ARTBEAT MAGAZINE

Issu

e 01

- 2

016

Why Drama? Drama comes to AIC

!New Look at Visual Arts Jamie Lowe talks about the

Art Department’s makeover

!In The House - John Knauss A profile of an actor and an artist

!Onward Art Journeys Our recent Dp2 students on taking on Art School

ISSUE ONE a first release by

The Faculty of Arts at AIC

Page 17

FOCUS and how you can achieve it

Page 26

This issues’ choice of cool Apps

Page 5

Get ready to greet the Dead!

First Issue Features ARTBEATNICKS

Edited by Jamie Lowe and John Knauss,

the Faculty of Arts Team

Feature Contributors John Knauss Chrys Hill

Photography Jamie Lowe

Contributions by:

Graduating students: Amy Lee Jean Zhang Libby Wu

Visual Arts Diploma students: Aye Khumthong Haroun Bentarka Jasmine Xie Jeff Park

Grade 10 Drama students: Betty Yin

Artbeat IT Expert

Brandon Chansavang

Cover photo:

Jamie Lowe

ARTBEATNOTES !Artbeat is an online digest showcasing the life and work of the IB Visual Arts and the IB Theatre Arts departments at:

Alcanta International College

Guangzhou, China.

Follow Our Beat at:

www.aicib.org

aicibvsualarts.tumblr.com

www.facebook.com/AlcantaInternationalCollege

!!

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �2

Why Drama?………………………………………………………..……4

Chrys Hill explains why Alcanta International College needs Drama.

In The House: John Knauss……………………………………….22

We discover who the man behind the Drama is and why he says: “Drama is Conflict”?

Whats New in Visual Arts? …………………………………………8

Jamie Lowe shows off the new Art studios

Street Art From Brazil…………………………………………..……9

The pulse of Street Art from the streets of an Olympic city.

FOCUS and why you should do it….. .. ………………………………17

John Knauss writes on the benefits of staying focused for maximum engagement in activities.

Storm Chasing……………….…………………………………..….18

Diploma Visual Arts students share insight into finding a way forward to communicate a message through their Art

Onward Art Journeys…..……………………………………………13

Life after IB Visual Art. Our graduating students tell us how life is - Art School and beyond

2 PERSONAL

We meet our new Drama teacher and showcase highlights of our student’s activities. In this issue we look at exemplar Art from the DP course and gain insight from our Art graduates about Art School. We also hear about what feels like to perform in Drama.

3 ENTERTAINING

You can look forward to the debut of our ARTBEAT comic strips, play some interactive games and try out some of the recommended “Apps of the Month”, (picked for you so that you can take your Arts to the next level).

1 EDUCATIONAL

This issue deals with a rationale for Theatre Arts. On how: “focus” correlates with productivity and the general satisfaction of achievement. We see strategies outlined for generating ideas to create personal projects in Art and to develop a clear “message” in your work.

John and I decided that we would like to create an online magazine which would bring our AIC community together and engage more with students, their parents and the staff.

With each year as AIC develops as a school, new goals are set for its improvement and progress towards being an International IBO school of choice in China and the world. One of

the ways that we are successful at AIC is by being small and select.

Currently we are enjoying hearing about the progress of our graduates from all over the world. Not only is this satisfying but it is exciting to think that our community has a BIG network with even more to offer and learn from as the connections keep expanding beyond our small start.

ARTBEAT seeks to build COMMUNITY Top: Ne vel fuisset intellegam referrentur, ex pri audiam vivendo splendide

CONNECTING YOU TO ALL THE ARTS AT AIC Welcome to our first

issue of ARTBEAT

Welcome! We hope that you will ‘follow our beat’ and find the content engaging in many ways.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �3

Why Drama? You may be wondering why AIC has adopted this new subject in its curriculum and what exactly it is good for? Chrys Hill, Director of Academics at AIC, explains.

As AIC expands so too does the curriculum and the subjects we offer. This year AIC has introduced two new subjects: Psychology and Theater Arts/Drama. I want to take this opportunity to explain why the latter was added to our curriculum. To make things easier I will

refer to it simply as Drama.

The reasons for introducing Drama into the curriculum are many and it is difficult to know where to begin. It is not just about students with “talent” but offers much more across the full range of our community. The most obvious benefit Drama has for an AIC student is the support it offers in the development of English. A Student doing Drama is involved in speaking English in a bold and confident manner. Students learn how to overcome their nervousness and initial fear of speaking English in a safe and supportive environment.

