Utensil Day

WARNING: (If you are reading this now, please bare with me, my computer will not allow me to upload photos so I will do this before class on campus tomorrow morning. My apologies)

This Saturday, we worked for the first hour to finish our Appropriation Art Projects. Although not everybody fully completed their projects, we had a critique after the first hour. Each student had a chance to explain their pieces, its relationship to their community, and where they plan to display their work. Overall, I felt the critique was successful because everybody was willing to share and communicate in discussion.

For the second half of class, we introduced an introductory exercise called "The Utensil Project." Each student was to choose their favorite foods. After they decided their favorite foods, they were to create their own "personal utensils" to eat these foods. We explained that the utensil was to be an extension of themselves. How could they best eat this food? How could we see their personalities through this utensil? We took the students down to the wood shop and allotted 15 minutes for students to complete their utensils. This required that students to create their pieces as fast as possible. In the end, we resulted in some very interesting utensils: a crepe squeezer, rice slide, pizza holder, latkah shovel, and bagel necklace. Students seemed to really respond to this exercise, and I think this was because it gave them a chance to use humor and invention, and it allowed students to see quick easy results without too much time invested.

Next week, we plan to introduce our last project: the wearable. Each student is to create an extension of themselves via a wearable object. Throughout the semester we've been dealing with the big idea of "identity." Who are we as humans, a community, and an individual? So far, we have tackled the human and community. Next week will be our last stop: the individual. This week's utensil exersize served as an introductory exercise to this idea of the individual, and how we can create an object that describes us as a person.