Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's art lesson, and my name is Ms. Holland, and I'm very excited to be teaching you today.

Today, we're gonna continue our unit on art movements.

And we're gonna be specifically looking at the influence of technology on art movements throughout history.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be creating a print to reflect how art movements have been impacted by technology.

Our keywords today are art movement.

And an art movement is a group for artists who share common characteristics, themes, ideas, or techniques.

And technology.

And in this context of this lesson, we refer to technology as the use of scientific knowledge, of knowledge from science, to create tools that help people solve problems or make tasks easier.

And our lesson is in three parts.

We're gonna first of all analyse and explore the impact of technology on art movements.

Then we're gonna see how art movements respond to technology.

And then finally, how art movements have harnessed technology.

And at the end of the lesson, you'll be creating your own print.

So let's get started, the impact of technology on art movements.

So our big question for the lesson is, how can art tell us about the world the artists were living in? We have two pupils here.

Our first pupil says, "I wonder if the materials tell us, as different materials were invented at different times?" And the other pupil says, "I think artists can show us through the subject matter they depict." What do you think? How can art tell us about the world the artists were living in? Let's have a look.

Art movements include groups of artists who shared common characteristics, themes, ideas, or techniques and movements are often impacted by the changes in the world around them.

Therefore, learning about the movements and the work included in them can help teach us about the world the artists were living in.

A quick check for understanding.

Art movements include groups of artists who created work during a similar period of time.

True or false? Let's have a look.

It's false.

And it's false because art movements isn't just about a period of time, they include groups of artists who share common characteristics, themes, ideas or techniques.

And importantly, these art movements could be formed by the artists themselves, or they might be formed retrospectively by museums or curators or historians who are looking at similarities between artists.

Another check for understanding.

And I want you to discuss or write down what can impact art movements.

What have we just learned that can impact art movements? Right, let's see what I wrote.

Don't worry if it's not exactly the same, but I wrote, art movements can be impacted by changes in the world around the artists.

As I said, don't worry if you haven't written exactly the same.

The point here is that they can be impacted by the changes in the world going on around the artists.

A change that has significantly impacted art movements, and there are many changes in the world that have, but one that's significantly impacted and one that we're focusing on today from the Renaissance to the present day, is technology.

And you can see from the Renaissance to the present day, it's approximately 625 years.

That's a very long time.

And that's a significant impact that technology has had on art movements.

Technology is the use of scientific knowledge to create tools that help people solve problems or make tasks easier.

So it can include a plethora of different tools, and it can be as simple as things like wheels to far more complicated inventions like computers or smartphones and robots.

So it's a huge range of different things.

But the pointer is that it uses scientific knowledge to create tools that solve a problem and make tasks easier.

And this is an example, believe it or not, the modern pencil is a simple type of technology and one that helped improve the practise of many artists.

The pencil, as we know it, the modern pencil was invented in 1795.

And before this, artists used pure graphite sticks, so sticks of graphite, which were really messy and they broke really easily.

But due to technological advancements in both materials and in producing materials, a stronger graphite with a wooden casing was able to be made.

This meant that artists could now use pencils with much better precision, and they weren't breaking as easily so they could carry them around a lot more.

And that enabled lots of developments in technical drawings and art.

So even the simple pencil, as we know it, is a form of technological innovation.

A check for understanding.

Can you please complete the sentence? One movement that has, One change that has significantly impacted art movements from the Renaissance to the present day is? What is that change? Well done.

Yes, it is, of course, technology.

Those are application of scientific knowledge.

The impact of technology on art movements can be examined in greater detail through two very specific lenses.

The first lens is that those artists creating work that respond to technological developments, that create a response to what is developing in technology.

And then the other artists who actually harness that new technology in the process of their creating such as the modern pencil and to make their work.

And really importantly, as Izzy says, "Some art movements do both things." And some of the art movements we'll be looking at today do both things.

So we have an example here of an artist who has responded to technological developments by creating a sculpture of a robot.

So they've responded to the developments of robotic engineering by creating a sculpture of a robot, so in their subject matter.

What I would like you to look at this, here we have a picture of a process technique.

And I want you to think, how has this artist harnessed, so used technology, to make that work.

Well done.

What are they using? And there's lots of things that technology have developed, but here they're using a potter's wheel.

So the potter's wheel has made that process of creating a piece of pottery far simpler.

