September 21, 2010

When the concept of lesson extensions was first presented to me (my first year at Pratt), I wasn't sure that I got it. I had it in my mind, at the time, that a project has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I absolutely loved taking the Tyvek project into a whole other realm during class when we projected it, and photographed it. It seems as though, if one is mindful, one can always take something successful a step further or several steps further....

My most recent work with high school junior and seniors, exemplified the fact that they are known for not being comfortable with the idea of a creating a self-portrait. While Alexandra and I took turns photographing each other portrait-like behind the shadows from the projected cut paper, it came to me that this might be a great self portrait project for that age group, especially since they can somewhat conceal themselves within the shadows if that is their preference, and their portrait has to do with their voice, and their written word, as well as a visual representation.

The other project idea came to me while photographing the paper through the window (as seen below) I loved the idea of two intersecting landscapes. One real, and one imagined. One static. One moving. And the interplay that can go on with those two things. Although both of these ideas involve photography, and I never will know until I am in my own classroom, what the facilities will be for video and still photography:

I am interested in theater and set design, and the relationship between the performing and visual arts. This photograph below, shows the sort of dream-like effect that the projector created around the edges. I started to think about lighting design, and how the space begs for human interaction, you want to step into that place created by light and shadow. It might be interesting to try to design a stage set around this idea of imagery that becomes sort of blurred and dreamlike around the edge and have the students actually create a diorama-like platform, maybe with large boxes or foam core to experiment with.