Viewfinding
Contributor:
School of Visual Art & Design, University of South Carolina
PROJECT INFORMATION FOR EDUCATORS
Where?
Course Level
3D Design, Beginning to Upper-level Sculpture, and could, certainly, be used in 2D courses, too.
Previously used in online classes, fully adaptable for hybrid and face-to-face classes.
Why?
Conversation points for instructors
This exercise helps students learn to observe closely, study and play with materials and (tiny) scale, and become more familiar with abstraction.
Acknowledgements:
This project was greatly inspired by Bonnie Crawford's Viewfinders. Thanks, Bonnie!
PROJECT INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS
What?
Project Prompt / Challenge
Interpret found views as teeny,tiny three-dimensional installations inside a plastic keychain viewer.
How?
Strategy
Part 1: RESEARCH
Practice creating at least 3 different temporary installations inside your viewer.
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Try a variety of materials
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Do not glue anything permanently inside your viewer (yet)
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DOCUMENT EVERYTHING, EVERY STEP
STEPS:
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Gather lots of different materials
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Fill the entire space inside your viewer
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Look through your viewer.
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Have you considered the whole space? Background, middle ground, and foreground?
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Have you tried a mix of colors, textures, and densities of materials?
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Photograph each of your experimental installations
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Optional: Making videos looking through the viewer can be fun, too!
Part 2: FINDING YOUR VIEWS
Look all around you. Inside, outside. Take your time. Take a walk. Look really closely.
While you are perusing the view and seeing what you can see:
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Begin looking through your viewer (remove the opaque back piece for this).
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Move around.
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With one eye closed, compose different scenes.
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Document your views.
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Photograph what you see through your viewer by holding up your phone's camera lens to the viewer's eyepiece.
Part 3: INTERPRETING + BUILDING YOUR miniature world VIEW
The view you choose to recreate should come from looking through your plastic viewer and the photographs you made.
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The distortion from the lens of the viewer causes the scene or image to blur.
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This causes abstraction. Use this to your advantage.
Choose one of your photographs.
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Does it have a balanced composition? (radial, symmetrical, or asymmetrical balance?)
Time to Build!
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Use whatever materials you like.
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Consider transparency and translucency.
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Make sure you do not block all the light in your viewer, so you can still see the sculpture / composition inside.
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Layer your different materials inside your viewer.
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Use all of the three-dimensional space to create a miniature installation.
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Glue or attach things as needed.
REMEMBER:
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Consider the whole interior: foreground, middle ground, and background space!
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DOCUMENT EVERY STEP
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Photograph your installations from different angles outside the viewer and looking through the viewer lens.
A fun option: Create a video looking through the viewer. You can also add music or sound!
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Here's an example I made.
Materials:
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Plastic keychain viewers (I bought a pack of 50 from an online retailer)
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You can use all sorts of materials for this. Look around and see what you can find.
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Try different colors, different densities, and contrasting materials and textures.
Timeline:
One week.
Students collect and document views and materials and then make experimental temporary installations during class, or outside of class.
Photographs / Video of 3 temporary experimental installations and one (1) finished viewer are due at the beginning of next class.
FURTHER SUPPORT INFORMATION
Student Examples:
Inspirational
Artists:
Ann Wilson's Errant Behaviors, 2004
Sarah Sze: How we experience time and memory through art | TEDtalks | 13:51 minutes
Additional Tips:
Next time, I might also ask students to swap photos and create mini installations with someone else's photo. This could further play with abstraction, without the remembered in-person view.
