artsVoice 2014 AUGUST by artsVoice

artsVoice Supporting the implementation of Years 7–12 visual arts, music, dance and drama syllabuses in NSW schools

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

7-12

artsVoice is a curriculum publication produced by Rah Kirsten to support the implementation of Years 7–12 visual arts, music, dance and drama syllabuses in NSW schools.

artsVoice

Cover image

Published AUGUST 2014

Jana Walker A line is a dot that went for a walk (selected work) 2013 HSC submission

Warners Bay High School

Submission: Trudy Farmer

Head Teacher Creative and Performing Arts

Any product and event information included in artsVoice are correct at the time of publication and are to be used at the reader’s discretion.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Rah Kirsten is the Creative Arts Advisor for Secondary Education in the NSW Department of Education. In this role she coordinates curriculum and professional learning for teachers to enhance the implementation of dance drama, music and visual arts syllabuses in Years 7-12. Rah also provides advice on state and national initiatives and policies and the implications for the teaching and learning of Creative Arts subjects in schools.

Rah Kirsten Creative Arts Advisor, Years 7-12 Learning and Leadership - Secondary Education

NSW Department of Education and Communities

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

INSIDE 6

Editorial

What‘s in the water at Warners Bay High School?

Exploring the rubric: Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study) Topic 2: Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice

Artists’ practice at UTS ART: far and wide: Narrative into Idea

artsVoice // your voice: Vignettes from arts teachers across NSW

Reviews

Contribute to artsVoice

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

EDITORIAL

Convening an array of one-day conferences for arts subjects recently, has not only kept me busy, but also provided renewed opportunity to connect with teachers from across NSW. This issue of artsVoice has a focus on practice, and shares some of the inspiring practices of teachers, artists, academics and curators from recent connections. A staggering total of 160 dance teachers attended a professional learning conference last term, to support implementation of new HSC course prescriptions. 60 drama teachers attended a similar event for drama. In my opening address at the dance conference, I referenced the work of French philosopher Gaston Bachelard who once said – when the image is new, the world is new. This of course, has relevance to new works that will be studied in HSC courses, but is also a powerful reminder of the potential of the new as you start preparations for a new cohort of HSC students in Term 4, as students learn about practices in artistic fields.

Schools are reminded that implementation of the new course prescriptions for both dance and drama will commence from Term 4, 2014 for examination in the 2015 Higher School Certificate. Please ensure that you reference the latest digital copy of course prescription documents available from the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) website, as updates to the publications have occurred since they were first released. And finally, best wishes to teachers coordinating submission of works and practical HSC examinations at their school, and to those teachers involved with marking this year. Year 12 classes are often a challenging commitment, and your tireless efforts in informing, challenging and guiding HSC preparation is never unnoticed. I hope you enjoy this edition of artsVoice, and – as always–I look forward to your feedback. Rah Kirsten Creative Arts Advisor, Secondary Education

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

CONTRIBUTORS Trudy Farmer Head Teacher, Creative and Performing Arts, Warners Bay High School Trudy graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in Art Education. She began her career at Mitchell High School in Blacktown and then moved to Warners Bay High School as a classroom teacher. In 1996, Trudy was successful in her application to become Head Teacher at Warners Bay High School, where she broadened the faculty from Visual Arts to Creative and Performing Arts. Under Trudy’s leadership, the faculty has grown from seven staff to a total of 13 staff in 2014.

Dr Sarah Lovesy Sarah is a drama education consultant implementing a range of workshops for students and teachers around Australia. She has worked as Head Teacher at various schools and as a Drama Lecturer and Tutor at the Universities of Western Sydney, Wollongong and New South Wales. Sarah has been involved with the Board of Studies Syllabus Committees and writes for various journals. Sarah’s doctoral thesis explored the links between imagination and creativity in playbuilding. With her colleague Dr Christine Hatton, she has published an international textbook called Young at Art: Classroom Playbuilding in Practice. Sarah also created the Performance Essay methodology.

