Life-drawing fits very well in any or all of the three components in the new DP visual arts course, so I’m re-visiting the concept and suggesting some possible links to the new course

• As a comparative study – artists of course have been working from the human form for hundreds if not thousands of years, so for example students could examine and compare artworks, objects or artefacts with the theme of the human figure “at least two of which need to be by different artists. The works selected for comparison and analysis should come from differing cultural contexts”.

• Drawing is process and such drawings/paintings etc could demonstrate “sustained experimentation and manipulation of a range of skills, techniques and processes”: a series of life drawings would be a great demonstration of skill development in the Process Portfolio.

• For the exhibition, a finished ‘outcome’ – in the sense of a fully resolved final artwork deriving from nude studies – could fit very well as part of the final art exhibition, showing “evidence of their technical accomplishment during the visual arts course and an understanding of the use of materials, ideas and practices to realize their intentions”.

It could also, of course, be part of a theme and so tie into the ‘coherence’ assessment criterion.

But for some schools its not easy to have nudes in school. Five years ago – in March 2010 – I posted a brief blog entitled “THE SHOCK OF THE NUDE”

At that time, I noted that not every school art department is able to offer life (or figure) drawing classes for its students, for a variety of reasons.

“Some schools are located in countries where the culture prohibits (or ‘frowns on’) nudity, and even if the culture of the country permits it, some art departments have to contend with a conservative administration and/or parent body. Then there is the financial side – not all budgets are sufficiently generous to pay for the services of a life-drawing model”.

I lead teacher workshops and sometimes teacher participants stay in touch with occasional questions or updates on their location etc. A participant from a 2014 workshop (teaching in Barcelona) reminded me of this 2010 post when she asked,

“I want to have nude model for my students as a non-compulsory activity after school hours, because they are very interested in human figure. Of course, as they are under 18, I’ll ask permission to the parents… but I need my principal’s permission and he’s OK with it, as long as other schools have it. Please, could you confirm if you have nude models come into the Art classroom?”

The writer also posted the same question on the OCC.

In my school we have two full day sessions every year for all DP visual arts students (so they miss all their other classes on those days) – see photos.

We have been doing this annually for about 10 years, so it’s a sobering reminder that for many teachers and schools it’s not so easy.

And perhaps for some it’s not worth the struggle because they question the value of working from the nude.

If you are interested in exploring life drawing I have also assembled some useful resources – mostly books, with one DVD and some links to videos on YouTube.

The images shown are drawings/paintings completed by my students.

Possible Life Drawing Resources

• These resources are all available through Amazon online, but of course, there are many other access opportunities.
• I have acquired some of them from Amazon and have included details (price in GBP etc) from this site.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/

The Nude in Art with Tim Marlow [DVD]

Phil Grabsky (Director)

Price: £10.95

The Nude Hardcover – (1956 – a classic!)

by Kenneth Clark  (Author), Charles Saumarez Smith (Introduction)

Hardcover from £16.50

Paperback from £3.12

 The History of the Nude Paperback – 4 Mar 2013

by Flaminio Gualdoni  (Author)

Paperback £19.95

The Naked Nude Hardcover – 8 Oct 2012

by Frances Borzello  (Author)

Hardcover £22.40

Egon Schiele Paperback – 31 Oct 2014

by Barnaby Wright (Author)

Paperback £20.10

The Body in Contemporary Art (World of Art) Paperback – 28 Sep 2009

by Sally O’Reilly  (Author)

Paperback £7.96

Anatomy for the Artist Hardcover – 28 Sep 2001

by Sarah Simblet  (Author)

Hardcover £19.99

Expressive Figure Drawing Paperback – 7 Feb 2011

by Bill Buchman  (Author)

Paperback £17.99

There are many free resources on the Internet of course – for example many videos on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHFsKjurch4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIPxgstbpNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyj0HgnqMtc

Conceptual art can be stimulating, provocative and even fun, so it’s no surprise that DP visual arts students occasionally upload files for their final assessment  that have an emphasis on idea and concept rather than, say, technical skill.

They are often in the form of a found object – a feather, a glove, a light-bulb, a chess piece, rubbish, a clock, a computer circuit board, dead flowers – not forgetting, of course, Barbie (etc.)

They all represent something and – given the right context – are occasionally clever and eloquent.

But I sometimes have doubts about the wisdom of simply uploading a found object and saying it means or represents some idea or concept. OK, Duchamp did it with his Fountain in 1917, and since then the found objects has featured in the output of many artists
(“Found object” originates from the French objet trouvé, describing art created from undisguised, but sometimes modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function).

• But if you are studying DP visual arts you will know that there are assessment criteria.
• Examiners study the criteria and only award marks if they can see that the thing(s) you have upload relate to an assessment descriptor.

• In the Exhibition component, criterion C CONCEPTUAL QUALITIES

  asks “to what extent does the submitted work demonstrate effective resolution of imagery, signs and symbols to realize the function, meaning and purpose of the art works, as appropriate to stated intentions?”

•  This is getting a little complex  but its about resolving (imagery, signs and symbols) to realize (function, meaning and purpose) as appropriate (to stated intentions).
• This is only one of the four exhibition criteria, of course, but I’d suggest that if you are interested in conceptual art you don’t just have your conceptual piece as an add-on. It should be part of an idea that other artworks in your exhibition also refer to.
• Also do not just use your found object to simply re- state the obvious (Barbie and feminism, rubbish and ecology etc)

I’ve been browsing through a small and very readable book called “101 Things to Learn in Art School”. It’s by Kit White, published through MIT Press, and it consists of 101 very brief chapters. (A chapter is sometimes just 3 or 4 sentences).

It’s a great book and I recommend it, but I’m referring to it now because three chapters seemed to capture some of my concerns about the kind of conceptual art that I have seen students upload. I’ve copied and pasted photos of these pages here.

Chapter 64 ART IS A FORM OF EXPERIMENTATION

…is about trial and error and experimentation.

Maybe Barbie is the first thing that comes in to your head when you want to say something about body image and the pressure to conform to unrealistic ideals. Fine, but now think of 10 more things – experiment with more ideas rather than just going with the first one.

Chapter 78 AVOID CLICHES AND ONE LINERS

…is about avoiding clichés.

Making bad conceptual art is easy. I’ve seen a lot of it over the years. Coming up with interesting, successful, creative and stimulating conceptual art is hard. OK, if it’s obvious you can be sure that your audience will immediately get the point that you are trying to make  – but maybe it’s better to be a little obscure, make them puzzle, make them think? Think about your audience and don’t underestimate them.

Chapter 81 ART IS APPREHENDED THROUGH THE SENSES AS WELL AS THROUGH THE MIND

…suggests that there is more involved than the just the intellect when we engage with art. Maybe you can do better than conceptual art?

Maybe you go through a period of experimenting with conceptual ideas as part of the process (documented of course in your visual arts journal and Process Portfolio) before seeing that there is an even more creative way to say what you want to say (?).

Quotes (and images) from 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White (Author)

• Publisher: MIT Press (23 Sept. 2011)
• ISBN-13: 978-0262016216

As a visual arts examiner, I regularly see the results of student attempts at originality and I have to tell you, it’s not pretty.

And it’s not even original. Quite often it’s the opposite of original, it’s a cliché. If it was being presented as a Post Modern, ironic look at clichés and stereotypes, that might be OK – sort of – but in almost all cases I’m looking at a genuinely predictable, obvious image. I’ve seen it many times before. Original it’s not.

But that’s not the point – for one thing, originality is not mentioned in the visual arts assessment criteria so – as an examiner – I’m not actually interested in finding anything “original”.

For another, nothing is original. OK maybe the first person to put a print of his hand on a cave wall 50,000 years ago was original, but realistically –

Nothing is original

 But in their interviews/video presentations and their 1000 words commentaries (referring of course to the May 2015 session and before of the current course) I often hear students talk about being original. (“I really wanted my artwork to be original” etc) – as if that was something to strive for and/or be proud of, as if that was what examiners wanted to see.

 I think it might have been more productive for these students if they said that they wanted their artwork to be a contribution to and part of the art “dialogue”.

I agree with Kit White, who says

“Art is a continuing dialogue that stretches back through thousands of years. What you make is your contribution to that dialogue. Therefore, be conscious of what has come before you and the conversation that surrounds you. Try not to repeat what has already been said. Study art history and stay alert to the dialogue of your moment.”

