Learner’s Characteristics
This lesson plan is formatted for middle school students, preferably the 7th grade. Students at this age are the artistic developmental stage referred to by Lowenfield as “The Pseudo Naturalistic Stage.” Students in this stage, typically during ages 10-13, now know how to use value and light within their work. However, students at this stage are extremely critical of their own work and base their personal success within art on how realistic it looks. It is very common for students within this stage to become frustrated with themselves throughout the art making process, often looking for “perfection” above “creativity.” Knowing this, it is imperative to be encouraging towards students during this stage while being careful to not “over-compliment” students in a manner which makes them feel that you are not genuine with your praises. While design and composition act as large components of this lesson, a large part of being successful in this lesson involves following step by step directions to create the mechanical aspect of the kinetic art. I hope that by having students create a functioning mechanical piece of artwork, they can use their desire to do things “correctly” in a positive manner, as doing certain steps of the lesson plans exactly is imperative to creating a functioning piece. I have chosen to do this lesson with this age group because I believe it finds a “happy medium” between creativity and precision.

Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities
Students with learning disabilities will be strongly encouraged by this lesson because it offers various forms of stimulation and ways to learn. Students with ADD/ADHD often are interested in lessons that offer the chance for physical movement, which this lesson will offer them in the mechanical building aspect of the project. This lesson also consists of many different steps and functions, which may help students with ADD/ADHD from becoming bored quickly. Autistic students generally need individual attention, as well as different teaching strategies to help them grasp the concept. I will tailor my lesson to the specific needs of any autistic student and ensure they have enough individual instruction to be successful in the lesson. I will ensure that there is ample “visual learning” not only through demonstration, but also through making sure all steps, directions, and important lecture materials, are projected clearly and largely on the board and visible for students to refer to at all times, which will also be extremely helpful to ESL students.

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Theme Concept
The theme concept, or topic, of this lesson plan is “kinetic art”, meaning art that literally moves. Kinetic art typically takes the form of sculpture, with the first example of kinetic art being acclaimed to artist Marcel DuChamp with his sculpture Bicycle Wheel in 1913. Since then, a wide array of artists have gone on to build upon kinetic art, creating sculptures of various scale that show movement to add to the message the artwork is meant to convey. I will encourage my students to think about how kinetic art challenges conventional art forms and how they could use kinetic art to convey their own messages. Students will discuss how movement within an art piece can convey certain connotations and will be asked themselves to employ movement in their own sculpture. The interdisciplinary aspect of this lesson lies in the mechanical portion of the project which will require students to use basic laws of physics to build mechanically functioning artwork. Furthermore, students will be asked to write a step by step summary of how they created their artwork, including any miss-haps or mistakes and an explanation of how they fixed them. The writing portion will not only require students to employ writing skills, but also require them to use writing organization and reflection.

 

Production Concepts
Elements of Design: Many elements of design will be used by students when creating their kinetic sculptures. Students will find that shape is imperative, as shape within their sculpture will not only have an effect aesthetically, but will also affect how their sculpture can move. Shape is defined as flat areas in 2-dimensional design that are formed by lines and edges. Students will be reminded of organic shapes (more natural, less defined edges) as well as geometric shape (shapes that correspond to regular shape names such as the square or triangle) and will be shown how both will likely be used within their sculptures. Size is another element of design that has heavy focus within this lesson. Size is simply the relationship of the area occupied by one shape to that of another. Students will learn that the size of the overall sculpture will be determined by the sizes of the individual aspects of the sculpture, and how size will need to be contained in order to make the art kinetic.

Techniques

Students will be introduced to the technique of kinetic art through makeshift “gears.” Students will learn how to create their own simple gears that will use a string that will be wound between the gears to move them as the string is pulled. Students also use design techniques to determine the shape of their gears, be it a literal gear, or a gear in the shape of an object.

 

Aesthetics
The following questions are intended to spark commentary on the aesthetic aspects of Kinetic Art. (Visual Reference 1)
1. Look at this sculpture Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp, which is said to be the first kinetic sculpture. What is your first reaction to it? Do you like it? Dislike it? Not really care either way? Why do you feel that way?
2. Do you think it is important that the wheel is functional and can move?
3. Why do you think DuChamp made the wheel movable?
4. Would you feel any different about the sculpture if the wheel could not move? How so, and why?
5. While the wheel can move, it can’t really “go” anywhere. Does this make it unsuccessful to the sculpture? Why or why not?

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Art Criticism
Description: The following questions will be asked to prompt students to identify the elements of design, the objects depicted, and basic facts about this work. (Visual Reference 2)
1. Notice how the only color used here is red. Why do you think Calder only chose to use one color? Why did he choose red?
2. Are the shapes in Calder’s mobile organic, geometric, or both? Show me which are which.
 