Alice McAuliffe Education Outreach Coordinator, UTS ART Alice established the Education and Outreach program at UTS ART focusing on visitor interaction, participation and artist-led workshops. She is responsible for all UTS ART educational activity for school, tertiary and adult learners and forging educational ties between UTS ART and UTS research and coursework. Alice holds an Honours degree from Sydney College of the Arts in Sculpture, Performance and Installation and a degree in Art Theory from College of Fine Arts. She has worked in the arts and cultural sector in Australia and Italy for over 15 years.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Jana Walker A line is a dot that went for a walk (selected work) 2013 HSC submission

Warners Bay High School

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

WHAT‘S IN THE WATER AT WARNERS BAY HIGH SCHOOL? By Trudy Farmer Travelling to work one day in late 2012, I heard the local ABC morning radio presenter pose the question on air, ‘What’s in the water at Warners Bay High School?’ That usual pride and ownership you feel when your school is mentioned by the media in a positive manner overcame me and I scrambled to turn the volume up, making sure I didn’t miss one bit! It seemed this particular presenter travelled past the school each day and had noticed the regularity of accolades that the visual arts, and indeed the Creative and Performing Arts faculty as a whole, received. She rattled off our ARTEXPRESS successes, our fourth win in the National Moran Photographic Prize (we have now won a fifth time), and our HSC results, with great awareness and gusto. I couldn’t wait to get to school to share my excitement! How clever were we? Then I started to think about what she had said. What is in the water at Warners Bay High School? Why are we so creatively and academically successful? It would be so easy for me to say great leadership, but, as we all know, Head Teachers are often just ‘conduits’ and are only as good as the teachers and students with whom they work.

This required further examination. I would need to dig deeper than my own ego, or, for that matter, that of the school’s. To truly understand the underpinnings of the school’s success requires both cultural and historical awareness, not dissimilar to the very syllabus that visual arts teachers work with everyday. Warners Bay High School is a large, comprehensive school on the eastern shores of Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle. Over 1,200 students and 90 plus staff exist in academic, creative and sporting harmony. A place often referred to as ‘High School Heaven’! As Head Teacher of Creative and Performing Arts, I have had the great pleasure of coordinating 13 very young, diverse, and enthusiastic teachers who are as active in the whole school as they are within the faculty. In this group sit seven wonderful and artistically astute visual arts teachers who have a real sense of the role that the visual arts play in the contemporary world and the value the visual arts provide for students in the classroom. There are consistently six classes of visual arts students in Stage 6 at Warners Bay High School – with the potential for more. More

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

students select the visual arts course in the senior school than the general mathematics course, and visual arts students continually achieved outstanding success in RoSA, Preliminary and Higher School Certificate courses.

that this is a very special place and I have been a very fortunate Head Teacher and classroom teacher to have spent most of my time here.

In the junior school we offer visual arts, ceramics and photography and digital media courses and consistently have between seven and nine elective classes in each year of Stage 5. In the senior school we have developed our programmes to ‘catch and keep’ the boys and we now have an almost equal ratio of boys to girl in Stage 6. This is explicitly due to the promotion of photography in the junior school and the promotion of practice in the digital world in both artmaking and critical and historical studies for Stages 4–6. The consistency of numbers and potential growth that we see at Warners Bay High School (WBHS) is often perceived as the opposite of what is happening in many other visual arts faculties across the state. So, ‘what’s in the water?‘ I have been at WBHS forever, (affectionately referred to in the remaining part of this article as the ‘Bay’ to avoid formality overload). If anyone should know ‘what is in the water’ it’s me! Do I know the answer? Not completely. What I do know is

If I had to provide one thing that I think explains ‘what is in the water’ it would have to be the underlying cultural attitude of the staff, students, and the wider community. The ‘Bay’ has always had a healthy respect for the visual arts, and indeed the wider spectrum of artistic pursuit. Students and their parents see the selection of visual arts as an important step towards academic success. Our visual arts classrooms have always been places of humour, wit and creative learning. It is the norm for most of the top ten academic students in each year to study visual arts or an art-related subject. When I first arrived a ‘million years’ ago I had the great fortune of landing in an art department managed by the charismatic George Lewis. He and his wonderful team, including fellow Head Teacher – Steve Wakefield (now at Belmont High School), had created an art school within a high school. This was supported through an open-door policy with theatrical and intellectual approaches to the understanding of art theory and the absolute belief in risk taking. This has provided

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Jana Walker A line is a dot that went for a walk (selected works) 2013 HSC submission

Warners Bay High School

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Kaylah Frogson Detritus (selected work) 2013 HSC submission

Warners Bay High School

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

the core culture of creative learning that we experience at the school today.

workshops are often held after school to increase accessibility to all staff and provide opportunities for feedback.

