What is a game?

 

What are our rights with the advertising industry?

It seems everything the street artist, Banksy, does is provocative.

Dammit, Banksy is a legend. Not content with smuggling his work into international galleries, satirising the snooty nosed high-end art world, and making searing commentary on big ticket talking points, the British street artist has now weighed into advertising with a damning critique of how the industry makes itself more powerful by making the rest of us feel completely inadequate. (Read full article in Lost in E Minor here)

Do you agree with Banksy? Are public advertisements ‘yours to take, re-arrange and re-use’? 

Here is a selection of Banksy’s street art.

 

 

18th Century Steampunk Fantasy

Found here. Read more about it here if you’re interested.

The world is a crazy mix of old and new, of real and imagined…

Use this animation as a springboard for writing about a remixed world.

 

Toasted cheese – daily writing prompts

Feel like starting your English class with a short writing exercise? Here’s a quick and easy way to make this happen – check out Toasted Cheese.

Or why not have the students collaborate to create a classroom calendar for writing prompts?

 

Screwed Up – a love story

Here’s a love story with a difference.

Screwed Up from Kris Hofmann on Vimeo.

Could you write a love story with inanimate objects as your protagonists? Why don’t you make your own stop-motion animation?

 

The defective detective

Watch this film, and then write your own humorous story about a ‘defective detective’ inspired by this animation. Notice the attention to detail in the animation. How can you demonstrate the same attention to detail in writing without detracting from the plot and humorous style?

A film by Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis debuting exclusively in the the Cartoon Brew’s 2nd Student Animation Festival. Read more about it here.

 

Drawing conclusions – Shaun Tan’s wordless interview

Australian award winning author and illustrator, Shaun Tan, recently agreed for SPIEGEL to interview him. True to his creative and innovative nature, Tan answered the questions not with words, but with pictures.

   Read the 16 questions and answers here.

• Work in pairs. One person asks questions about the other who draws the answers.

• Create your own questions and answer them in pictures.

• Guess the questions to somebody’s illustrations.

 

Deception, lies, magic and ipods

The composer Debussy said:

Art is the greatest deception of all. Art is the deception that creates real emotion, a lie that creates a truth, and when you give yourself over to that deception it becomes magic.

Use this video and Debussy’s quote about art and deception to write/compose something of your own.

Here’s the link to Marco Tempest’s website.

 

The power of storytelling

Even a two year old knows that storytelling is all about delivery. Watch his facial expressions, his involvement and his enthusiasm.

Video yourself retelling an old story and don’t forget your facial expression, body language, voice intonation.

 

How to use artwork or images to generate ideas for writing or discussion

Images (still or moving) are an excellent way to generate ideas which can be used for discussion or writing. Here’s a bit of help with that; I found this on the amazing Art Inspired wiki.

Use artwork or photos to generate ideas, critical and creative thinking.