School of Education
Curriculum & Teaching
Prof. John Toth, Ph.D. / jtoth@hunter.cuny.edu
RECONSTRUCTING TAU
for the post modern educator
RECONSTRUCTING TAU
- How does geometry become aesthetic?
- Group problem solving architectural spaces. (a space for learning)
AIM: Consider works of art that challenge conventional aesthetic beauty. Understand elements of Math in art: patterns, sequences, and rhythm.
OBJECTIVE: In groups of 4, recreate the Tau sculpture using oak tag paper. Document the group process. Use triangle templates as a means of determining angles and design.
LINE OF INQUIRY: How does Tony Smith use GEOMETRY to open an understanding of logic and order?
The Arts Standard 4
Performance:
Dance - explain the settings and circumstances in which dance is found in their lives
Music - identify the primary geographical settings for the music they listen to.
Theater - engage in drama/theatre games which reflects other cultures.
Visual Arts - create art works that reflect a particular historical period of a culture
Rubric
art supplies
U-Ram Choe, Mechanical art
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP2cqiB536Q&NR=1
1:45
15
Tony Smith, Tau, 1961-62
MAPPING 3-DEMENTIONAL SPACE
Matta, Card Players, 1957
OBJECTIVE: Make three different geometric solids to make a model of a house.
GOAL: Understand the use of elements of symmetry: mirror, reflective, radial, progressive and alternating.
Art - Create geometric solids by cutting out squares and triangles that can be folded into 3-D forms.
Music - Use Tau as a score.
Math - Symmetry & Tessellation
Theater - Use the street traffic in front of tau to create a drama. .
Dance - Use the angles of Tau as a backdrop for a spatial study
Music - Use dice as composer.
2:15
2:45
3:00
30
15
15
OBJECTIVE: Recreate Tau using triangle templates.
GOAL:This is a group project that depends more on HOW you solve the logic problem rather than how well you construct the final sculpture.
Recreate Tony Smith's sculpture "Tau" from sketches. Work in groups to recreate the sculpture using triangle templates.
ACTIVITY: Make sketches of TAU (front back, top, bottom, left side, right side. Visualize the large triangular shapes that make up each side of the sculpture. (example, one side of the sculpture can by sketched to show there are 5 large triangles that make up that side. Indicate these invisible triangles with dotted lines.)Define a means of indicating on your sketch names that indicate each side. ( example: FRONT faces the subway; LEFT side faces Starbucks; ect.). Orientation is critical in reconstructing the sculpture.
Sketch the top shape from the 3rd floor crosswalk. Draw dotted lines to show the implied inner triangles.
Use rigid paper such as your watercolor to reconstruct each face and then tape the sides together to reconstruct the sculpture.
This is a group project that depends more on HOW you solve the logic problem rather than how well you construct the final sculture.
Some artworks have little to do with expression and more to do with logic. Where do YOU fit into this theory. Are you comfortable with logic or expression? How does this orientation effect the way you solve problems?
RESPONSE on the BB Discussion
Board.
SEPTEMBER 16 - DECEMBER 4, 2004
In the exhibition Tracing Tony Smith's Tau, the evolution of Smith's great work is revisited from its inception in 1961-62 to its installation in the plaza on 68th Street and Lexington Avenue at Hunter College in 1984, twenty years ago. Drawings and maquettes for both Tau and related sculptures will be shown and presented in context with his other major works. Curated by William C. Agee, professor of art history at Hunter College, with the assistance of Hunter MA graduate students in Art History, this exhibition aims to explore the artistic and historical context for this seminal work. The exhibition includes paintings, architectural renderings, sketches, photographs, video and models that depict Tau and work by the artist that informs this important sculpture. The exhibition will also include background material by those who knew him during his tenure as a highly influential teacher at Hunter College (1962-1980), during the period when Tau was conceived. This exhibition has been organized to celebrate the work's twentieth anniversary since its installation on Hunter College's West plaza and the completion of its recent restoration.
ARCHITECTURE:
Re- Approaching Tony Smith, by Harriet F. Senie
The Institute For Figuring
Froebel Networks
Reggio Emillio
Aesthetic Codes in Early Childhood Classrooms:
Thinking Spatially:
New Literacy, Museums, and the Academy :
Spatial Order in Literacy
volume, sphere, tetrahedron, pyramid, cube, X,Y,Z coordinates, Cartesian, linear, dynamic, black holes, networks, systems, cubism, strategies, systems, mapping,