At the center of Drama is always communication. Drama allows students to communicate with and understand others in new ways. Drama offers development in the very practical aspects of communication so necessary in today's information-centered world. Students who have done Drama activities are more confident speaking in public and will be more convincing in their communications, both written and oral. As well as being more confidence and having a positive

!!!

self-image they will be better able to relate to others and to work collaboratively. Drama challenges student’s perceptions and involves them in very practical problem solving exercises.

I have observed Drama in action at AIC and been very encouraged that the benefits mentioned above are being met. I also believe that these benefits are being carried across into other subjects and teachers report on improved focus across the curriculum. Learning in an IB school is not just a matter of sitting at a desk and taking notes. We are trying to involve students in a wide range of active learning styles and methods. Drama fits this aim by its very nature, it is a learning style that is not only about doing but also about working together and becoming aware of the feelings of others.

Drama at AIC is enriching the students experience of school as it combines several goals at once. It is a wonderful addition to our school and I look forward to seeing not just the growth of the Dramatic Arts but also the growth of the students themselves.

It is the intention that in the next school year Theatre Arts will join to our list of subjects offered for the IB Diploma. I am sure it will be a popular IB subject with our students.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �4

Curse of the Floral Skull and How Dia de los Muertos

came to AlC

It would be difficult not to notice the giant flowery effigy of a human skull parked outside of the Art Department on the 4th Floor of AIC. Grinning, is perhaps the wrong word to use when describing it’s expression, for it is quite hard to discern any expression at all beneath the blooms which carpet it. Yet there is something about its general demeanor which suggests a cheeky, impish quality; as if it were inwardly enjoying a private joke beneath its abundant coating of bright flowers.

Amy Lee, a DP2 student from last year, who was the creator of this “Floral Skull” sculpture, remembers this particular piece with fondness. The days spent wrestling with giant sheets of laminated styrofoam and the subsequent carving of it (transforming her share of the DP2 Studio into the what seemed like the inside of a shaken snow-globe), followed by wading through a sea of artificial roses for days. From this ambitious undertaking, emerged a sculpture that is at once (uncomfortably) cute and appealing and quite sinister in its “memento mori” message. It is after all a huge, candy-coated reminder of death.

Not surprisingly then, has our “floral bogeyman” become the harbinger of superstition, creepy stories, rumors and myths whispered in the corridors of AIC. For it is said that the most terrible luck befalls those who dare to touch or meddle with it’s flowers. Those who are foolhardy enough to do this and worse; by

removing said flowers- have been sure to fall upon hard times and the worst kinds of fortune. By desecrating the “Floral Skull”, the miscreant is immediately “cursed” by the dead, they say. And what curses it espouses! The very nature of these curses is as floral as the macabre head which issues them. Daily, it’s utterances are posted upon a small notice alongside it, which serves a clear warning to the unwary. It threatens such tragedies as: being cursed “to forever smell like a Guangzhou bus driver’s underwear”, or: “to witness a kitten dying horribly in your neighborhood", if you are so foolish as to touch its blooms. Lately, there is a curious suggestion that this eccentric effigy has Mexican sympathies, for it has recently cursed it’s victims to: “bear children who look like Donald Trump (but who are less charismatic and very poor)”*.

A Mexican connection, indeed? We consulted Amy Lee about this and sure enough, she had in fact been inspired by the folk art produced during a popular Mexican festival when creating this piece. Could she be alluding to our skull being linked with a very important Mexican

festival : “Dia De Los Muertos" (The Day Of The Dead)? Coincidentally, Mexico has been much-maligned by the very Republican Presidential candidate who is mentioned by our skull in the curse. Creepy? We at Artbeat think so!

(Continued on Page 7)

Festivals Feature

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE

*For more calaveraic curses turn to the back of Artbeat to the “Fun Section”.

by Jamie Lowe

�5

Floral Skull, by Amy Lee. AIC Private Collection. Carved Polystyrene and Artificial Flowers, 80x105 x75 cm, February 2016

“Touch my flowers and I will curse you to forever look like a chihuahua licking vomit from a

cactus…”

LOREM MAGAZINE �6ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �6

Dia de los Muertos - The Day of the Dead, is a lively Mexican holiday which honors the dead and is celebrated throughout Mexico on 1 November. It features in other Latin American countries too but it is particularly relevant to Mexico.