Section 8, “101 Things To Learn In Art School”, The MIT Press, 2011. Artists are collectors and are always being inspired by something (or someone).

We learn by looking and sometimes  by copying, in one way or another. This is where the idea of a dialogue with the past comes in (we can also have a dialogue with the present of course).

It’s difficult – if not impossible – to be ‘original’ if you don’t have a sense of what has already been done.

Five years ago…

In July 2010, I wrote about originality – FALSE GODS: ORIGINALITY .

I’m returning to that theme five years on in the light of the new DP visual arts course (first examination next year, 2016) and tying it into the idea of art as an on-going dialogue that we have with the past.

I’d also like to mention the writer Austin Kleon because he and Kit White have informed this post (references at the bottom).

Art History

So – what does ‘contributing to the dialogue’ mean?

“Study art history and stay alert to the dialogue of your moment.”

Art history. It’s a huge resource and if you care to dip into it at almost any moment you will find plenty of inspiration. You don’t need to repeat it (and even f you try, you can’t really repeat it – in effect you recontextualize it). Its all about context.

Dip into it and learn, reflect, think and respond. Become part of the dialogue.

Steal Like an Artist

This is also where Austin Kleon comes in. Kleon says quite a lot – but in many ways, the title of his book gives it away – “Steal Like an Artist”.

Remixing, re-using, selective borrowing, appropriating etc – it’s normal. It’s good. It can be exciting.

(But I think that for some students and teachers, copying is taboo, probably as a result of their attempts to “be original”?)

Start the Dialogue!

Even as a starting point ‘stealing’ (or appropriating etc)  gets that dialogue going, it means you are starting to participate in the conversation (or journey) and of course it will will enable you to see what has been done already.

It may even enable you to see that what you thought was original had actually already been done – many times.

Look at art, learn about art and contribute to the dialogue that is art.

(And ALWAYS record all your sources!)

References

***Austin Kleon is author of “Steal Like an Artist”, “The Steal Like an Artist Journal” and “Show Your Work”

***Kit White is author of “101 Things To Learn In Art School”

As promised, here is some feedback from the May 2015 Visual Arts Grade Award which recently took place at the IB DP Assessment Centre in Cardiff, Wales.

Five years ago I blogged after attending a Grade Award meeting (June 2010) – at that stage we were a group of approximately 16 senior examiners, looking at Candidate Record Booklets (anyone remember them?!) and discussing marks awarded.

Then in June 2012 the post-Grade Award blog highlighted “the evils of the Internet”.

The discussions of marks etc still occur, of course, but this time it was a mixture of meeting face-to-face (senior examiners from Australia, Argentina etc all came to Cardiff) and virtual (Skype calls to Singapore, Hong Kong, Florida etc) – and of course there were no Candidate Record Booklets!

The first thing we did last month was confirm that the visual arts grade boundaries were correct and fair, looking at the DP Arts grade boundaries and portfolios representing achievement in each grade level.

The Grade Boundaries apply to all Group 6 Arts subjects, so interpretation was involved.

 DOUBLE DIPPING

After that came assessment reviews and during this process, examiners noticed an issue that recurred with different schools and students: so-called “Double-dipping”.

Officially referred to as duplication of work: this is defined as “the presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or DP core requirements” and is a form of Academic Misconduct.

Submitting one piece of work for assessment more than once – for example, uploading a painting that was done in the workbook as an investigation page and again as a studio page – means that you are attempting get marks for the same thing twice – which is not allowed.

In these cases, the assessment team carefully review the individual portfolio and as a penalty may simply remove one of the duplicated files from the component and contact the school with a warning. If it happens repeatedly the penalty could be more serious.

Double dipping and the ‘new’ course

In the grade award meeting, we were looking at submitted files for the ‘old’ course, but the IB have plans in place to check for double-dipping/duplication of work in the upload for the new course.

Although the components are assessed by different examiners, an important additional part of the process will be to review and check the content of all components for individual students.

In addition to providing the “big picture” overview of the entire submission, this will make it easy to identify cases of double dipping.

 I think most teachers understand that the process portfolio can contain documentation of the entire creative process – from initial ideas, through exploration, trial and error etc, right through to the final resolved artwork.

This seemed to be a question raised by a number of slightly confused teachers when the 2016 visual arts guide first came out: to be clear, the process portfolio can – and probably should – include both the process and the final resolved artwork.

The only exception is that the process portfolio should not include final work selected for the exhibition because that would be double dipping.

“Article 20: Candidates suspected of academic misconduct. Academic misconduct is a breach of these regulations and includes duplication of work: this is defined as the presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or DP core requirements”

 Images from:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/RAAF_1943_swimming_nude.jpeg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Migjorn_(625361194).jpg

It’s August, which means that most final year visual arts students – and their teachers – now know how they did in terms of DP grades. I hope all went well. All the following relates to the current/-‘old’ course (Final exams 2015).

With our subject in particular I think it’s important to acknowledge that it may be impossible to avoid all discrepancies in assessments – e.g. variations between what you think the correct mark is and what the examiner thinks.

There a couple of issues that sometimes come up when teachers discuss the marks their students’ work achieved.

Virtual Assessment

I think an understanding of the assessment issue can be muddied/muddled by the belief that some teachers still hold that the visiting examiner did a better job than the virtual examiner.

I was a visual arts visiting examiner for more than 25 consecutive years and I interviewed hundreds of students in schools all over the world.

It was a great experience, I enjoyed all those visits, and I know that overall the students I talked to and the teachers I met also enjoyed the experience. As an experience for the student – setting up their show, preparing for the interview and then having the chance to talk about their artistic journey and explain their art to an examiner coming in from another country or at least another city – it was fantastic.

However, as an assessment process it was flawed, because the moderation process was compromised (for one thing, the moderating team never saw what the examiner saw).  Moderation is integral to IBDP assessment and both assessment and moderation are now consistent in a way that they never were before.

OK, in general ‘encounters with art’ terms it’s always best to experience the real thing – I get that, that’s why we go to galleries etc.

But for a consistent and reliable process of assessment, we need more than one person’s opinion, which means moderation, and realistically the moderator must see exactly what the original examiner saw…

One way for the teacher to improve the accuracy of his/her predicted grades may be to look at and assess the on-screen versions of the work rather than the actual work, because you will be seeing exactly what the examiner sees.

I realize that this idea may exasperate teachers who understandably stress the importance of experiencing the real thing – I also value the importance of the real thing – but in assessment terms it makes sense.

Contemporary Art

Contemporary art can be provocative, exciting and stimulating, and of course, some teachers focus on teaching a visual arts course that reflects issues in contemporary art – and some teachers seem to worry that their results might reflect a lack of understanding of contemporary art by some examiners.

I suspect that visual arts examiners do in general understand contemporary art issues and ideas – but examiners live and work all over the world, come from a range of backgrounds and have a wide variety of interests and passions, and their artistic interests may lie in art ideas, concepts and media other than contemporary art. 

In assessment terms they are looking for achievement that matches assessment descriptors in the various markbands.

Successful visual arts students frequently show excellent exploration of ideas reflecting cultural and historical awareness and artistic qualities: sometimes that exploration of ideas involves contemporary art, but it doesn’t have to.

Many successful exhibitions have a far wider range of ideas than being restricted to exploring a single kind of art.

Others include reference to conceptual art; Pop Art is hardly contemporary but still fascinates many students; Surrealism is even older but examiners still see surreal ideas appearing in exhibitions.

 Cultural and historical awareness and artistic qualities covers a huge range and is definitely not limited to art from the last few years. (There is also the issue of what “contemporary art” means – art made over the last 10 years? Emergent art movements? Socially conscious art?  Art reflecting issues such as feminism, multiculturalism, etc.?)

Success is often more to do with how well the student explores cultural/historical/artistic ideas rather than a specific type of art.

It is highly likely that you as a teacher will discuss recent/contemporary art in terms of artists, issues and ideas. It’s usually a great discussion (and may feed into related Theory of Knowledge ideas) and it often inspires some art-making.

But just because the student artwork has links to a contemporary art idea does not automatically mean it’s going to get good marks, and not getting good marks does not automatically means that the examiner does not have a good understanding of contemporary art.

And just because art is ‘contemporary’ doesn’t mean its good, or relevant, or even interesting.

