Unit Plan: Getting Perspective in the Renaissance

Teacher: Jennifer Fox, Perryville High School
Discipline: Photography I
Grades: 10-12
Class Time: five 75-minute periods and one 45-minute revisit period

Unit Overview

Students will explore the history of photography. For this unit the focus will be on the inventions and discoveries that make the functioning mechanics of a modern 35mm SLR camera. Students will define perspective in art and create the accurate portrayal of it on paper. Students will draw perspective images from observation, build a camera obscura, and use the camera to make another perspective drawing of the same object.

Outcomes

Cecil County Expectations and Indicators:
1. Perceiving, Performing, & Responding-Demonstrate the ability to organize knowledge
& ideas for expression in the production of art.

Expectation A: identify, describe, and interpret qualities of form that effect visual
perceptions and response.

Indicator 1.A.2 describe qualities of visual form that stimulate response in
selected works of art based on clearly defined criteria.

Expectation B: select works of art & interpret their meaning based upon the
application of expressive characteristics & use of symbolism.

Indicator 1.B.2 compare and contrast ways that the elements & organizing
concepts of the visual arts are manipulated in various periods & cultures to
illustrate themes, evoke emotional responses, and to convey meaning.

2. Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts-Demonstrate an understanding of the visual
arts as a basic aspect of history & human experience.

Expectation A: propose ways that the visual arts reflect significant historical, cultural, & social issues by summarizing & presenting conclusions based on analysis of works of art & other sources of information.

Indicator 2.A.1 describe relationships among prevalent philosophic concepts during different historical periods & the evolution of traditions, styles, forms, & conventions that define artistic periods and schools.

Indicator 2.A.2 determine ways that works of art provide social commentary, document historical events, & reflect the values and beliefs of the society from which they were created.

Expectation B: determine factors that influenced the creation of art in specific
historical eras & places by studying artworks & other sources of information.

Indicator 2.B.2 examine information from a variety of sources & propose
ways that particular artists & artworks have influenced other artists.

Expectation D: classify relationships among the visual arts, & other disciplines,
including structures, theoretical & aesthetic assumptions, & historical
development.

Indicator 2.D.1 identify and describe parallels in the development of
philosophical ideas & aesthetic valuing in the fine arts, humanities, &
sciences over time.

Indicator 2.D.2 describe similarities and differences in theoretical
approaches to problem solving applied in the fine arts & other disciplines.

3. Creative Expression & Production-Demonstrate the ability to organize knowledge and
ideas for expression in the production of art.

Expectation A: demonstrate the ability to organize knowledge & ideas for
expression in the production of art.

Indicator 3.A.1 create artworks safely that demonstrate the mastery of a
variety of tools, media, techniques and processes.

Indicator 3.A.2 create artworks that reflect an ability to interpret the natural
environment, cultural expressions, and universal themes.

Expectation B: demonstrate the ability to create compositions using the
organizing concepts of the visual arts and a variety of materials, techniques,
and processes.

Indicator 3.B.1 create artworks that demonstrate competent, expressive
application of the elements of art, principles of design, & media.

Indicator 3.B2 apply aesthetic principles & historical knowledge in solving problems of composition in the environment.

4. Making Aesthetic Judgments- Demonstrate the ability to identify, analyze, & apply
criteria for making visual aesthetic judgments.

Expectation A: apply knowledge of aesthetic traditions & conventions to evaluate
artworks from various sources.

Indicator 4.A.1 select and classify criteria that may be applied when
evaluating artworks from different cultures, schools, & periods.

Expectation B: examine and refine a personal set of criteria for judging works of
art & the visual environment.

Indicator 4.B.3 select, present, & analyze a body of individually developed
art works, applying a set of personally developed criteria.

Essential Questions:

• How did Brunelleschis’ experiment contribute to the invention of the SLR camera?
• What two time periods in European history significantly influenced modern society?
• What areas of study greatly influenced art during the Renaissance?
• What are the three, bare minimum parts, of every type of camera?
• Why create linear perspective accurately on a two-dimensional plane?

Vocabulary:

• Orthogonal lines-lines that illustrate how angles lead toward vanishing points in well
  rendered perspective images
• Vanishing point- the convergence point on a horizon line
• Horizon line- a line that defines the point where the Earth and sky meet
• Linear perspective- the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional
  plane
• One Point perspective-a single vanishing point on the horizon line
• Two Point perspective-two separate vanishing points on the horizon line
• Three Point perspective- two vanishing points on the horizon line and one in the sky
  or on the ground
• Vantage point- the point from which a viewer is looking at an artwork or the
  perspective shown by an artist in an artwork
  • Birds eye view- perspective from above a subject
  • Worms eye view- perspective from below a subject
  • Eye level- perspective from an equal level with a subject
• Basic Camera Parts- bare minimum parts of a camera necessary to make a photo
  • Body- light tight box
  • Aperture- opening or hole that lets light into the body
  • Shutter-object that can be used to open or close the aperture
• Camera obscura-Latin for dark room

Materials:

• Large box
• Cardboard
• Black paint
• Black tape (not electrical)
• Piece of plexi-glass
• Black cloth
• Sketchbooks
• Time line worksheets
• Shakespeare excerpt worksheets
• Photography Textbooks
• Sticky-back mirror
• Pencils and erasers
• Knob, washer, and screw
• Tracing Paper
• Rulers
• T-Viewer, T.V. and iBook
• Renaissance Music
• Perspective worksheet
• Overhead of Perspective wksht.
• Tacky Glue
• Masking Tape
• iBook mobile lab
• Cyanotype paper

Scope and Sequence:

Day 1- Show select slides of Hyper Studio stack from the Internet (http://www.d.umn.edu/˜aroos/2html/) on T-Viewer. Discuss how science influenced perspective in art from the Medieval to Renaissance. Look at 100 lines from a Shakespeare play. Identify historical periods by identifying words from the passage. Answer the questions - Who influenced the artists, musicians, and writers of the Renaissance? How has the inventiveness of the Renaissance effected the modern world?

Day 2- Students complete a K-W-L worksheet about perspective. Define perspective vocabulary. Students define vocabulary on a worksheet that gets pasted in their sketchbook. Three cubes are drawn with a ruler by implying orthogonal lines from the same vanishing point for three different vantage points. Students sketch an object (table, chair, school building) using two point perspective.

Day 3,4 and 5- Invite a photographer to show students a large format camera and demonstrate how it works. Students draw a schematic sketch to make a camera obscura. Share schematic drawings. Draw a final schematic drawing and time plan to build the camera obscura. Build the camera obscura. On these days students not directly involved in construction will complete a series of questions in a web quest or will make a Cyanotype print to label and paste in their sketchbook.

Revisit Day-Students cut and paste images and words to make a fold-out time line for history of photography in their sketch books. Homework sketchbook assignment is to read the first chapter in the red book on the history of photography and answer questions in sketchbook. Play Renaissance music for appreciation.

Subsequent days- Students will be working more independent of teacher instruction. Individually they will trace the projected image from the camera obscura of the same object that was previously drawn from observation. These drawings will be maintained in their sketchbooks. Remove sketches from sketchbooks and mat them with black paper. Exhibit the camera and comparative drawings at an after school event.

Assessments:

• Product of a working camera obscura
• Product of Sketchbook drawings and class notes
• Product of Sketchbook homework reviewed and graded during following revisit
• Written reflection and self-evaluation of the collaborative project
• Class participation in discussions