How to use available materials to experience and convey the design thinking and art techniques in the design practice under limited conditions? The Arts and Crafts teachers and students have made breakthroughs based on traditional class to meet the challenges and the online platform is used to guide the students to come up with brilliant sparks on arts and crafts.
Chinese Painting (1)
Teacher: Professor Tang Xuxiang
Students: Undergraduates of fiber art (Class 813)
Teaching time: 48 class hours (3 credits)
"In the absence of Chinese painting tools, we need to learn to use all the materials at hand to experience and convey the unique elements of Chinese painting."
Prof. Tang Xuxiang is teaching
In the special period of fighting the epidemic, Prof. Tang Xuxiang has made appropriate adjustment about the way and content of painting practice in the Chinese painting course in time as the students are learning from home, so as to achieve the best teaching effect. Mr. Tang posts teaching tasks and courseware at Rain Classroom where the students sign in. Besides, he uses Tencent Meeting for live video teaching.
Prof. Tang Xuxiang is teaching
Prof. Tang Xuxiang shared the works of the elder-generation of artists of the school with his students and explained the works so that the students could learn the basic painting language and the law of art forms at home, and then carry out painting practice to consolidate the knowledge learned. The students share their feelings about and problems in creation through online class, to achieve continuous progress.
Assignments
The online teaching has also brought unexpected benefit to the students. Prof. Tang mentioned that in the special period and under the special conditions, some students use computers, iPads and other electronic products to paint. While endeavoring to improve their art skills, they try to create traditional art by means of science and technology. As thus, good teaching results have been achieved.
Lacquer Art (3)
Teacher: Associate Professor Cheng Xiangjun
Students: Undergraduates of lacquer art (Class 714), postgraduates of painting art
Teaching time: 48 class hours (3 credits)
"Teaching online, I try my best to help my students gain more specialized knowledge."
"Although different from the previous way of class participation, we students can't do hands-on work as we did at school. But I've learned a lot from Cheng's online teaching. In promoting the online report scheme, Mr. Cheng gave me good suggestions which were very helpful to my learning of the major," Lu Zixiang, who is taking the course, comments on the special class experience.
A/Prof. Cheng Xiangjun is teaching
In addition to imparting knowledge, this course includes online discussion, scheme reporting and final course summary. In order to protect the students' creations and their intellectual property rights, A/Prof. Cheng Xiangjun has set up two student groups: the internal group and the open group. The former comprises nine undergraduates in the main and requires the postgraduates of lacquer art to sit in on the class as well when time permits; the latter, at the request of the alumni of the school, offers some of the society-oriented classes for the alumni and the postgraduates of their schools to sit in on.
A/Prof. Cheng Xiangjun describes his course as "the design course of lacquer art for space". Starting from the requirements of architectural environment and space for art, he explains the relationship between lacquer art and life, as well as the significance of designing lacquer artworks for home.
Homework presentation
Sketch (2)
Teacher: Associate Professor Yue Song
Students: Undergraduates of metal art and lacquer art (Classes 913 & 914)
Teaching time: 60 class hours (3 credits)
"Each of us artists should shoulder social responsibility and historical mission!"
The Sketch 2 course offered by Yue Song to last three weeks has been divided into three phases: sketching of characters and scenes, self-portraits and thematic sketches. As for the teaching mode, he uses Rain Classroom to record the students' attendance, and posts teaching notes and courseware on it. When expounding key knowledge points and holding discussions, he uses the live broadcast function of Tencent Meetings to facilitate real-time communication.
Sweet Dreams by Zeng Shuangshuang
The course integrates the teaching features of the Arts and Crafts Department associated with the decorative painting language into the undergraduate sketching class. A/Prof. Yue Song introduced the development history, artistic style and representative works of decorative painting of the school, which enlightened the students on decorative painting and deepened their feelings about decorative language. Under current circumstances,Yue Song has requested the students to create the sketch on the theme of Fighting the Epidemic.