What to do if your IB results are below expectations?

Visit and read the useful advice and guidance provided by Peter Gray through this link.

IMAGES

(Atlanta Contemporary Art Centre)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Atlanta_Contemporary_Art_Center_2.jpg

(Denver Museum of Contemporary Art)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Jonas_Burgert_painting_admirers_at_Denver_Museum_of_Contemporary_Art.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Findot_reticle_2.png/1024px-Findot_reticle_2.png

My school starts back in three weeks – 24^th August – so thoughts are starting to turn towards the courses we teach and the students we will be working with.

Whether you are about to start IBDP visual arts, or are about to enter the 2^nd year, you will need to complete the visual arts planning & progress form.

This is a relatively new (but mandatory) DP visual arts form – but hopefully your teacher will be aware of it.

If he/she is not, perhaps you could suggest they check with the DP Coordinator for information, or have a look on the Online Curriculum Centre – on the main page under the “Assessment” header – where the pdf file can be downloaded.

What does it involve?

Your teacher will take you through the process, but, in brief,

• The form has a section for each assessment component (comparative study, process portfolio and exhibition).
• You may decide to discuss all three components during the same meeting or to have dedicated meetings for each component.
• The completed form must be submitted to the IB with the internal assessment material.

I must admit, the timing of the release of the form is not perfect, since for many of us (teachers and students) the first year is already over, so the “first interaction” will occur well after the halfway point of the course.

Anyway, the instructions say:

First interaction

Discuss your artistic interests and what artists and art-making forms you are planning to focus on (progress and plans, etc)

Second interaction

Discuss how you have progressed in your research, experimentations and/or practical work, and how your ideas, skills, processes and techniques have been reviewed and refined (including progress and academic honesty issues)

Third interaction

Discuss your draft work and receive feedback (including the comparative study and the curatorial rationale drafts; for the process portfolio check that the correct selection of art-making forms is included and sources are acknowledged)

“You are also encouraged to review with your teacher the quality of the digital documentation, the way your work is presented and whether all assessment requirements are being met”.

While the form does have space for three interactions for each component, it is not necessary that you meet with your teacher specifically on nine separate occasions (although you could!?); it is perfectly acceptable for you and your teacher to meet in three meetings, covering your progress in each of the assessment components.

• There is also a section for your teacher to write his/her comment for each component (i.e. three comments).
• The teacher is not allowed to edit your work.
• If you are taking the full IB Diploma you will encounter the Planning and Progress Form in other subject areas.

***6/VAPPF is a pdf file that includes “fillable form fields” and you should be able to print the completed form and save it to your device or Acrobat.com, although in order to do this you (and/or the school) will probably need to have installed a recent version of Adobe Acrobat rather than using the free version.

For the first interaction, I suggest you think about these areas

• My artistic interests include…
• I am inspired by these artists:
• In terms of art-making forms, I enjoy…
• Progress and plans:
  • so far I have…
  • I have plans to…

Good luck!

IMAGE (diagram for illustration purposes only: not related to the DP planning and progress form)

Last month I wrote about some teacher reactions to the grades their students achieved. (At the end of every examination session, some teachers express concern about the results).

One complaint that I hear from teachers who are disappointed in the mark relates to how committed the student was, how hard he/she worked and how much time he/she put in.

“My student was thoroughly engaged but the IB do not value or even recognize their effort! There is no correlation between the work they put in, the passion they have and the results they get.”

This is a little simplistic. In fact, the IB do value and recognize effort – but ‘effort’ itself is not directly assessed.

It might be more accurate to say that effort is valued and recognized in particular when the results of this effort match assessment criteria.

At times there may well appear to be no correlation between the work they put in, the passion they have and the results they get. But passion without understanding – or direction – is not enough.

 If a student works with passion and commitment in, say, history, but still hands in/uploads a mediocre essay, the examiner is not going to know about the passion – but even if he/she did, it’s the quality of the work that is being assessed, not the effort.

I’m an examiner and I don’t give any marks for engagement, effort or passion.

No examiners give marks for these things because they are not in any of the assessment criteria.

If you don’t believe me, please read the assessment descriptors.

If I’m looking at an exhibition that shows evidence of loads of effort but still shows (for example) a mediocre understanding of the ideas and techniques that underpin artistic expression, or only some exploration of ideas reflecting cultural and historical awareness and artistic qualities I’m still going to (probably) award a mark of 4/20 (I’m referring here to descriptors for the course with final examinations in November)

Effort and passion are not indicators of success.

Of course, this is not to in any way downplay the importance of effort, engagement and commitment; in almost all cases, these things are a big part of a successful submission. A visual arts candidate is unlikely to do well if he/she isn’t engaged with the course. I’ve been teaching visual arts for more than 30 years, and in my experience the hard workers frequently do well.

Those who don’t work particularly hard tend to do less well.

In addition to passion etc there needs to be an understanding of the aims and objectives of the visual arts course. Many of my own students work hard, but that is only rewarded when the outcomes (the art) reflect both that degree of engagement and the kind of things that are rewarded through the assessment criteria.

If we turn to the new course, it’s the same: as the guide says (p29)

The Diploma Programme primarily focuses on summative assessment designed to record student achievement at, or towards the end of, the course of study.

The hard work needs to clearly contribute to relevant artistic outcomes. To do well in IBDP visual arts, students need to work hard. About that, I think, we can agree.

IMAGES from:

PicServer

Flickr

WikiMedia

The “new IA” in visual arts is the exhibition.

Work produced for internal assessment is marked by teachers and externally moderated by the IB.

Internal assessment used to be the investigation workbook for most students (because most students took the A option), so it’s a bit of a reversal from the previous course.

How to get it right?

Here are 10 steps to success!

1. Talk and listen to your teacher.

Your teacher plays a vital role during both the planning stage, and the period when you are working on things that will go in your show. He/she will ensure that you are familiar with the requirements and the visual arts assessment criteria. It’s your show and your art but it’s still assessed by your teacher and moderated by a visual arts examiner, so you need to be aware of how they are going to award marks! Ideally, your teacher will have attended an IBDP visual arts workshop – so their guidance and advice is solid and trustworthy!

2. Make sure it’s your own (NO PLAGIARISM!)

All work submitted for moderation must be authenticated by your teacher, and you must confirm that the work is your authentic work and constitutes the final version of that work. If you are referencing or referring to other artwork in your own art –  or indeed appropriating the work of others – you must say that in the exhibition text (point 7).

3. Allow yourself enough TIME!

Internal assessment – your art show – contributes to up to 40% to the final assessment. This weighting should be reflected in the time you spend acquiring the knowledge, skills and understanding and the time needed to make the work. This should include time for explanations, consultations and discussions with your teacher as well as class time for you to create artwork. Also allow time to review and monitor progress. If you have enough space at home you could continue to work on your art at home over weekend or holidays?

4. Be selective!

There are far fewer pieces in the ‘exhibition’ component in the ‘new’ course than previously in the ‘studio’ component: it’s now a maximum of 7 at SL and 11 at HL.  Selected pieces should show evidence of technical accomplishment and an understanding of the use of materials, ideas and practices to realize your intentions. Look at the assessment criteria when selecting your final works! (If you are HL I think that you should have more than 11 resolved artworks to choose from.)

5. Design and arrange your show!

Think about the layout and arrangement of your artworks. What are you saying? Is there a sequence or relationship between the works? Is there a journey or a theme? (Images here show gallery space and how artworks have been arranged at the Tate Modern in London. Obviously most of us will not have this kind of space! – we may just have a display board or a wall – but still it’s important that you plan the look and impact of your exhibition)

6. Write a Curatorial Rationale!

You should show evidence of the decision-making process which underpins the selection of your “connected and cohesive” body of work for an audience in your curatorial rationale. There is a word-limit so don’t just ramble on! Ask your teacher to read/check what you have written. (Watch out for a future blog “Avoiding Artspeak”)

7. Write exhibition text!

Provide the title, medium (indicate here if objects are self-made, found or purchased) and size of the artwork, and a brief outline of the intentions of the work (500 characters maximum). Also, explain any appropriation or sources which have influenced the piece.

8. Take 2 photographs of your show!

   These will help show the teacher and the examiner to appreciate your understanding of the context of the exhibition, as well as being able to see the size and scope of the works. (These photos are not assessed, just give the teacher/moderator an insight into how you considered the overall experience of the viewer). Only the artworks submitted for assessment should appear in the exhibition photographs.

