OBSERVE COLLECT ANALYZE COMPARE EXPERIMENT NOTICE PATTERNS

Visual Journals/Field Journals

Your Mission  You are an explorer/experimenter/discoverer  Your mission is to document and observe the art room and its contents as if you’re in a new land or as if you’ve never seen these things before.  There are prompts to help you get started on your handout

Some Tips:  EVERYTHING IS INTERESTING!  When you finish your challenges, go back through your book and and analyze, compare, find patterns or supplemental information about your discoveries; make notes  Only you can see and think what you see and think! Share your special and unique self with the world!  Have fun and enjoy!

The Challenge  In your visual journal, you will make at least 10 observations/experiments found on your handout or the next slides  Fill each page completely  Keep in mind that you are trying to see absolutely everything as if for the very first time

Observations and Experiments  (This one is required): draw a sketch of the art room  (This one is required): make a birds eye map of the art room. Label everything  Right now, sitting right where you are, list and sketch 10 things that you hadn’t noticed before  Sketch a common object from at least 3 uncommon perspectives. Pretend like you have no idea what your object is. Make notes describing possible uses or theories  Make a sketch of something in the room that you think no one else will notice or think to draw

Observations and Experiments  Make a sketch of noises you hear; write or draw them on the paper in relation to where you are sitting  Assemble a collection based on small objects you can find in the room and affix to your page (marks, paper scraps, fabric samples, cardboard scraps, etc) What is the same about all of the objects in your collection? How are they different from one another? Use metaphors to describe them (”These scraps of white paper are like teeth”)  Sketch and consider an every day object: contemplate if it was a different size, or made out of a different material; how could it be used then?

Observations and Experiments  Make a survey of 5 questions and gather answers from everyone. Try to ask questions you are genuinely curious about, or that you think no one else would think to ask (”Which shoe do you put on first; right or left?”)  Collect rubbings and/or tracings from around the room. Be sure to label  Collect and sketch interesting letters or fonts you see around the room. Label with the source it came from  Collect data or measurements about everyday objects (lengths of pencils in the room, spine height of books, colors in posters). Present your findings

Observations and Experiments  Contemplate an everyday object; what if it was alive? How would it behave? Take notes, make sketches  Contemplate an everyday object; how did it get to the art room? Chart its journey from conception to present moment  Contemplate an everyday object; use all of your senses to observe and describe it; take notes  Is there anything in this room that triggers a memory? Describe the object and the memory

Observations and Experiments  Contemplate an everyday object; Look at the top half of the object for 15 minutes. Record everything you see there in detail. Then do the same for the bottom half. The longer you look, the more you will see.  Make a list of all the things running through your mind right now  Altered reality: using your imagination, sketch the room in which everything that you encounter is magical, exaggerated, or slightly altered from reality  Document the room by interviewing people about it (”Describe this room” or “What do you notice most about this room?”)

Observations and Experiments  Finder exploration: using a finder, make quick sketches documenting different compositions  Sketch a neglected area of the room (Baseboards? Corners? Ceiling?)  Anything else you can think of!