Using an inspiring piece of art work create soundscapes with your class. Use your voice/ musical instruments to respond to the art and layer up your creations using the ICT programs audacity or garageband.
There are some great ‘noisy paintings’ and soundscape examples on the National Gallery of Art website.
A thought provoking question for your class: Is sound art? Explore…
Weave silk (weavesilk.com) is a mesmerising generative sound and art tool that allows you to make spectacular kaleidoscopic effects exploring light, mirrors and symmetry with a musical accompaniment. It is free online. Find many examples on this Facebook page. There is also an iOS app version of the tool ‘Silk‘ (£1.99) or a free app ‘Perline Draw by Mojocat‘. with similar properties.
Generative art techniques intersect with computational thinking and offer a creative way to develop beginning programming skills. You can find over 100 short videos introducing generative art computer programming techniques on this Fun Programming site aimed at 11 year olds and above.
Or you could simply use the Weave Silk site to create digital art, thinking about mixing colours and a range of up to six fold rotational symmetry. The option to share the URL means that others can see an animation of how you created your image.
Inspiring Idea: A journey into space…
Use music as a stimulus for your art work to create an imaginative response to a sensory experience. Select music linked to a topic being studied or your pupils own popular culture and let their imaginations run while drawing in response to the sounds. Experiment with a range of drawing media and go on a journey exploring the materials creative possibilities.
Key Questions: What did you hear? How have you represented this? Why did you represent it in this way? Do the colours, shapes, lines have meaning? How did the experience make you feel? What have you learnt about the materials you are using to draw with? What happened when the music changed tempo? What journey did the music take you on?
Artist Reference: Gustav Holst (Planets music)
Activities: Create your own artistic response but then swap drawings compose and play music in response to another child’s drawing. Use audacity/ garageband to record and layer your music. Create your own class soundscapes in response to the work of another artist.