9. Publicity before you set up the exhibition

Not an IB requirement, but many people look forward to the annual IBDP Art exhibition, so let them know it’s coming up! Posters! Advertisements!

10. Exhibition as a celebration

Also not an IB requirement, but this is the culmination of a long, challenging but (hopefully) enjoyable and rewarding journey, so celebrate the end of the course and the art created! Have a Reception and a party!

Photographs (recently taken by me) in the Tate Modern Gallery, London

Write in plain English (or Spanish or French) – And avoid ARTSPEAK (“Meaningless convoluted twaddle”).

Some people say that art should speak for itself and that writing about art is pointless.

In fact in the Theory of Knowledge guide Arts section there is the question, “Is there any point in discussing the arts – should we not simply experience them?”

Other questions in the same section are:

• “How can the subjective viewpoint of an individual contribute to knowledge in the arts?”
• “On what basis can the merit of a work of art be judged?”

These questions may well be addressed in a later blog post, but today I want to remind you (students) that whatever you have to say about your own art, your writing should be consistently clear, articulate and easy to understand.

Visual Arts, the Exhibition and the Curatorial Rationale

There has always been a requirement that you – as a DP visual arts student – write about your art.
Up until now, this has been in the 1000 word commentary (alternative to video/audio interview), the 300 word candidate statement and within the (old) investigation workbook.

As an examiner, I see quite a lot statements made by students about their art exhibitions.
Some students write rather flowery 1000 word commentaries and/or 300 word statements, and I’m expecting to read equally flowery curatorial rationales and exhibition texts next April/May.

Sometimes of course, the writing is not flowery – it’s eloquent but concise, it’s articulate, thoughtful and intelligent.
But sometimes it’s worse than flowery: its meaningless convoluted twaddle. I read through some humdingers submitted for the May 2015 session.

I (the examiner) should not have to read and re-read a sentence in order to make sense of it.

Examiners who do not have English as a first language may struggle even more. It is not necessary for you to embroider and dress up your ideas with jargon and complexity – but many do.

“Artspeak” (jargon-filled, pretentious baloney?)

I’m not sure if it’s your teacher who puts you up to this, or if it’s the abundance of bad “Artspeak” already out there, often about contemporary art and written by the artists and/or the contemporary art critics – but writing about art should not involve jargon-filled twaddle.

• There are many examples of art critics and gallery owners writing pretentious, meaningless and indecipherable rubbish.
• There are sites on the Internet that attempt to puncture this pomposity.
• There is even a site that helps you to generate your own meaningless arty twaddle.

What do you think of this?

“The artist brings the viewer face to face with their own preconceived hierarchy of cultural values and assumptions of artistic worth…Each mirror imaginatively propels its viewer forward into the seemingly infinite progression of possible reproductions that the artist’s practice engenders, whilst simultaneously pulling them backwards in a quest for the ‘original’ source or referent that underlines Levine’s oeuvre.”
Source: The Guardian

Knowing how to write it means you might also know how to avoid it?

How to write meaningless art twaddle

Take a look at this artspeak generator.
For example:

“My work explores the relationship between Jungian archetypes and UFO sightings. With influences as diverse as Munch and John Cage, new tensions are created from both traditional and modern discourse. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of meaning. What starts out as vision soon becomes corroded into a manifesto of power, leaving only a sense of dread and the possibility of a new understanding. As intermittent forms become distorted through diligent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with a clue to the limits of our culture”.

“My work explores the relationship between multiculturalism and recycling culture.
With influences as diverse as Camus and L Ron Hubbard, new variations are crafted from both traditional and modern narratives. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the unrelenting divergence of the human condition. What starts out as triumph soon becomes corrupted into a dialectic of lust, leaving only a sense of dread and the dawn of a new understanding. As temporal forms become distorted through boundaried and diverse practice, the viewer is left with a hymn to the outposts of our existence”

This is a JOKE of course and I do not want you to use this for your curatorial rationale – but there is an underlying truth: a lot of “artspeak” is pretentious baloney.

But do it properly/thoughtfully/accurately – and now – in the CURATORIAL RATIONALE – it gets you marks!

No marks were awarded for either commentary or statement in the course that ends November 2015, but marks are awarded for the Curatorial Rationale in the new course, so it makes sense to think about your audience (this includes your examiner) and what you want to say.

At HL for the curatorial rationale you must:

a) justify your selection, arrangement and the exhibition of artworks “within a designated space”, and
b) reflect on how your exhibition conveys an understanding of the relationship between the artworks and the viewer

This does not seem to be too complex or demanding – but I predict that some students will still be seduced by the lure of “artspeak” and will submit convoluted, arty twaddle which will hinder rather help any understanding of their art.

Suggestions: how to write in plain English

• Visit the Plain English website for free guides

• Download the ‘plain English’ guidance pdf
Please, when writing your rationale avoid purple prose and just write in plain English (or Spanish or French!)

Artspeak on the Internet

A user’s guide to artspeak

Why it’s time for galleries to dump the jargon

Pseuds Corner and the Turner Prize

Artspeak sucks, and that’s putting it in plain language

You might also be interested in New Speak

Those of you who like to read IBDP documentation will know that the visual arts guide refers to both a cohesive (page 51) and a coherent (page 56) body of work, in the context of the visual arts exhibition.

Indeed, at one point during the curriculum review and development cycle as a final assessment criterion it was “cohesive”- but it evolved into “coherent” (Jayson P reminded me of this).

In fact the old course (final examination session November 2015) referred to “a coherent body of work” in one of the studio descriptors, but the new course has coherence as a whole criterion, worth up to 9 marks out of a possible 30 for the Exhibition – so it’s important.

And I think some de-mystification might be in order.

As a visual arts examiner I’m a little concerned that teachers and students might just decide that coherence = theme.

OK, let’s be clear. It can be a great idea to have a theme that provides some cohesion, coherence and/or consistency to your exhibition. Sometimes the ‘theme’ idea works.

However, as some of you who may have been reading my blog – or even talking to me – over the years know, I am far from convinced that just “having a theme” is necessarily a good idea.

For a number of years as an examiner I have seen dull, lifeless exhibitions that seemed to have been restricted because of the theme.

Indeed, when I used to visit schools to interview visual arts candidates (ah, those were the days) I would hear students tell me that their theme hindered what they really wanted to do and in effect limited their creativity.
Madness. And unfortunately it still goes on – exhibitions are uploaded for assessment and some still reflect a narrow (rather than, say, exploratory) approach, with an idea at the centre that has not really been explored with much creativity.

So – having a theme is (often) not enough.
Your students don’t even need a theme. And if they do have theme it should be more about what they do with the theme and how well they explore the creative processes that will enable their exhibition to not be repetitive and hindered by the theme.

So I’m really hoping to have seen the last of narrow, restrictive themes and am looking forward to seeing more thoughtful collections that explore relationships between the individual pieces.
I suggest that it’s more about the RELATIONSHIP between artworks than just having some theme.

“Relationships” could involve a variety of ideas but one effective relationship that many of my own students have is stylistic: there may in fact be no traditional “theme” but there is a strong sense of identity because the works reflect the ideas, the vision and the hand of the artist. Individual exhibitions reflect a variety of ideas and there is no single fixed theme, but there is coherence.

The coherence could reflect the student’s conceptual approach, or their decisions relating to media/techniques or size and scale, etc.
We also have to embrace (or at least acknowledge) the role of student as curator and of course the Curatorial Rationale (see my last blog post): supporting evidence includes the curatorial rationale, the submitted artworks, exhibition text and exhibition photographs/video – and the idea of communication (“the work forms a coherent body of work through effective communication…”).

BTW I saw an interesting little movie called Coherence last time I was flying home – check it out!

PLEASE visit art exhibitions – not just because it’s a great experience but because it could improve your grade! I recently visited the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain Galleries in London.

Of course, many schools are nowhere near a big city and/or a large, prestigious and internationally acclaimed gallery.

For eight years I taught art in a school situated on the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro – the excellent and unique International School Moshi – and we visited small local galleries or the workshops of local craftsmen. That is also fine. And there may now be art galleries in Moshi or in the larger neighbouring town of Arusha!

