Final Collaborative Painting:
Detail:
Video of students in action:
After painting to the contemporary music and creating the work of art, students responded to the following questions:
1. Describe your experience of painting to the music and creating a collaborative work of art. How did it make you feel? Did you like it, why or why not?
2. How was your own painting similar or different to the group/collaborative painting?
Below are the students' responses:
I enjoyed the experience of walking around and using my own ideas with other peoples to come up with many different end products that look similar but very different at the same time. I think it is very interesting to think about making a piece of artwork with many different people contributing small details. The idea of painting to the music was not one that I would have thought of. It really made me try to think it a creative way to try to really connect to the music and show that through the markings I made on the paper. This assignment made me feel like I was adding to every piece of artwork that was created. I think that every person’s mark made a difference in the final product and showed the difference in the music that was being played, and the different way that people reacted to the music. I thought the idea of collaborating to work on this assignment was helpful because it showed so many different markings, because different people have different ways of thinking and expressing their emotions in art. I liked how all of those thoughts were conveyed in all of the pieces.
The individual paintings and group painting were similar in the way that they were both showing a response to different types of music. ALthough the music that we were listening to during the group assignment was very slow with violins and pianos. The music that we were expressing in the individual painting was definitely faster and the beats were more staccato and didn’t flow as nicely as the music from the group assignment. This made the two painting a bit different. Also the individual assignment was all about how one person related to the music, and the group assignment had many different points of view that were shown....Megan
Describe the experience painting to the music/collaboration?
While painting, I wasn’t really thinking about anything. I would just let the music take over and I let the brush make the shapes. During this activity I felt really calm and relaxed, because I just let my mind run freely and listen to the music. I could really feel the calmness and sometimes it got really tense, I started to get this tense feeling in my body. I felt like i could really make the lines that the music was making. For instance, when it was a calm noise, I would draw a soft line with some waves. When the sound got loud or tense I would draw a big bold line or a line that was pointy and sharp. I really liked this exercise because it really made me relax and lose all the tension I had.
How was your own painting similar or different than group experience?
I was paying attention to the rises and falls of the music, how could I recreate them on paper? It was interesting. I guess I liked it because it was cool to have everyone working on everything. nothing was individually belonging to one of us. It was a little difficult to make marks near the end though because it was hard to find more than a very small space that you could paint in without touching another line.
How was your own painting similar or different than the group experience?
With my own I wasn’t trying to get the marks to fit into spaces made by other people, I just painted the music. When it sounded chaotic, everything was everywhere and it was good not to worry about keeping it inside the lines...Emily
1) The experience of tis was odd, to have a painting started by you but finished by other peers. Painting to music is easy since it moves you and the way your hands work. I think this was a great experience, I like doing different things like this. I also disliked it though do to the fact I normally enjoy doing my very own art piece.
2) The difference was mostly related to the fact that if a line was made that bugged me or was off, it was do to me, not peers. I also had the freedom of my own mind for it, no one else but me could touch my painting with their ink. Where as in the group each painting it was really equally shared for the work....Rylie
My own painting was more a of my own interpretation of the music and how it was conveying its message of tension and calmness. With the group piece, it was everyones ideas of the music put together, so it was a really great piece. The two paintings are similar because they both have a piece of artwork from myself. Both pieces have to do with your interpretation of the music. All in all, I think that the two paintings are both related...Kate
Painting with music makes you like think of whats happening in the music like if its happy or sad or angry music and then you draw it on paper which ever one you thought the music was showed. I think in some way it was a way to express how you feel by painting to the music. I liked the experience I thought it was an interesting way to help us learn and grow as artists. I think listening to music and making designs, shapes, lines, etc. was fun to experience and was a good idea....Sierra
Painting to the music often gives the art a very distinct mood or feel. If the music is soft and flowing, the lines will often be smooth and curvy. If the music is loud and has an intense feel to it, the lines will often end up being more jagged and violent. One problem that I had with working in a group is that there were several times when I saw a place where I could make a very interesting line or detail and it was occupied by something like a dot or a simple line. If we were able to communicate more as a group this problem could be solved more easily, but for this reason I did not particularly care for this. Painting to the music made me feel very relaxed, and seemed to relieve some of the stress which I have been feeling lately.
