Art of Today (1970-present)

Click here for a sample collection to use with instructor's lecture

Student collection of Modern and New Media Art.

Students are shown a collection of modern art works including a quick tour of selected Walker Art Center and corporate interactive media works such as:

http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/

http://www.walkerart.org/education/activities/long/interactive.html

http://www.walkerart.org/education/activities/simpson/interactive.html

http://www.leopard.com/FLASH/index.html

This may be a good time to revisit the discussion about whether a work is art or utilitarian. Some questions for discussion follow:

How is art defined in our modern time?
Conceptual art-- Is the idea of art more important than the product?
When Future societies judge our time, what will they consider art? Movies? Web sites? Cars? Paintings?
How does Entertainment factor into art?
Is Entertainment also utilitarian/useful/needed
Can web sites be art?
What defines a web site as art or utilitarian?
What defines other media as art or utilitarian?
What purpose does art serve in society, in your life?
Do humans need art to live? (If you were marooned alone on an island, would art be a part of your life? “Castaway” movie.)

Students are then given time to explore the given media sites and to find others on their own.

Students compose a collection of modern artwork and new media art sites that conform to a theme of their choosing. Each work shown and URL given must also have text describing the work and how it fits into their chosen theme.

Evaluation:

Correctly created an art collection, published it and submitted the URL to teacher.
Correctly identified works that fit criteria of Modern and/or New Media
Depth of exploration. (Collection includes “utilitarian” as well as “art” sites.)
Depth of written rationale as to how each work fits the selected theme.



Another possible lesson dealing with modern art can be found at:
 
http://www.artsconnected.org/artsnetmn/whatsart/