In addition, art does not have to be put into a gallery, and you don’t have to go to an art exhibition to see art. However, for many of us the exhibition remains a good, accessible and logical way to see art, and visiting exhibitions is obviously a great way for you to gain an understanding of communicating visual arts

It may be difficult if your school is geographically isolated without easy access to art galleries/art museums –  but I urge you to at least try.

And if your school is near a gallery (or ideally galleries) I strongly encourage visiting – as frequently as possible. Getting to know a gallery and/or getting to know an artwork is a fantastic experience.

If/when you DO visit the gallery, spend some time wearing a curator’s hat: think about how and why the works have been displayed, consider the nature of “exhibition” and think about the process of selection, the reason these artworks were chosen.

Also think about the viewer, and the potential impact of the work on different audiences.

Visits to museums, galleries etc provide first-hand encounters with real art. You may not be allowed to touch it but there is nothing to stop you examining it in detail as an art object (if it is an object).

While in the Tate I thought about:

• The scale and size of the art: large scale are frequently has a big impact – far more, obviously than just seeing it online
• The immediacy of being there – allowing for example close scrutiny of colour, texture, detail etc
• Space and light, the gallery experience
• Audience response and interaction, including their conversations and exchanges about the art before them
• The exhibition text – offering a brief and potential useful summary of the work (and one you should consider)
• Other valuable documentation – pamphlets, guides etc – anything like a curatorial rationale
• The impact of a collection by an individual artist and the question of coherence
• The range of art on show – video art, installations, etc as well as more traditional media

This is also a great opportunity for investigation: find out about the artwork and the artist. Identify and learn about individual artists’ purposes, influences and inspirations. If possible read the artist’s own words – locate any artist statements.

Visual Arts Journal

Have you got one? Do you use it frequently? It’s the best place for you to record personal responses to the art that you encounter.

As you may know, there are three main “Core” visual arts areas:

Visual arts in context

Visual arts methods

Communicating visual arts

This area involves you investigating and understanding processes involved in selecting work for exhibition.

Of course at some point you will be making decisions about the selection of your own work – so seeing artwork on display helps you explore the role of the curator; the concept of an exhibition has many variables, but most importantly is the potential impact on audiences and viewers: consider the relationship between artwork and audience

Gallery visits can deepen your understanding of the ways in which visual arts can communicate and enable you to appreciate that presentation.

In turn these experiences may influence the way you value/understand individual works. And there are frequently great practical repercussions – what you learn can then inform your work.

Feedback

It can also be very useful for you to share feedback after such visits. This could be done in a variety of ways, ranging from an informal discussion with other students about perceived strengths and weaknesses of the gallery and the exhibition, to more formal class presentations…

So – go to see an art show!

All the photographs were taken by me either in the Tate Modern or the Tate Britain.

There are many reasons to work together. A lot of fantastic learning can happen when we work in pairs or groups. It’s a beautiful thing.

In addition, sharing ideas and skills is a great creative PROCESS, and can lead to unusually creative RESOLVED work, with different art-makers being able to contribute specialist competencies.

There’s also the idea of socialization and the concept of being part of and contributing to a bigger idea – when discussing plans, sharing ideas etc.

Examples of famous and successful collaboration in the Arts include Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí.

In terms of DP visual arts, there is certainly an understanding that theories and practices in visual arts are dynamic and ever-changing, and “connect many areas of knowledge and human experience through individual and collaborative exploration, creative production and critical interpretation”.

But they flag academic honesty – “Assessment tasks that require teachers to provide guidance to students or that require students to work collaboratively must be completed in full compliance with the detailed guidelines provided by the IB for the relevant subjects” (Guide page 4).

They also applaud collaborate teaching as one of the six approaches to teaching “the six approaches to teaching (teaching that is inquiry based, conceptually focused, contextualized, collaborative, differentiated and informed by assessment) encompass the key values and principles that underpin IB pedagogy”.

Collaborative Learning is the way to go!

So yes, collaborate!

But…

(You knew there’d be a but)

Think about assessment.

I’m an examiner. And when I see that a student has submitted a piece of art (these days that’s usually a file uploaded to show a video or a photograph) for me to examine, and has added the fact that it’s part of a collaborative project, I tend to wince. Ouch. That could be a tricky issue I’ve just been handed.

If I’m lucky there may be a simple and easy solution – such as a clearly defined section and an arrow pointing to it saying “that’s mine”.

But I’ve been examining since before some of you were born, and in all those years almost all the collaborative art that I have had to assess has been complex – and complicated to assess. Sometimes the only thing I know is that it’s part of a collaborative project with no information about who did what.

Good luck with that I say to myself.

Of course when we (examiners) visited schools (in the good old days) the candidate could explain it and in the next interview the other collaborative artists could add and explain further.

But these days, I just get the file and with the new course some accompanying text and the Curatorial Rationale which may or may not help.

Either way, here’s my point: in assessment terms it’s frequently almost impossible to accurately award marks to collaborative work.

Don’t go there.

Or if you do, provide useful and easy-to-understand explanations/information to help the examiner make a fair and accurate assessment.

Cheers

More on Collaboration

K-12 Collaborative Art Making

For some great examples of collaborative art-making, visit

https://uk.pinterest.com/drmanifold/k-12-collaborative-art-making/

Artist Collaboration Fuels Creative Exploration

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amit-gupta/artistic-collaboration-_b_3763586.html

Fine Art Views: “Collaboration in Art — mutual respect, mutual work, mutual exposure” (Brian Sherman)

http://faso.com/fineartviews/34275/collaboration-in-art-mutual-respect-mutual-work-mutual-exposure

“Read about the ‘Collaborative Painting’ project by Sion-Manning Roman Catholic Girls’ School for the National Gallery’s ‘Picture in Focus’ online exhibition”

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/teachers-and-schools/picture-in-focus/online-exhibition/collaborative-painting

 “Does Artistic Collaboration Ever Work? How creativity is both nurtured and thwarted when people team up”

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/does-artistic-collaboration-ever-work/260319/

WebCanvas – The World’s Largest Collaborative Painting.

http://webcanvas.com/

http://webcanvas.com/#1558,1962,1

IMAGES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hema_Upadhyay

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Hema_Upadhyay_made_in_china.jpg

Hema Upadhyay – Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

Made in China, Collaborative installation, 2003, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India

collaborative art 2 | Flickr – Photo Sh

https://www.flickr.com/photos/flashphotographyandscreams/2798796311

In the Visual Arts Guide there is a series of questions related to TOK “that a visual arts student might consider”

• To what extent is artistic knowledge something which cannot be expressed in any other way?
• Are ways of knowing employed in radically different ways in the arts than in other areas of knowledge?
• To what extent does imagination play a special role in the visual arts?
• What moral responsibilities do artists have?
• How can the subjective viewpoint of an individual contribute to knowledge in the arts?
• What are the standards by which we judge artworks?
• Why might we be more concerned with process rather than product in the search for knowledge?
• Do the arts have a social function?
• To what extent is truth different in the arts, mathematics and ethics?

They are all great questions, and I hope that as teachers you discuss with your students the implications of at least some of these questions.

With reference to the question “What are the standards by which we judge artworks?” I would like to point you to the wonderful Museum of Bad Art. (“Art too bad to be ignored”)

http://www.museumofbadart.org/

The gallery is dedicated to the “collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art”.

As a face-to-face workshop leader I have had some intensive discussions about what – if anything – constitutes “bad” art.

Some teachers have become quite insistent that some of the art of in MOBA was not bad – but was if fact good art.

Asking students to choose the best (or the worst) from the MOBA collection can also be an exciting and productive exercise, although I suggest you scaffold the activity with some introductory art concepts, questions and examples, particularly if you have students with little experience of art.

For example – does evidence of traditional artistic skill matter?

If so, how much does it matter?

What about the freshness or newness of the ideas?

What about presentation?

What about parody?

What about found objects?

How influential is the exhibition text?

What about conceptual art?

Can anything be art?

If you ask these questions alongside visuals that illustrate the issues it will at least give the students without much art knowledge/experience some context for their judgments.

(And then there was the teacher who became quite angry and said that no art is bad, and the whole idea of the MOBA was insensitive and unpleasant).

My particular MOBA favourites

Lucy

http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll1/image01.php

Peter

http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll1/image10.php

Dog

http://www.museumofbadart.org/coll2/image06.php

MOBA also has a Facebook presence

https://www.facebook.com/Museum-of-Bad-Art-77346695969/

RELATED INFORMATION AND COMMENT

Grayson Perry’s Reith Lectures: Who decides what makes art good?

