7th and Final Post!

What was the most challenging aspect of this unit? Explain.
What worked well for you in the research project? What helped you learn?
What didn't work well for you in this research project? What would have made the project better?
Critique the overall human form in art research project. Should this project be taught in ninth grade Humanities English? Why or why not?

I think I am finished with my presentation! All I have to do is edit a couple of little details, finish the bibliography, and I think I'll be done.

I think the most challenging aspect of this unit was to keep the analysis questions in mind while doing the project. I think they were a good guide, but it was amazing how many times I'd forget that I was supposed to be basing my project off of them, and not other things that I found interesting during research.

Even though I found it challenging to keep the essential/analysis questions in my mind while doing my project, I also found them very helpful as a guide. Many times I'd come across something while computing and I'd ask myself, "What was I supposed to be doing here?", I'd refer back to the 'Analysis' piece on the webpage and it would get me back on track and thinking in the right direction.

What didn't work that well for me was the setup of my powerpoint presentation on google docs. I found it helpful to be able to access it at home and have all parts of my projects together on an online system, but i didn't find the powerpoint part of it to be very user-friendly. I probably would have used Microsoft's powerpoint version and inserted it into google docs, if I would have figured out I could do that before I hadn't gotten so far on my presentation already.

I think the project overall was a good experience. At first I thought the project was going to be boring and just busy work, but after a while I started getting interested in the history of the piece, artist, and what it meant to me. Even though I know I've done quite a bit of work on this project, it doesn't seem that I've done a whole lot, since it was pretty interesting to me, and the amount of work time given and the tasks assigned were reasonable. I learned a lot about the piece of art I picked, and I also learned that doing the project was not at all the burden I thought it would be.

I think it should be taught in 9th grade Humanities because it really applies to the concept of "Humanity Worldwide" (not just America), and makes the whole course more interesting and expansive than just reading texts. I learned a lot from doing the project.

Post 6

Today I started working on my powerpoint for my art project. I used google docs and I have to say that I think Microsoft's powerpoint program would work better for what I am trying to do. I found the system of google docs' powerpoint confusing. It doesn't seem there are very many effects to choose from, to do what I want to do to my slides. But, I did find it handy that the program offers "speaker notes" that are not physically on the slides when they are presented, but you can write what you want to say during the presentation about each slide so that you don't have to have seperate note cards.
For the analysis and synthesis of my project, I will say that I think I have all the research I need to finish the "Analysis" piece in order to incorporate it into what I will say during my presentation.
Analysis:
4. My painting seems to explain that people who went to French nightclubs in the 1800s and were bohemian, of a higher class than ordinary people. By the expressions of the faces of people in the painting and by the overall, laid back mood of the painting, I believe this to be what the painting says about the class of people.

Post 5

Today I finished my final draft for the Written Description. Next I am going to put together my information abou the artist, time period and artistic movement in a set of organized notes, so I can use it when presenting. I am about ready to start on my powerpoint. I also need to compare my piece with two other sources, one of which will probably be Anna's, "The Dance at the Mulin Rouge". Since the piece is by the same painter, time period, and style, I think it will be interesting to find the different details between them, and quite convenient for both of us. Also, I have some questions on the bibliography part of the project. I found my piece of art on the internet, have already found five sources, and therefore have not used any other sources than the internet. I am not sure what books I can find about the specific painting in the media center, and will we have more time to go there in the near future?

Post 4

Today I studied my piece of art for a while, to see what was physically going in the painting at first. Next I thought about what those things meant, and what I thought was going on in the scene. It was kind of hard to try and interpret what was going on in the painting, and I think I might want a little more backround about the painting, since so far I've only gotten info about the artist. At least I have a rough draft of what I see going on in the picture so that it can be described to others. My next steps will be to look for more background information on the painting itself, cultural context of the piece, and some more about other things that were going on at the time it was painted.

Notes and Outlining

I have decided to sitck with the piece, Divan Japonais. I still need to organize my notes, add new notes, and finally, start forming an outline of the Written Description. I will spend my time in here on Friday taking more notes and outlining the description. Today I also learned more about the artist of the painting that will help me better understand the background of the piece.

Divan Japonais

Today I used google docs to type up my notes about my newly chosen painting, and it was useful. I have now chosen a painting by Henri le Toulouse-Lautrec called Divan Japonais. I like it and learned a lot about it from the online resources. I have completed basic notes about the background of the painting as well as its artist.

First Blog

The art project so far has been pretty successful. I've found more than one piece of art that I'm interested in, but I haven't chosen a piece yet. I'm a little confused when I'm looking through the books of artwork sometimes becuase it's confusing what painting they're listing or giving credit. I don't have a piece of art that I'm super interested in though, and I don't really know what to choose.