High School Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Art + Atmosphere
An Examination of Meteorology through Visual Culture
AIMS
Aim #1: To foster divergent thinking through multimodal experiences.
Aim #2: To understand mutually dependent relationships among cultures.
Aim #3: To encourage personal empowerment for activism.
GOALS
Goal #1: Generate alternative methods of using artistic materials across contexts.
Goal #2: Develop multicultural sensitivity about the intimate relationship between climate and culture through artistic exploration.
Goal #3: Share self-driven discoveries about people and meteorological events to create visual narratives through activism.
Unit 1
The Visual Culture of Weather
Unit 2
The Relationship among Art, Climate, and Culture
Unit 3
Restoration after Weather Disasters through Art
SCOPE AND SEQUENCE
RATIONALE
UNIT 1: The Visual Culture of Weather
The Visual Culture of Weather is an introductory unit focused on the exploration of the innate interdisciplinary relationship between art and weather through media experimentation. Students will examine the power of meteorology in the art making process to develop connections among their daily lives, art, and weather. Through the analysis of historical fine art and visual culture embedded in each lesson, students are encouraged to develop more connections for knowledge formation. The three core lessons within Unit 1, Symbolizing Systems, Capturing Sunny Moments, and Programming Mood and Movement, foster divergent thinking and multimodal learning through the variety of traditional and digital implications of media. Students will document their artistic process in their visual journals to develop skills to create with collage materials, Adobe Illustrator, embroidery, cyanotypes and p5.js, a type of programming software, as well as demonstrate that they can generate unique perspectives and effectively select artistic media to support their ideas. With support from postmodern theory, students will successfully critique artwork, participate in discussions, apply the metacognitive process, and develop a website as artistic contribution for art as a social process. Placing an emphasis on student interest and experience maximizes student learning. Enabling students to create strong, personal artwork creates active participants in a democratic society who understand the value of sharing their beliefs for community development. These self-driven art initiatives aid in the development of life-long critical thinkers who challenge themselves and others.
UNIT ONE OVERVIEW
Lesson 1: Symbolizing Systems
OBJECTIVE: Given a PowerPoint presentation on symbol systems used in meteorology, methods to collage visual culture, fine art, and photographs to create a cultural narrative based on personal interest as well as how to use positive and negative space to abstract images and create silhouettes, students will successfully create a 12 by 12 inch collaged narrative, skillfully cut a silhouette symbol overlay, and cohesively create a set of four black and white symbols using Adobe Illustrator to produce a multimedia diptych.
Lesson 2: Capturing Sunny Moments
OBJECTIVE: Given a PowerPoint presentation on abstract patterns, cyanotypes, the Laws of Gestalt, and embroidery, students will effectively create an 8 by 8 inch cyanotype on muslin with strong contrast and composition, expressively represent a happy moment in their life through abstract pattern, and skillfully embroider three different types of stitches with conscious color selection and the Laws of Gestalt to enhance the concept.
Lesson 3: Programming Mood and Movement
OBJECTIVE: Given a PowerPoint presentation on technological programming used in art and meteorology, students will successfully create digital interactive generative art using program software p5.js and clearly express mood inspired by postmodern art theory.
UNIT 2: The Relationship among Art, Climate, and Culture
The Relationship Among Art, Climate, and Culture challenges students to confront new ideas that form in other cultures as a result of climactic differences. The historic development of cultures resides in the climatology of regions across the globe with evidence from ancient art. Students investigate and socially critique cultures through three core lessons in Unit 2: Climate Cultural Clothing, Fantasy Land Architecture, and Advocating for Agriculture. Within each lesson, students develop multicultural sensitivity about the intimate relationships between climate and culture through artistic exploration. Through academic research, critical thinking, and creative thinking students intelligently express overlooked valuable connections. When students cross the boundaries between art, climate, culture, these complex relationships surface to our conscious. These relationships foster a need for global compassion which is expressed through the vessel of art. This unit instills the skills to appreciate cultures and recognize the interconnected model of the world. Students explore diverse values and visually communicate the power of these values through cultural montage narratives, architecture paintings, and ethical agriculture bowls. On completion of Unit 2, students have the skill set to question others differences, celebrate individuality and promote community growth.
UNIT TWO OVERVIEW
Lesson 1: Climate Cultural Clothing
OBJECTIVE: Given PowerPoint presentations on cultural appreciation as well as the application of frottage and montage techniques in fine art and visual culture to create visual narratives, students will clearly create a 16 by 20 inch visual narrative of a folktale from a culture, successfully apply texture with the frottage technique using traditional cultural clothing and accurately covey space using montage techniques.
Lesson 2: Fantasy Land Architecture
OBJECTIVE: Given PowerPoint presentations on historical, contemporary, and fantasy architecture influenced by weather and climate as well as methods to convey space and apply color to create a mood in an environment in addition to a presentation from a visiting architect, students will accurately paint a building that accommodates their original environments meteorological conditions on a 12 by 16 inch canvas to illustrate space using one-point perspective, a distinguished light source, and atmospheric perspective, imaginatively create elements in the environment to covey fantasy, and effectively incorporate thermochromic pigment into acrylic paint as transformative color to express mood.
Lesson 3: Advocating for Agriculture
OBJECTIVE: Given PowerPoint presentations on the development of agriculture influenced by climate with support from fine art as well as demonstrations on ceramic techniques, students will skillfully create a functional glazed folded bowl that has form from a 12 by 12 inch stoneware slab with texture and line, as well as clearly communicate through sculptural embellishments how farmers and community members can make ethical choices to help provide food internationally for the hungry based on research.
UNIT 3: Restoration after Weather Disasters through Art
Restoration after Weather Disasters through Art embraces a lattice approach where the student takes control of their learning. Within this unit, students visit a devastated community and self-sufficiently honor that community through the power of art. Students advocate for the health and well-being of those who were put in unpredictable distress by creating a found object flag and hosting a flag revealing ceremony. Through the self-driven method of this unit, students will delegate their roles and responsibilities among one another and fully utilize conflict-resolution skills when working with peers. Students build their self-worth as they contribute their artistic specialty skills to a larger project and practice effective communication. With choice-based opportunities and the freedom to explore countless possibilities students attain personal agency and the ability to navigate communities.
Artistically Celebrating the Unity of a Devastated Community:
A Large-Scale Final Project
OBJECTIVE: Given a choice of media, multiple resources, and working in large groups, students will research a devastated community within the region and collaboratively create a community flag which encompasses the community as well as design and market an opening ceremony where non-profit ceramic pieces that symbolize the community will be sold for community rebuilding. The students will create a symbol as a class to visually represent the devastated community. The 24 by 32 inch community flag will be constructed from found fabrics in the devastated community, the ceramic tiles will be made from stoneware clay and the marketing tools will consist of digitally created materials, such as flyers, that will be printed and distributed as well as traditional materials, such as buttons. By collaboratively creating this community project, students will showcase their development of visually communicating concepts with the reinforcement of technical skills and demonstrate their comprehension of the elements and principles of design.
