Stage 1: Flatland and Slaughterhouse-Five
Stage 1: Project Description: In my math 2 class we read the book Flatland. In my humanities class we read Slaughterhouse-Five.
In Flatland there is a world that is two dimensional and it explains to us what everything is like in a two dimensional place. This place is called Flatland. In Flatland females are lines and males are shapes. The less sides you have, the lower class you are in therefore, those who have many sides and are almost circles because of their abundance of sides are the leaders there. Our main character, A Square, was in his house one day when a sphere from the third dimension payed him a visit. This came as a huge shock to A Square because the Flatlanders did not know there was a dimension beyond their own. The sphere tried to explain the concept of height to A Square, but he didn't understand how up could be anything but the direction of North. When the sphere could not convince him of the third dimension and height he decided to take him out of their two dimensional world and into the third dimension or Spaceland. The square was amazed by it all because it wouldn't have been able to comprehend the idea of the third dimension if he were not taken there. This is because he had never experienced anything like it before.
Slaughterhouse-Five is also a book that takes us into the ideas of another dimension, however rather than a Flatlander understanding the concept of the third dimension it is about someone in the third dimension learning about he fourth. In this book the main character is Billy Pilgrim who becomes "unstuck in time". It is said that he is unstuck in time because instead of believing that time is linear as most humans believe he finds out a new perspective on time. Billy was once abducted by aliens called the Tralfamadorians. These aliens keep Billy captive for a while and teach him the truth about time. They say time is not linear, but somewhat like a mountain range. It is said that moments have always been and will always be as they are. This is because every moment has always existed. Moments do not actually come and go as humans believe, because of this the Tralfamadorians say that free will doesn't exist. Billy was in World War II and became a prisoner of war (POW) and we learned about his time as a POW. We also got to learn about Billy's life, his abduction, and his family all through his experiences time traveling after being abducted. He is able to time travel because since every moment exists he can go to different moments at different times.
Reading these two books helped us to expand our minds and think about things we not have thought about before and begin to understand some of the ideas about different dimensions. We also did a construction packet to help us understand how to draw and make art two dimensional and geometric. We also did some seminars and talked about the books in groups as well as annotating the books all so we could get a better understanding of the books, and be able to discuss the concepts within them. Doing all of this lead to the art project we did. For the project we picked a theme or idea from the books and then created a geometric representation of that idea in different creative ways.
Final Art Piece:
In Flatland there is a world that is two dimensional and it explains to us what everything is like in a two dimensional place. This place is called Flatland. In Flatland females are lines and males are shapes. The less sides you have, the lower class you are in therefore, those who have many sides and are almost circles because of their abundance of sides are the leaders there. Our main character, A Square, was in his house one day when a sphere from the third dimension payed him a visit. This came as a huge shock to A Square because the Flatlanders did not know there was a dimension beyond their own. The sphere tried to explain the concept of height to A Square, but he didn't understand how up could be anything but the direction of North. When the sphere could not convince him of the third dimension and height he decided to take him out of their two dimensional world and into the third dimension or Spaceland. The square was amazed by it all because it wouldn't have been able to comprehend the idea of the third dimension if he were not taken there. This is because he had never experienced anything like it before.
Slaughterhouse-Five is also a book that takes us into the ideas of another dimension, however rather than a Flatlander understanding the concept of the third dimension it is about someone in the third dimension learning about he fourth. In this book the main character is Billy Pilgrim who becomes "unstuck in time". It is said that he is unstuck in time because instead of believing that time is linear as most humans believe he finds out a new perspective on time. Billy was once abducted by aliens called the Tralfamadorians. These aliens keep Billy captive for a while and teach him the truth about time. They say time is not linear, but somewhat like a mountain range. It is said that moments have always been and will always be as they are. This is because every moment has always existed. Moments do not actually come and go as humans believe, because of this the Tralfamadorians say that free will doesn't exist. Billy was in World War II and became a prisoner of war (POW) and we learned about his time as a POW. We also got to learn about Billy's life, his abduction, and his family all through his experiences time traveling after being abducted. He is able to time travel because since every moment exists he can go to different moments at different times.