By Grayson Perry

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c37b1b6a-3017-11e3-9eec-00144feab7de.html

How to Judge Art: Five Qualities you can Critique whether you’re an Artist or not

http://emptyeasel.com/2006/11/18/how-to-judge-art-five-qualities-you-can-critique/

 Artistic taste is inversely proportional to political nous

It’s possibly why Tate Britain’s Artist & Empire exhibition is so thin — and why the Queen’s Gallery display of Dutch masters is so rich

Martin Gayford

http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/artistic-taste-is-inversely-proportional-to-political-nous/

What makes good art?

Answers from Art World Pros…

http://www.artbusiness.com/how-to-recognize-the-best-art.html

What MOBA says:

“Since 1994, the Museum of Bad Art has been dedicated to bad art. It is only through the efforts of the worldwide Friends of MOBA that we have been able to carry out our mission: to bring the worst of art to the widest of audiences.

Our collection numbers about 600 pieces, but due to limited exhibition space, we show 50 to 70 at a time. Each piece is presented with the kind of descriptive narrative you will find with the art here”.

I even have the book – images show front and back cover!

Question: can anything be art?

This, of course, is as much a DP Theory of Knowledge question as a DP visual arts one, and it may be a question that you have already tried to answer either in school or out. In many ways the definition of art is constantly changing, just as the things that artists do evolve and sometimes challenge conventions.

Use your body

Some mark-making ‘conventions’ are very old but still not exactly traditional.  In the French Pyrenees the walls of some caves are painted with dramatic murals dating from the Gravettian culture (some 25,000 years BC), with paintings including handprints and footprints.

(The Gravettian period occurred in Europe between 30,000 and 22,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic).

*See the Peche Merle screen on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle

So while not traditional, at 25,000 years it’s certainly got longevity.

1960s ANTHROPOMÉTRIES

And it was revived during the short life of Yves Klein (1928 – 62) in the 1960s when “a number of works Klein made using naked female models covered in blue paint and dragged across or laid upon canvases to make the image, using the models as “living brushes”. This type of work he called Anthropometry.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Klein

This kind of ‘Body art’ makes an occasional appearance in the digital upload. In fact, more than five years ago – March 2010 – I described the impact of Yves Klein (“The Good Old Days”) on some DP visual arts student art shows. “The Good Old Days”

 So using our own bodies to document and record our existence (or at least our shape) is in a sense on-going.

I have certainly seen this kind of thing in the Studio upload for the current (‘old’) course – I saw some examples submitted for the May 2015 session and I expect we’ll see some process portfolio screens and/or exhibition files that also document this process in the May 2016 session.

In assessment terms, if this form of mark making interests you then you need to back it up with evidence of your contextual and conceptual understanding. You need to show the examiner that it’s more than a simple if colourful way of creating artwork. If you want to submit a body print in your exhibition then the place to show your understanding would be in the curatorial rationale and the relevant exhibition text.

 And yes, there is something appealing about making a simple and direct impression of your form, in effect saying, “I was here – and to prove it here is an imprint”. It’s fun to do, of course, and it’s important that some parts of the art-making process are enjoyable – but as an audience experience it’s not always successful or meaningful.

There needs to be some rationale to give more weight to an art piece that, in effect, anybody could make.

PAINTING YOUR FACE or BODY

It’s a little unusual but certainly not unknown for DP visual arts student to include photographs of their own painted face or that of their friends, but as before, it needs to have some explanation and contextual reference, for example – why are you doing this and who else has done it?

RESOURCES

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech_Merle

IMAGES

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mlazarow/1414793298

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Empreinte_11-1997.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Pech_Merle_main.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Blacklight_bodypainting_leevi.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5463/9626436488_6948f5da5e_b.jpg

I think one point needs making at the start: there is no single route to process portfolio success.

Examiners are not expecting one ‘style’ or format, or that all Process Portfolios will look the same: it is assumed that you (e.g. different students) will adopt different approaches. However, its important to be aware of the following points:

1 What’s in a ‘screen’?

The main dilemma for some is whether to make the process portfolio a primarily digital construct with screens assembled on a computer, or to simply scan journal pages.

There is also sometimes confusion about the IB’s use of the words ‘screens’ in the visual arts guide.

Screens might consist of photographed or scanned pages from your visual arts journal or other sketchbooks, photographs, digital files that show/explain process development – or a combination of the above.

The process portfolio  “might include slides that have selected extracts from several pages of journals that have been subsequently annotated to make connections between some work done weeks ago, to work done days ago, but it might also include documentation of artworks as evidence of process”

(Here I am quoting friend and OCC Guru J Paterson)

2 Its OK to make (and learn from) mistakes!

Experiment, explore and make mistakes! Making mistakes is an important part of learning. You should show where you have made decisions about the choices of media etc that are appropriate to your intentions. For example, having tried out your idea in a number of media, you could state which one is most effective and why.

Your process will result in both resolved and unresolved artworks and you should consider your successes and failures as equally valuable learning experiences, worthy of including in your process portfolio.

Not everything that you do will be successful – it is important to acknowledge and remember that.

3 EXCLUDE resolved work in your exhibition

The final outcome: you must not include work submitted as a part of the exhibition in your process portfolio

4 Spelling, legibility etc

There is no limit to the number of items (words or images) you can include on each screen, but overcrowded or illegible screens will hinder assessment (because examiners might be unable to interpret and understand your intentions). Make sure any text on the screen is easy to read!

Also check your grammar and spelling: in particular pay attention to the spelling of artists’ names and use “subject-specific language”.

Image resolution: if scanning pages, set the scanner to scan at a resolution of 72 pixels per inch in red, green, blue (RGB) colour mode. This matches the screens of most computers used by examiners to view works and will keep your submission to a manageable size.

Format/layout: consider using a horizontal format for your screens, as this will best fit the screens used to examine the work

No animation! If you compile screens for using a slide “presentation” software (e.g. Microsoft PowerPoint^®, Apple’s Keynote^® or Prezi Pro^™) avoid using animations within slides and animated transitions between slides.

My students are now looking at their journal pages and other process documentation and considering the options. The process portfolio screens may take a variety of forms, such as sketches, images, digital drawings, photographs, text, or indeed some/all of this.

The images shown are some of the pages from students’ visual arts journals

The post Visual Arts Process Portfolio: choices (and some points) appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.

Just so we’re clear,

• NO MORE ‘INTERVIEW’ VIDEOS
• NO VIDEOS IN THE COMPARATIVE STUDY
• NO VIDEOS IN THE PROCESS PORTFOLIO
• VIDEOS OK IN EXHIBITION BUT MAXIMUM 5 MINUTES
• NO SOUND IN VIDEOS

 “Only 5 minutes and no sound????”

VIDEOS: 5 minutes maximum

Yes, but you can do a lot in 5 minutes. You can actually do a lot in two minutes, so just think “less is more” when your students are wielding that camera. In fact don’t just think it, write in on a big board in the art room – LESS IS MORE!

As I’ve said a number of times, I’m an examiner, and I see uploaded video files. It’s not a hugely popular medium, so examiners are rarely inundated with videos, but there are more now than there were, say, five years ago.

But – I have to be honest – we don’t often see a video that knocks our socks off.

I hardly ever see a video that explores the visual potential of the medium, which is a little surprising considering the huge potential that there is.

When I do encounter successful videos, they are often outstanding. The students responsible have clearly understood the nature of the moving image and film and the work easily achieves the (old) descriptors.

For example there is evidence of excellent technical competence, confidence, inventiveness and an informed, reflective judgment that challenges and extends personal boundaries.

For this five minutes is more than enough

(**and 500MB)

And yes, these videos work visually – sound is irrelevant. Which leads me on to…

VIDEOS: No sound

Remember it’s a VISUAL arts course. I know that some contemporary artists include sound in their videos. Some contemporary artists use sound ONLY as a creative/expressive medium. And yes, many videos will make no sense if you remove the sound, sound is a critical component in the medium of film, etc etc.

But for the IB DP visual arts programme this issue is linked to fairness, accuracy and consistency in assessment. Problems encountered previously include multiple academic honesty issues: for example, students frequently using music in their videos without asking permission of the artist or even referencing the music.