It's a tool that's been used by the application of scientific knowledge.

Moving on to our first task.

And here we have a picture of a beautiful sculpture.

I'd like you to examine this sculpture really in detail, and discuss these questions.

And of course, you can make notes in your sketchbook, should you wish.

How has the artist harnessed technology to create it? So how has the artist taken and used technological innovations to create it? And you'll have to look really carefully.

How do you think the artist is responding to technological development? So in their subject matter, how do you think they're responding? And I want you to look really carefully, not just at the subject of it, which is clearly a bird, but how might that be a response to technological developments, but also what materials have been used? And if this artwork belonged to an art movement, what do you think the theme or idea that would connect it would be? So I really want you to think about this or discuss it.

And of course you can make a sketch and make notes in your sketchbook.

Pause the video.

Well done.

Now remember, there is no right or wrong in this kind of question.

This is about a discussion.

But let's see what you may have said.

So you may have said about the artist harnessing technology that the artist harnessed technology by using metal and other machine made materials.

And I imagine they'd have used pliers and tools like that that would've made the job easier.

And I've said that the artist responds by mixing nature with mechanical materials, showing the contradiction between the two.

So we have a sculpture of a bird, which, of course, is nature, but it's created out of quite mechanical materials.

And I thought a good name for the art movement would be "natural technologists" with perhaps a focus of recreating subject matter, natural subject matter, but using technology and using mechanical materials.

I wonder what you wrote? Right, let's move on to our second learning cycle.

And we're gonna really delve a little bit deeper into these two lenses.

And the first lens, of course, is how did art movements respond to technology? So art movements that responded to technological developments include the arts and craft movement and Futurism.

And there are many, many, many art movements that have responded to technological developments.

But today, we're gonna focus on the arts craft movement and Futurism, which you can see on this timeline here.

The two movements responded to new technologies, but they responded in very, very different, different ways, and for different reasons.

I wonder if you can think of any now.

Let's start with arts and crafts, the first one.

The arts and crafts responded to the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution started in around 1760 and lasted till 1840, so it was for a long, long time.

During the Industrial Revolution, there was a shift from making products by hand in people's homes to using new types of technology such as steam engines to make products faster by machines in large factories and mills.

And here we have a picture of one of those mills.

Think about learning from other subjects.

Do you know of any post-industrial towns in the UK linked to this type of history, the Industrial Revolution? I wonder if you know any? The movement was led by figures such as William Morris.

William Morris is a very well-known figure of the arts and crafts movement.

William Morris was born in 1834 and died in 1896.

And they believed that this new type of production led to poor quality goods, so not as good quality, and harmed traditional craft skills.

So it was harming the skills that traditional craftspeople were using.

So as a response, so their response to this, was that they used traditional skills, they reverted back to traditional skills such as weaving and used very natural, and what they felt were high quality materials such as wood, stone, and textiles.

This design is inspired by the work of the arts and crafts movement.

So it's by a pupil.

And I want you to really, really look at the subject matter here.

And think, what do you think the theme is? Have a look.

What can you see in that design? I'm sure you saw this.

So you can see a lot of leaves, lots of flowers, in quite natural rustic tones.

So the theme for this design that the pupil created is nature.

And this was indeed a very common theme in the arts and crafts movement, and served as a visual response to the rise of machines and technology.

So from a process and technique point of view, their response was through the handmade and use of natural materials.

Visually, they often portrayed and depicted nature as a visual response.

A check for understanding.

True or false? The arts and craft response to new technology was one of celebration.

They celebrated the new technology.

Let's have a look.

Yes, indeed.

That's false.

And I want you to have a quick think why.

Why is that false? Well done.

Yes.

So the arts and crafts movement responded to new technology by focusing on handmade and crafted objects, and often included the theme of nature.

They weren't celebrating the Industrial Revolution.

Now, let's move forwards in history a little bit to Futurism, which responded to new technology by celebrating it.

And Futurism started in around 1909 and ended in around 1944.

And it emerged in Italy and was led by Felippo Marinetti, who was born in 1876 and died in 1944.

So check for understanding.

How did Futurism respond to technology? Did it A, condemn it, B, celebrate it, C, challenge it, or D, criticise it.

Well done.

Yes, indeed.

The artist celebrated the rise of technology.

Futurists rejected the traditional techniques and subject matter.

So unlike the arts and crafts movement, they actually rejected those traditional techniques and subject matter.