How was your own painting similar or different from the group experience? Similar to doing projects in school, working by myself allowed me to do more what I wanted to do with the painting. This gave the painting a more consistent tone throughout, and I was able to go in one direction and not have other people branch off my painting in many different ways. This made the painting much more concentrated than the group painting. I like to think of the group project as running a business with someone who has completely different ideas from you. In some ways, it’s counter-productive to have opposing viewpoints working on the same thing at the same time....Red
Describe the experience painting to the music/collaborating.
I really enjoyed painting to the music. Instead of having you just thinking of something by yourself, the music gave me inspiration. If the music was slow and drawn out, it inspired me to draw long swirls and lines. If it was choppy, I would draw short little bits and dots. The different types of music gave me different kinds of inspiration, and it allowed me to paint in a way that I had never before. I also really enjoyed collaborating with my classmates on all of the paintings. Each and every person in the class had a part in my own painting, which makes it unique. Also, I had a part in everybody else’s own work. It was interesting to see the change in the art over time as the music progressed. The blank pieces of paper were suddenly turned into interesting compositions, created by the whole class. I think by looking at the pieces of art I can get an idea of what kind of music I was listening to. When I was painting with the group, it felt really cool because everyone had their own interpretations of the music that we got to see, and it was fun working with the whole class. I really enjoyed how the music inspired me to create shapes.
How was your own painting similar or different than the group experience?
Painting my own composition was very similar and different than collaborating with the class. It was similar because I got to draw inspiration from the music type. In this drawing, the music felt choppy and always changing pitches. I drew many jagged drops and bends to show this. When the music changed, I would then change to swirls, and then back to choppy dots or lines. It was also similar because as the music changed, my painting changed very much. There are a lot of different types of lines and shapes in my painting, showing the change in music. Painting alone was different because it was only my thoughts and designs going into the work. It was what I felt the music was portraying, and what I thought the music should “look like”. I enjoyed the group painting more because if I felt like I couldn’t think of something, I could feed off of the class’s ideas and then add to them. When painting alone, I had only my own ideas going into the work....Julie
1)Painting this with the music at some points made me feel rushed and i disliked that. The music made me feel rushed because the music was going fast so it made me feel like i had to keep up with the music. I liked the group paintings better than the independent because then you had to find a place for the mark and that was kind fun also looking at other people response marks to the music was enjoyable.
2)My painting was similar in the way of the marks and the placement but overall my independent was much deferent in the way that it had my distinct marks on it...Tristan
Painting to the music was a very fun experience. I liked how you could see the marks change as the music did, and the changes from thick marks to thin ones and soft curves to sharp edges was very cool to see. It was also nice because the music gave inspiration for what to draw, so there was no time where I felt that I didn’t know what to do. Collaborating was also very fun because then I didn’t feel responsible for every part of the painting, so there was no embarrassment for each work. Also, you could follow other marks and make a mark that responded to them, which I liked a lot. It was kind of exciting to be doing this, because the music could make me feel one way or another, and the marks I made were influenced by that. Seeing different moods in each mark was really nice, and knowing that your mark is only one piece of each work was also very cool.
Painting on my own was not as much fun. This was caused in part because the paper was so small that I ran out of space very quickly, and also in part because the “one piece of the puzzle” feeling wasn’t there. Painting to music is an experience that I enjoy, and I really like how ink turns out, but I don’t think I did my painting very well. Still, this was an experience that I liked a lot and would like to do again....Becca
I enjoyed the collaborative painting activity. The music created both a sense of calmness and reminded me that it’s the process we’re focusing on, not the final product (although the final product came out pretty good). I thought that the music really did have an effect on my painting strokes, which raised awareness that surroundings truly have an influence on art. In addition, working with the whole class helped to create even more interesting pieces, with all our styles mixing together to make something completely new and different.