Sometimes the video is more of a traditional ‘film’ and the sound track contains speech – in this case the question must be asked, why not take the IBDP film course?

Then there is consistency of assessment – how do you (teacher and examiner) accurately measure the influence or impact of the sound track? The assessment criteria deal with visual elements not audio.

How do you know that the examiner will have the same response to the sound track as you have?

If you think the video is a weak piece of visual work without sound – then make it a strong piece.

Forget the sound – or switch your student to the IBDP Film programme

*There is of course nothing to stop you having as much sound as you like in your students’ videos – apart from the ones you upload for the exhibition component. In fact you can even include sound in these as well – but it will be ignored by examiners – who will turn their speakers off.

Less is more!

PS

Page 11 Visual Arts Guide (first examinations 2016):

Please note that any work selected for final assessment in the visual arts course must have been made or constructed by the student. … The same principle must be applied to the use of additional elements used to create an atmosphere or a specific experience for an audience (even though any audio component will not be assessed in this visual course). If the student uses music or sound effects, for instance, they must be copyright free with appropriate citations provided or have been created by the student.

IMAGES

Eye

https://pixabay.com/p-491625/?no_redirect

Sound button

https://pixabay.com/p-152943/?no_redirect

Video button

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/A09)_Videos_Button.jpg

The post Sound and Vision in the Visual Arts Digital Upload appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.

This all relates to the imminent visual arts examination session.

It goes without saying (I hope) that you should have everything ready for the upload well BEFORE you start the upload process: that means, for example, a digital folder called “Exhibition” containing a series of folders for the exhibition files for each of your students.

OK, the nitty gritty: in order of things to be uploaded.

The upload starts with IBIS.

You should have your User ID, password and PIN ready.

1 Predicted Grade and IA (internal assessment)

The deadline for both is Sunday April 10^th.

The predicted grade should reflect overall achievement in the grade descriptors document.

The internal assessment component is THE EXHIBITION.

No files are uploaded (yet) – you are just giving the IB information about the achievement of your students.

Both the remaining due dates (20 and 30 April) require files (“uploaded materials”) for internal and external components.

2 The Exhibition

The next deadline is Wednesday April 20^th.

The exhibition upload is the most complex because it involves multiple files and multiples file types (unlike the other uploads) – so I’m going to go through this in some detail.

Each image file should be 5 MB or less, but most files will probably not exceed 3MB because 5MB is more than most people will need, and larger file sizes frequently mean unnecessarily slow/long upload and download times.

Each video file should be 500 MB or less and not exceed 5 minutes. Also remember that the examiner is not interested in any sound track – so you might as well not include any sound.

You should also have available the curatorial rationale for each student and the exhibition text for each artwork.

For any 3D work that you have not videoed you may want to add ‘detail’ photographs showing views of the 3D piece from different angles.

(My feeling is that use of these optional extra photos should be kept to a minimum. In most cases one good photograph that allows zooming will be fine. If HL students start uploading 30 or 33 photographs for their 10 or 11 artworks and the extra photographs add little to the main photo, you are likely to rapidly exhaust the examiner’s reserves of patience and goodwill. Don’t just add extra photos because you can: only add them if they provide important information that is not available in the main photograph.)

You should also have files for two exhibition ‘overview’ photographs for each student. These used to be optional but they are now required. There also used to be the option to upload a video of the exhibition – that has stopped. The file options are JPG or TIF – no videos allowed.

These exhibition views are not assessed but provide the examiner with important additional information about the exhibition layout and arrangement, the size and scale of work etc. Sometimes these views show the audience at the reception, and /or the proud student beaming in front of his favourite artwork. Please DON’T do this – all we want to see is the exhibition.

File types

The acceptable files types for the artwork and exhibition files are JPEG and TIF for ‘still’ photos and F4V, M4V, MOV, and MP4 for video.

The rationale is file type DOC, DOCX, PDF, or RTF

The Exhibition text is entered when uploading the images. This will state title, medium, size and a brief outline of intentions—500 characters. This can be a copy/paste process.

3 Comparative Study and Process Portfolio

Deadline for both is  Saturday April 30^th.

The comparative study is a single PDF (max size 20MB) with an additional list of sources, DOC, DOCX, PDF, or RTF.

The process portfolio is a single PDF file maximum size 20MB.

Reminder – the process portfolio must not include finished work that is part of the exhibition (to avoid duplication of work; duplication of work is considered a form of academic misconduct).

If your student wants to show the final outcome, he/she can include it – but it must not then be included in the exhibition.

And there you are! Pop that champagne! All done!

Reminder:

If during the upload you suddenly realize that you don’t have a file needed for the upload, you don’t have to start again from the beginning – IBIS does allow you to make partial uploads. So you can save where you got to and return later to continue the upload (unless it’s April 30th, in which case you (or your coordinator) may have to throw yourself on the mercy of IB to ask for an extension – which they may or may not agree to).

So…finally:

• Do not leave any of this until the last minute.
• Allow yourself time in case something goes wrong or you need more time.
• Be organized – organization is the key!

I plan on starting each upload at least a week before each deadline.

Cheers – and good luck!

Images

https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/01/07/17/53/time-1126254_960_720.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Arbcom_ru_ready.svg/2000px-Arbcom_ru_ready.svg.png

The post The Digital Upload: First Time For The New Course – What To Do! appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.

OK, students, here are the Visual Arts Top Ten Tips for exam success.

Its February and next month – or at the latest the following month – is upload time. I have provided tips for each of your three assessment components.

Read, respond and relax!

THE COMPARATIVE STUDY (20%)

1 CULTURAL CONTRAST

Your selected artworks must come from more than one cultural context. They may be from a similar time frame or cultural tradition, provided that there is depth to the consideration of how each work is seen within the different cultural contexts in which they were created. If the works chosen are from the same cultural origin then they will receive 0 (that’s ZERO) in criterion A.

2 CONNECTIONS TO OWN ART-MAKING PRACTICE HL

Examiners assess the depth your analysis and reflection in relation to your art making practice, not the quality of the art works (if these are submitted as part of the exhibition or the process portfolio this will be assessed there).

This assessment criterion concentrates on how you reflect and makes connection in the 3-5 additional screens dedicated to this HL task. Analysis might be evident through drawing and other visual means as well as text, but reflection will only be evident through text.

THE PROCESS PORTFOLIO (40%)

3 REFERENCING

Every image used must be appropriately referenced to acknowledge the title, artist, date (where this information is known) and the source, following the protocol of the referencing style chosen by the school and you must ensure that your own original work is identified and acknowledged in the same way to ensure examiners are clear about the origins of the materials

4 CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

Engaging with the work of other artists will inform your art-making practice. Consider artworks that are RELEVANT TO YOU – e.g. artworks that share your own material, technical or conceptual concerns. Your critical analysis in this context will help solve the material, technical or conceptual problems that you may be encountering. Background biographical or cultural information has little or no relevance to this criterion.

5 NO DOUBLE DIPPING

You must not put exhibition work in the process portfolio. It may be tempting, especially if you have shown a thorough documentation of the process that leads up to a resolved piece, to show that resolved piece in the portfolio – but it’s not allowed. Files that get marks in the exhibition component can’t also receive marks in the portfolio component…So if you are putting resolved work in your exhibition, you cannot also put a picture of this in the Process Portfolio

THE EXHIBITION (40%) 

6 IT’S HOLISTIC

The exhibition is assessed as a whole, which means all the evidence presented – including the artworks, exhibition photographs, the curatorial rationale, and the exhibition text. The visual arts guide states: “The final presentation of the work is assessed in the context of the presentation as a whole (including the accompanying text) by the teacher against the assessment criteria.”

7 USE AS MANY – OR AS FEW – TECHNIQUES AS YOU LIKE

There are no restrictions for range of media. Unlike the Process Portfolio you are not required to explore more than one medium.

8 EXHIBITION SPACE

The space where the exhibition is presented has NO effect on the marking. Assessment criterion D refers to the selection of works and to what extent the curatorial rationale justifies the selection and arrangement of a group of artworks in a designated place, but there is no reference to the quality of the space itself.

9 NO SOUND IN VIDEO

Any audio component used as part of an artwork will not be assessed: examiners assess only the visual arts and will ignore any audio element. (The sound will be turned off).