Our continuation of this open learning philosophy and the sharing of ideas and abilities between staff and students underpins both our academic results and our ability as educators to add value to student learning. We have embraced the NSW Quality Teaching framework with great enthusiasm and the relevance and importance of quality teaching to understandings in our syllabus is immeasurable. Student-centred learning in a safe and valid environment is paramount. We strive to teach each student – not the class! Our preparation for Stage 6 sits very comfortably within our RoSA programs and provides Year 10 students with a glimpse of what art is like in the senior school. At this level, students are encouraged to develop autonomy in their artmaking and artistic research and to develop ideas and opinions in personal and relevant ways that support their own learning. Staff and students exist in a shared and harmonious space and have no hesitation in seeking the opinions of other students – younger or older, or the opinions of other staff, regardless of whether they teach Years 11 and 12, or not. All students are encouraged to discuss their ideas with all of the visual arts teachers and

There is an understanding within the faculty that students have their own work habits and practices, and we attempt to work with that to also encourage student-centred learning rather than teacher-driven approaches. It is not uncommon to have Year 12 students still experimenting in July! This can be directly linked to the artistic culture of the school and the work habits of previous teachers. It is a core understanding that if a student is working expressively and experimentally – mistakes and successes combined – they are still working. Risk-taking is our mantra and our students understand the concepts of making mistakes and working through them rather than around them. Jana Walker, whose beautiful drawings – A line is a dot that went for a walk that feature in this article and were exhibited at ARTEXPRESS earlier this year – was still experimenting in her Visual Arts Process Diary at the beginning of Term 3. Was I worried? Not at all! I had a very clear understanding of her work habits, her personality and her ability to resolve ideas and work within time frames. I had excellent communication with her parents and she actively sought both mine, and the advice of other teachers.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

There has always been a wonderful communication between parents, carers and staff in the CAPA faculty at the ‘Bay’ and this has provided the backbone for our monitoring of student work habits. Regular monitoring of student progress is done through parental contact, group discussions with peers and art staff, and the extra tuition that is offered. A body of work report is sent home three times throughout the Year 12 course, autonomous of other school communication, and in a plain envelope to avoid any interference! The report indicates student progress, commitment and use of extra tuition and has proven to be an invaluable tool. It is probably the single most important thing that we do as a faculty to keep our Year 12’s focussed and successful. In 2013, 90% of students who studied visual arts as a subject for the HSC received their best HSC mark in visual arts. Our results are always above the state average in both aspects of the course and our RAP and SMART data is placed consistently at the top of the school. An acceptance of diversity within the arts space is another important aspect of studying art at the ‘Bay’, and it too can be traced back to the ‘good old days’. Jana often made the statement ‘I can’t paint or draw’, yet there she was, her wonderful, idiosyncratic mark making

hanging on the wall at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for all to see. With this wonderful historical culture that exists at our school, comes the support and admiration of our Senior Executive. I cannot recall a time in my long career where I have had to validate or dispute either class sizes, protocols or work ethics. We have always had the support of our Principal and Deputies as well as the wider school community. There is a very progressive understanding from the school leadership that many subjects are process-based, and as a result, we do not ‘over-test’ the students. A trial examination is the only formal whole cohort examination period in Year 12. Built into the trial HSC roster are Body of Work days, PIP days, Design and Technology days and so on. This is such a valuable response to our needs and that of the students and has proven to be one of the most productive days in the HSC year. Formal examination is structured in such a way to give all practical subjects much needed time with their students one month out from the due dates for practical components. Students get the opportunity to work all day on their practical work with the support of their teacher. Year 12 staff are taken off class for the day and the momentum of practical ideas

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Kaylah Frogson Detritus (selected works) 2013 HSC submission

