PREHISTORY NOW
      • Self-Portraits (Pt.1) About Face
      • Self-Portraits (Pt.2) More than just a pretty face
    • ARTICLES >
      • ABOUT ABSTRACTION: HENRY WARD
    • Preparing for the Personal Study
  • SHOP
  • ABOUT
Picture


​FROM COUCH TO ARTIST
TASK 3: TAKING SHAPE


Task 3 connects with Threshold Concept 3.  It is an opportunity to consider the 'vocabulary' and 'grammar' of an artwork - how the elements of artworks combine and conspire to communicate in different ways to different people, in different times and spaces.*
​
​ ​You will complete:
1. a range of experimental photographic compositions (at least 10 diverse images; suggested time: approx 1-2 hours). 
2. a (non-photographic) practical outcome in response to these initial experiments (approx 2-4 hours).
​
Picture

Picture
A Mark is whatever we see that we recognise as having a cause - whether that cause is intentional or not. we see it and we see past it, or into it; it is what it is and a reminder of something besides. As such, A mark is a sign you can see. a sign is something which points beyond itself; something which means. JuliAN Bell


​TASK 3

* ​Let's revisit that introduction, above. The 'vocabulary' and 'grammar' of an artwork - what does that even mean? Well, artworks tend to consist of something - something we usually look at (but not always). Most often here we refer to 'Visual' or 'Formal' Elements - colours, shapes, textures, tones, forms and so on: the information that we see. But artworks also (mostly) exist as tangible, material combinations - paint on canvas, ink on paper, carved stone and so on. I think we can broadly call this combination the 'vocabulary' of an artwork. These combinations, arranged by choice or chance, collectively add up to something else that we might then call its 'grammar' - the composition, (representations of) subject matter, perhaps even the ideas or intentions of an artwork - but not 'meaning'. Meaning evolves in the viewer's mind, subject to personal experiences, tastes, susceptibilities and so on; meanings dance in the gaps between the viewer and the artwork and are rarely fixed. 

ACTIVITY PART 1: TAKING SHAPE

 To begin, you will need:
  • Plain coloured paper/card of your choosing (A6 size is fine, not too big) - if you have a particular colour that has an affinity to your creative interests, in whatever way, if that's even possible, then go with it.
  • Scissors or a craft knife and ruler
  • a small amount of tape or sticky-tack
  • a camera (a phone camera is fine).
 Next: 
  • Choose a simple shape - a circle, square, rectangle or triangle and draw this out to fill A6 size (more or less - you can try different sizes as this exploration develops). Once again, - if you think a particular shape might have an affinity with, or connection to, your creative interests in whatever way, then go with that.
  • Cut this shape neatly out of the coloured paper/card. 
And then:
  • Take a series of experimental photographs of your chosen shape placed/ held/attached in various locations.
Explore how the shape might combine, connect or contrast with its surroundings or background; keep in mind your own art interests (for example 'Traditional', 'Modern' or 'Contemporary' approaches - see Task 1) and potential ways that these might be considered within this exercise.
The 10 images above are my own quick experiments. As it is, the red triangle is very dominant, so when seen as a collection, as above, a sense of motion or rhythm arises as the triangles compete for our attention. So...best click on them individually to consider the following provocations:
​
  • How does the red triangle 'communicate' differently within each image - with other colours, shapes, objects or subject matter? For example, does it contrast most with different colours, shapes or textures? Does the shape suggest or echo some 'thing' - another shape (like that of a leaf or a tree, for example)? How does it communicate in different ways in different images - pointing, warning, interrupting, concealing..? And how might our existing associations with this shape and/or colour influence how we read each photograph - for example, in different compositions does it remind more of a play button or a pyramid, or a weather symbol or a section of bunting?

  • How might the shape and colour that you choose - and your subsequent experiments - encourage you to think sensitively about various visual relationships and how these elements can communicate within a frame (and remind others of things beyond it)?

ACTIVITY PART 2: PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT​

Using your photographic experiments as inspiration (but not directly copying):
  • ​​Develop an artwork that employs the ways of working that interest you most, but connects in some way to one (or more) of your photographs.
    Your response might be representational or abstract, in 2 or 3 dimensions, text-based, performance-based, sound art...or something else.
    The connection to the photograph might be obviously visual or something more conceptual - there are no rules here, it is open to interpretation and your own imaginative, subtle or playful connections.

TASK 3 ADDITIONAL PROMPTS & RESOURCES

The danger of sharing examples of artwork for a task like this is that students can be tempted to simply copy, or adapt simply (e.g. John Baldessari used coloured dots on photographs; I used squares, so that's fine, right?). With art, the boundaries between inspiration and lazy copying - or respectful homage and playful appropriation - are often hard to distinguish. Perhaps the challenge here then is for students to absorb and enjoy other works, maybe research what appeals wider (roll over the images to reveal the names of artists) - and then think and experiment in relation to photographs taken, and see what authentically bubbles up.
Frank Bowling, Mirror, 1966
Charlotte Ager (illustrator)
John Outterbridge, Rag and Bag Idiom III, 2012
Anish Kapoor, As if to Celebrate, I Discovered a Mountain Blooming with Red Flowers, 1981
Takis, Magnetic Painting No. 7, 1962
Sarah Lucas, Self Portrait with Fried Eggs, 1996
John Baldessari (collaboration with Photographer Mario Sorrenti)
Fiona Rae, Untitled (yellow ochre), 1990
Oliver Jeffers (illustrator), Dipped Painting from a thrift store
NOTE: Why show these examples? Well, colour and shape has obviously had some influence and connects to the photo task, but also I was looking for works where the elements seem to be in a more striking dialogue with each other, which might relate to colour contrasts, or perhaps surfaces (and disruptions of it). These works might all be described as (influenced by) 'Modern' or approaches. Many other artworks available for inspiration! 

TASK 3 SUMMARY

  • You should complete a range of notes in response to the information above. This might also include wider research and experimental sketches.
  • A series of thoughtful experimental photographs in response to activity 1.
  • An artwork/personal development in response to one or more of these photographs.

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