I liked the individual paintings too, although it did not have the same effect. The small amount of space we had became difficult to deal with towards the end. The different music made me realize that it really does effect the way in which we paint; my individual paintings looked, in general, much different than the collaborative ones. I think that with our own paintings, our individual styles are expressed more, as we do not have the influence or additions of everyone else....Joss
Describe the experience painting to the music/ collaborating.
I liked doing this abstract work with this kinds of music. It made me feel like I could create better/ more creative product. This activity made me feel good when i was working because of the music. The music made a good mood making it better to work in.
2. My painting was unlike the group paintings because in my paining all my strokes were there for a reason. In the group painting people would just put random lines wherever making the painting less interesting....Nick
Describe the experience painting to the music/collaboration. How did it make you feel/like – why or why not?
Painting to music was a really powerful experience for me. I really enjoy singing and playing piano, and I am exposed to music a lot. For singing and piano, you are instructed to sing or play certain notes, but in painting it is completely improvisational. I was able to create a piece of art that reflected my mood and had no guidelines, and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the group process as well, because I could see how the music affected other students.
An interesting thing about painting to music was experiencing how music changed over the course of the song. At some points, the music had a real direction and intensity, with several instruments playing at once. At that time, I was inspired to paint dark, straight lines that were powerful and confident. When the music changed to a soaring violin solo, it felt more fragile so I painted gentle and thin strokes. This made the final paintings more complex and interesting, and is why music is also complex and interesting.
How was your own painting similar or different than group experience?
I liked being in control of my small paper, but at the same time I enjoyed seeing the progress the group was making when we painted the larger papers. I also liked being forced to pick a white space left behind by another person to make my stroke. At the beginning, I was worried that someone would drop a huge glob of ink on my paper, but after going around once and seeing how good it looked I began to feel more excited to see what was coming next. I also liked being constrained to a small piece of paper....Carrie
The music influenced the marks I made. Most of the time the music had an emotion that went along with it. I think this was reflected in the marks on each piece of artwork. There were things I liked and did not like about this experience. I liked the music that was used and I liked the experience of contributing to everyones artwork. What I did not like was not having control over the outcome of my artwork.
My painting had similarities and differences with the group artwork. My painting had similar marks to the ones on the group paintings. It also had a large line running through the middle that was similar to the group artwork. What was different about mine was that It had similar types of lines on mine as opposed to the group painting which had light and dark lines on it. My painting was made up of mostly solid strokes. The group artwork had a huge variety of lines. I think this was caused by the variety of artists that worked on the group paintings....Madeleine
Overall, I liked the experience of painting to the music and collaborating. The music gave off different emotions that made it interesting and fun paint. I enjoyed collaborating because it let each piece of art express everyones reactions to the music instead of just a single person. In contrast, I thought that the collaboration made everyones artwork look very similar. Many people used the same lines on multiple papers so the art began to lose originality. In general, I enjoyed this and thought it was a good exercise.
My personal painting had both differences and similarities to my collaborative painting. The biggest difference was probably that mine used repetition while the group’s was random. On the other hand both of the paintings had some similar lines. For example, they paintings both had short, straight lines and short, squiggly lines. In the end, I liked my personal painting better because it reflected my reaction to the music....Olivia
I really enjoyed painting to the music, because I feel like art and music go hand in hand when it comes to rhythm. There is rhythm and music, and there is rhythm in art. I really liked doing this activity, especially because it was a collaborative project. At first, I felt annoyed that people would be carelessly altering my piece of art, but then I realized that doing this activity as a group would give me a sense of belonging. After working together to make many works of art, it was very interesting to look back and reflect on what we had accomplished as a group. I also feel like I benefited from seeing how different people interpreted the music into art through various marks on my original paper.
