|
Time: Two class periods
Grade levels
Elementary activities: 2–5
Intermediate activities: 6–8
Learning Connections
Math: number sense, equations, addition, multiplication, balance, patterns and sequences
Visual Arts: three-dimensional art, sculpture, mobile, balance, asymmetry
Objectives
Students will:
- learn the vocabulary of contemporary sculpture and be able to distinguish
between abstract and realistic sculpture, mobile and stabile, biomorphic
and geometric.
- write equations using Calder's mobiles
- learn to recognize mathematical patterns in art and nature
- build a Calder-style mobile online and/or offline with art supplies
Vocabulary
Sculpture, mobile, stabile, maquette, abstract, realistic, biomorphic (see glossary for definitions)
Materials
For the mobiles: wire, string, paper clips, cardboard, heavy-weight
paper, scissors, glue, string, poster paint, markers
Lesson Implementation
Meet Calder online:
To whet students’ appetites for the art of Alexander Calder, have them
begin the online lesson. Tell them to do the Quick
Calder Quiz, to read his
short bio, and to watch the Calder Circus video
clip (linked from the short bio).
Classroom discussion:
Tell students that they will discover math in Calder's sculpture when
they return to the online lesson. In class, you will focus on his artistic
innovations in a group discussion.
As a class, visit this online gallery.
Tell students that these works of art have much in common. Ask them to look
carefully, to compare and contrast the images, and then list their comments
on large chart paper. Prompt students to investigate each
work of art with regard to the following characteristics:
- two-dimensional/three-dimensional
- a painting/a sculpture/other medium
- material: metal, wood, bronze, paper, wire, canvas, paint
- color: natural for the subject or symbolic
- is the subject recognizable? abstract or realistic?
- year of creation
- What conclusions can you draw? What is new and different about Calder's
horses?
Now compare and contrast Calder's stabile Cheval
Rouge to his mobile Untitled using
the above criteria and have students clarify what is different about
this work of art. Discuss the term mobile. How does the innovation
of movement change the work of art? (movement introduces a continually
changing composition)
- Has Calder created a whole new art form?
- The mobile is called Untitled. Why do you suppose Calder gave the
stabile a descriptive name (Red Horse) but left the mobile without
a specific title? Ask students, "What does the mobile remind
you of?" (possible responses: birds in flight, wings, feathers, leaves
on branches, flower petals, fish scales, a skeleton, clouds, stars, and planets)
- Tell students that Calder's sculpture is abstract but based on life
forms. The term for this type of abstraction is biomorphic.
Calder online math lesson:
Have students read and follow instructions
for the online activities.
Make a mobile
Online, wih the interactive "Mobile Maker"
- Have students build and rotate mobiles with the Mobile Maker.
- Optional: have students write and exchange mathematical problems based on
their mobiles.
Offline, with art supplies
Have students:
- read Calder's mobile-making method.
- think about what they want to express with their mobiles before
they begin working with materials.
- cut and paint shapes.
- layout wire and shapes on a table or flat surface.
- experiment with adding/subtracting materials to make the mobile balance.
- write a title for their mobile.
- use string to hang it from the classroom ceiling.
- Optional: have students
write and exchange mathematical problems based on their mobiles.
Assessment
- Evaluate each student's level of participation in class discussion.
- Assess each student mobile.
|
