Material-based practices

• Shift Scale: While the inclination might be to move toward a “think big, make small” model, there are ways for students to present their documentation to communicate the ideal scale of their projects. You could encourage students to either play with perspective in photography or to manipulate images of their models in Photoshop (or an alternative), such that the scale of the model is communicated. Keep in mind the execution of these scale shifts should not be evaluated in terms of “how well it’s edited” but rather if it is turned in.

• Researching Alternative Methods: Most of you know the roots of your various practices. Dig into those methods and try to backwards engineer these processes from things you find in your home. Below are a few that were crowdsourced:

  • Photography/Video

    • Best Manual Photo Apps for Androids

    • Apps Editing Photos on Smartphones

    • Building a camera obscura for your smartphone

    • This Book is a Camera / Developing with coffee + baking soda / lightmeter app

    • Making a Projector with your iPhone and Cardboard

  • Printmaking

    • Gelatin Monoprint Plates

    • http://printeresting.info/

  • Space/Sculpture

    • Salt Dough

    • Safe papier mache: I like the cooked flour paste

    • Antfarm Inflatocookbook

    • Cut + Fold Templates

• Using Found Objects: What happens if students aren’t able to make anything with their own materials? Working with found media provides students an opportunity to work with the things they have directly available.

  • Judith Scott, Mark Dion, Joseph Cornell, Sarah Sze, Tara Donovan, Ledelle Moe

• Materials from Nature: We are currently in a global pandemic and with (the most privileged of us) being able to burrow away from our homes, this might be a really important moment to reconnect with the materials that existed long before us, be it rocks, plants, animals, or even fungus. These were the first materials we used to make and they can serve us well now as well.

• Home Media as Ephemeral Media (idea inspired from Ephemeral Monuments)

  • The temporality of objects is explored by many artists from all disciplines. But might be a helpful framing device for understanding works needing to be quickly created and destroyed.

  • What would it mean to make sculptures that are designed to decay, photographs that are meant to fade, fabrics that are meant to fray?

• Studio in a Box: Even if a student has access to materials and tools, storage is going to be one of the biggest issues for most.

  • Design projects to fit in something around the size of a shoebox with a lid. Encourage students to store this box in a safe space and to not leave it in a shared area. Even a packaging box might work, but they would want to make sure they can secure the folded sides.

  • Still put a drop cloth-like material inside the box so that you can have a larger area once you take something out of the box.

• Tiny Desk Model: If a student has access to their own space,

  • Provide tips and strategies for keeping their desk organized and clean.

  • Because of the potentially complex shared living space situations that might occur in your students’ lives, many rooms might serve multiple purposes now.

  • It will be important to help students develop strategies for communicating the importance of using a space, like a kitchen table or living room.

Finding Tools to Do the Work

• Collective Inventory: This technique crowdsourced ideas for possible tools that could be used for making. A shared Google Doc is used and students are encouraged to share what they have in their homes and how they might be used. This is particularly useful as what occurs to one student might differ from another and they can inspire one another in sharing these ideas, with understanding that students have access to different tools/materials. Students can then create a personal inventory of tools/materials they do have access to and keep that list handy as a reminder when they get stuck. (Shared by Chelsea Lee, Art Foundations, VCU)

• Raid the Kitchen (With Care): Encourage students to look through the tools available in their kitchen drawers. Be sure to give guidance that these are shared resources and that they need to be cared for, especially if everyday use items. Some students might have access to sheds, but not all. I was told pumpkin carvers might be of particular interest for projects, as they are not used regularly.