Warners Bay High School

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

and processes, as well as problem-solving approaches, are supported. If I was to be honest about what I have personally brought to this faculty I would have to say excursions. I can often be heard exclaiming loudly “If you don’t look at art you can’t talk about it”. We bus ourselves and the artistic masses to Sydney with great regularity to see ‘blockbusters’ such as Picasso and Kapoor as well as regular drawing workshops at the Brett Whiteley Studio, tours of the White Rabbit Gallery, walks through Sculpture by the Sea, visits to the National Art School, The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the Archibald Prize and of course ARTEXPRESS. We also take advantage of the Newcastle Art Gallery and its excellent series of talks and exhibitions. Critical and historical study is always directly and indirectly connected to artmaking and is delivered in an integrated, interactive and practical manner that complements student understanding and teacher interest. Our students willingly engage in the discussion of art and the role it plays in their 21st century world. Our students are frequently taken to our town to explore sea and urban landscapes as well as experiencing local cultural changes such as Renew Newcastle, a Marcus Westbury initiative, and art in the environment such as Hit The Wall. I like to refer to these

experiences as fodder days where we gather ideas and imagery, recorded either in pencil or through photography. We have always insisted that student sources are to be personal and connected and we have a shared belief that the looking for ideas in a personal and intuitive manner is as important to the process as the resolution of these ideas. From Years 7 to 12, all work is resolved and each student has the opportunity to exhibit their work through our various exhibition opportunities. This is explicit teaching and our students are well aware what a Band 6 looks like as they consistently see it on display. I ask that my staff leave any egos at the door and immerse themselves in the creative needs of the student, as this is where the real reward comes when teaching visual arts. I take great pride in my involvement in this faculty and I know that art is valued and cared about within and outside of the school, a true barometer of social and personal history, as all art should be. The water at Warners Bay High School is very good indeed.

Trudy Farmer Head Teacher Creative and Performing Arts Warners Bay High School

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

EXPLORING THE RUBRIC Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study) Topic 2: Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice

By Dr Sarah Lovesy

The following extract is part of a presentation by Dr Sarah Lovesy at the Department’s course held earlier this year, to support implementation of Topic 2, Australian Contemporary Theatre Practice, Drama Stage 6 Course Prescriptions HSC 2015–2017. Things to consider as the teacher: Ask students to highlight the words and phrases in the rubric that they think are important and have a class discussion on the choices.

How do the plays you have chosen to teach reflect different contexts in Australian drama and theatre? Why types of ideas about Australian artistic, cultural, social, political and personal issues are reflected in the plays?

In groups ask the student to create a tableau of the rubric, bring it to life for 15 seconds, and compare and contrast different groups rubric emphasis.

What are the issues and themes in the plays and why might they be relevant to your students?

Make sure the rubric is in a prominent place every lesson and that the students continually refer to its language and intent in their making, performing and critically studying.

What are the forms, performances styles, techniques and conventions used and why? How do they influence an audience?

Ask the students to create exam questions from the rubric and in relationship to the plays they are studying and answer these questions through a written and/or performance essay.

How do particular contexts influence the audience’s expectations and reactions to the plays? Things to consider for your students:

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Alex Martinis Roe, A story from Circolo della rosa,

still from high definition video including material courtesy of Laura Minguzzi and Marirì Martinengo and the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective Archive, 2014.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

ARTISTS’ PRACTICE AT UTS ART far and wide: Narrative into Idea UTS Gallery 9th September – 10th October 2014

By Alice McAuliffe Having an understanding of practice – the how and why of an artist’s work – is an important part of understanding the visual arts. When a student can grasp the experimental, exploratory nature of artistic practice they are much better equipped to overcome the difficulties of creative block, lack of confidence or confusion over where to start. To understand practice in the visual arts, students often require a range of examples from exhibiting professional artists to draw from. far and wide: Narrative into Idea, curated by Jasmin Stephens brings together five artists who work across a variety of mediums, their similarity being an engagement with process and narrative. Stephens says, “In the exhibition the artists are exploring narratives that relate to feminism, psychology, mass media and play. The exhibition isn’t just looking at their subject matter, however. Rather it’s

looking at the artists’ methodology – the way in which they deal with narrative by framing it through an organising idea.” Each artist gains inspiration from diverse sources giving visiting students examples of the variety of ways in which they can begin an artwork or begin the creative thread that can develop into an artwork. The workshops and resources that will be produced to accompany the exhibition, will focus on unpacking the process to consider the network of procedures that are used to make an artwork. Emphasis will be placed on the work and process of Barbara Campbell, a performance and installation artist, who will be delivering the workshops in collaboration with UTS ART Education. The idiosyncratic interests and starting points of each artist will be used as a means to

