“By creating ephemeral and permanent installations, how can graduating seniors leave their mark at Southside in a positive way?
We approached the idea of leaving one’s mark through three projects: Stop Motion Video Project and Installation, Video Portrait Project, and Ceramic Tile Installation.”
-Southside Occupational Academy High School Teacher Katie Radomski and Teaching Artist Andrea Slavik
RESEARCH
We studied select historical stop motion works by pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, various filmmakers from the National Film Board of Canada including Norman McLaren, and contemporary pop cultural examples from the music video genre such as The Roots and White Stripes.
This is an example of animation produced by White Stripes.
Our stop-motion video
Students were guided in the pre-production and production of their own stop motion animation videos where they worked on claymations and choreographed each other moving through the school’s architectural space.
For our video portrait project, students experimented with photographic portraiture (including the selfie format) and explored ways to work with their peer-subject and themselves to convey personality in a photo. The text component was created during a writing and communication workshop.
Students were presented with related inquiry questions:
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Is this a good photograph?
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Why is it or why isn’t it a good photo?
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What do you think the subject is feeling or thinking?
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What compositional techniques are used in this photo?
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How do you communicate with someone you’re taking a picture of?
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How did you feel about taking selfies?
We’d hoped to be able to share our video at school, but we had not completed it when the buildings closed due to the pandemic.
We created tiles to represent our identity.
We weren’t able to complete our installation, but making the tiles was fun.