Art+and+Design

=Art and Design=


 * Virtual Art Gallery for studying existing work or showcasing pupils’ work
 * Don’t Touch doesn’t apply in SL!
 * Sculptures, including moving sound and light scupltures
 * Product design and testing
 * Photography
 * Fashion Design

Art students could use the simple shapes (prims) available to create sculptures of different things. Work can be displayed to everyone who passes the sculpture gallery. Pictures can be imported into SL so pupils' real life work can be displayed in the virtual world to everyone. Photography is also very easy. Pupils can take photos 'in-world' and send them for free to Flickr.com or SLPics.com to be displayed and commented on by others. They could do a scavenger hunt for pictures of themes like light, shadows or repeating patterns. Other scavenger hunts could be looking for words to make up a photo poem made up of different words found around the virtual world. The photos can also be downloaded and used in collages or other work.

This is an example of the sort of design work pupils do for Intermediate and Higher Art and Design. This pupil has been designing a chair. If they used Second ife as part of the process, then they could very easily try out different textures, colours, angles, add armrests, headrests, spikes or whatever.

They could set up a livingroom or office scene where they expect the piece of furniture to be used then light the scene using light prims. They could take screenshot photographs of the object alone or in use by simply sitting on the chair. Different poses could be tried out to show the furniture modelled at its best.

The same method can be used for the variety of products designed in the Art courses, such as jewellery, hats, gloves, etc. Another benefit of SL is you can set up a class shop and maybe make a few dollars from selling your virtual product. You can then get feedback from consumers about what they think about it - do they like the colour, texture, would they rather have curls instead of spikes? Sell different versions and you could see which is more popular by which sells better.