Materials for Doodle Bots: circuit, motor/ glue stick, container, tape, markers, paper

My group (Hailey, Olivia, and I) were given the word “apprehensive” to base our design on. We looked up the definition of the word to get a better understanding of the word: “anxious or fearful that something bad or unpleasant will happen”. The word really resonated with me as its something I, as well as I think many people feel on a day-to-day basis. I felt the project would be completed by just taking my brain out of my head and setting it on the doodle bot, so that is what we did. Hailey used pipe cleaners and created a brain as the “control” of the bot.  We picked out black, grey, and red markers, and some pencils. Additionally, we included a few bright colored markers, however those would not touch the paper. I think that often people who are apprehensive have the color inside but struggle to apply it to the page. We had three motors to create a rickety movement, if it could really move at all and the last motor added was to create a chattering sound. We decided we wanted to create an external environment which would seem to impact the stability of the brain, something we all face in the uncertainty of our lives. Our drawings on the outside of the walls trapping the brain include sources of happiness as well as stressors because ultimately its not often one experiences one without the other.

I think we all worked really well together, especially because this is an emotion that we all thoroughly understood. It gave me a chance to get to know my classmates better without having to feel so formal considering we just met, and also felt really validating just knowing we all knew this feeling.

Honestly, I think this project was very different from experiences I have had with Art Ed. It made me realize just how broad art can be in that it doesn’t need to be this hands on skill. Plus adding a technology factor with circuits was a really thoughtful idea in branching to other learning experiences. I enjoyed this project in that I wasn’t particularly thinking about the aesthetic of the end result but rather the emotion we were trying to convey and the experience of putting it together in a way that felt accurate to the word. It allowed me to let something be ugly and vulnerable. I think children, especially as they get older, are concerned with what others think of their work. Vulnerability in art making is something that I think is very important that I would like students to explore in my future teaching. Group projects in Art Ed is not something often seen either. For a long time I felt art primarily had to be an individual experience. It was a bit strange having to let go and give my partners the opportunity to create, as this was a group project. This is a project I will definitely consider adapting sometime.