10 COHERENCE:  THEME OR NO THEME?

“Coherence” does not refer to a theme, but to “thematic or stylistic relationships”. Coherence is not necessarily achieved through visual conformity, or a collection that is just visually similar and/or repetitive. “There can be diversity within coherence: there should be evidence of relationships between artworks rather than simply similar artworks. The relationships could be dynamic and surprising, and could involve ideas about styles of artmaking, or there could be thematic relationships but, as in the past course, a theme is not required.”

Good luck!

The post Top Ten Visual Arts Tips (and Reminders) for Students! appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.

My Visual Art students call it the Curious Rat, because “Curatorial Rationale” is a bit of a mouthful.

Anyway, its March, and the digital upload ‘window’ for final examination submission of visual arts files is open – so it’s time for you (especially if you are a visual arts student in the final year of your course) to finalize your files!

It’s a busy time and it may be tempting to focus on (for example) finishing some of the resolved artworks in your exhibition, and/or making the process portfolio pages look as good as possible.

But a vital new part of the exhibition upload is exhibition assessment criterion D, “Curatorial practice”.

The curatorial practice is a required and assessed part of the exhibition component This asks you to justify the selection, arrangement and exhibition of your artworks “within a designated space” and, in addition at HL, to reflect on how the exhibition conveys an understanding of the relationship between the artworks and the viewer.

This is your chance to guide the way the audience (including teacher/examiner) perceives your exhibition. Communicate directly with viewers, and help them recognize your intent and the purpose in your body of work, and understand your point of view

Here are seven things to consider when you start writing your curatorial rationale:

1 REFLECT ON PREVIOUS GALLERY VISITS Before starting to write your curatorial rationale, put your exhibition into context: think about other exhibitions you have seen/experienced. Consider the nature of making collections of works of art, the display and exhibition of art, and your own intentions and artworks. Also consider how viewers engage with artworks in different kinds of exhibition contexts, and how they might react to your own art show

2 PLAN & FOLLOW A BASIC STRUCTURE! Don’t just ramble. Plan what you want to say; it can be helpful to follow a basic structure – for example,

• Overall premise – what are your aims and intentions?
• Range of artistic approaches – for example, have you experimented with a number of media/processes? If so, why? What ideas have you explored?
• Decisions about arrangement and display. Is there a sequential or thematic arrangement?

3 REMEMBER THE WORD LIMIT! For SL students, the word limit is 400 words. For HL students, it is 700 words. If you exceed this, parts of your statement will not be
considered by your teacher and visual arts moderator. But less is more! While the word limits are 400 or 700 words, most curatorial statements written for exhibitions in galleries are between 300 and 500 words.

4 DON’T FORGET THE EXHIBTION TEXT you have an opportunity to write a short statement to accompany each artwork in the exhibition, so do not use up your ‘curatorial’ word limit describing each work. Rather, identify thematic and/or stylistic connections between works. (But if there is a particular work that was especially instrumental in the way you perceived your exhibition, it might be interesting to describe that work in more depth to draw the audience into your thought process).
5 IT’S OK TO SAY “I and MY” You are writing about your own work, so personal pronouns (I, my and so on) are appropriate.

6  AVOID ARTSPEAK JARGON! Your statement should be written in an informative and persuasive tone: write meaningfully and avoid the kind of art-world jargon that might alienate a general audience. Be realistic, frank and honest about your work but don’t be afraid of using art vocabulary when appropriate. For example, if there is a specific art term that is central to the main idea of your exhibition, define it within your statement. (see October 2015 Blog post “Avoid Artspeak!”)

7 HL VS SL CRITERIA In addition to the word limit difference, there’s a difference in what is being assessed for SL and HL, with HL examiners looking for a “justified explanation for the selection, arrangement and exhibition of a group of artworks within a designated space and reflection on how the exhibition conveys an understanding of the relationship between the artworks and the viewer”. The reflection on the artworks/viewer relationship element is not required in the SL criterion.

Images

Some of the images shown here are photographs of exhibition texts accompanying works of art in the Tate Britain and Tate Modern galleries, London (photographs taken by me).

It might be useful for you to read these texts and consider how the words are used without referring to the images being discussed (apart from one example). What do you think? Are there things that you would avoid, or conversely use, in your own texts?

Rat images

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Rat_siamese.JPG

The post The Curious Rat (aka Curatorial Rationale) appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.

The IB say

“Welcome to your OCC…The OCC is a key resource for teachers, coordinators and other school stakeholders. The enhanced branding and colour scheme improves both navigability and usability in order to delight the many of you who depend on the site for information and collaboration”.

I get a lot of correspondence from art teachers about the OCC (ONLINE CURRICULUM CENTRE http://occ.ibo.org/ibis/occ/) , not all of it favourable, to put it mildly…

The bad

Teachers are frequently mystified and confused by the continued presence of out-dated visual arts information, dating from the course that effectively finished more than two months ago.

For many new teachers in my last few workshops there was no easy way to work out what is useful and valid on the OCC , and what is unhelpful and incorrect, leading to many frustrated teachers – and many exasperated messages to me.

Confused questions from confused teachers…

• “Where do we find information about the interview?”
• “What is this option A or option B business?”
• “Is the candidate statement submitted with the exhibition files?”
• “How do I upload investigation workbook pages?”

All these are no longer part of the visual arts programme. Teachers are confused by documents on the OCC because they relate to two different visual arts courses, only one of which is actually running, and I still receive messages (and the OCC visual arts forum shows messages from) teachers who think that there is an interview etc, because the OCC still implies that it exists.

The OCC still offers the guide for the old course, candidate statement and candidate declaration, and teacher support for the course that finished November 2015.

There are plans to get rid of the old and unnecessary stuff but for the moment my advice to new teachers visiting the OCC is be very careful about what you read there and double check that it is relevant to the current course!

The ugly

Navigation!

“It’s a Nightmare!”

This is a typical response from a teacher making a first or second visit to the site –

“Sure, there’s a wealth of information there, but finding it is a nightmare. Its interface is crowded, hard to navigate and not user-friendly!”

I think calling the OCC a nightmare might be putting it a little strongly, but I have to admit that – especially for newcomers – the OCC interface is not perhaps the most user-friendly design.

The content may be great but finding your way around can be a challenge.

• However, familiarity breeds expertise.
• The more time you spend browsing, looking and finding, the easier it will be to navigate.
• Don’t give up on the OCC because it’s so frustrating – get to know its weirdly old-fashioned design so you make it work for you!

The Good!

OK we’ve looked at the Bad and the Ugly, now it’s time for the Good.

There are at least three reasons to celebrate the OCC

1 The OCC Facilitators

JAYSON PATERSON and HAZEL GIL-SALAZAR. (“This forum is moderated by the online faculty members for visual arts, Jayson Paterson and Hazel Gil-Salazar“).

These two gurus consistently answer questions and provide reliable and useful information for all DP visual arts teachers. They are the people you can trust.

Unfortunately a few teachers post what they obviously think is correct and helpful information when in reality it’s as outdated and/or incorrect as some of the ‘official’ OCC stuff.

 2 The content/information!

As mentioned above, there is a wealth of information in the OCC – a gargantuan ocean of IB-related stuff, most of it helpful, and some of its extremely useful – if not vital. Not just for visual arts but foe all IB programmes and courses.

For example, if you fancy checking out what Theory of Knowledge teachers are worried about? – visit their forum!

Have you looked at the comprehensive Teacher Support Material? Or the teacher resource exchange?

Despite all the moans and complaints, the fact remains that the OCC is a fantastic repository of guidance, ideas, answers to questions, and both official and unofficial information.

 3 The New CLARIFICATION DOCUMENTS

New items: there is a NEW section called “FAQ and clarifications” (see image)

In this section there are three very important documents.

They appeared very quietly and I think have been largely unnoticed by teachers, but they contain useful and relevant information about the three course components.

Check them out!

Images

The Nightmare (Henry Fuseli, 1781)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_Nightmare.JPG

Clint

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Clint_Eastwood1.png

FAQ image

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bFzKzxlsAsM/hqdefault.jpg

Up to date it’s not

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/%22Up-to-date_method_of_making_molasses_on_the_farm_of_Fred_Hatmaker._This_farm_will_be_under_water_when_the_Norris_Dam…_-_NARA_-_532656.jpg

The post The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the OCC (“It’s a Nightmare!” “No it’s Fantastic!”) appeared first on OSC IB Blogs.