It seems like people are always asking me for good examples of Public Service Announcements. Why not? They're a good short way of getting information across and adaptable for interesting lessons all across the curriculum.

So if you're looking to do a short PSA, you can't do much better than one directed by the Coen Brothers.

Last week, I had an amazing day at the International School of Beijing. As I said to Breen O'Reilly, the IB Film teacher- it doesn't really look like a school. It looks like a hollywood set of what a school should look like. I spent the day going back and fourth between the film and art departments, trying to soak up as much information as I could from the teachers in the limited class day.

The film department looks like a professional studio. There is a sound and lighting booth at the back of the room which doubles as a mini studio and an equipment checkout center. It is staffed most hours of the day by a parent volunteer. The room itself is soundproofed and contains a large green screen on one end, hidden by a dark curtain. There is professional stage lighting in the ceiling, although it seems that the students do most of their work on location. The sides of the room are lined with macs and movie posters. There is a shelf for movie-toys as well, action figures and small props add to the room's overall environment of inspiring creativity.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with Lawrence's digital video students and talk to them about the Rotoball Project, which I just found out they will be participating in! I'm very excited to include them, and it was a real treat for me to speak with them one on one about the project. It was also great to see the innovative ways that some of the students who have already completed the project have approached it.

The Art Department's facilities rival the ones that I had in college. You enter the department through a gallery of truly stunning student work and pass the teacher's offices and art department library (yes, the art department has its own library) to the student classrooms. There are three classrooms with wall-length windows and great light, and two rooms for the IB students to work independently. The IB students not only have their own room- they have their own workspace. Two desks, plenty of floor space, and shelves for each student. The IB 1 students are on the ground floor, and the IB 2 Students have their own loft. I don't think I've ever had a space for my own art like these students.

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Between some sickness, a trip to Beijing, and a lot of catching up at work, the blog has suffered.  I'll be updating shortly, but in the meantime... look, robots!

This is a fantastic TED Talk from author Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity and genius.

This weekend, I attended a great seminar on Visual Literacy given by Breen O'Reilly, the IB Film educator from the International School of Beijing. I'll share some of the great stuff we covered this weekend in the next few days, but I wanted to post this video he just sent:



Note: If the image of Jesus singing "I will survive" in a diaper just before getting hit by a bus is offensive to you, maybe stop about halfway through or just skip to the end. Just saying. The end however, is where Lessig makes his most salient point-

We live life against the law, ordinary people live against the law. That is what we are doing to our kids, they know they are living against the law. That realization is extraordinarily corrosive, extraordinarily corrupting, and in a democracy we ought to do better.

Speaking of the HWA'S Gallery, David and his colleagues there have generously donated some space for our Expat Expo show- a student art show which will showcase the work of about eight schools around Shanghai. I'm floored that we got such a great space for our show, in no small part to the efforts of my colleague and friend Ellen Levenhagen, and the incredible generosity of David at HWAS.

Yes, I am aware that I used two variations of the word 'generous' to describe David and the folks at HWAS, and while it might not be great writing, it only begins to reflect my appreciation. Generous. Oop- There I go again.

Currently, I'm organizing some of the student work to go up in the Expo, and so over the next few weeks I'll share some of the work that I'm planning on hanging from my own students. First, here is the light painting project I mentioned earlier in the year- I'm so thrilled with the results:



I chose one photo from each student, an incredibly difficult task given the quality of their work. You can see the rest of their photographs here.

These were the project parameters:

You will need to find two locations for this assignment, 1 indoor and 1 outdoor.

You will end with a total of five final photographs. At least two in each location (3 in one, 2 in the other)

For your outdoor assignments: Find an interesting location away from your own backyard. It should be somewhere that is dark, although it may have some light (remember that your shutter will be open for a long time so it can't be that bright).

For all assignments: Make sure that you think about positioning your models/objects along the Z axis.

Assignment 1:
Create a composition by highlighting details within the frame of the camera with the flashlight.

Include 2 people, or a person and an object. One (or both) of these things should be 'altered with light'. You can use light to make them transparent, drawn on or around them with light, or have them draw in the air with light.

Assignment 2:

1. Create a 3D drawing in air using a laser pointer, LED, or LED flashlight. Try and re-create a space in your house (or other dark indoor location) with objects and 'things' created out of light. Remember that things closer to the camera should appear drawn bigger than things away from the camera.

Assignment 3:

One person in your photograph is painted in a number of different locations in the same photograph. This should include some suggestions of difference - emotions, positions, etc.

Assignment 4:
Abstraction. Using lights, create an abstract composition. YES- this may have realistic elements in it (people, objects, etc).

Assignment 5:
Free choice.

Do Now: Represent something from your community or culture in Lego. You have 15 minutes. Go!

I miss my NYC. Luckily, Christoph Niemann has devised a way for all us former New Yorkers to experience New York in all its wonderful detail. The Lego way.

Yesterday my colleagues and I took a little field trip down to one of my favorite galleries in Shanghai to catch up on  contemporary Chinese art as part of our Professional Development days.  The HWA'S Gallery always has some of the most interesting contemporary art in Shanghai.  

We were given a tour by David, the manager of the gallery who not only talked to us at length about the state of Chinese contemporary art, but also treated us to a discussion of modern Chinese art history.  

The gallery has two stunning pieces by Chen Yifei, an artist who is widely regarded to have reshaped the Chinese art world with his photo-realistic painting technique of Chinese life and his entrepreneurial skills in connecting with the Western art world.   We looked up Yifei's work on my iTouch as we were admiring his work, and were startled to see the very piece we were looking at on his website.  Obviously, The Duet does not reflect chinese life, but does show his incredibly lifelike figures.   Much of Yifei's work was banned during the cultural revolution.  Even though it looked innocuous or even pro-communist based on the expression and uniform of the figures- the expressionist background and color was deemed anti-communist.  Much of his work disappeared for 10 years. 

Finally, we took a look at a couple of art works from what is known as the "Scar Period" of art- the time following the cultural revolution.  This body of work is unified in its theme about the emotional wounds inflicted on the people by the Cultural Revolution.  This piece is entitled Reluctant to Leave. 

I love these little odd animations of monsters in the real world. They're simple and bizarre.


Monsters: 040 Ballenbad from Volstok Telefunken on Vimeo.


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By: Shaun Tan