My own personal painting that I made was very different from the ones we made collaboratively. I think that this is because it is only my interpretation of the music, as opposed to a combination of the classes. My experience was different as well. This is because I was not moving around and making marks on other people’s papers. It was more pressure on us as individuals to express our interpretations onto the paper. I did not like doing it individually as much because I feel like the collaborative activity showed other people’s points of view that was different than my own. I think that it was fascinating to see how other people demonstrated their understanding of the rhythm and movement of the music....Arie
1.) It was enjoyable. It maid me feel laid back because I didn’t have to focus on making anything perfect. I just let the lines flow with the music. It felt different to have other people working on my artwork. This feeling was not bad or good it simply made me feel different. The fact that other people were in charge of my artwork was a fun and new feeling, and the sounds that the music brought showed me a whole new side to art.
2.) My painting was completely different from the group, partly because of the different contemporary music, and partly because I tend to do shorter, wilder strokes than others. While the groups paintings ended up being a mixture of long strokes and some short strokes while my personal painting was a large amount of dots that form together to create an odd pattern. I enjoyed the wilder music of the personal activity much more....Jack
I felt that the experience was really relaxing. I thought it was interesting how different swells of pauses in the music could inspire someone momentarily to make a certain line in reaction to the music. The collaborative piece of it was interesting, but I think that if a single person was doing a painting it would be more reflective of the piece affecting them. Overall, I did enjoy the experience because it was an interesting process of creating.
My painting differed from the group’s painting because I was able to make multiple lines in reaction to the music. I could make quick, short lines if the music followed that similar pattern. When I looked at the final group paintings, I was disappointed because none of the lines I felt were reflective of what was going on in the music. At the end, the lines blurred and ran together and you could not tell what the music was like. I liked my painting more because it reminded me of what I saw in my head when I was listening...Alex
1.Describe the experience painting to the music/ collaborating?
It was like a rhythm playing in motion but rather tense or soothing.
how did it make you feel/like-why or why not?
It made me feel very weird and also flowing with some kind of rhythm. I mean it was rather awkward.
How was your own painting similar or different than group experience?
I think that my painting was different than most group experience because mine wasn’t
that very perfect and not well done most people. I think that mine wouldn’t be better than an ordinary painting but I still think its good....Emanuel
I enjoyed painting to the music and collaborating with others through the artwork. I liked how the music set the tone for what the art would look like, but each of us interpreted it differently. All of our interpretations were put together onto one piece of art, which gave the painting a unique essence. I felt a sense of community with the group because all of us worked together to create the paintings.
My painting was very different from the group painting for two reasons. One
reason was that the tone that the music set was very different, which greatly transformed the shapes and lines in my painting. The other reason of why my painting was so different from the group painting was that my painting didn’t have the influences of my classmates, so the art was in my style, not anyone else’s...Chapin
I personally did not enjoy painting while listening to the music. The music was pretty annoying to me and made me think all about that and less about what I was painting. I have painted to other music before and it sort of takes over you and you paint to the flow of the music. But when this music was played I didn't feel any flow through the brush because it just sounded like random noises.
My own painting was pretty boring because I could’t really think of anything else but squiggly lines. I tried dots too but it just ended up not looking good. When we went around the table though my painting ended up awesome. Everyone touched it multiple times so it was a giant pool of everyones creativity. Everyones ended up similar but it still looked really cool....Evan
1. The painting to music was really weird. The music didn't have any organization but most of the paintings did. They all showed fantastic amounts of rhythm and movement. As for doing a collaborative piece, it was quite pointless. Since everyone has the same amount of say in what happens in each painting, the pieces looked quite alike. The only major difference was the middle line, and even that had specific parameters to abide by.
2. My individual painting was very strange because the music was very strange. For me, the the music indicated a lot of movement, and a lot of organization. The lines that I drew were all going in the same general direction, but they all were on there own specific tangent. And in that sense the piece was unorganized and erratic. And it was different from all of the others, because there was only one artist working on it (me) and I had an idea on what I wanted the whole painting to look like, as opposed to only being able to control one line at a time....Devon
Painting while listening to music helped give an idea of what kind of stroke to draw. There were many things in the music that almost told me what kind of line to make. Things like volume, pitch, speed, and how long a note lasted were easy to translate into a line on the paper. The music made the painting feel more rhythmic which allowed me to make a line without stopping to think about it. The music helped with the flow of the process and also made it more abstract because it was a collaboration of different people hearing the song song and maybe interpreting a sound from the song in a different way.