Wings by Chen Xialing
Sketching is a fundamental course. A/Prof. Yue Song emphasizes the expression means of decorative painting in association with the teaching features of the Department of Arts and Crafts, with a view of laying a solid foundation for students' future study and helping them to develop good learning habits.
Guardian by Zhu Yuhui
Thank You for the Glorious Return by Xu Jiayang
Kiss in the Time of Epidemic by Jin Yinzhi
Living the Life by Zhou Heyang
Glassblowing (1)
Teacher: Associate Professor Li Jing
Students: Undergraduates of glass art (Class 814) and postgraduates of glass art
Teaching time: 64 class hours (4 credits)
"When it comes to glass materials, mastering the art technique and exploring the artistic language are equally important".
The course was affected by the epidemic which made hands-on work impossible. Li Jing used modern technological means such as live video explanation and sharing of various online resources to stimulate the students to join in online discussions and increase their enthusiasm for independent learning and creation offline.
A/Prof. Li Jing is teaching
The learning and training in this course involve the following seven steps:
Learning: With the teacher's systematic explanation, the students will gain an initial understanding about the historical process, tools and equipment, basic crafts of glassblowing, as well as the proper nouns and terminology in Chinese and English.
Watching: Students watch the glassblowing video of representative artists at the class, such as Chihuly in the Hotshop, to gain an initial idea about the glassblowing process.
Reading: The Studio Glass Movement is a significant starting point for contemporary glass art. A reading of the biography of Harvey K. Littleton: A Life in Glass, the father of the glass Studio Movement, enables the students to gain an all-round understanding about the development process and creation concept of contemporary glass art.
Noting: After class the students watch the video on the basics of glassblowing and take detailed notes with hand-drawn sketches of key steps and details.
Practice: Students use gouache, watercolors, markers, carbon pens, colored pencils and other tools for drawing practice, with copying exercises based on the renderings of specific shape and texture of glass art.
Creation: Based on the innovative design and drawing of the glassblowing process, the students make specific glassware kit design through the whole process from draft design through gradual improvement of the process flow chart to final presentation of the rendering, to show the creation concept and aesthetic characteristics of the work.
Reflection: The purpose of the course is not simply to teach techniques or to complete the design of a glassblowing work, but to guide students to think artistically and to have a comprehensive understanding about and develop insights into contemporary glass art.
The class is going on
Homework presentation
Metal Ornament Design
Teacher: Associate Professor Wang Xiaoxin
Students: Undergraduates of metal art (Class 713)
Teaching time: 48 class hours (3 credits)
"From the technique we dig into the essence of the thinking behind".
A/Prof. Wang Xiaoxin is teaching
Wang Xiaoxin's teaching process involves three focuses: the research topic, the rule and the method.
Research topic: The course takes Difference vs. Consensus as the research topic, using metal as the main material, and utensils, tableware, jewelry, objects, and installations as the forms of expression. Students are required to complete 1 or 2 designs.
Rule: One or more keywords are proposed by each student, and they are randomly grouped on the basis of two-member teams. The students in the same team exchange keywords with each other, and make the design based on each other's keywords.
Method: Students carry out specific research and design in two dimensions: the vertical dimension is generated based on the work process, forming the whole of "concept extension-mind mapping-sketch deepening-effect presentation- design exhibition"; the horizontal dimension is based on the thinking mode to guide students to "think-communicate-criticize-self-criticize-practice".
A/Prof. Wang Xiaoxin said that this course is intended to conduct thinking training and emphasized that students should understand, reflect on and solve problems with appropriate methods. Through continuous self-examination and logical reasoning, students can achieve a rebalance between thinking training and skill practice from a new perspective. In the teaching process, he tried to put the class participants in a dominant position; through multiple rounds of high-intensity schoolwork reporting, the students are brought to dominate the class. In result, the teacher is there to guide while the students play the dominant role.
Report on the students' designs
Source: Depatment of Arts and Crafts
Editor: Zhao Ruohan
Graphic Designer: Feng Jiaqi
