Discovering different art styles and approaches in Pattern and Collage
A lot of interesting thought processing was happening in Christopher McCarthy’s Pattern and Collage class. Students were analyzing two very different artworks on a slide that asked, “What do these have in common?” After some observation time, campers noted they both have a series of dots, flower images, and human elements such as hands and arms.
There were a series of intricate art pieces with various patterns scattered on tables displaying everyone’s work from the week. Students discussed optical illusions and Zentangles, both which were illustrated in their art. They have been learning about patterns through a series of projects and will apply to the lessons in the following week.
Another slide was displayed with artwork from famous artists such as Salvador Dali. The prompt asked students yet again, what do these have in common. They were puzzled as one looked nothing like the other two. “It’s making my brain hurt,” said a camper who was perplexed by the images.
One camper finally said, “it has something to do with human expression.” And another camper said, “they are all collages!” McCarthy did not disagree with either sentiment but did mention that when these works of art were created, there was no photoshop or digital assistance to create art. The eyes that were put in the hands of the picture were done manually so this is a type of collage.
McCarthy said the students would be creating their own collages the following week and learning more about approaches to the collage media. After reflecting on what they learned and are going to learn, students enjoyed a game called “Odd One Out” which students guess which art image was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). They were very clever in discerning which art was AI generated and got the majority of the answers correct. Something as detailed as noting the shadows were competing in one of the pictures is a very intricate observation made by a student. It was an excellent lesson on understanding how AI can trick the eye.