The Day of the Dead Festival mixes

Aztec ritual with Catholicism, brought

to the region by Spanish

conquistadores. (Dia de los Muertos is celebrated on All Saints Day and All Souls Day, minor holidays in the Catholic calendar.)

What we know of as “Halloween” (celebrated the night of 31st October) is an equivalent festival, now observed worldwide but originally important in North America and throughout Europe. Halloween has a

similar link to ancient pagan rituals

and beliefs with the attempt for it to be also “Christianised" by a church holiday: All Hallows Eve.

The Dia de los Muertos celebration features in the memorable opening

scenes of the 2015 James Bond film:

“Spectre”. These scenes depict street parties and parades in Mexico City with people dressed as skeletons, and wearing elaborate, highly decorated colorful costumes, face paints, masks and flowers. There is a carnival atmosphere with live music and processions and it is hard to imagine that this event has anything to do with death.

Assured that the dead would be insulted by mourning or sadness, Dia de los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life.

Dia de los Muertos recognizes death as a natural part of the human experience, a continuum with birth, childhood, and growing up to become a contributing member of the community. On Dia de los Muertos, the dead are also a part of the community, awakened from their eternal sleep to share celebrations.

People go to the gravesides of their passed loved ones to enjoy a family picnic with homemade treats and chat by candlelight at night time.

The most familiar symbol of Dia de los Muertos may be the calacas and calaveras (skeletons and skulls), which appear everywhere during the holiday: in candied sweets, as parade masks, as dolls. Calacas and calaveras are almost always portrayed as enjoying life, often in fancy clothes and entertaining

Continued from Page 5 : How Dia de los Muertos Came to AIC

Can you hear the Floral Skull cursing? Some say that they can! (especially as we draw closer to Dia de los Muertos).

If you can hear it, then send us what you have heard the skull saying. The best entries will be published in future issues of Artbeat. For goodness sake, whatever you do, do not touch it’s flowers!

E-mail your entries, labelled : Toucha Ma Flowers I Smasha Ya Face to : jlowe@aicib.org

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �7

New Flexible Studio Space for Diploma Students

You may have noticed that this year the whole of the fourth floor of AIC has become essentially an ‘Arts” floor. The conversion and renovations of Rooms: A4.6 and A 4.7 (so that they form a co-joined space) have a created a unique flexible facility for our Diploma students to use.

One of the most beneficial things about taking IB Visual Arts Diploma at AIC is that you get your own studio space in both DP1 and DP2. A luxury that is rarely found in many international schools.

Since the subject has gained popularity from when the school began six years ago, we are getting three times the numbers of students opting to take Art. This would have made for a very tight squeeze for the DP students had the existing studios remained as they were, However with the conversion of A4.7 a spill -over studio has been created and is already being used to our advantage.

Our recent “Chinese Folk Art” project with DP1, which involves a study of traditional and modern Chinese folk painting as well as studying figure drawing. A model dressed in Chinese

traditional dress was posed in an archetypal Chinese setting, We were able to use that space like a proper drawing studio.

An Arts I.T. Office

Finally, what used to be referred to as “The Room of Doom” and what was little more than a dump for a variety of found objects, off-cuts of metal and wood, fabric and textile scraps and discarded packaging saved for projects (like the Rauschenberg project) has become transformed into a really useful facility. Now Diploma students can access a space where they can scan their artwork straight to one of a pair

of iMacs and then print their documents at a dedicated printer copier machine from the same computers all in “a one stop shop”. This means that the creation of

Process Portfolios and Comparative Studies can be streamlined as well as providing a quieter study space for students who need to get down to some research or written work. There is a bookshelf / resource area holding texts and Art books which may be of use to DP2 students engaging in Personal Projects. Since the 4th floor is now an all - Arts floor, it also means that students from the fledgling Drama department can utilise this quiet haven too.

As AIC evolves and develops - the more specialised self access study opportunities like this which we can provide for our students - the better.

!

What’s New in Visual Arts ?

“Since the subject has gained popularity from when the school began six years ago, we are getting three times the numbers of students opting to take Art.”

by Jamie Lowe

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �8

STREET ART FROM BRAZIL

On the pulse of Street Art from the Olympic City, Rio de Janeiro

!