Reading these two books helped us to expand our minds and think about things we not have thought about before and begin to understand some of the ideas about different dimensions. We also did a construction packet to help us understand how to draw and make art two dimensional and geometric. We also did some seminars and talked about the books in groups as well as annotating the books all so we could get a better understanding of the books, and be able to discuss the concepts within them. Doing all of this lead to the art project we did. For the project we picked a theme or idea from the books and then created a geometric representation of that idea in different creative ways.
Final Art Piece:
Artist Statement:
For this piece we decided we wanted to explore the theme of sanity vs insanity. It is said that “the left side of the brain is responsible for controlling the right side of the body. It also performs tasks that have to do with logic, such as in science and mathematics. On the other hand, the right hemisphere coordinates the left side of the body, and performs tasks that have do with creativity and the arts. Both hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum and serve the body in different ways.” (Brainmadesimple.com) The two canvases on the left explore the idea of being organized in an attempt to represent a sane mind, whereas the right side goes into the craziness and unorganization of an insane mind.
For the sanity side, we only included 3 dimensional shapes to express the idea that when one is sane, they see different perspectives and angles of ideas. We use the different angles of the shapes in order to make a logical decision that makes sense and is well thought out. The shapes are in order from the most sides closest to the brain and branch out to less sides the farther away from the brain they drift. Sane people don’t necessarily just see one opinion and stick with that opinion, but instead they consider every person's view of the world and concepts. The part of the brain on this side is colored to represent an active brain that sees things from the different angles and how they think in the benefit of others point of view along with theirs. For sanity we also included irregular shapes. In Flatland, the society does not accept irregular shapes and thinks they are an abomination. They are a very organized society which is a sane representation. This society goes tries very hard to maintain the order.
The insanity side only has 2 dimensional shapes to show that when one is insane they usually only see one side of things and don’t really see any other ideas or thoughts. The 2 dimensional shapes are also in specific lines and spirals to show the concept of organized chaos. In slaughterhouse five Billy is insane in his mind but he still is able to think things through. We know this because he has this idea that an alien race called the tralfamadorians exist and he wants to tell the world about them. So he thinks his process through on how he is going to the the world about this inexistent alien race.They aren't open to other people's opinions, and they stick to their point of view only no matter the consequences. This black and white point of view is shown by making the brain on this side the coordinating color. In Slaughterhouse-Five the main character, Billy, only sees time in his eyes, he doesn’t look at how others see time, hence, why he is persistent on trying to convince the word of the new time concept and the aliens known as Tralfamadorians. These aliens are part of the fourth dimension which is time. They see time as a constant loop and that when a person dies, he is perfectly fine in many other different times on the loop. He spread this idea in many different forms such as letters, the news and radio talk shows. This obsession with these thoughts make him insane because he is stuck on only these thoughts and not thinking about how other people see things or willing to try and understand how they do. The shapes on this side are in no order or pattern and just all over the canvas and overlapping to show the chaos of one's world and even thoughts when they are insane.
-Claire Bedford, Baylee Beals, Amanda Studdard, Caeley McClain
For this piece we decided we wanted to explore the theme of sanity vs insanity. It is said that “the left side of the brain is responsible for controlling the right side of the body. It also performs tasks that have to do with logic, such as in science and mathematics. On the other hand, the right hemisphere coordinates the left side of the body, and performs tasks that have do with creativity and the arts. Both hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum and serve the body in different ways.” (Brainmadesimple.com) The two canvases on the left explore the idea of being organized in an attempt to represent a sane mind, whereas the right side goes into the craziness and unorganization of an insane mind.
