Lowell National Historical Park

Today at the Addison we examined prints of Josef Albers. Students were thinking deeply about what colors they saw in each of these prints. How powerful to know that Albers was thinking the same things as he created these pieces. After our visit, students designed their own Albers-inspired rectangles that changed with size, location, and color. Seeing them create code to match their own art work was fantastic!

Sol LeWitt's wall drawing brought together many of the concepts we have studied. Through previously written rules, LeWitt asked participants to randomly select a segment or arc for each square foot section. The class looked at all the possible options for a random selection and then looked for streaks. Returning to what they have experienced already with coding and combinations was gratifying to see in such beautiful art work.

Wall Drawings

Inspired by Sol Lewitt's Wall Drawing #797, the students investigated what happens when a simple rule...drawing a line that stays, or attempts to stay...equidistant from a non-straight line...is repeated many times.

We did the first version together in class, after first predicting what would happen.  The predictions were mostly that the bottom line would look like the top line, and when it turned out that it wasn't, students hypothesized that it was due to human error.  We broke up into groups and investigated that theory, and eventually...through many different and creative arguments...the students concluded that it wasn't just human error; that the inevitable result is that the lines will tend to smooth out over time.

Then we went outside with some sidewalk chalk and asked strangers to help us do the drawings again, but by following rules the students had written down, without verbal instructions.

A question that most of the students were still struggling with at the end was: if duplicating a wavy line eventually leads to a smoother line, if you erased all but the smooth line and worked backward, would you get back to the wavy line?

(If you think you know the answer, and why, feel free to post here!)