Context elaborations – level 7 visual arts

• Creativity and connection
• Inquiry and production
• Challenge and invention
• Transformation and empowerment

The context elaborations mirror culturally responsive pedagogies.

Each context elaboration is coded, using the summary notation recorded with each strand. A bold strand code indicates a dominant strand in the given context. If both or all codes are bold, they are considered to have equal weighting in the given context.

Creativity and connection

The contexts for learning outlined below make links to the visual arts key concept of creativity and connection.

The contexts below connect to manaakitanga by building partnerships in the classroom based on trust and equity as all learning experiences are valued.

Possible context – diverse perspectives

(PK, DI, UC, CI)

• How are aspects of our visual culture perceived and valued when viewed in different contexts?
• Discuss safe ways of talking about and critiquing art works by examining the limitations of an uninformed response and the notions of subjective response, informed response, and appreciation.
• Ask students to list different contexts in which they have viewed an example of visual culture, such as Māori hei tiki, for example: museum, marae, gallery, book, photograph, poster, television screen, website, YouTube, a (3D) virtual gallery, clothing, tea towel, cushion, stationery, and so on.
• In pairs, students reflect on specific examples of contexts and discuss how each context affects their interpretation and response.
• Students ask each other comparative questions, such as:
  • How does viewing a nineteenth century pounamu hei tiki on a museum website and a plastic replica tiki in a gift shop affect how you make meaning of the hei tiki?
  • How do you see/perceive hei tiki worn by Māori in comparison to hei tiki worn by non-Māori?

• In groups students share their insights into how they connect with and make meaning from imagery and artefacts. The insights can be recorded on a large sheet of paper or projected on a datashow slide and for further class discussion and analysis.
• Students use their findings to inform a series of works in a particular art field, for example, graphic design of a “diverse perspectives” T-shirt, exhibition poster, and home page for a website. They share their completed work with the class.

Possible context – curate a virtual exhibition

(UC, CI)

• The students act as curators of a virtual exhibition based on a pre-determined theme.
• They invite diverse local artists to contribute digital files of works.
• They interview each artist, and gather both broad and deeper information about:
  • what motivates and influences him/her
  • the reasons for his/her media of choice and stylistic approach
  • how art making is valued in his/her life.

• These questions and responses become the basis for an investigative statement presented with each artist’s works.

Possible context – make an art work

(PK, DI)

• Students make an art work in response to their investigations in the contexts above and what they have seen, heard, and learned.
• The artists’ and students’ works are exhibited together on a website or on video.
• At an opening event, students address the artists, briefly reflecting on how the artists inspired and influenced them in giving visual form to ideas.

TOP

Inquiry and production

The contexts for learning outlined below make links to the visual arts key concept of inquiry and production.

Possible context – self representation

(UC, DI, CI)

Note: The following discussions can be located and developed in a range of subject contexts. This context example shows development through a photographic investigation but could equally be used in other fields.

• Identity is a story we tell about ourselves – about who we think we are and where we come from.
• Open up a class discussion about identity by exploring:
  • how we construct multiple identities – through our interactions with others in real and in virtual spaces
  • how we own and express our cultural heritage and our sense of belonging as a member of group and/or community
  • how we embody and communicate our individuality, gender, age, race, nationality, (sub) culture, sexuality, and beliefs.

• What does it mean to be simultaneously one thing and another? Māori and maybe Croatian? Samoan yet German? Kiwi and Korean? A songwriter and a skater? A gamer and golfer? A surfer and a soprano?
• In preparation for a personal photographic investigation into their own (sub) cultural identity, students examine photographs by various established and contemporary New Zealand photographers such as: Ingrid Boberg, Rudolph Boelee, Mladen Bizumic, Marti Friedlander, Gavin Hipkins, Dieneke Jansen, (fashion photographer) Aaron K, Shigeyuki Kihara, Yuk King Tan, Alex Monteith, Ann Noble, Fiona Pardington, Neil Pardington, Peter Peryer, Lisa Reihana, Natalie Robertson, Haru Sameshima, Greg Semu, Ava Seymour, Marie Shannon, Ann Shelton, Deborah Smith, society photographer Simone Steele, Clive Stone, Waroonwan Thongvanit, Yvonne Todd, Boyd Webb, Ans Westra, and Wayne Wilson-Wong.
• Some questions to consider could include:
  • How do we communicate identities?
  • How is communicating identity influenced by particular contexts, for example, social networking sites, or by peer groups?
  • How do we adapt our identities for particular communities?
  • Are identities dynamic?

• Students identify and select a (sub)culture they belong to. They each make an inspiration board or shoebox collection that tells a story about identity. They include photographic examples to which they feel a sense of connection, as well as from a range of other sources, including books, galleries, shopping centres, magazines, intranet and Internet.
• In pairs or small groups, students discuss the image collections and evaluate how effectively they tell a story about identity, asking and helping each other to identify, sort, and link: contexts, themes, subject matter, stylistic approaches, lighting, camera and (digital) darkroom methods, and forms of presentation.
• In response to their own and others’ thoughts and ideas, students annotate their selected images. Using what they have learned, they brainstorm and clarify ways forward for their picture making ideas and methods. This may be represented in visual diagrams, written notes, and or selection of worked images.
• Once they have reviewed and refined their thematic and pictorial ideas and the methods they intend to use, they write/draw an informed statement of intent in preparation for their first shoot of “Self Re-Presentation”.

