EDCP 409-952

Environmental Art Cindy, Jolaine, Tanja

“We learn by doing.”(John Dewey)

“All senses are needed in the learning process.”(Viktor Lowenfeld)

“Learning occurs properly in an active and stimulating environment.”

(Jerome Bruner)

The term “Environmental Art” is used as an umbrella term and in a variety of different contexts, including: ● Art describing the natural world● Celebrating personal engagement with the natural world● Land Art/Earth Art ● Ecological Art:

○ Educating people about the natural world ○ Intervening/restoring the natural world

What is Environmental Art?

Land Art/Earth Art

● Began in the late 1960s and early 1970s● Artistic process against the perceived artificiality and commercialization

of art at the end of the 1960s in America ● Art form created in nature using natural materials ● Soil, rock, logs, branches, leaves, water ● Concrete, metal, asphalt, mineral pigments ● Sculptures are part of the landscape● Often earth-moving equipment is used ● Often left to change or erode under natural conditions (ephemeral) ● Site specific sculpture

Ecological Art

● Art practice that embraces an ethic or social justice in both its content and form/materials

● Artists, scientists, philosophers, activists● Focused on systems and interrelationships within our environment:

○ Geographic, political, biological, cultural ● Creates awareness, stimulates dialogue, changes human behaviour

towards other species, encourages long term respect for the natural systems we coexist with

● Socially engaged, activist, community-based restorative or interventionist art

Place-based Education

● Sometimes called a pedagogy of place, community-based education, or experiential education

● Promotes learning that is rooted in what is local (history, environment, culture, economy, and art)

● Students often lose their “sense of place” through focusing too exclusively on global issues (not to say that this isn’t important) but students should first have a grounding in the history, culture, and ecology of their surrounding environment

● Hands-on, project-based, and always related to real world experiences ● Built around sustainable community development and mindful living

What is acceptable?

Ethical Concerns

Collaborative Outdoor Living Space

Lesson Plan

Rationale

● To raise students’ awareness of environmental issues such as sustainability and human impact on the environment

● To introduce students to a range of artists who create inspirational environmental masterpieces

● For students to create a collaborative outdoor living space sculptures using only natural materials that will ultimately be returned to their natural state, leaving no trace of the artwork’s existence

Learning Objectives

● Students will create a living space sculpture using natural materials● Students will become familiar with artists who create environmental art

and the messages they are trying to convey● Students will learn and use vocabulary, image development and design

strategies, stylistic elements, and the principles of art and design ● Students will use critical thinking and problem solving to create their

living space outdoor sculptures● Students will explore the relationships between art, audience, and

location

Prescribed Learning Outcomes ● Analyze ethical factors affecting the production of 2D and 3D images● Analyze how particular elements and principles are used to create meaning and effect in 2D

and 3D images● Evaluate roles that visual arts have in reflecting, sustaining, and challenging beliefs and

traditions● Develop knowledge and use of visual elements and principles of art and design as they

apply to sculpture● Develop knowledge and use of processes and techniques for sculpture● Demonstrate considerations for venue, audience, and purpose unique to sculpture● Provide documentation of development process (e.g., portfolio of process drawings to

accompany a finished work, using sketchbook to plan design process)● Analyze sculpture artworks from a variety of contexts and artists● Develop vocabulary related to sculpture

Lesson

1. What is “environmental art”? (brainstorm and write on the board)2. Introduce environmental art and artists:

a. Discuss elements and principles of art and designb. Discuss current environmental concerns and how they could relate

to their projectc. Discuss ethics of working with natured. Interaction/audience

Activity

1. Discuss project requirements: Create collaborative outdoor artwork a. Materials must be found, natural elements only

i. No plucking from live plants! b. Use at least 3 different natural elementsc. May use natural rope/string d. Include at least 1 design element (repetition, pattern, space, scale, harmony)

2. Possible extension of working time 3. Clean up of working area, put materials away 4. Documentation of work required (photographs)5. Gallery walk: Discussion of peer artwork using learned vocabulary6. Closing: Recap what the students learned

Adaptations, Modifications, Extensions

Adaptations & Modifications:● Natural materials may be brought into the classroom ● Model academic language, checking for student understanding ● Providing visuals to give examples ● Vocabulary list

Extensions:● Creating an ad to “sell” the living space sculpture ● Write an artist statement to talk about the piece ● Document the process of decay (film/photography)

Collaborative Outdoor Living Space

Our Example