overview
Lesson 3 | Summary
Activity Pages
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lesson 3 | converging media
language arts | grades 9-12
Whether applied to botany, biology, or linguistics, hybridization
adds variety and complexity to a system. Geneticists and agriculturists
have long experimented with crossbreeding to create stronger, more
vigorous progeny. The traditional, distinct boundaries governing
media in art, such as painting, sculpture, film, performance, architecture,
and dance, now are being blurred as artists have begun converging
media to create hybrid art forms. This cross-fertilization between
genres has expanded the possibilities for visual art. This lesson
considers the variety of art forms that become possible when the
distinctions between traditional artistic media and disciplines
become blurred.
activities
The following activities can be implemented individually or collectively
as a longer unit of study.
Art Phyla
This lesson asks students to take stock of the categories that
have separated art forms through history, and ultimately become
mutable in contemporary art. Matthew Barney’s
“CREMASTER” series and Ann Hamilton’s
multi-media installations are used as the basis for a discussion
about categorization and hybridization in art.
Biodiversity
Oliver Herring and Kiki
Smith are introduced as examples of artists that sample a
variety of media from one project to the next, exploring stories
and artist/subject relationships from multiple angles. Students
will choose a subject from a story, play, or poem to explore through
a series of works in different media.
Cross Fertilization
In this lesson, students explore the work of Janine
Antoni and Cai Guo-Qiang to create
performance art pieces that communicate process and leave a physical
trace.
Recombinants
The work of artists Elizabeth Murray
and Ida Applebroog is examined as a basis
for approaching visual media hybrids. Students will collaborate
to create their own hybrid artworks using multiple visual media.
Natural Selection
Students consider the works of socially engaged artists Krzysztof
Wodiczko and Mel Chin, both of
whom mix media to communicate their messages in public spaces, and
propose a public art project and consider the logistics of bringing
it to life.
objectives
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Students will become
familiar with a number of contemporary artists’ work
and will be able to extrapolate their understanding to original
written, verbal, performative, and artistic statements. |
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Students will critically
examine the distinctions that have been traditionally maintained
between different visual and performing art forms, and will
learn about the value of hybridization in contemporary art-making
practices. |
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Students will understand that
contemporary art is not always easily classified and that
contemporary artists often mix visual art media (as well as
performing art forms), experiment with many processes and
unconventional media, and sometimes combine media as necessary
to communicate specific messages. |
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Students will understand that
medium and form affect meaning, and will see contemporary
artistic practice as part of a greater art historical and
socio-cultural continuum. |
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Students will become practiced
in a variety of different art media, will develop interpretive,
writing, and speaking skills through critically viewing the
work of artists and other students, and will build team work
skills through collaborating with their peers. |
critical questions
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What is a hybrid?
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How does the term
'hybrid' apply to Genetics? Linguistics? Visual and Performing
Art? |
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Why have hybrids been sought-after
in biology and agriculture?
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What might the benefits of converging
media be for art? |
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What are the similarities and
differences between painting, sculpture, film, performance,
architecture, dance and other creative media? What distinguishes
something as an art medium or makes an artwork art |
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Why have formal distinctions between
different art media traditionally been maintained? |
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How has the use of art media evolved
over history and how do contemporary multi-media artists reflect
this particular time and place? |
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Is it possible to make art that
is completely new? |
reflection & evaluation
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Have students actively
participated in discussions and successfully assessed the
distinctions that have traditionally differentiated art media? |
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Have students articulated
the advantages and disadvantages of hybridization between
different visual media and between visual and performing art
disciplines? |
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Have students demonstrated critical
thinking skills and knowledge of current and historical contexts
of art practice, understanding of the ways in which form and
medium are related to meaning, and familiarity with the concepts
introduced by each of the artists in this lesson? |
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Have students completed all writing
and artmaking activities and demonstrated increased sophistication
in their own conceptual and creative capacities, craftsmanship,
writing research, and verbal skills, and collaborated effectively
with other students? |
national standards: visual & performing
arts
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Media & processes |
| #2 |
Structure & functions |
| #3 |
Symbols & ideas |
| #4 |
Arts, history & cultures |
| #5 |
Evaluating merits of work |
| #6 |
Connecting visual art with other disciplines |
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Find out how this lesson plan correlates to
your state’s education standards by following the link
to PBS’s TeacherSource. |
going further
This lesson could be extended or modified by incorporating other
artists such as Robert Rauschenberg,
Marcel Duchamp, or
Joseph Cornell. In addition, this lesson could be combined
with other lessons to form a longer unit of study including:
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about this lesson
This lesson was written by Kristine
Bowen, former Visual Art Teacher at the High
School for Legal Studies, Brooklyn, NY. Additional contributors include
Amanda Donnan, Art:21
intern and Jessica Hamlin,
Art:21 Director of Education & Outreach. The lesson was first published
on this Web site September 2003, and was revised September of 2005. For
questions and/or comments, please contact curriculum@art21.org
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