Scotch College

Art and about

The new Teachers' Centre provided an excellent setting for the Family Day Art Show. The spacious area and atrium created a tasteful environment in which to show our students' work. Scotch families took the chance to view the exhibition.

The fountain was the backdrop for the Year 8 hand built pots, which were produced in the new ceramics room. which was an addition to the Art Department last year. Each alcove in the Centre revealed some new surprise for the viewer. The students were able to show the vast array of work they had created, and demonstrate the wide range of media and methods of production employed.

Digital computer generated artwork was very much in evidence, as the Studio Arts course was available at Yr 12 for the first time. The boys were able to show the very sophisticated level of design, which had been achieved using computer based imaging. Amongst the favourite exhibits was the claymation video animation 'north Shore'.

The three minutes of animation took over thirty hours to produce. Artist in Residence, Mr Sergio Montalbarn, an expert in multimedia, was on hand and worked with groups of Yr 11 students who were filming their animations, then loading them onto computer for editing and sound over. Mr Montalbarn has been working through the sponsorship of the Ken Field Memorial Fund.

Comments from visitors clearly indicated that this was the best Art Show held to date. Many parents said that the degree of professionalism achieved made it difficult for them to appreciate that they were looking at students' work!

Getting out there...

In the build up to this event the boys have been involved in numerous activities worthy of note. The Yr 9 boys accompanied Mr Mark Mason on a visit to the workshop of Barry Hayes, who operates a ceramics studio at Devon Meadows. Prior to the pit firing, the boys had constructed their large hand built pots in class, using terracotta clay. These were then transported to the site, loaded into a specially built open pit, and wood fired for several hours. The results were on display at the Art Show and were evidence of the boys craftsmanship.

A new electric kiln has just been installed into the Ceramics Studio. This state of the art unit will be used along side the two large, existing gas fired kilns. Also installed is a full size spray booth, complete with glaze spraying equipment. An outdoor ceramics kiln area has been established at the rear of the Scout Hall, which will be used to develop raku and pit fired work.

Canberra was again on the schedule for the current batch of Year 12 Art students. Mr Taylor and Mr Mason, flew with the group to the ACT, and conducted an intensive fine art study weekend. The boys visited the Australian National Gallery, Australian War Museum, Parliament House and other private galleries, including the Nolan Gallery at Lanyon House. It gave the boys excellent preparation for their CAT3 written paper.

Multimedia creation

The Year 11 Studio Arts students are involved in creating a short animation using plasticine figures; this is often referred to as claymation and it is a very popular style of presentation.

Teams of three or four students each drew up a storyboard and shot a tape, following the script and moving the characters around.

Sam Moore, Alex McPhie and Richard Paton set the camera to take a fifth of a second or five frames at a time, and then edit this tape directly through a computer using Premier software, producing a video tape which has dialogue, background sounds, special effects and titles. To capture a minute of raw footage takes approximately two and a half hours. The final product ran for about two minutes.

Mr Chris Taylor