TechIntersect

One fun project I like to have students do from time to time helps them to understand both how a digital camera captures pixels of color to create digital photographs, and also how that technology relates to Pointillism paintings from over 100 years ago. If you look at a Seurat painting close up (go ahead and click on the example, I’ll wait…)

Georges Seurat – The Side Show – 1888

Source: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/seurat/paradetl.jpg.html

… Ok, you’re back… (That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?) you will see thousands of little distinct colored dots of paint. That is Pointillism. Painting with dots. Working with the example of the Impressionists who did not completely mix colors on their canvas either, Seurat knew that the viewer would mix the discrete colors optically when viewing from a distance. The same thing happens today with our digital displays. The computer monitor you are viewing this on uses discrete dots of color called “pixels” in order to present an optical illusion of color. Check out the zoomed in version of the above image. (Go ahead, click it to enlarge it too.)

Digital images are actually a combination of three colors, Red, Green and Blue. Just as we mixed paint or crayon colors together in elementary school, we mix dots of red, blue and green light together to achieve millions of possible color combinations. The pixel is the smallest graphical unit that can be recorded or displayed, and each will be a variant of red, green or blue. A digital camera sensor records the pixels, and later we can view them on a computer display device or print them on paper.

To simplify things for my lesson, I like to eliminate color information altogether and simply have students record different values of light & dark pixels. I have done this exercise with computers and also using only paper and pencil. I create a pixel puzzle in which each student will recreate a portion of the final picture. The end result looks something like these two examples. (Click to zoom)

How to make the puzzle

Simply take your source image you want to base your puzzle on into Photoshop. On PS CS2 I use Filter->Pixelate->Mosaic, then adjust the square sizes so they are large enough to create pixels, yet small enough the image is still recognizable. Then I print this pixelated version and cut it into numbered squares. It helps to print a key, with corresponding numbers so you know how to reconstruct the image from the puzzle pieces.

If I’m using the paper & pencil method, I also like to print pages with square outlines in which my students can shade in the different values with a pencil. Have them squint at the puzzle piece to get an accurate reading on how dark or light the individual squares are. Then have them shade in the corresponding squares. If students reproduce their puzzle piece fairly accurately, you can reassemble a compelling and recognizable image of the original.

I am always surprised at how even though students can use a different stroke or shading style, yet the image manages to come together quite nicely.

If I’m using the computer graphics method, I still print the puzzle pieces for them, but instead of a pencil, I let them use Adobe Illustrator to draw the different value squares, then print their work out on a laser printer. Same idea, but less mess and usually less time to complete.

Hope you like this idea… my classes seem to enjoy the activity and they appreciate learning a bit of art history and it’s relevance to modern technology.

Tags: art, Art History, digital camera, drawing, education, Impressionism, Pointillism, technology, value study

After observing what is happening around the world with educators utilizing blogs and other digital media, I am eager to get started. I recently mentioned this to a colleague I work with who teaches writing. My friend is using “blogging” in a writing course with our Axio Learning course management software in a password protected environment. When discussing the possibilities of having student write in blogs that are publicly accessible, this teacher whose opinion I greatly value, was adamant that students be offered a choice to go live to the Internet or to remain in a protected environment. Her position is that students should not be required to put their thoughts into the public domain, which is in essence what happens when you post to the web.

I countered that students knowing that a global audience can access their work, might actually put in a greater effort than they do currently in a private setting. She agreed, but is concerned that once you put something out there, it is out there forever. In her opinion, requiring students to give away their intellectual property without their consent is not the thing to do.

So I put the question to my visitors from hither and yon– By requiring our students to blog in the publicly accessible web, are we violating their rights to their own intellectual property? Are we setting up a learning environment that to some might be intimidating and even down right scary, thereby inhibiting the very learning we are hoping to instill? Or are we simply creating a unique learning experience that documents progress in thinking and learning that can always be referred back to at a later time?

