Reloading the Canon
ASM2O Final Assessment
“I want students to encounter messiness, and a variety of voices, because art is messy itself.
The challenge is giving multiple points of access.” -Aruna D’Souza
For at least a couple of centuries, the Western world held the ‘canon’ of art to represent a collection of
the great masters of painting and sculpture with some architecture and photography thrown in for
good measure. Think the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle guys, and you have a good idea of who art
historians once thought of as Masters.
But for several decades now, we have been questioning this timeline of art. What about the women?
What about art from, well, everywhere else? What about art made last year?
The problem is that the traditional canon of art IS part of the West’s cultural tradition and - to be fair - the
work is very good. So how do we, as curious media artists, eager for something fresh and new,
reconcile something that can seem so dated and irrelevant, with the changing world around us? How
can we as artists, honour what has come before, and try to reinvigorate it so it has some sort of modern
relevance? Well, by completing this project of course.
CREATIVE CHALLENGE:
This culminating project will be a creative demonstration of your ability to apply the concepts and
techniques we have covered in this course to a canonical piece of artwork in order to transform it into an
original interpretation. You will rework a work of one of the artistic masters we have been exploring this
semester to create a media artwork that:
● Demonstrates your abilities with the media and techniques we have explored in class
● Illustrates your knowledge of the Elements and Principles of Art
● Exhibits challenging artistic choice;
● Highlights purposeful use of the Elements and Principles of Design
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS:
Your submission must:
● Include evidence of your creative process (sketches, images, ideas boards, etc in your digital
sketchbook
● Be created using one of the main types of media we have explored this semester
○ Photoshop
○ Illustrator
○ Animation
○ Photography
● Expand on previous skill development (think about complexity, tools used, length, number of
layers, etc.)
CREATIVE PROCESS:
1. For this final project, you are going to rework a piece of art and imbue it with new meaning and purpose:
- Start by selecting the original artist and one of their artworks with which you will work;
- Then conduct research into the life of your artist and their contribution to art history.
- Include your findings in your DS.
2. Consider how you may transform this artwork from its original purpose into a new visual/emotional
experience. You will do this by first performing a Critical Analysis on it so that you are looking at every detail
of the work.
3. Develop some ideas (doodling, brainstorming, sketching) while listening to music, sitting in silence, or
bouncing ideas off your friends (whatever works for you) and consider how you will present your
re-interpretation of the artwork’s possible meanings.
4. Consider what media form will best serve each area of this artwork. How will you demonstrate your best
skills in Illustrator? How will you demonstrate your best skills in Photoshop?
5. Create! Refine. Revise.
6. Reflect on your work through prompting questions to create an artist statement.
There will be several stages to this project and you will be marked on each, so
use your time carefully.
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