And instead, they wanted to celebrate technology, and they focused on machines and transports and wanted to convey the excitement of the future.

And this is a pupil's example of a piece of artwork inspired by Futurism and the Futurists' ideals.

So they communicated speed and energy through using fragmented and repeated shapes.

So you can see here these fragmented shapes and repeated.

And use bright dynamic colours like this piece.

And that conveyed this sense of excitement about the future and about technology.

Benedetta Cappa was born in 1897 and died in 1977.

And she was a very important figure in the Futurist movement and was one of the very few women members.

"The Synthesis of Aerial Communications" 1933, is one of her most famous works, and it represents the feeling of flying in an aeroplane, which is really exciting, with signals, radio waves, and vast movement in the sky, and shows how new technology in her, from her point of view, was changing the world for the good.

I wonder how you would show the excitement of new technology in your art? How would you celebrate it? I think I'd use bright colours.

I think that, for me, really shows celebration.

Afrofuturism is a contemporary art movement that's inspired by Futurism, focusing on imagining future worlds through the lens of Black culture and experiences.

Both Afrofuturism and Futurism often respond to technology and science fiction using images to explore potential future scenarios.

Wangechi Mutu, who was born in 1972, is an Afrofuturist artist who often creates figures that are part human and part machine, so emerging those two things.

Check for understanding.

Cappa was an important figure in the Futurist movement and one of the few members.

Well done.

Yes.

And she was one of the few women members.

Another check for understanding.

Mutu was an important figure in the art movement and often combined human bodies and machines.

What art movement was she an important figure in? well done, Afrofuturist art movement.

So task B.

And here we're building up to creating our print.

I would like you to respond to a piece of technology, and I'd like it to be inspired by the Futurist response, so a celebration of technology.

So what I'd like you to do is go and research a range of machines.

Or indeed, you could look at these two examples I've included here.

I'd like you to choose one machine and then focus in on one small element of it, so not the whole machine.

I'd like you to enlarge it and then use fineliner to carefully draw it, to carefully reproduce it.

So really careful drawing of what that small part of a machine looks like.

Pause the video.

Now, there must be so many different ways you could have responded to this and created this.

And I wonder what machine or piece of technology, you could have done a phone, a computer, but you may have created this.

So I created this drawing, so I zoomed in on an element of technology, and then I drew it.

And you can see I've drawn it in using a fineliner.

Well done.

Now, put that aside and we're gonna keep that for task C.

So we've looked at how art movements respond to technology, and now we're gonna look at how they harness technology.

So here we have our timeline again.

And the Renaissance, Impressionism, and digital art movements all harnessed new technology to innovate the way they created art.

So innovate means to change, to almost modernise the way they created art.

So let's start off in chronological order with the Renaissance.

During the Renaissance in approximately 1440, so a long, long time ago, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which is something we just take for granted nowadays.

But he invented the printing press.

And this was a really exciting new type of technology that allowed multiple copies of books to be made quickly and efficiently, which meant that knowledge was suddenly dispersed far easier at far more easily and across far more distance.

And the printing press, although primarily made for printing books, started being used for art not long after its invention.

Renaissance artists and Printmakers harnessed, so they use this new technology to reproduce multiple images.

And that's led to the development of really exciting new techniques such as woodcuts, engravings, and etchings.

What artists can you think of that use printmaking techniques? Have you ever used any printmaking techniques? I'm sure you have.

A check for understanding.

During which art movement era was the printing press invented? Was it during the Futurist, the Rococo, the Impressionist, or the Renaissance? Well done.

Yes.

Indeed, it's the Renaissance period.

So let's move forwards in history a little, and let's look at the oil paints.

So what do you think the invention of oil paints has to do with the onset of the Impressionist movements? We are moving forwards along that timeline to the Impressionist movement, how on earth was the invention of oil paints linked to the Impressionist movement? Let's find out.

So here we have Impressionism.

And it started in round 1865, and then ended in approximately 1886, their very approximate dates.

And one of the reasons was that the Impressionist movement was able to be formed was the technological innovation of oil paint.

Again, something we really take for granted these days, but that was an innovation.

Before the Impressionist movement, artists stored oil paints in animal bladders, often pigs' bladders, and these often burst, and also the paint dried out very, very quickly.

But due to the possibilities of new technology, so the application of scientific knowledge, the paint tube was invented, such as this picture here.

