Practicals
Here are a few ideas for creating Mars Masterpieces:
Painting:
- Landscapes
- Myths
- Fantasy
- Future
- Posters - missions: Check out the mission, and produce a suitable poster Mariner 9, Viking, Mars 4, Phobos, Pathfinder, Global Surveyor, Polar Lander, Beagle 2.
- Produce a panoramic Mars freize that fits around the wall, using work from many students.
- Pop-art - produce an illustrated comic book Mars story.
Model making:
- Build a landscape diorama of Martian terrain
- Make and paint a Mars globe
- Build a Martian city from garbage (clean stuff!) Egg boxes, yoghurt cartons, etc.
- Make models planets and hang them in a shoebox painted with a stary background
- Make a Mars globe that shows the major features
Sculpture
- Produce a fantasy sculpture with a Mars theme
- Produce a Mars alien
Photography
- Create a Mars landscape from sand and photograph it. Try and produce a realistic appearence
Art show
- Hold an exhibition of the work
Art Criticism and Essays
Task1:
"The role of art today, we are told, is to reflect and comment upon the Human Condition, and man's relationaship with the Universe. Additionally, it is often seen by artists and art critics as a metaphorical expression of political or social views, as a comment on what is being done to our world and Universe by man and his endeavours. In the past it has also beeen an expression and record of mankind's achievements and ambitions. Space art, though, has never made an impact upon the elitism of the arts establishment. