Using a scanner in art and design
The use of ICT in art education - computers, scanners, digital cameras, printers and the internet - is challenging us to rethink the ways in which we develop pupils' creativity. In teaching art and design we need to consider how ICT can be used alongside traditional approaches and integrated with them, and how we can develop this new medium to extend visual understanding.
A scanner is just one device that offers potential to art education. Objects (traditionally, print materials) are placed on the glass and scanned using a process similar to that of a photocopier. Once scanned, the image can be imported to a computer and used in a variety of software programs. As with the internet, the potential of the scanner became evident to art teachers only gradually. Jan McGranaghan began by scanning images onto her school intranet for students to use as starting points during lessons. Then the students scanned in their finished work, which in turn became starting points for other students. But that was just the start, as Jan explains:
"Then we moved from images to objects. We put fruit onto the scanner, with cling film underneath to protect the scanning mechanism. We rapidly discovered that accidental wrinkles in the cling film gave the scanned image a more interesting quality, with wonderful textures and creases. So, having first tried to smooth the cling film, we now began crinkling it deliberately to see what we would get. We then extended this to other materials – scrunching up acetates and bits of foil. A lot of this came from the students saying, ‘What if…?’. They sparked off each other’s ideas."
Sue Crudgington and her students at Friary School in Staffordshire were testing the light-filtering properties of plastic, net curtains and film negatives. Sue explains:
"Just as filters can be used in traditional processes, so materials such as lace, samples of decorative glass, fragments of fruit and students’ own hands can be placed on the scanner to produce many special effects and starting points. The possibilities are boundless for development of ideas, manipulation and use of the visual elements."
Having first used the scanner simply as a recording device, Sue discovered it could be ‘a great tool for inspiring creativity’. Her students use scanned images in collages and other mixed media work. She enjoyed merging novel processes with more familiar ones:
"You don’t necessarily use the equipment in the way it was intended to be used. The scanner salesman would never have said, ‘Try putting bits of lemon on the screen’."
It was probably inevitable that art teachers should discover surprising new uses for technology. Experimentation is at the heart of the artistic process and, as Sue goes on to explain, “In art and design, we continually seek to break the rules. We move the boundaries beyond normal expectations and encourage our students to look beyond the original purpose of the materials at hand.”
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