One difference between doing my own painting and doing one as a group was that it was easier to make the lines work together. When adding just a single line to a collection of lines made by other people, it was slightly harder to know what you were going to paint next. You had to look at an area of lines painted by someone else while listening to the music to make everything work together well. What was harder about making my own painting was the size of the piece of paper. Having smaller sized paper gave less room to work with so we had to make smaller, less thought-out shapes. I feel like this made my painting feel more cluttered and it didn’t have the same rhythmic feel as the larger one...Matt
I liked parts of the group activity with music. I liked that what we were doing was influenced by music, but it was weird not being in charge of my own pieces. I did not like putting my name on my original square at the end because all I did for the piece was the first line and a few marks. Not only should I not be taking the credit, but there are somethings that I didn’t like that I don’t want to take credit for. I liked the music portion because I could tell when looking at everyone’s lines there interpretation of the music, and how it was influencing there work. While I liked this activity, I really did not enjoy that I wasn’t in control of my own work. I would’ve liked this activity much more if we did not put our names on the group paintings at the end.
I liked painting by myself a bit more then when we did it as a group. I suppose the reason I liked this the most was because we did this portion second. I liked this because I already knew which strokes I liked after dong the collaborative, so I found that I liked my own painting much more. I also liked that I had complete control of what I was doing. I liked this because I didn’t have to rely on anyone else to make it good. I guess that is just apart of my personality, that I trust myself more than others, but I really did like doing my own painting more. I also liked this because it was a smaller space. I feel like with a smaller space it is easier to present an emotion then if you have to fill up a big square. I was trying to be consistent in my own painting, and ended up liking it much more than all of the random pieces, even though I did like the sense of community on the previous group paintings...Julia A
It was interesting to see how other people added to what I did. Our interpretations of the music were different but it all came together and made good painting. I didn’t really think it would turn out that well, but in the end it was very interesting. Personally I didn’t mind painting to the music. At some times it was so different that it was distracting. Then other times it helped me get ideas of shapes to include. Overall I think it was pretty successful.
My painting was pretty similar to the group’s painting. It was hectic, with lots of lines and dots. Although I think it wasn’t as random. The group painting was the whole classes interpretation of the music, while this was only mine. So it was a little more consistent throughout the painting. ...Drew
Describe the experience painting to the music/collaborating. How did it make you feel/did you like it? why or why not?
It was a stressful feeling that I got when I was painting to the music and doing it with other people. It made me feel stressed because the music was at a fast pace which made me feel like I needed to paint to the rhythm and work fast. Also I didn’t like having other people working on something with me because when I work I like to have an idea in my head and when other people added things it really changed the overall look because every person has a different feeling they are creating with the art.
How was your own painting similar or different than the group experience?
When I was painting my own piece I got to paint whatever I was feeling and have the piece of art illustrate the feelings the music was conveying. When I was painting with the group it was more one feeling I got to put down each time so my feelings mixed with other people’s feelings making the piece have different “themes” instead of one. (all the strokes followed a patter on mine, but with the group piece they were a mix)...Emma
Describe the experience painting to the music/collaborating.
-I thought it was pretty interesting painting to the music. I think that the music that was playing at the time that we were making a mark on a certain paper would slightly influence the kind of shape that we painted. It was cool to go around the table and see the shape that you had drawn the last time around and see what new shapes people had added to the paper. I thought it was interesting at the end of the activity to return to the paper that you had started with and see what it looked like compared to just the diagonal line you had drawn at the beginning.
How was your own painting similar or different that the group experience?
-I thought doing your own personal painting was harder than doing the group painting because when you were doing the group one you could look at all the other people’s shapes on the paper and take some inspiration for the shape that you were going to do. When you were doing the personal painting you had to create all of the shapes on the paper by yourself. There was also a lot less room on the paper during the personal painting so you had to choose the shapes you were painting very carefully so as not to waste any space....Cal
