Categories
- Curriculum: Language Arts | Dance & Music
- Age/Grade: Elementary 1 | Elementary 2 | Elementary 3
- Subject: Drawing | Performance
- Materials: Pencils | Markers
- Institution: The Whitney Museum of American Art
- Location: New York, New York
- Duration: 2 - 3 Classes
Description
To explore students' perceptions of movement and how it can be expressed in images.
Make a visual diary of how you move throughout the day.
Objective
To explore students' perceptions of movement and how it can be expressed in images
Resources
341A | Drawing The Line - A Portrait of Keith Haring Video
142a | Whitney Exhibition Catalog | Paperback
554a | Keith Haring, Authorized Biography | Paperback
"Nothing is constant. Everything is constantly changing. Every second from birth is spent experiencing; different sensations, different interjections, different directional vectors of force/ energy constantly composing and recomposing themselves around you? The physical reality of the world as we know it is motion. Motion itself = movement. Change."
-Keith Haring, journal entry, 1978
"There was incredibly raw energy in the air and the energy was called Hip-Hop. This Hip-Hop scene included rap music and deejays, who would be scratching, which meant moving the record back and forth so that it would be making a sort of electronic scratching noise. And it also included break dancing and spray graffiti, because the graffiti scene was really the visual equivalent to the music? Well I began incorporating all of this into the images I was making. Break dancing was real inspiration, seeing the kids spinning and twisting around on their heads. So my drawings began having figures spinning on their heads and twisting around."
-Keith Haring, John Gruen, Keith Haring, The Authorized Biography, p. 90 (see Bibliography)
Materials
Paper or copies of the squares on the next page
Pencils
Pens
Markers
Procedure
Make a visual diary of how you move throughout the day.
Draw yourself as a simple stick figure. Add something to the figure such as your hairstyle, shoes, or smile, so that people will know it is you.
Choose four different times of day, for example:
When you wake up
When you go to school
Recess
Lunch
In math class
After school
Nighttime
Think of what you do and how you move during those different moments in the day.
Draw four squares on a piece of paper or copy the squares on the following page.
Draw yourself at four different times of day. Think about how you will show yourself moving.
Questions
Suggested Discussion with Students
How do you move through space?
When do you move fast? When do you move slowly?
Do you:
Hop, skip, jump, bounce, or fall out of bed in the morning?
How do you move when you:
Run
Dance
Play sports
Read
Go to school
Listen
Talk
Go to play with a friend
Eat meals
Watch TV
Go to sleep?
How do people move around you?
Which objects move around? When do these objects move fast or slowly?
When you look at cartoons or advertisements, how can you tell that someone or something is moving quickly or slowly?
Extensions
Ask your students to show their movement drawings to the class, and ask the class to interpret the movement.