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Reconstructing an Architectural Experience |
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Contributed by AECadmin
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Reconstructing an Architectural Experience: a Visual Journey Into 19th Century Pubic Art & Architecture Through the Eye of a Box
Overview: The objective of my curriculum project is to give my intro photography students an overview of 19th century architecture and public art and then allow them a direct opportunity to help bridge this 19th century event into a 21st century experience.
Students will see several slide-lectures covering a variety of American public art and architecture from the 19th century. After discussing and analyzing the slides they will then be given a research assignment to find a 19th photograph (using libraries, historical societies, web search) of an accessible building or public work of art. This photograph will later be used in their comparison project. Next, students will build a 19th century camera (Pinhole camera) and they will be given the information and direction to learn how to use it properly. Their ultimate goal is to make an exact contemporary version of their researched photograph with their pinhole cameras. They will then be able to discuss the differences in the 2 photographs and how the element of time has changed the meaning of the architecture or public piece of art they have selected.
This project will give students an authentic, hands-on experience into the past century. Students will obtain a deeper understanding of 19th century architecture, learn some new research techniques, learn the skills necessary to build and operate a pinhole camera, and sharpen their analytical abilities. They will be sharing a similar experience that their pioneer photographer ancestors encountered when they took the original architectural photographs over 100 years ago. Hopefully, they’ll be able to recreate the past experience under the scrutiny of their “new light”.
This exercise will encompass 5 progressive lesson plans. The success of each new lesson plan is contingent on the information, materials, and skills acquired from the prior lesson plans.
Reconstructing an Architectural Experience: a Visual Journey Into 19th Century Pubic Art & Architecture Through the Eye of a Box
Lesson Plan #1: Introduction to 19 Century American Public Art and Architecture
Unit: Photography – Visual Arts – Art History
Submitted by: Henry Cataldo, Art Teacher, Concord-Carlisle High School
Grade Level: High School
Goals/Objectives:
Overview of 19 century American architecture including buildings, monuments, and landscapes.
Discuss the variety of different design elements including line, color, shapes, space, scale, and light
The use of different materials and how they relate inter-related to create meaningful form
The social and/or political meanings associated with the architecture or public work of art
How the architecture flows within the context of its physical environment
Give students a visual direction to base their next lesson upon (selecting a 19th century architectural or public art photograph).
Materials:
A slide lecture based upon a variety of 19th century architects (building, landscape, & monuments): Olmsted, Henry Richardson, McKim, Mead & White, William Preston, Charles Bulfinch, Willard Sears, Cornelius Collidge, Augustus Saint-Gaudents, Charles Brigham, and Arthur Gilman
Procedure
Show a variety of slides and have a classroom discussion on the work. Students will discuss what the individual sildes have to say on a literal, metaphoric, and symbolic basis. This lesson will take 3 classroom periods.
References
Websites:
Architecture Web Resources
The Emerald Necklace Conservancy
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Architecture Online
Harvard University Visual Information Access Search
Susan & Michael Southworth. AIA Guide To Boston. The Globe Pequot Press, 1992.
Academic Standards: Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Frameworks
Purposes and Meanings in the arts
Standard 6.5: Students will Interpret the meaning of artistic works by explaining how the subject matter and/or form reflects the events, ideas, religions, and customs of people living at a particular time in history.
Standard 6.8 Students will compare examples of works from several art domains within a period or culture and explain the extent to which each reflects function, customs, religious beliefs, social philosophies, aesthetic theories, economic conditions, and/or historical or political events
Roles of Artists in Communities
Standard 7.7 Students will describe the roles of individual patrons, cultural organizations, and governments in commissioning and collecting works and presenting performances
Standard 7.9 Students will identify artists who have been involved in social and political movements, and describe the significance of selected works
Concepts of Style, Stylistic Influence, and Stylistic
Change
Standard 8.8 Students will identify the stylistic features of a given work and explain how they relate to aesthetic tradition and historical or cultural contexts
Evaluation
Students must engage in a classroom discussion as their viewing the slides. They will be asked to evaluate the particular architecture or public work of art and comment on how it works as a whole, flows with its environment, how effectively the materials are used, its function and practicality, and how its form, weight, and scale add to its meaning. Any political, cultural and social implications associated with the architecture or public work of art will also be discussed. |
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Lesson Plans