Wayne St. students find art in new places
By Nick Hytreknhytrek@siouxcityjournal.com | Posted: Saturday, December 20, 2008
Wayne State College students Nik Filter, left, and Jared Smith set up part of their design project that implemented an old dryer, VCR and other salvaged materials. The project required students to use recycled and salvaged materials and household appliances to build machines that could make sound. (Photo by Nick Hytrek)
WAYNE, Neb. -- Take a walk around your home and check out your household appliances.
Ever look at your dryer as a piece of art? How about the coffee maker? The griddle? Hairdryer?
Probably not.
Neither did the 36 students in Wayne State College art professor Steve Elliott's Art 101 Design class. But that all changed a few weeks ago when Elliott handed out their assignment for the course's fifth and final project.
Titled "A Machine Orchestra," the project required the students to break into groups and create machines capable of movement and able to create sound. The kicker: 95 percent of the materials used had to be recycled or salvaged materials, including at least six household appliances.
The assignment caught the students off guard.
"I was very uncertain. I wasn't very enthusiastic at first. I was not sure how it was going to play out," said Tyisha Wrice, a freshman from Cranberry Township, Pa.
One of Wrice's partners, Christina Cutts, a senior from Norfolk, Neb., went as far as saying the project was scary. How were they ever going to take these machines, somehow put them all together and get them to make noise? But after the initial shock wore off, they got to thinking and began looking around their homes differently.
"Once you got over the fear, you start thinking what makes noise," Cutts said. "It kind of took over daily life and looking for things."
That, of course, was one of the main goals of the project, Elliott said. Yes, implementing the principles of design was a big part. But it also encouraged students to see things differently, to learn how to solve problems and work together as a team.
"It's not just about art," Elliott said. "They all have the same problem to solve, but each group has solved it in such a unique and different way."
It was something different, he said, a project similar to one a former professor of his at the University of Kansas has used for years. The Wayne State and Kansas students worked in tandem this semester, and videos of their creations will be shown next spring during an art educators' conference.
Elliott, also the chair of the art and design department, watched with amusement as the students set to their task. Yes, there was some trepidation at first, but the students quickly embraced it and began hauling stuff into the art studio.
"It's pretty much anything and everything these students can get their hands on," Elliott said.
They took things apart, studied the inner workings and experimented. They used their minds as they pondered the possibilities.
On Thursday, the students set up their machines for a performance later that evening. Old dryers were hooked up to make clunking noises. Hairdryers blew on wind chimes made from old pipes. There were old vacuum cleaners. A fan spun around, metal pieces attached to its blades plucking wires.
In the midst of it all, Elliott continually smiled while observing the room full of ingenuity.
"I think it really does lead itself to innovation," he said.
And a new outlook. Next time you ask your kids to run the dishwasher or do a load of laundry, tell them they're not doing chores, they're creating art.
Ever look at your dryer as a piece of art? How about the coffee maker? The griddle? Hairdryer?
Probably not.
Neither did the 36 students in Wayne State College art professor Steve Elliott's Art 101 Design class. But that all changed a few weeks ago when Elliott handed out their assignment for the course's fifth and final project.
Titled "A Machine Orchestra," the project required the students to break into groups and create machines capable of movement and able to create sound. The kicker: 95 percent of the materials used had to be recycled or salvaged materials, including at least six household appliances.
The assignment caught the students off guard.
"I was very uncertain. I wasn't very enthusiastic at first. I was not sure how it was going to play out," said Tyisha Wrice, a freshman from Cranberry Township, Pa.
One of Wrice's partners, Christina Cutts, a senior from Norfolk, Neb., went as far as saying the project was scary. How were they ever going to take these machines, somehow put them all together and get them to make noise? But after the initial shock wore off, they got to thinking and began looking around their homes differently.
"Once you got over the fear, you start thinking what makes noise," Cutts said. "It kind of took over daily life and looking for things."
That, of course, was one of the main goals of the project, Elliott said. Yes, implementing the principles of design was a big part. But it also encouraged students to see things differently, to learn how to solve problems and work together as a team.
"It's not just about art," Elliott said. "They all have the same problem to solve, but each group has solved it in such a unique and different way."
It was something different, he said, a project similar to one a former professor of his at the University of Kansas has used for years. The Wayne State and Kansas students worked in tandem this semester, and videos of their creations will be shown next spring during an art educators' conference.
Elliott, also the chair of the art and design department, watched with amusement as the students set to their task. Yes, there was some trepidation at first, but the students quickly embraced it and began hauling stuff into the art studio.
"It's pretty much anything and everything these students can get their hands on," Elliott said.
They took things apart, studied the inner workings and experimented. They used their minds as they pondered the possibilities.
On Thursday, the students set up their machines for a performance later that evening. Old dryers were hooked up to make clunking noises. Hairdryers blew on wind chimes made from old pipes. There were old vacuum cleaners. A fan spun around, metal pieces attached to its blades plucking wires.
In the midst of it all, Elliott continually smiled while observing the room full of ingenuity.
"I think it really does lead itself to innovation," he said.
And a new outlook. Next time you ask your kids to run the dishwasher or do a load of laundry, tell them they're not doing chores, they're creating art.
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