ARTBEAT looks at the amazing work of Rodrigo Izolag Armeidah and partner Ananda Nahu, who have taken Street Art from the favela to Olympic Rio de Janeiro, to the streets of New York City.Rodrigo Izolag, was born in 1983 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He grew up in Ipiaú in the South of Bahia and started to study art in Salvador. He quickly abandoned his formal Art training as he became increasingly drawn to Street Art. Clearly he was in love with this medium and it was through working in this method (with a spray can and a stencil )where he discovered and defined his style and was best able to share his message.

Rodrigo Izolag and Ananda Nahu met each other in 2006 and painted a great many walls in the urban landscapes of

Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro. Today, the couple are a reference in the “stencil art” genre of Street Art and their artwork can be found in the pages of the book:

“Stencil History X”, along with other famous names of Street Art like:

Shephard Fairey, aka ‘OBEY’ and

‘Banksy’.

"Izolag's work is revolutionary and breaks down the barriers between mural, stenciling and grafitti.” Ricky Flores, Photographer.

Both Izolag and Ananda Nahu use stencils, working through elaborately cut card templates created from digitally altered photographs. These carefully created portraits become elements of larger compositions which include a mix of graffiti text and pattern. Both artists combine stencil, spray, paste-up and hand painting in their mixed-media work. Blurring boundaries between media and going between street children, ordinary people from the neighborhood and icons of popular culture as subjects in their work which seems fresh, colorful

by Jamie Lowe

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �9

Ananda Nahu comes from the small countryside town of Juazeiro, in Bahia. She has painted her intricate, vibrant art on walls all over the state of Bahia before moving to Rio de Janeiro where she gained nationwide recognition. Ananda was set for higher ground still as she embarked on a two month residency in New York where she painted her art all over Brooklyn’s walls in her Brazilian style. She was also recently commissioned to create a special artwork for the “NIKE” store in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro during the recent 2016 Rio Olympic games.

“I was a kid who loved to draw, as far as I can remember, I was always drawing. It was a natural thing for me to want to study art. I moved from my hometown, Juazeiro, to Salvador in 2001 and started attending the College of Design and in 2004 I began to study at the Fine Arts School from the Federal University of Bahia.”

“At this point, I was really interested in studying photography, Fine Arts Paintings and engravings, specially lithography, Serigraphs, metal engraving. It wasn’t in the plans working with street art.”

Yes, it was something that happened later in my life, when I met my husband (artist Rodrigo Izolag). Being a woman, you know, it was hard to go to the streets to paint on my own, and he introduced me to this world, and I got instantly hooked. And we started working in partnership.”

“In 2005, I began using stencil to create wall arts, one of the oldest type of engraving, that is leaked into the mold to obtain shapes and pictures. “

Below: examples of work by Ananda Nahu

A Tale of Two Stencil Artists

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �10

“I love portraying women! Strong

women is always a subject that is very

dear to me.”

“I started painting all over Bahia, from small cities to bigger ones and my name started to get recognition.

“I love portraying women. Strong women, is a subject that is very dear to me. Plus I’ve always been very close to the hip hop culture and that is something that shows as well in my work. I love working with stencils for the portraits and then adding unique free hand paintings on the backgrounds for each art piece.”

“I will have to say the artistic residency I spent doing in NY. My husband and I did a very productive partnership with U.S.A. based photographer Rick Flores, and used his portraits to create stencils representing people from the Bronx and Brooklyn area. We stayed there painting walls and working close with the communities for a month and it was a very immersive experience.”

Bronx photojournalist Ricky Flores teamed up with the world-renowned Brazilian artists Ananda Nahú and Izolag Armeidah to paint large-scale murals at three NYCHA playgrounds: Betances, Mitchel and Mott Haven. These murals, inspired by Flores’ photographs, were part of a project promoting a healthy lifestyle and active living called “Faces from the Block.”

This eight-year collaboration was born by happenstance when the Brazilian artists found Flores’s images on Flickr, an online social media photo sharing site, in 2008. They quickly became fascinated with his work and began incorporating some of the images in a series of paintings representing cultures from around the world. It was during this period of time that a partnership was developed, with the goal of creating a joint exhibition and murals on the streets of the South Bronx.

Top: Ananda Nahu, Rodrigo Izolag Armeidah and Ricky Flores in new Yor,k June 2016.

Below: examples of murals by Izolag from the New York residency and-following page: examples of Izolag’s earlier signature work.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �11

Izolag’s Street Art is a great example of a mixed media approach as he blurs the boundary between abstract expressionist painting, graphic design and graffiti in his multi -layered portraits.

