Alexandra Smith

ARt & education

This work is Arts Based Research based on fifty hours of observation conducted in fall of 2015 in an Elementary Art Education classroom. During this time I noticed routines that were occurring as well as distractions on a daily basis. For my piece, I wanted to represent these interactions and routines and show the effect that distraction had on every day routines and how they are replaced with other factors. My piece is essentially a large graph. I tracked interactions throughout a period of eight days and tallied every time something of significance happened. Then I charted those interactions. After that i was able to coun every interaction, totaling 336. On my panels there are 336 ¼ in spaces. I then painted in the information found by day, counting out spaces and then painting them accordingly. The color of the paint was picked at random. Each panel is 42 inches in length and 8 inches in height (for the 8 days). The top panel shows a high amount of interactions while the bottom panel contains a large amount of scattered information. A substantial factor that influenced behavior was Halloween, which threw off routines within the classroom. Day 6 was Halloween, which is located on the bottom panel, and visually you can see the scattering of lines compared to the top panel. The lines create an eye-pleasing piece that makes the viewer question what the meaning question its meaning upon first look.  

Color Guide
Brilliant Blue-Purple= Student Interactions with Others
Brilliant Yellow= Observations on Individual Children Throughout all 50 hours
Deep Red= Notable Adult and Child Interference or Interaction
Light Green= Daily Routines
Brilliant Orange= Classroom Characteristics I liked
Light Red= Classroom characteristics I did not like.
Deep Magenta= Artist Examples
Burnt Sienna= Classroom Setup Characteristics
Black= Outside Distractions
Teal= Clothing Characteristics
Gray= Interactions Between the Students and Myself
Purple= Grading Methods