Adolescents

Adolescents
Black and white icon image of digital animation on display
Monika Bravo
Colombian, born 1964
An Interval of Time
2020
PDF icon monika_bravo_activity_guide_adolescents_final.pdf

Subject: Composition and animation
Activity: Create a dunamic image with parts that complement each other
Materials: transparency sheet, permanent marker
Vocabulary: layer, animation, weaving, aesthetic, perspective

Introduction: 

In this work, artist Monika Bravo uses a computer program to combine many small images into larger moving forms. She is interested in combining images and materials from different disciplines to see how putting them alongside each other can create a new sense of perspective. Notice how the work includes text, shapes, numerical data, and images of nature that are similar but not exactly the same. They all come together to create the completed work of art.  

Questions: 

What are some of the shapes, forms, text, or images that stand out to you in this work? With what discipline do you associate each of these images?  

Does looking at these figures alongside each other make you think about them differently?  

Activity: 

Using a marker, draw any shape onto one of the pieces of parchment paper. Then, think of a symbol that you see on your phone or a street sign and draw that onto the next sheet. Continue with this process for each piece of parchment paper you have, coming up with a different type of image for each sheet. Look around you to find inspiration for your drawings. Do you see any man-made objects? Are there any natural objects in your view? What about letters or words? Once you have drawn on each sheet, put the shapes on top of each other and move the pieces back and forth. Find places that you can cut the paper and weave it together so that the layers meld together into one cohesive image. In your finished creation, how do your pieces rely on each other to create a new form? 

BTW: 

Many of the artist's other works deal with the topic of time. “Interval” means a pause or break in activity, so the artist is inviting us to stop and really explore the animation. Try starting a timer on you watch, phone, or tablet. Have your parents start the timer and look at the work until you feel like you’ve seen everything you can in the animation. Have your parents stop the timer and guess how long you were able to look at the art. Did it feel like a long time? How close was your guess to the time on the timer? 

Look Again: 

Gaining “perspective” means we can change the way we look at something or the way we think about it. How do the layers in the work you have created relate to the layers in Bravo’s animation?

Vocabulary: 

Animation - Many images in a sequence that create the illusion of a moving image 

Layer - A certain section of material on top of or underneath other imagery  

Weaving – Joining strips or pieces together to make a larger whole   

Perspective – Observing or relating to a person, place, or object from a particular angle or point of view.  

Aesthetic- The quality of how something looks