Works vary in scale from “conventional gallery-sized” panels to the entire sides of buildings.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �12

Onward Journeys in Art

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �13

WHAT CAN I DO WITH A DEGREE IN ART?

For a really long list click here*

!Alternative Careers !Do you want to use and share your knowledge of Art to guide communicate with, educate and heal others?

!Beauty industry Careers !Do you want to be involved with the Fashion, TV, media and advertising industry?

!Business and Education Careers !Do you want to use management and people skills in combination

Design Careers !Do you want to be responsible for creating just about anything new that other people will use?

• Graphic designer.

• Multi media designer.

• Photographer.

• Advertising. TV, Magazine, etc

• Artist.

• Craftsperson.

• Furniture designer.

• Gallery Director.

• Gallery Assistant.

• Illustrator.

• Interior Designer.

• Teacher

• Interactive Media.

• Printer.

• Screen Printer.

• Public Relations.

• Museum work.

• Digital creative artist

• Architect.

• Set, Display and Exhibit Designer.

• Art Therapist.

• Cartoonist.

• Town planner

• Animator.

• Movie and Television Director

• Museum Technician.

• Hairdresser.

Careers in Digital Art !Do you like to use computers, lens based media and digital tools to create new visual products? !

Click on the text headings below for useful links

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �14

Our 2016 AIC graduates share some of their early experiences

The workload of Architecture program in CUHK is even more overwhelming than I expected. In this program more value is placed on

design than technology or sciences. With the aim of encouraging imagination and creation, some projects and assignments are quite

interesting. To my surprise, although challenging, this program shares quite a few similarities with my previous IB Visual Arts course, making me less unfamiliar with my present major courses. Now I spend almost all day except for sleeping in the Architecture studio everyday drawing

and making models, which I hope would not undermine my determination to study architecture.

Libby has begun her Architecture course at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Amy is beginning her Fine Art course at Goldsmith’s University, London

I remember the first day in Goldsmith’s was novel. My life suddenly filled with new people and cultures. My university is basically a mixture of old fashioned and modern buildings and sometimes it is really hard to believe that they belong to a university. Our new

studios are huge and easily accommodate the Fine Art 33 students. I am just beginning my classes and I’m

really excited about it. Although London is cold at the moment - Im enjoying it here.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �15

Jean is getting started with her History of Art course at Sorbonne University, Paris

Here in university I’m finding out that History of Art is really a discipline that requires true passion for Art. I have always known that History of Art was not an easy subject

but the complexity of the course has gone beyond my imagination. For example, in my school we are not really studying works of Art yet. Instead, for the first year, we are studying a whole system of human sciences; mainly history and philosophy - indicating that in order to understand the

Art of the past - we need first to understand “the past”!

If you have a tale to tell about life beyond the IB Diploma course at AIC

Please do share with us by contacting ARTBEAT and we will publish your

experiences.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �16

FOCUS and why you should do it by John Knauss

In Drama class at AIC, we define focus as “directing one’s awareness.” In many meditative practices (such as Buddhism), focus is essential in that it gives the practitioner conscious control over their actions, rather than being at the mercy of unconscious habits and patterns.

Our everyday lives are often run on “auto-pilot,” with our thoughts and actions simply happening without our awareness of them. If you have ever lost focus in class or life, forgetting what you are doing for seconds or minutes at a time as your mind wanders and your body follows, you have experienced such running on “auto-pilot”.

The importance of a strong (or deep) focus for the actor is great. Every actor who performs live is required to focus 100% of the time they are onstage. This is what the audience has paid money to see, and this is what the play requires. Actors rehearse for many, many hours to discover and refine the words and actions of the play in the same way that musicians practice music. When it comes time to perform the play, the actor will then simply focus on acting out the part in “real-time” with a live audience and their fellow performers. This is the main distinction between theatre and film or television. Theatre allows an audience to witness and participate in something that is always potentially alive, occurring moment to moment. For this reason, no two live performances are exactly alike.

Focus is also very important in life. In fact, focus IS life. If a student asks me “How do I know if I am focused?” I will reply, “Can you hear the sounds outside the window? Can you see the different patterns of light on my face? Can you feel the floor against your feet or the temperature of the room?” This is simply how we know, and coincidentally is the same test for how we know we are physically alive with all of our physical senses working!

