MAD Youth Summer Workshop: Points of View: Optical Devices, Drawings & Flipbooks

A Hands-on Animation Workshop with artist-educator Manuel Acevedo

Mon, Jul 25, 2011

This camp is appropriate for ages 11 - 14, and it runs from Monday, July 25 to Friday, July 29 from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Points of View is an exciting five-day workshop that deals with the creative transformation of materials and space, and addresses ways to make art with personal meaning through low-tech animation. Using the exhibition Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities as inspiration, youth will engage in a variety of activities, such as constructing optical devices that alter the perception of space, drawing from observation using a special lens and mirror, and learning stop-motion photography. As students experiment with new materials and learn alternative ways of seeing the world around them, they will also develop critical thinking and visual communication skills.

Participants will visit Otherworldly to learn about the artists’ interests and practices in constructing small-scale depictions of artificial environments and alternative realities. Subsequently, students will engage in dialogue to make connections between their individual perceptions of art making and those presented in the artists’ work.

Students will develop a short animated film during this fun and creative workshop.

For questions about this workshop, please call 212-299-7720.

Daily activities

There will be a lunch break every day; students should provide their own food.

Day 1: Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities
Inquiry based tour of an artist’s work with a focus on 3-4 pieces and drawing in the gallery. Make a thaumatrope (optical toy) depicting an imaginary or real interior and exterior space which merge into one while spinning the wheel due to the phenomenon known as Persistence of Vision. Works will be recorded on video at the end of the session.

Day 2: Flipbook Dioramas
Inquiry based tour of an artist’s work with a focus on 3-4 pieces and drawing in the gallery. Discuss how camera-less animation works in flipbooks. Develop a panoramic scene inspired by an artist in Otherworldly. Make a flipbook with 30 sheets of 3” x 5” index cards and transfer drawing onto a series of cards. Learn how to visualize and transform shapes, gestural lines and symbols that represent personal meaning. Repeat shapes, morph and move elements to create their own an animated motion picture. Preview the flipbooks.

Day 3: Flipbook Transformations
Review flipbooks and their components. Students will learn the process of completing a drawing, redrawing it and making a sequential series of drawings using a light box or classroom window. Learn how to visualize and transform shapes, symbols and words that represent personal meaning. Repeat the shape, morph, move, skew, reduce and enlarge its size to create an animated motion picture. View flipbooks.

Day 4: Flipbook, flipping it again!
This session continues to explore the process of creating a flipbook with focus on creating a fluid transition between images. Transform a shape, symbol or word that holds personal meaning and create an action by changing it. Loop movements, shape, skew, reduce and enlarge it in a sequence of drawings; works will be recorded on video. Concludes with a short presentation of work by Manuel Acevedo, the Albizu Project as seen on www.vimeo.com/manuelacevedo and youth flipbook animation project

Day 5: I am…poetry, drawing and motion
Introduce basic photographic equipment and its use in stop-motion animation. Students will develop a sense of timing used in animation. In groups, compose Write I am… poetry on a white board or similar surface one character at a time until the poem is complete, then erase it one character at a time. We’ll make pictures of the drawing process with a digital camera frame by frame.

Please review our health and safety protocols before you arrive. MAD strongly recommends all visitors six months and older are vaccinated against Covid-19 and visitors ages two and up wear face coverings, even if vaccinated. Thank you for your cooperation.

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