For the sanity side, we only included 3 dimensional shapes to express the idea that when one is sane, they see different perspectives and angles of ideas. We use the different angles of the shapes in order to make a logical decision that makes sense and is well thought out. The shapes are in order from the most sides closest to the brain and branch out to less sides the farther away from the brain they drift. Sane people don’t necessarily just see one opinion and stick with that opinion, but instead they consider every person's view of the world and concepts. The part of the brain on this side is colored to represent an active brain that sees things from the different angles and how they think in the benefit of others point of view along with theirs. For sanity we also included irregular shapes. In Flatland, the society does not accept irregular shapes and thinks they are an abomination. They are a very organized society which is a sane representation. This society goes tries very hard to maintain the order.
The insanity side only has 2 dimensional shapes to show that when one is insane they usually only see one side of things and don’t really see any other ideas or thoughts. The 2 dimensional shapes are also in specific lines and spirals to show the concept of organized chaos. In slaughterhouse five Billy is insane in his mind but he still is able to think things through. We know this because he has this idea that an alien race called the tralfamadorians exist and he wants to tell the world about them. So he thinks his process through on how he is going to the the world about this inexistent alien race.They aren't open to other people's opinions, and they stick to their point of view only no matter the consequences. This black and white point of view is shown by making the brain on this side the coordinating color. In Slaughterhouse-Five the main character, Billy, only sees time in his eyes, he doesn’t look at how others see time, hence, why he is persistent on trying to convince the word of the new time concept and the aliens known as Tralfamadorians. These aliens are part of the fourth dimension which is time. They see time as a constant loop and that when a person dies, he is perfectly fine in many other different times on the loop. He spread this idea in many different forms such as letters, the news and radio talk shows. This obsession with these thoughts make him insane because he is stuck on only these thoughts and not thinking about how other people see things or willing to try and understand how they do. The shapes on this side are in no order or pattern and just all over the canvas and overlapping to show the chaos of one's world and even thoughts when they are insane.
-Claire Bedford, Baylee Beals, Amanda Studdard, Caeley McClain
Stage 1: Project Reflection:
1. I learned a lot about the ideas of other dimensions, time, and free will when time is looked at in different perspectives. Reading a book in math was a new experience for me. I think it was interesting to try reading a book in math and the book brought up new ideas, and I think it was a good experience to have in order to learn about the second dimension and get a good understanding for the upcoming project. I don't believe this book changed my thinking about math too much but instead helped me to gain a better understanding of what a two dimensional world would be like and what it might be like to be taken into a world of a dimension above your own. The connections I saw between the two books was how they both went into the idea of discovering new dimensions and being taken to those new dimensions by someone else rather than discovering them yourself. This gives us the idea of being taken to truth whether you want to learn about it or not someone may take you and show you that truth. Once I made these connections I understood more of what it could be like or feel like to both Billy and A square to be taken from their home where they are comfortable and into a new place that they don't understand.
2. Our original idea for the art piece was to have one side completely black and white while the other was all color. The color side was representing insanity and had only shapes on it. The black and white side was representing sanity with three dimensional shapes only on the bottom left canvas and the top left had no shapes. This idea was changed a bit after getting a critique from our teacher, Aliza, and a peer. We agreed with the critiques given to us. Some of those new ideas included mentioning it is said that insane people only see black and white and they stick to their own ideas which is why the brain on the insane side was switched to black and white but the shapes stayed colorful because the black and white thoughts insane people have seem colorful and wild to others. The white lines were added in the back to create depth on the insane side. Then we switched the sane brain to pink to show sane people can see more than their black and white ideas, but the shapes and background were left black and white to show the difference between the wildness of the insane side and the logic and calmer ideas on the sane side. Our process for making this piece starting with brainstorming and then creating a rough draft of our idea. That idea was the one I mentioned above that was our original idea. After this we started to draw the idea on our canvases. Once it was all drawn out we began to paint. We finished our beginning idea and then received the critique, so we went back and changed what we thought should be different.
