Process Journal Experiments

Every week you will have one experiement to complete - and document in your process journal, on your artist-Instagram account or on your portfolio website. Please label each one clearly so that I know what I am looking at!

​Most challenges are courtesy of the brilliant minds at The Art Assignment.

Measuring Histories

While investigating the works of Theaster Gates, Sonya Clark and Brian Jungen, we are studying materiality and the meaning that objects can hold. Students were challenged to think about an aspect of their personal or cultural history that is hard to imagine, and then find a material to quantify, actualize, or measure that history. 
Josh, a cellist, asked the question: "How many notes would an accomplished composer have composed in his life?" He calculated averages, using only large scale musical pieces. It ends up that an average of 1 313 120 notes would be a (respectable) composer's life's work. In total it would take 23 pages of whole note tremolos repeated each line, in order to reach that amount. Here are the pages where Josh quantified his potential "life's work".
Maria realized soon after coming to Canada that her family's stockpile of onions was not a common sight in Canadian homes. In her Russian family, bulk bags of onions were commonplace; they are a staple food in Russian diets.

​"We add fried onion to eggs, potatoes, soups, stews, casseroles, and just about any savory dish you can imagine.

I came to realize that not everyone does this, and thus it became part of my identity as a Russian immigrant. My close friends now make jokes about my onion obsession on a regular basis.

This is a flipbook made of onion shells. This is the approximate amount of onion shells you would expect to see after one day of cooking in our house. One onion used at breakfast, another two for lunch, and another two for dinner. They are sewn together in a book as a reference to documentation of history. By looking at this book you can see into a part of my family's daily life."
Hooda chose to bring in a rope.

"Over 80 years ago, Libya became an independent country when Omar Mukhtar was hung. He was a symbol for a united, free Libya and his resilience and determination could not be silenced with a rope."

Object Empathy

We are learning about materiality and how objects can seem to hold or represent emotions and feelings. Students were asked to find an object they feel sorry for. It might be broken, used, pathetic or ugly. Then they were challenged to fix it in their own style, allowing the "repairs" to remain visible.

​Clockwise from top left: 
🔹Sarah's torn leaf las been stitched up with thread and staples.
🔹Scott sewed up this discarded banana peel and painted it bright yellow to cover the brown spots,
🔹Bronwyn created mini casts for her stuffed crab's torn claws, and asked all his "friends" to sign them.

Constructed Landscapes

We are learning about materiality and the ways that objects can change meaning when they are re-contextualized. Students were asked to gather materials to make a constructed landscape of their choosing, by combining natural elements with things that reference natural landscapes.
Here is Payton's work.
Here is David's work.
Here is Shuchen's work.
Here is Chlista's work.