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Michael Lindeman, Dear Michael, 2014 pencil and acrylic on canvas, 204 x 142 cm. Courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

exemplify the subjective nature of their practice and art production, which in turn lends the artwork to be subject to a variety of interpretations from audience members. Through consideration and discussion students will be given the opportunity to compare their interpretations with each other and with the artworld professionals involved in the exhibition. Tom Nicholson’s work Printed pages/Bearing images/1998-2008 began with an idea when the artist was at university. Intrigued by images in the media of people bearing images of other people, the artist began to collect every image he found that fitted that description. This was a process that went on for ten years without a clear objective in sight. Instead, the artist enacted the process of collection for collecting’s sake. His artwork for far and wide: Narrative into Idea is a video compilation of every image on slow dissolve. The work acts as a slice of subjective history, a way to understand a period of time within a tight descriptive framework. It also acts as an equaliser, as protests and celebrations from one culture to the next dissolve into each other, linking these unconnected events into an event of shared humanity. George Egerton-Warburton invites us into a fantasy world where the suspension of disbelief, usually reserved for children, is requested from the audience. His diorama depicts a luscious tropical environment where a toy horse and found materials from his studio abound. The work evolved from the stress of packing up and moving to California for a place at a renowned art school. As this played

on his mind, Egerton-Warburton played with what was at hand in his studio, creating his own diorama of escapism. Alex Martinis Roe has made a video piece documenting the close bond formed between two women who were active participants in the Milan Women’s Bookstore Collective Circolo della rosa. Martinis Roe is interested in oral histories and her process involves walking the earth talking to people. The video gives the audience an intimate and personal account of a much larger international movement, which is often studied and theorised on a macro level but rarely is light shed on the personal account of the individuals involved. Michael Lindeman’s work dates back to his first job at Sizzler restaurant when he was 15. As a boy he kept the certificate of dishwashing he received and it now serves as inspiration to the adult artist. Lindeman has painted a replica of this certificate, using it as a type of humorous self-portrait. This is shown alongside a painted replica of an open letter to the viewer, where the artist recalls his casual job at Sizzler while simultaneously questioning society’s expectations of artists. Barbara Campbell, a performance and installation artist has used text as the starting point for her large-scale installation Conradania, in this case Joseph Conrad’s acclaimed novel The Heart of Darkness published in 1899 and set on the Congo River in Africa. Campbell spent eight weeks typing out the book word for word on 20 15ft lengths of Chinese rice paper. She then filmed the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland, which is

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

Tom Nicholson, Printed pages/Bearing images/1998-2008, 1998-2008 high definition video still. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.

played on a small screen in front of the hanging rice paper. Her ironic and humorous installation started with a fascination with text that developed into a critique of masculinity and Western Europe’s exoticism of other cultures.

opportunity to meet and work with the artist and to gain an insight into her personal way of working and formulating ideas. Students will also have the opportunity to explore strategies to build upon creative threads and ideas that can be practically applied in their own practice.

The variety of work produced, the artists’ inspiration and the development of their ideas provide students with a range of examples of narrative in contemporary artmaking. This diversity of practice gives students examples to find confidence in sourcing their own ideas and inspiration in art making.