And the paint tube was made from tin, and the tube could be resealed with a screw cap.

So this meant two things.

One, that the paint could travel very safely, and two, that the paint didn't dry out so quickly.

The Impressionists harnessed this technology.

It was so exciting to be able to work outside on plein air.

They were able to work outside due to this new technology.

Check for understanding.

What technological advancement enabled the Impressionists to work outside? Was it a paint palette, a paint tube, a paint brush, or a paint roller? Well done.

Yes.

It was a paint tube made from tin.

With the invention of the camera as well, in the 19th century, artists were freed from realism and the need to create photographic style works.

And the Impressionist benefited from this innovation as well as the oil paint and explored innovative mark making techniques and used thick impasto brush strokes like in this sample here that had never been done before.

So they really pushed the boundaries of art through these two inventions.

There were many, many Impressionist artists that harnessed this technology to explore new ways of thinking about painting.

Let's have a look at a few of them.

So Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot were both focused on capturing fleeting moments and atmospheric effects.

Henry Ossawa Tanner was influenced by the Impressionists adopting looser brushwork and focused on light and atmosphere.

So all three of these artists harnessed this new technology.

Now let's skip forwards and let's look at digital art movement.

And this started in around 1965 and continues today.

And they harnessed technology, they used technology as a tool to make art.

And the clue really is in that word, digital.

So artists use computers, they use software and other electronic devices.

Artists like Nam June Paik, who was born in 1932 and died in 2006, laid the groundwork for the digital art movement, experimenting with a popular technology of their time to create new forms of art.

"TV is Kitch" a sculpture from 1996, is created by Paik that features a collection of old TV sets stacked together in the style of a giant robot.

And there are many other ways that artists have harnessed technology to create digital art.

So Donald Rodney explored new materials and technologies, including digital media.

His work is hard to put into one category because he used unique techniques in experimenting with both materials and technical processes.

Dame Sonia Boyce combined five video works in her installation, "Feeling her way".

So five different video works.

And Saeko Ehara explores combining artificial intelligence, so AI, and Generative Art inspired by Japanese anime culture.

So lots of different ways.

There isn't one way that unifies the digital art movement.

A check for understanding.

True or false.

There are many ways that artists have harnessed technology to create digital art.

Well done.

Yes.

That is, of course, true.

There are many, many different ways that artists have harnessed technology, including video, film, photography, and computer graphics.

Moving on to our last task.

I want you to create a poly block print from your drawing from task B.

So we are taking your drawing from task B, which was how responding to technological innovations.

And now we're gonna use a technique, printmaking, that harnessed new technology way back in the Renaissance.

So I'd like you to, first of all, take your drawing, and then I'd like you to use a biro to firmly draw your machine onto the poly block.

And it needs to create indentions, so little troughs in the poly block.

And then I'd like you to cut the shape out, 'cause that will make it easier to roll.

Then I want you to use your printing roller to roll out some ink.

And I would like you to apply the printing ink equally across the surface.

And you'll notice that the ink doesn't go into the indentations.

And then I want you to cover a piece of paper over the print and press it down, and again, press it very evenly so the paint transfers in an even way.

Pause the video.

Well done.

I hope you had a lot of fun.

I wonder what colours you used as well? What colours you used in your print to convey the idea of technology.

So you may have created something like this.

And I used just black paint, but I wanted to have that sense of mechanics and technology.

I wonder what yours look.

Now, we know that the innovation of the printmaking press allowed multiple copies to be made.

So I would like you to make multiple copies of your print.

If you are working at home or on your own, you could then overlap the prints on the same piece of paper.

If you're working with other pupils, you could join the print with other pupils to invent a new machine and consider what that machine might be able to do.

Pause the video.

Well done.

Let's see.

So I overlapped, I'm working on my own, so I overlapped my machine, but I wonder what you did.

Izzy said "We wanted our machine to be like a camera, but instead of taking a picture, it would show your future self." That's very exciting.

That combines science fiction.

Thank you for joining me today on this lesson, The Influence of Technology on Art Movements.

We've learned that art movements are really important in telling us about changes that have happened in the world.

And one of those changes that has significantly impacted art movements from the Renaissance to the present day, and we've looked at lots of art movements within that, is technology.

And the impact of technology on art movements can be examined in greater detail through artists' responses to and harnessing of technological developments.

Thank you again and I hope to see you soon.