One unique perspective comes from my colleague at Kansas State University, Dr. Michael Wesch. You may know Dr. Wesch from his YouTube video The Machine is Us/ing Us.  He recently published an article entitled Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance. (Links to PDF).

I realize that the Edublogging community is very pro-technology biased. But I am very eager to explore this issue from every angle, because my friend’s concerns are valid. What are your thoughts? How are you creating a safe learning environment, but at the same time using the power of Web 2.0 in your classes? Have you thought about the concerns raised in this post? (Thanks to Sue Waters for encouraging me to start this discussion.)

Tags: art, blogging, critiques, education, technology, web 2.0

One of my favorite classes that I teach is also the one that forces me to stretch the furthest and forces me to stay on my toes simply because it is near the edge of what I would consider to be my area of expertise. It is a survey course entitled “Humanities through the Arts.” I have taken hold of that class and adopted it as my own with the mission of connecting the arts with technology and the sciences. Our campus is a remote location from the main campus of Kansas State University, and as a result we have far fewer course options available for students to study in the humanities. As K-State’s College of Technology and Aviation, we have a strong technological bent which explains my desire to demonstrate strong connections between the arts and humanities.

One question I like to pose to the humanities class is “Why do all college curriculums require study outside of your major? Why do we like to see technology students study the humanities?” Typical answers include a desire to produce well rounded graduates, or to get more of our money, but I like to let the question develop over the semester to see if any deeper answers emerge. I believe some of my students really start to get it when I read some of their comments and responses to some of the art that we have been experiencing. Here are some examples:

Our first communication is usually visual. As infants we see somebody doing something and we do. We see a picture and look to see how our mother or father react to the image, and react the same way. We need to see something to believe it even if what we are looking at isn’t real. In art we see through others’ eyes. By color changes or texture of an art piece you can feel the hatred or love of the subject and with what you have learned from you parents you can like it or not like the art piece. But either way your mind grows from another’s experience/option.

Or how about:

The mind reacts to differently to different colors and music and textures. A ridged rock would raise our brain activity, hard metal rock would excite us, and the color red could anger us. Using this things in a commercial or performing art you could cause chaos. Now take a smooth rock, soft classical music, and a light purple color and you would get a calmer effect. Its how our brain works as humans and what we see hear, taste, see, touch, and smell can make all the difference giving artist the edge they need to get their point across.

Or this one:

I was recently effected from an art piece at the art center. I was about an Indian child who killed her self. It was in black and white so already in mind I was put into a good vs. bad mind set, or life vs. death. I hate to admit it but I had no good thoughts on Indians since recently my high paying job was sent to India; where they would only get $2.15 a week. I was hurt and angry. After reading and seeing that art display I realized the sadness and hurt some have to suffer, that most have to suffer. And that a child could take her own life over it. Its black and white there, you have the money or you don’t, you live or you die.

I believe we produce better engineers, scientists and technologists when they can see and understand how the work they do is for the benefit of human beings; when they can start to see the bigger picture. I believe that humanity suffers when technology people focus more on technology than on the people which it serves. My primary reason for starting this blog is to explore the interconnection between the arts and technology. As I teach this course, finding these connections has actually been much easier than I anticipated.

For example, I took the class on a tour of the Salina Art Center to see the exhibit of contemporary Indian art and there were numerous pieces that included video and interactive multimedia technology. It is almost as if I had specially requested these type of artworks be displayed for my class, but I hadn’t. Technology is playing a huge role in contemporary art and students are surprised to learn this.

We also toured the Blue Heaven Studios, a world class recording studio in a converted church right here in Salina. Then we watched the Kenny Wayne Shepherd DVD 10 Days Out (Blues from the Backroads), filmed in part in Salina at the studio. Studens are amazed to learn that this even exists in their hometown and that every year the finest Blues artists come to Salina to perform.

Anywhere I can find a connection between the arts and technology, it is fair game for my course. I would love to hear your suggestions of topics to explore that address the intersection of technology and the arts.

Tags: art, education, technology