Alice McAuliffe Education and Outreach Coordinator UTS ART

far and wide: Narrative into Idea UTS Gallery 9th September – 10th October 2014

The workshops, run in collaboration with Barbara Campbell, will give students the

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

artsVoice // your voice Vignettes from arts teachers across NSW A chart of part of the interior of New South Wales by John Oxley, Surveyor General, London, 30 Jan 1822 From the Dixson Map Collection of the State Library of New South Wales

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

DAMIEN CLIFT Head Teacher, Creative and Performing Arts Henry Kendall High School My name is Damien Clift and I am 30 years old, married to an amazing Canadian lady called Susan and currently enjoying the unconditional love and antics of two crazy dachshund puppies, Lollie and Honey. Oh, and I’m also the Head Teacher of Creative and Performing Arts at Henry Kendall High School currently teaching Music and Photography, although last year I was teaching Visual Art and Drama as well. Thank goodness I can’t dance. I’m at my most creative when I am playing an instrument, whether it’s a piano, synthesiser, drum kit, guitar, bass guitar, ukulele or singing, just being on an instrument and improvising or simply noodling is simply sublime. Add in other musicians or a recording studio and I’m in heaven. Right now I’m working on Strategic Communication initiatives for my school, setting up a Google Calendar for faculty reminders, investigating the potential and possibilities for Google Apps at our school, preparing my Year 12 Music students for their upcoming exams and puppy training. I’m usually inspired by seemingly endless web-quests where I start watching a video on YouTube and end up hours later reading some totally unrelated, yet thoroughly interesting article on Wikipedia and gaining a tonne of completely useless trivia and knowledge along the way. “Why do YOU know that? Why would anybody ever NEED to know that?” – two oft asked questions by my friends

and family. I completed Orff Level 1 training in the ACT during January 2014 and that was extremely inspiring as far as my teaching practice goes – I can’t recommend those courses enough. My creative heroes are all keyboard players, funnily enough: David Hirschfelder for his performance, arranging and composition skills (and the ability to totally rock a keytar), Jon Cleary for his funky-as-allget-out New Orleans style piano skill, Ben Folds for making piano playing alternatively cool during my high school years, and Little Richard for his high energy Rock ‘n’ Roll piano style and teaching The Beatles to shake their heads and go ‘WOOOOO!!!’ I admire them because I can relate to everything they create – I admire their work, talent and skill and strive to gain something from everything they do and add it into my repertoire of ideas and techniques. The last performance that I attended was Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen at Lizotte’s in Newcastle, which made me think about how excited I am to be going to New Orleans in January 2015 with Susan. I am so enamoured with the funk and groove that comes out of that city that I can’t wait to be embraced by all of its cultural offerings. C’mon second line! In my spare time I – I’m sorry, what is this ‘spare time’ you speak of? But seriously, I love spending time with my wife and puppies plus all of my friends and family. Gatherings usually end up in some kind of informal jam session or sing-a-long. I’m also an avid craft beer aficionado, so I like visiting breweries and craft beer bars to try anything new (provided it’s an ale and tastes nothing like lolly bananas). In terms one and two my ‘spare time’ was taken up with arranging orchestral charts and rehearsing

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

students in my role as Assistant Musical Director for Star Struck 2014. . When I was younger I wanted to be a Record Producer or Mastering Engineer. I even went to the JMC Academy straight out of high school and got an Advanced Diploma in Audio Engineering – one of my classmates and good mates is now Head of Audio at the Sydney Opera House, it was a glamorous idea and I stuck with it for nearly a decade. But the constant night work and insecurity of that industry wore me down. When I was in high school I wanted to be a Primary School teacher, so I combined my love of Music and desire to be an educator and ended up back at Uni when I was 23 to become a Music teacher. One day I will design an interactive, cloud-based system that makes lesson planning, sequencing and programming a much more streamlined process that doesn’t seem onerous and painful, sell it for a couple of million and retire by the age of 35. Either that or make sure I see Paul McCartney in concert before he loses the rest of his voice – probably a little more likely, I guess. I’d also like to finally record all of the songs I’ve written over the years that have never really seen the light of day.

AMBER CROUCH Music and drama teacher Oberon High School My name is Amber Crouch and I am enthusiastic about performance. I’m at my most creative when I am really busy and under pressure. Right now I’m working on a series of Moodle sites for a number of classes. I’m usually inspired by great music, film and theatre, and my creative heroes are buskers and street performers. I admire them

because they have the guts to try with little gain. The last performance that I saw was Oberon High School Talent Show and a Dreamworks exhibition, which made me think about ways of making students comfortable and confident performers, and how to teach film with flair. In my spare time I play music with my family, make jewellery and spend time with friends. When I was younger I wanted to be a forensic scientist. One day I will conquer the world one Music and Drama class at a time.