3. I do not believe that doing the art piece changed what I thought about the books Flatland and Slaughterhouse-Five, but it deepened my thinking and ideas about sanity and insanity within those two books. It made me think about the way the insanity side of our piece was like Billy Pilgrim because he believed his ideas about aliens and time, but he looked crazy to others. This showed the black and white of his mind, but the colorfulness of what others saw. The sanity side made me think about how the Square began to see things from new perspectives rather than just believing in the two dimensional world which is represented in our painting through our three dimensional shapes. This project got us ready for the next step of our project because now that we are thinking deeper about the books we can go to Meow Wolf to experience that exhibit and understand the themes and ideas throughout it. Moving forward I am excited about our trip to Meow Wolf to spark some new ideas about our final piece and what we could accomplish and represent to people with our final piece. Something I have a question about is what kind of representation and what mediums do we have to work with?
1. I learned a lot about the ideas of other dimensions, time, and free will when time is looked at in different perspectives. Reading a book in math was a new experience for me. I think it was interesting to try reading a book in math and the book brought up new ideas, and I think it was a good experience to have in order to learn about the second dimension and get a good understanding for the upcoming project. I don't believe this book changed my thinking about math too much but instead helped me to gain a better understanding of what a two dimensional world would be like and what it might be like to be taken into a world of a dimension above your own. The connections I saw between the two books was how they both went into the idea of discovering new dimensions and being taken to those new dimensions by someone else rather than discovering them yourself. This gives us the idea of being taken to truth whether you want to learn about it or not someone may take you and show you that truth. Once I made these connections I understood more of what it could be like or feel like to both Billy and A square to be taken from their home where they are comfortable and into a new place that they don't understand.
2. Our original idea for the art piece was to have one side completely black and white while the other was all color. The color side was representing insanity and had only shapes on it. The black and white side was representing sanity with three dimensional shapes only on the bottom left canvas and the top left had no shapes. This idea was changed a bit after getting a critique from our teacher, Aliza, and a peer. We agreed with the critiques given to us. Some of those new ideas included mentioning it is said that insane people only see black and white and they stick to their own ideas which is why the brain on the insane side was switched to black and white but the shapes stayed colorful because the black and white thoughts insane people have seem colorful and wild to others. The white lines were added in the back to create depth on the insane side. Then we switched the sane brain to pink to show sane people can see more than their black and white ideas, but the shapes and background were left black and white to show the difference between the wildness of the insane side and the logic and calmer ideas on the sane side. Our process for making this piece starting with brainstorming and then creating a rough draft of our idea. That idea was the one I mentioned above that was our original idea. After this we started to draw the idea on our canvases. Once it was all drawn out we began to paint. We finished our beginning idea and then received the critique, so we went back and changed what we thought should be different.
3. I do not believe that doing the art piece changed what I thought about the books Flatland and Slaughterhouse-Five, but it deepened my thinking and ideas about sanity and insanity within those two books. It made me think about the way the insanity side of our piece was like Billy Pilgrim because he believed his ideas about aliens and time, but he looked crazy to others. This showed the black and white of his mind, but the colorfulness of what others saw. The sanity side made me think about how the Square began to see things from new perspectives rather than just believing in the two dimensional world which is represented in our painting through our three dimensional shapes. This project got us ready for the next step of our project because now that we are thinking deeper about the books we can go to Meow Wolf to experience that exhibit and understand the themes and ideas throughout it. Moving forward I am excited about our trip to Meow Wolf to spark some new ideas about our final piece and what we could accomplish and represent to people with our final piece. Something I have a question about is what kind of representation and what mediums do we have to work with?
Stages 2 and 3: SHATTERED, A Narrative Art Exhibit
Project Description:
a) As a class we created an exhibit similar to Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is a hands on art exhibit with a narrative in Santa Fe. We went to see this exhibit and then based ours off of that. Our exhibit consisted of three sections or rooms for people to walk through and explore. Our narrative was about a man who was a mathematician and was pondering the philosophical question, "How do we know what we know?" The first room is his office with all of his research. The second room shows a car crash he was in while on the way to a job interview, and the back of an ambulance taking him to the hospital. Finally, the third room is him in a coma, and you are experiencing what is going on inside of his head. I believe the experience for the audience was a bit different for each person who went through because everyone can have their own interpretation of each room and how it all fits together in order to make a story.
b) In this project we split up into different committees in order to divide up the work. I was a part of the artists committee. The artists were in charge of creating work that represented our storyline and gave the audience an immersive experience in our exhibition. Within the artist group we split ourselves up to work on different rooms. My role was in making the car crash room. In order to create this room we made trips to the junk yard to gather old car parts. We used these different car pieces and some spray paint to represent a car crash in our room. We also used butcher paper, yellow duct tape, and lights to make a road. To decorate the area around the road and car we had two road signs, some rocks, and some tree branches. Then we set up the car so that it is interactive to the audience and has accessible seating.
