Subject Guide

IB – VISUAL ART

Subject Summary:

As with the QCAA course, the IB Visual Arts course provides students with opportunities to express themselves in a very personal, individualised, visual manner. All Senior students are eligible to undertake the course, whether or not they have studied Art in the Junior years. However, those students who have taken Art in Years 9 and 10 will be at an advantage initially, as a result of the knowledge of Media, Techniques, Artists, Art Movements and Design terminology they have acquired over the previous two years. The Year 11 section of the course is quite structured, with students undertaking fairly specific tasks in a range of 2D and 3D media. The primary goal of these tasks is to encourage the development of a personal aesthetic that will provide a starting point for all work undertaken later on.In Year 12 students build upon the framework of knowledge gained in Year 11 to develop work in a more autonomous manner, with a greater degree of freedom allowed in the choice of media areas and approaches adopted. While possessing the fine motor skills required to produce detailed drawings is an asset to any student undertaking the subject, students who are less confident in their ability of this nature, but who are able to find creative solutions to tasks set are equally capable of achieving good results. The only difference in relation to the content covered in the QCAA course is the requirement for students to research and respond to at least two cultures other than their own in the process of developing their work over the two years of the IB course. Unit Concept – Substance and Perception. This unit deals with the role of art in conveying information and ideas that go beyond the obvious and superficial. It provides students with an opportunity to work with 2D media (drawing, painting, collage and digital media) in order to initiate the development of a personal aesthetic. They will also be required to consider the life experiences and other factors that provided the basis for the underlying thematic content conveyed in their work and the work of other artists. Semester Two Topics: Unit Concept – Need and Desire. In this Unit students continue to develop and apply their personal aesthetic in producing functional 3D pieces (for example, ceramic vessels, lighting design or furniture). They are required to consider the relationship between the practical and aesthetic requirements of these pieces (that is, our needs and desires). Semester Three Topics: Unit Concept – Tradition and Change. This unit deals with the role of art in questioning the status quo. Students can select the media they want to work with in producing pieces that provide their personal response to a relevant issue that is of interest to them. Semester Four Topics: Unit Concept – Freedom and Constraint. This unit deals with the role of art in promoting greater freedom and awareness. Students determine their own focus, exploring the nature and meaning of the concept. Students are initially constrained by the requirement to work with print media (for example, lino prints, screen prints, etchings, digital prints) but are encouraged to make use of these methods to produce work of a more innovative nature, in the latter part of the semester. Assessment Outline: Distinction between SL and HL: At the beginning of Year 12 students will be given the option of taking Visual Art as a Higher Level or Standard Level subject. The Visual Arts syllabus demonstrates a clear distinction between the course at SL and at HL, with additional assessment requirements at HL that allow for breadth and greater depth in the teaching and learning. The assessment tasks require HL students to reflect on how their own work has been influenced by exposure to other artists and for them to experiment in greater depth with additional art-making media, techniques and forms. HL students are encouraged to produce a larger body of resolved works and to demonstrate a deeper consideration of how their resolved works communicate with a potential viewer. Subject Outline by Semester: Semester One Topics:

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