LANELLE LEE CHIN Visual arts teacher Hay War Memorial High School My name is Lanelle and I am a very petite visual arts and photography teacher. I’m at my most creative when I am daydreaming. Right now I’m working on the organisation of an ANZAC Centenary ceramic mural to be created by students at school. I’m usually inspired by things that excite and delight the senses and my creative heroes are Michael Leunig and Shaun Tan. I admire them because they are creative who push beyond the boundaries of being aesthetically pleasing, their artworks have a much deeper meaning. The last exhibition that I saw was by a local artist, Chris McClelland which made me think about his splendid ability with the humble pencil to render beautiful wildlife portraits and how I should take lessons with him soon. In my spare time I enjoy fostering a rescue poodle. When I was younger I wanted to own all the colours available for connector pens. One day I will finally master the art of not burning soup on the stove.

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

ILLUSTRATION NEXT: CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE COLLABORATION BENAROYA, Ana Thames & Hudson, UK, 2013 ISBN 9780500517017 [741.6]

Image source: <www.amazon.co.uk/ Illustration-Next-Contemporary-CreativeCollaboration/dp/0500517010> accessed 8 August 2014.

This review and those following were originally published in Scan – the Department’s online journal for educators, 2014 Issue 1.

Exploring the practice of collaboration in the field of contemporary illustration, this publication sets up an accessible, engaging conversation between diverse artists working across local and international contexts. High quality plates of commercial and personal work samples showcase hybrid illustration styles merging collage, digital illustration, traditional printmaking, mixed media, photography and textiles. Through an interview-style layout, individual artists reveal honest accounts of their ways of working and sources of inspiration, providing a practical model for developing students’ own artmaking practice. Enriching this dialogue is a series of thematic briefs designed by the author, to which artists have responded in collaborative pairs. Universally human yet abstract themes, ranging from ‘excess’ to ‘fragile’ and ‘prayer’, inform artists’ shared conceptual and material investigations. The resulting debates, visual poetry and unexpected juxtapositions present rich potential for case studies and units of work. Most significantly, this innovative publication highlights the nature of practice as an ongoing, intentional process that balances planning with instinct, positive risk-taking with reflection and resolution with an ongoing openness to re-presenting the world. This publication contains sensitive issues and imagery. H. Yip USER LEVEL: Stage 5 Stage 6 Professional KLA: Creative Arts SYLLABUS: Photographic & Digital Media Stage 5; Photography, Video & Digital Imaging CEC Stage 6; Visual Arts Stage 5–6 SCIS 1628666 $39.95

AUGUST 2014

THE WORLD ATLAS OF STREET ART AND GRAFFITI SCHACTER, Rafael NewSouth, NSW, 2013 ISBN 9781742233772 [751.7] Accessible to all, street art and graffiti represent living mediums that empower artists to act as social agents as they investigate their contemporary world through the creation of urban interventions. Surveying the practice of individual artists and collectives on a global scale, this publication highlights artists’ postmodern strategy of appropriating public spaces to critique and reanimate cultural identities. Insightful artist profiles, city maps and an efficient image citation system accompany extensive photographic documentation of artists’ bodies of work. Importantly, the artmaking processes of these artists are examined as site-specific actions and experimentations in two, three and four dimensions. The fundamental role of audiences and attitudes towards the growing commodification of street art are considered across the forms of typography, illustration, graphics, sculpture, performance, installation and even digital apps. Supported by a specialised glossary, students and teachers can critically engage with the interconnections between artists’ practice and interactive contexts for display, as well as a contemporary playground of practical imagemaking ideas. This publication contains sensitive issues and imagery. H. Yip USER LEVEL: Stage 5 Stage 6 Professional KLA: Creative Arts SYLLABUS: Photographic & Digital Media Stage 5; Photography, Video & Digital Imaging CEC Stage 6; Visual Arts Stage 5–6; Visual Design CEC Stage 6 SCIS 1628578 Paper $49.99