Project Reflection:
a) Taking our trip to Meow Wolf helped us make our final product in many ways. It helped us with our planning because it let us see how a plot line could be shown in physical surroundings. This was very important when it came to story boarders and artists collaborating to make the plot line from the art. Meow Wolf helped switch our designing because it let us see that we could bring multiple different components and types of content into our artwork, such as mathematical content by creating constructions out of a compass to make art pieces. The building of our final product was also influenced by Meow Wolf because we made transitions from room to room unexpected and also we did our best to hide wires and other technology we needed to keep the audience immersed.
b) After working on this project for a month I learned a lot about our PAPER skills. I believe we got the chance to learn and grow in each one of these skills throughout the whole project. One of the skills I believe I grew in most was persistence. This was a big part of this project because from the beginning many people doubted our ability to complete this project. As time moved on some of us let those doubts grow bigger and did not know if we could finish in time or with quality work. However, we all began to come together and collaborate at the end and we put our whole project together in limited time. Since we were able to do this I think it gave many people faith in our competency to pull together as peers and work through the rough spots so that we could finish our project and have it accurately represent our skill levels.
c) I believe that during this project I did work to the best of my abilities. I made sure I was always getting something done when I had the time, and when I did not have a role or something to do I would find something I could get done. I believe that our project went well and I did work my hardest at whatever task I had in front of me at the time. However, I think that moving forward and if we were to attempt this project again I think we should get our planning more organized between groups and even within our own groups. This would benefit us because if we got our plans more solid then everyone would be able to have a clear understanding of what they needed to be doing at all times. Also this could help us make decisions faster so that we do not waste time on an unneeded task.
d) From this project a math skill that I took away was learning to use math skills and constructions to create beautiful art works. Some examples of this skill being used were when we used the Golden Ratio to put the faces on the walls, and when I used a compass and math constructions to create my art piece that ended up being hung in the office room of our exhibition. A humanities skill I took away from this project was learning about people's perception of time and reality, and how that can shape someone'e experiences. An example of how we did this was by creating and exhibition that had a different experience for every person who went through, so each person's understanding and reality of our project was different. Lastly, a soft skill that I took away from this project was communication. This was a very important component to our project because each group had to discuss with each other group and also within our groups so that every one could stay on the same page and get the project done efficiently, and everyone would get to play a part in the final product.
e) The time and space project changed my thinking on project based learning because it gave me higher expectations in projects to come. This is because it proved to me that when we all come together we can create a very big and very successful project, and I would like to continue to create works like this one. This project changed my thoughts Animas because it showed me that our student's work ethic greatly affects the outcome of our final product, and it showed me that some students at Animas are more motivated than others. However, when we all worked together and became determined we cooperated much better and worked more efficiently. This time and space project changed me because it in ways gave me more hope for our future projects, but also let me realize that a lot can depend on other people. I realized that our projects can rely on other students a lot because we make the best work when every student is motivated and determined, but we cannot create as big or successful projects when other students are not ready to give their best to it. My hope for future projects comes from the realization that everyone does have that determination to get a project done as long as they are interested in it and kept on task.