Our modern life is increasingly virtual in that communication and experience is more and more often happening through text messages, video games, movies, etc. This is not bad or wrong, but if we lose a direct experience of life, communication, and one another in real-time (The sight of a real sunset, the ability to listen to others, the confident use of our own voices and bodies, etc.) we have lost some essential to being human and fully alive.

For these reasons, focus is the starting point for all performers, as well as for everyone else. Choosing to direct our awareness, words, and actions is what makes us more than animals, and opens us up to the richness of our lives in this complex and beautiful world in which we find ourselves at this moment in history.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �17

STORM-CHASING On how brainstorming ideas helps us to catch the creative lightening

Are you one of those people who find yourself unconsciously making marks, scribbling elaborate doodles or writing down (then illustrating or decorating) notes on whatever surface is to hand when you are supposed to be doing something else? Perhaps you always being told off for not paying complete attention in class as you doodle out your visions or decorate the page(s) before you ? Then do not worry because this is not a bad thing!

There is a word for it and its called: “brainstorming” and it’s a skill that we can really begin to enhance and develop to our advantage with a bit of direction. Perhaps the best way to describe “brainstorming” is simply by using an image of how it may work:

By the time you read this, our current DP2 students will have been brewing-up brainstorms of their own in order to: firstly generate the right conditions for the “lightening” of an idea and then to convert those flashes of creative energy and direct them into meaningful Process Portfolio work. The best thing about using this brainstorming process is that more often than not the brainstorm itself also counts towards your Process Portfolio. We look at how certain students from our DP2 studio are getting ready to bring the thunder. . . .

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �18

Napawon Khumthong (Aye)

My ideas-generation has brought me to consider what impressions complete strangers make of us upon first meeting and how our identities may be judged unfairly

or inaccurately. The tendency for us to “label” people is something which I would like to consider.

Jeff Park

My new ideas come from an appreciation of the work of abstract artists such as Piet Mondrian and Richard Pousette Dart. I am interested in how I might combine representing my interest in architecture by using abstract expressionist techniques to depict it. I have already explored some of these techniques in my recent portrait works.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �19

Jasmine Xie

My new ideas are related to my Extended Essay which is on Feminism in Chinese Contemporary Art. I am also interested in the role of the individual in a collectivist society. My influences (following on from Francis Bacon) are Lin Tianmiao, Cui Xiuwen and Lucien Freud.

Haroun Bentarka

My new ideas come from the depersonalisation of people in our contemporary world; which seems increasingly to be heading towards a “New World Order” with whole populations treated like numbers or commodities instead of human beings.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �20

STORM-CHASING One of the reasons why the IB Visual Arts Diploma course is a superior course of study, is because it reflects the practice of real artists and designers. The Process Portfolio element of the course (which in this piece we are referring metaphorically to as “the storm” )- is where the young artist demonstrates his or her ability to share with us the build-up to their ideas for a piece of artwork. To visually communicate that storm of little bits and pieces of ideas, influences and inspiration which gradually become concentrated and refined and modified towards a final product. Just about every person involved in the Arts will understand and be familiar with this process when it comes to realising their work.

At AIC students are encouraged to brainstorm and process their ideas. To use a sketchbook - to pin drawings and sheets of imagery to a creative wall - to communicate their ideas thoughts and feelings and to generally surround themselves with a storm of inspiration and creative energy with which to refine their Art from.

Furniture designers

!!!!!!!!

Sketch book belonging to Eugene Delacroix 1837

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �21

John Knauss in the House An interview with AIC’s new Drama Teacher

Betty Yin from Grade 10 interviewed John Knauss, AIC’s Drama Man.

She asked him about his life and his views on Drama. !BY Hi John, why did you come to our IB school to teach Drama?

JK I think that teaching Drama at our school was of interest for Bob and Chrys (our Directors) because: number one it helps strengthen the English ability of our students. which is important so that their listening , their speaking and even their reading - also it helps the students become more creative. Finally it helps them to express themselves.

BY Did you have another job before you became a Drama teacher?

JK Before I was a Drama teacher? Well I also teachArt but before I was teacher (I’ve been teaching now for seven years) I had a theatre in New York - I was an Actor. I was also a writer and an illustrator which is something I still do whenever I have time.

BY Thank you. Wow, that must be interesting. The next question that I would like to ask is why you have come to China?