artsVoice

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

CONTEMPORARY

PHOTOGRAPHY IN ASIA

HOOTON, Keiko S. & GODFREY, Tony Prestel, Germany, 2013 ISBN 9783791348070 [779] Tracing the recent emergence of experimental art photography in East Asia, this publication highlights intersections between the localised practices of artists and global realities. Examining dynamic tensions between the adoption of photography as a way of seeing and rapid sociopolitical transformations, a series of introductory essays present authentic arguments useful for developing students’ informed points of view about the role of innovation in contemporary photographic practice. The following chapters set up a powerful dialogue with artists’ voices from diverse regions, presenting quotes from individual artists alongside high-quality plates of key artworks. The selection of visually and conceptually challenging works blurs photography

with performance, installation and virtual worlds, providing refreshing and accessible stimulus material for critical and practical investigations. The absence of accompanying curatorial text invites active questioning and interpretation of the interrelationships between the artworks, artists’ intentions, time and place. Concise biographies of all artists can be found at the back of the publication, providing useful starting points for indepth student research and critical inquiry. This publication contains sensitive issues and imagery related to artists’ deconstruction of cultural taboos. H. Yip USER LEVEL: Stage 5 Stage 6 Professional KLA: Creative Arts SYLLABUS: Photographic & Digital Media Stage 5; Photography, Video & Digital Imaging CEC Stage 6; Visual Arts Stage 6 SCIS 1628647 $90.00

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

TEACHING AND LEARNING IDEAS

ghostly, animated effects to reveal the passing of time.

Explore how contemporary photographic artists blur boundaries between truth and reality versus fiction and fantasy. Compare Yang Zhenzhong, Maiko Haruki and Cao Fei. Debate the role of social networking in the creation of online individual and collective identities. Create a collaborative metaportrait to represent particular social tribes. Refer to Ken Kitano’s Our face and Atta Kim’s On-air. Appropriate pre-existing images and experiment with role-play, role-reversals, masquerade, re-staging and digital image manipulation to re-present histories and alternate points of view. See Yasumasa Morimura and Hai Bo. Explore an urban or natural environment on foot, documenting it from different angles and points of view. Create a composite image to reveal the passing of time and a subjective landscape of memories. Refer to Sohei Nishino’s Diorama map series. Explore extremes of light and shadow, experimenting with overexposure and underexposure. Crop or obscure parts of photographs to create unexpected compositions with open narratives. See Maiko Haruki. Construct an installation on a miniature scale. Use macro photography and depth of field to play on audiences’ perceptions of reality and fiction. Refer to the work of Xing Danwen.

Experiment with capturing a frame within a frame and the notion of the audience or voyeur. SUGGESTED RESOURCES • Australian Centre for Photography • 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art • APT5 Yang Zhenzhong, Artist talk • Artist interview: Yee I-Lann • Art photography now (2011) by Susan Bright • The big bang: contemporary Chinese art from The White Rabbit Collection (2010) by Elizabeth Keenan • China’s vanishing worlds: countryside, traditions, and cultural spaces (2013) by Matthias Messmer & Hsin-Mei Chuang • Cubicle life (2013) by Chun Wai • Daido Moriyama: reflection and refraction (2013) by Daido Moriyama • Episode 156: Sohei Nishino, The Art of Photography • Hong Kong Contemporary Art Awards 2012 (2013) by The Hong Kong Museum of Art • Residue (2013) by Marcel Heijnen • Sohei Nishino • Wawi Navarroza • Yasumasa Morimura: theater of the self (2013) by The Andy Warhol Museum (iBook) (video) • Yee I-Lann Helen Yip Visual Arts and Photography teacher Asquith Girls High School

Capture variations of a subject. Digitally layer the images and adjust opacity to create

artsVoice AUGUST 2014

artsVoice CONTRIBUTE If you are a secondary teacher in a NSW public school, you are invited to contribute to artsVoice. •

practice

•

artsVoice // your voice (let us know about your yourself) original photography of student performances, exhibitions or work samples (student release forms must be obtained) approaches to innovative arts practice in your classroom or faculty

collaboration

•

case studies or outcomes from collaborating with colleagues in your local network, community of schools or with an artist/arts organisation

research

• •

papers you have presented at conferences reflections/analysis of current arts education research.

To express interest, email Rah Kirsten