Video walkthrough of our final exhibition:
a) As a class we created an exhibit similar to Meow Wolf. Meow Wolf is a hands on art exhibit with a narrative in Santa Fe. We went to see this exhibit and then based ours off of that. Our exhibit consisted of three sections or rooms for people to walk through and explore. Our narrative was about a man who was a mathematician and was pondering the philosophical question, "How do we know what we know?" The first room is his office with all of his research. The second room shows a car crash he was in while on the way to a job interview, and the back of an ambulance taking him to the hospital. Finally, the third room is him in a coma, and you are experiencing what is going on inside of his head. I believe the experience for the audience was a bit different for each person who went through because everyone can have their own interpretation of each room and how it all fits together in order to make a story.
b) In this project we split up into different committees in order to divide up the work. I was a part of the artists committee. The artists were in charge of creating work that represented our storyline and gave the audience an immersive experience in our exhibition. Within the artist group we split ourselves up to work on different rooms. My role was in making the car crash room. In order to create this room we made trips to the junk yard to gather old car parts. We used these different car pieces and some spray paint to represent a car crash in our room. We also used butcher paper, yellow duct tape, and lights to make a road. To decorate the area around the road and car we had two road signs, some rocks, and some tree branches. Then we set up the car so that it is interactive to the audience and has accessible seating.
Project Reflection:
a) Taking our trip to Meow Wolf helped us make our final product in many ways. It helped us with our planning because it let us see how a plot line could be shown in physical surroundings. This was very important when it came to story boarders and artists collaborating to make the plot line from the art. Meow Wolf helped switch our designing because it let us see that we could bring multiple different components and types of content into our artwork, such as mathematical content by creating constructions out of a compass to make art pieces. The building of our final product was also influenced by Meow Wolf because we made transitions from room to room unexpected and also we did our best to hide wires and other technology we needed to keep the audience immersed.
b) After working on this project for a month I learned a lot about our PAPER skills. I believe we got the chance to learn and grow in each one of these skills throughout the whole project. One of the skills I believe I grew in most was persistence. This was a big part of this project because from the beginning many people doubted our ability to complete this project. As time moved on some of us let those doubts grow bigger and did not know if we could finish in time or with quality work. However, we all began to come together and collaborate at the end and we put our whole project together in limited time. Since we were able to do this I think it gave many people faith in our competency to pull together as peers and work through the rough spots so that we could finish our project and have it accurately represent our skill levels.
c) I believe that during this project I did work to the best of my abilities. I made sure I was always getting something done when I had the time, and when I did not have a role or something to do I would find something I could get done. I believe that our project went well and I did work my hardest at whatever task I had in front of me at the time. However, I think that moving forward and if we were to attempt this project again I think we should get our planning more organized between groups and even within our own groups. This would benefit us because if we got our plans more solid then everyone would be able to have a clear understanding of what they needed to be doing at all times. Also this could help us make decisions faster so that we do not waste time on an unneeded task.
d) From this project a math skill that I took away was learning to use math skills and constructions to create beautiful art works. Some examples of this skill being used were when we used the Golden Ratio to put the faces on the walls, and when I used a compass and math constructions to create my art piece that ended up being hung in the office room of our exhibition. A humanities skill I took away from this project was learning about people's perception of time and reality, and how that can shape someone'e experiences. An example of how we did this was by creating and exhibition that had a different experience for every person who went through, so each person's understanding and reality of our project was different. Lastly, a soft skill that I took away from this project was communication. This was a very important component to our project because each group had to discuss with each other group and also within our groups so that every one could stay on the same page and get the project done efficiently, and everyone would get to play a part in the final product.
e) The time and space project changed my thinking on project based learning because it gave me higher expectations in projects to come. This is because it proved to me that when we all come together we can create a very big and very successful project, and I would like to continue to create works like this one. This project changed my thoughts Animas because it showed me that our student's work ethic greatly affects the outcome of our final product, and it showed me that some students at Animas are more motivated than others. However, when we all worked together and became determined we cooperated much better and worked more efficiently. This time and space project changed me because it in ways gave me more hope for our future projects, but also let me realize that a lot can depend on other people. I realized that our projects can rely on other students a lot because we make the best work when every student is motivated and determined, but we cannot create as big or successful projects when other students are not ready to give their best to it. My hope for future projects comes from the realization that everyone does have that determination to get a project done as long as they are interested in it and kept on task.
Video walkthrough of our final exhibition:
