(RAD)ART is a project where students come up with their own art assignments. These art assignments allow students to have autonomy while also giving students direction with limitations. Click HERE to see what makes a good art assignment!
Part 1: Create an invention out of something without a function and turn it into something useful and functional.
Part 2: Find things that already have a function and make it have another function.
Part 3: Make something with a function have no function.
This assignment is designed to take broken pieces and make them "whole" again.
Walk around your city and find broken pieces. You can use as many as you'd like but there should be at least two. Put the broken pieces together. It can be in any arrangement, and you can bring in anything to help accent the pieces, but the center focus should be on the, now "whole", pieces. Document your new "whole" piece.
Gather maybe a couple dozen people of varying race, gender, age, etc., and have them all swap jobs, swap roles that way, with everybody getting a quick 15 min or so lesson on their new roll. So the doctor is now a dog walker, dog walker is an astronaut, astronaut is a cashier, cashier is a doctor. Have them all mingle with a control group, watch and document.
For at least one day, change your perspective. You could change your
perspective on life, on relationships, on religion, or even hobbies. For one day you have
to think completely opposite your old perspective and opinions and think or try to
understand other perspectives that you originally dislike or could not understand. For
example if you are a religious person you have to be an atheist or other religion for a
day to truly understand it. Basically by putting yourself into another's perspective you
will find either 1. You like your old way better and there's no reason to change it. or 2.
You might just find you enjoy the other way better and you can integrate it into your life.
What's the harm in that?
This assignment is all about creating a new form of an everyday object. So what if one
did the opposite? Instead of thinking about a pillow’s traits at the moment, think about the traits
as they were. If the pillow has feathers in it where did the feathers come from? A duck, a
chicken? And where did those animals come from? An egg? Would it be wrong to say an egg is
the beginning of a pillow? Your assignment is to focus in on the beginnings, the
“original pieces” and see how everyday objects are really more similar than different. To see
how many things have the same backstory.
We are what we buy. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their receipts. Using receipts found around your house, in the street, in the trash, etc. highlight items purchased with those receipts to create a persona. From there, create a figure that matches that persona out of receipts.
Take one object from around your house and make it extraordinary. Make it have a different purpose than originally thought of. Take pictures of the before and after and then write the answer to the following question: Is there really just one limit to an object?
1. Think of a genre of music that you haven't listened to very much. It can be a genre that you feel neutral about and would normally tune out, or a genre that you dislike and usually try to avoid.
2. Find a playlist of that genre and listen to the playlist while you go on a walk around your neighborhood, or someplace that is familiar to you.
3. How does the new music affect the way you see the world around you? Do you notice anything new on your walk that you haven't noticed or put much thought into before?
4. Take a picture of the new things you noticed or observed on your walk and post the pictures on social media.
1. The first person picks a nostalgic object
2. The second person changes that object to make it nostalgic to them
3. Repeat
Alternative Assignment:
Find an object from your childhood bedroom. Alter it to fit your current bedroom.
For this assignment you will combine three of your least favorite t-shirts into one.
Choose an object/character/thing and give it a new purpose or quality.
Document.
Does it affect that thing? What makes an object an object?
Part 1: Make a comic strip where one person starts the story/event and then another continues it, and so on.
Part 2: Make a short video clip of each of these events and then mix them up and put them together as a full length video.
Take something common and repurpose it in a way that you can wear.
Combine something nature made and human made. Document.
Find an object that might go unnoticed and alter it to make it noticeable.
Create your own unique website with customizable templates.