Amazing altered books.Given that had been my exact sentiment not long before, I knew just how they were feeling. I had just revealed that we were about to embark on an adventure to create altered books and, after some explanation and reassurance, their mood shifted. If they became satisfied knowing that we were reclaiming and recycling the books, and then they were thrilled to hear that one of their choices could be an old algebra algebra, branch of mathematics concerned with operations on sets of numbers or other elements that are often represented by symbols. Algebra is a generalization of arithmetic and gains much of its power from dealing symbolically with elements and operations (such as textbook! Historical Background I presented a brief history of altered books with information from the International Society of Altered Book Artists (ISABA). As an early form of recycling, I mentioned that in the eleventh century, Italian monks recycled old manuscripts written on vellum vellum: see parchment. by scraping (1) Extracting data from output intended for the screen or printer rather than from original files or databases. For example, Web pages formatted in HTML are often scraped. off the ink and adding new text and illustrations on top of the old. This was known as palimpsest palimpsest (păl`ĭmpsĕst'): see manuscript. . Additionally, in the late nine-teenth century, people used old books as a sort of scrapbook A Macintosh disk file that holds frequently used text and graphics objects, such as a company letterhead. Contrast with "clipboard," which is reserved memory that holds data only for the current session. , pasting on its pages the ephemera e·phem·er·a n. A plural of ephemeron. ephemera Noun, pl items designed to last only for a short time, such as programmes or posters Noun 1. from their society including magazine images, personal recipes, and family pictures. This is known as Grangerism, a Victorian practice of illustrating a particular book with engravings torn from other books. Contemporary artists explore both the form and content of books. Images from the ISABA "Reversing Vandalism" exhibit were shared, as well as the work of Richard Minsky. Two works were explored in small groups and students completed a Venn diagram A graphic technique for visualizing set theory concepts using overlapping circles and shading to indicate intersection, union and complement. It was introduced in the late 1800s by English logician, John Venn, although it is believed that the method originated earlier. to demonstrate differentiation skills. A Challenge I posed the question, "What could you NOT do to transform your book?" This proved to elicit many funny and thoughtful responses as they actually realized how much could in fact be done to and in the book--tearing, folding, attaching, painting, pasting, cutting, staining and embellishing, to name a few. After discussion and brainstorming about ideas that were important to them (versus trite topics), they chose themes. We know that countless things are of the utmost importance to eighth graders and the ideas ran the gamut See color gamut. gamut - The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor. from poverty to sports, from natural disasters to animals! Tape Transfer Method Books were chosen based on shape and size and the adventure began. I wanted students to immediately take ownership of their book, so they were asked to create a title page that included a tape transfer of their name. This was accomplished by collecting colored letters of their name from magazine pages. The adhesive side of packing tape was placed on top of the letters and then the whole strip was soaked in a shallow bowl of water. When saturated, the paper was gently rubbed off until only the ink of the letters was left on the tape. This was added to their title design using the remaining adhesive on the tape. Media Chart Students had a broad list of materials and techniques from which to draw from and were encouraged to use as many as they would like. A page was torn from their book and students created a "media chart." Lines of media choices were drawn across each other to show the results (i.e., watercolor lines over crayon crayon, any drawing material available in stick form. The term includes charcoal, conte crayon, chalk, pastel, grease crayon, litho crayon, and children's wax colors. lines). This page was labeled and mounted for reference. As this was a culminating studio project, it needed to include a number of media and techniques that students already had experience with. To ensure this, a minimum of two different media was required--one wet and one dry, as well as three additional treatments. Self-Assessment Informal critiques were conducted throughout the project. Towards the end of the experience, students developed a rubric RUBRIC, civil law. The title or inscription of any law or statute, because the copyists formerly drew and painted the title of laws and statutes rubro colore, in red letters. Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 8; Diet. do Juris. h.t. for their books, pointing out the things they felt would be important in its assessment. The result included use of materials and techniques, unity and evolution of the theme, and an artist statement. The books created by these student artists were thoughtful, creative, and technically successful. NATIONAL STANDARD Students intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas. WEB LINK www.alteredbookartists.com/abnews/04-reversingvandalism.html Linda Kieling is an art teacher at Rosemont Ridge Middle School in West Linn, Oregon West Linn is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. Now a prosperous southern suburb of Portland, West Linn has a history of early development, prompted by the opportunity to harvest energy from the Willamette Falls. It was named after Senator Dr. . |
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