Formal Analysis

The following questions will be asked to prompt students to identify relationships among the elements of design in order to uncover and focus attention on the principles of design used in the work.
1. Let’s focus on the balance of this piece and how one shape cannot move without the other ones moving as well. Why do you think he chose to create his mobile in this way?
2. If the mobile where a dull color, like a hunter green, but the exact same size and shape, how would your perception of the piece change, if at all?
Interpretation The following questions will be asked to prompt students to synthesize the information they gathered through ‘description’ and ‘formal analysis’ to determine what they think the work of art is about and what it means.
1. Do these shapes look like any objects to you? Do you think they are meant to be something else or are them meant to just be shapes?
2. Think about the fact that the sculpture moves. Being as it can move, do you think it represents objects that typically take motion?
3. What do you think this mobile represents? Is it just shapes moving, or does it represent something deeper? Keep in mind the intention of the art could indeed simply be, shapes in motion, but there would still be a reason for showing that.

 

Art History
Students will be shown a power-point presentation I have put together that shows examples of famous kinetic artwork with facts about each piece and the artist who created it. Students will be involved in class discussion throughout the presentation, asked to interpret works, recall artists from other mediums they are known for, and ask questions.

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Learning Objectives
-Students will learn that kinetic art is artwork that either moves as a whole or has elements that move
-Students will learn and understand that various kinds of shapes can be used within kinetic sculpture
-Students will understand that shape effects how a sculpture can move
-Students will understand how movement within art can express certain ideas or represent certain objects
-Students will reflect on kinetic art and decide how they feel about kinetic art through analysis and comparison of pre existing knowledge of other art mediums
-Students will learn the history of kinetic art and how it has evolved over time
-Students will learn how to make functioning gears that move in an effective manner
-Students will learn how to make their art move through the creation of simple gears
-Students will learn that following step by step instructions is imperative to making a successful kinetic artwork
-Students will learn how to express movement within their own artwork
-Students will learn how movement in an artwork changes our perception of the artwork
-Students will evaluate the success of their own artwork and be able to relay how they arrived at their final piece.

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Materials & Equipments
-White Poster Board
-Drawing Pens/Markers/Colored Sharpies
-Wooden Spools
-Small wooden art sticks
-Pony Beads
-Glue
-Corrugated Plastic Panels
-Nylon Jewelry Cord
-Projector and computer to show powerpoint

Resources
-Power point presentation

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List of Artworks
-Bicycle Wheel Duchamp
-La Esfera Jesus Soto
-Red Mobile Alexander Calder
-Wings to Heaven David Ascalon

 

Narrative of Classroom Procedures​

Stimulation Activity
Before students enter the room, I will hang various large scale shapes from the ceiling with fishing line, which will hang low enough so that the students can reach them. As students enter the room, I will ask them to instead of taking their seats, to walk around for one minute and gently touch the objects hanging from the ceiling as they find their way to their seats. Once all students are seated, I will ask them to look around at the shapes moving all through the room. As they observe the motion, I will lead them into discussion about kinetic art.

Introduction/Discussion/Questions
What you guys helped to created just now is what is referred to in the art world as Kinetic Art. Can anyone guess what Kinetic Art means? Kinetic art is art the moves, or has an element that moves. Kinetic art is typically done through sculpture. The first kinetic sculpture was done by a famous artist named Marcel Duchamp, who basically connected a spinable bicycle wheel onto a stool. Since then, many artists create sculptures that move. Are any of you familiar with sculptures that move? Have you seen any?
Here I would segway into the Aesthetics, Art Criticism, and Art History discussion questions stated earlier in this lesson plan.

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“I Want You To…”
I want you guys to create your own kinetic sculptures using gears that we are going to create ourselves. Here is my example (Show class teacher example). As you can see, I chose to create actual gears for my example, but you guys can make your gears into objects if you wish. For example, you can make your gears in the shape of birds, or fish, but make sure they are simple shapes so we can make them move! First, I want you guys to create at least 5 sketches of what your gears will look like. Once you have picked your design, you will create your full scale gears, they should be around 5 iches by 5 inches, you need at least 3 gears! Next we will move into the construction of making the gears move. This will be a big complicated but it’s nothing you guys aren’t capable of! When we reach this portion of the project, we will do it step by step as a class and you will all have a handout to refer to as well. Let’s get started!
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Questions to ask students while they work:
1. Why did you choose to make your gears look that way?
2. Why is movement important to this piece of work?
3. What colors are you going to use? Why those colors?
4. Are you understanding directions? Do you need me to repeat any steps?

 

Concluding the Lesson
I will conclude the lesson with a class critique because it will give students the chance to explain their artwork, as well as let me know if they understood the task at hand.

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Lesson Extension
NJ World Class Standards: Art
1.3.8.D.1 The creation of art is driven by the principles of balance, harmony, unity, emphasis, proportion, and rhythm/movement.
1.3.8.D.2 Apply various art media, art mediums, technologies, and processes in the creation of allegorical, theme-based, two- and three-dimensional works of art, using tools and technologies that are appropriate to the theme and goals.
1.3.8.D.3 Identify genres of art (including realism, abstract/nonobjective art, and conceptual art) within various contexts using appropriate art vocabulary, and solve hands-on visual problems using a variety of genre styles.
5.2.8.E.2 Compare the motion of an object acted on by balanced forces with the motion of an object acted on by unbalanced forces in a given specific scenario.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.1c Use words, phrases, and clauses to create cohesion and clarify the relationships among claim(s), reasons, and evidence.