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �22

JK Ah yes, so I thought it would be a very interesting time to live and work in China because the students that I would be teaching are going to effect China in the future, right? Perhaps even the rest of the world. So sharing some of the things that I think are important and valuable seemed like a really interesting thing to do.

BY What is the core value of Drama?

JK Like what is the most important thing about Drama? Well you know because were doing it in a class right now - where we've been working on our focus. I think the core thing about Drama and live performance (which is different than working with film or television) is that everything happens in real time. It happens right now, though are ability to focus on the present\- what we call the “present moment” is a very powerful thing on stage and in a performance and it also allows you to experience life fully and I think that in itself is probably the most important thing about Drama.

BY Did Drama change your life?

JK Yes!

BY Can you say how?

JK Well, just like what I just said before - the idea of being able to live your life in a way that is truly yours because you take responsibility for each moment and your choices and your ability to be fully aware and fully alive in that moment, I think is a very big thing. And when I learned that you could use that on stage and create powerful things for other people. So; if you have a very good play that you're performing and you perform it in a very powerful way you can change the world in small ways. . .

BY Thank you, I am very interested in Drama and often go to the theatre in Guangzhou to watch plays- its been a pleasure to interview you.

JK Thank you very much Betty, you are most welcome.

_______________________________________________________

Clearly, we have a lot to look forward to when we are scheduled for Drama classes with John.

At school, there's an emphasis on student’s learning to read and write in English and rightly so, as these are fundamental skills. But where's the interest in how well a student is communicating and how clearly and confidently they are speaking? If you consider how much we communicate orally, interacting with friends, family, colleagues and strangers, then it seems odd that more emphasis isn't put on this in schools.

Good communication skills are an essential life skill, helping us make friends, get the most out of school, land the dream job, succeed in that dream job. Indeed, you'd be wracking your brains to think of a job that doesn't demand good communication skills.

That's why drama is so good for students: it teaches them not only how to speak clearly, loudly and with confidence, but many other communication skills as well which are beyond being pertinent to the English language learner but general life skills.

Click for 79 Reasons why Drama is good for you!

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �23

FUN SECTION Cartoon Pages

!

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �24

FUN SECTION Cartoon Pages

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �25

FUN SECTION - APP-ROVAL by Brandon Chansavang

Ahoy Animators! If you have been doing Jamie and William’s Animation CAS, then you may already know about this cool App which helps you create animated cartoons.

Folioscope is a great app for creating terrific hand drawn animations in no time!

You can use simple yet powerful tools to draw your animations with your finger on the iPhone or iPad screen. Then you can share your best creations with the community. Participate in themed contests to improve yourself and become a master animator

iMotion is an iPhone app the uses the iPhone camera to capture up to 500 pictures and turn those into stopmotion. animation.

The app requires you to have the latest 3.1 software and preferably the iPhone 3GS for optimal performance. You can use it to either capture photos manually, or automatically using time-lapse to create your very own animations.

Jamie and his CAS Animator’s have tried and tested it and found it produces great results.

Adobe Photoshop Sketch (for tablets) is a free app that provides users with a set of expressive drawing tools. Users can choose from utilities that mimic a graphite pencil, ink pen or marker. The app supports a variety of Bluetooth styluses on the market such as Adobe Ink, Pencil, and others by Wacom and Adonit. Sketch aims to replicate the analog drawing experience, augmented with a few digital flourishes such as a color picker and an undo history. Users can import in assets from other Creative Cloud tools such as custom brushes and colors, and your creations can also be exported into Creative Cloud as layered PSDs to Photoshop, or flat images for Illustrator.

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �26

What that Cursing Floral Skull has had to say so far :

If you touch my flowers you will forever smell like a bus driver’s underwear!

If you pick my flowers your head will swell up and eventually explode!

If you touch my flowers your new dorm roommate will be the girl from “The Ring”!

If you touch my flowers your hands will turn into tiny spoons (with holes in them)!

Touch my flowers and you and your friends will have to do three hours more of evening study!

Touch my flowers and I will make sure that you never have a wifi signal in school! (actually, I think that curse may have come true already)

Interested in Dia De Los Muertos and all things Mexican ?

Why not research the graphic works of Jose Guadalupe Posada?

Or the compelling paintings of Frida Khalo or Diego Riviera?

Perhaps you like the Folk Arts of Mexico?

Maybe you are interested in the artifacts from Aztec Culture?

Just want to see more cool skulls? (Click on the underlined links)

ARTBEAT MAGAZINE �27

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