Possible context – carving out an identity

(UC, PK, DI, CI)

• The students are asked to reflect on how they might represent cultural identity through print-making and then to produce a woodcut print.
• The students have previously researched three contemporary printmakers who explore cultural identity through woodcut, such as:
  • Fatu Feu’u (Samoa/New Zealand) who blends traditional and contemporary elements, incorporating a range of influences, inspirations, techniques, and motifs from Samoa, New Zealand, and the wider Pacific region
  • Katy Buess (Switzerland/New Zealand) whose recent prints focus on Melanesian, primarily Vanuatuan, themes
  • Annie Smits Sandano (Brazil/New Zealand) whose New Zealand series includes native flora and birds.

• Using cultural symbols and patterns representing their families, and informed by the research, each student chooses to focus on repetition, grid, line, high contrast, and colour.
• Students make generative drawings (on paper and relief prints) and discuss these with family, peers, and the teacher. Their families provide feedback on how well the selected composition, motifs, patterns, and composition communicate cultural background and feed-forward on possible new directions.
• Students re-view the prints by Feu’u, Buess and Sandano, seeking clearer understanding of conventions and methods used.
• They develop and extend ideas and skills by experimenting with, and selectively using: a variety of materials (plywood, block board, veneered ply, medium density fibreboard (MDF), hardboard, chipboard); tools (cutting tools, knives, motorised power); inking techniques (rolling, dabbing, wiping); transfer techniques (press, book press, by hand); substrates (collaged, screen printed, dyed paper, fabric, photograph, inkjet, laser print).
•  At this stage, it is useful to study printmakers who work with similar technologies. They may offer ideas and methods that, when integrated into the new works of students, extend their practice. Examples include: Basia Smolnicki, Ben Reid, David Sarich, Emma McCleary, Esther Hansen, Faith McManus, Jo Ogier, Karen Stevens, Manuel Lau, Marty Vreede, Michael Tuffery, Sam Broad, Sheyne Tuffery, Simon Kaan.

TOP

Challenge and invention

The contexts for learning outlined below make links to the visual arts key concept of inquiry and production.

The following contexts connect to ako by recognising and valuing teacher as learner, and student /learner as teacher.

Possible context – encore

(UC, PK, DI, CI)

• Students design the set and props for a local primary school production.
• They have approximately eight weeks to complete the commission. In this real-world situation, and with the teacher’s guidance, the students (as designers) identify job roles and construct a timeline for their programme.
• In response to the brief requirement of “innovative design including projected video imagery”, the students familiarise themselves with the play, the venue, the nature of the audience, and the design skills required.
• They undertake research, including:
  • New Zealand theatre designers
  • John Parker
  • Raymond Boyce

• The students invite a media studies student to produce the video. Over the following weeks, they meet with their clients to discuss and critique the thumbnail concept sketches, developmental drawings, and clarifications.
• The students reflect on and evaluate their progress and refine and extend the designs as required. The students present the final digital 3D drawings and maquettes of the set and props, together with the projection video.
• They share their experiences with the teacher and their peers.

Possible context – speed sculpting

(PK, DI, CI)

Note: This context is essentially a problem-solving exercise through 3-dimensional investigations and could be used to explore and trial ideas within the other fields. For example, the concepts below could be used in developing compositional, pictorial, and spatial ideas for painting, printmaking, and photography.

• The students are challenged to design and make sculpture in 20 minutes.
• They view and discuss a datashow, analysing examples of sculpture that investigate issues of: form, volume, weight, mass, surface texture, arrangement, stacking, grid, containment, compartmentalisation, balance/imbalance, positive/negative space, wrapping, hiding/revealing, suspension, penetration, deconstruction, enclosing, juxtaposition, motion – kinetics.
• From a grab bag, each student selects a card labelled with one sculptural issue. Working in pairs, they discuss and interpret their prompts. They decide on and select two sets of found objects (for example, string, wire, pebbles, newspaper, mirrors, jars, ribbon, streamers, shells, toys, magazines, chairs, tables) and joining materials (tape, rubber bands, pressure-sensitive adhesive).
• The challenge for each pair is to work quickly and collaboratively, engaging in reflective cycles of (re)designing and (re)making (that is, re-inventing) sculpture in response to their particular combination of sculptural issues and found objects.
• This activity offers opportunities for students to work spontaneously, to process ideas quickly, and to produce diverse and innovative outcomes. They also learn to value of the process of art making as a learning tool, and recognise that a “finished work” is not always necessary.

TOP

Transformation and empowerment

The contexts for learning outlined below make links to the visual arts key concept of transformation and empowerment.

The following context connects to manakitanga, whanaungatanga, ako, and tino rangatirotanga by providing students with the space to engage in artistic creation and to grow beyond what they know and understand into new knowledge, understanding, and action.

Possible context – self publishing

(UC, PK, DI, CI)

• Students publish their own art work.
• They set up a closed-member blog site to regularly publish art works, both works in progress and finished works.
• Students and whānau are invited to join, to engage in discussion, and to ask questions about the ideas, materials, and technologies used.
• Students gain confidence from sharing their art work with their community and responding to query.
• They recognise that the blog provides them with a platform to share their work beyond the school walls and gives readers an opportunity to “see” from a new perspective.
• Students see themselves as being part of a community of arts learners and practitioners.

« Back to L7 visual arts achievement objectives

Last updated April 6, 2023

TOP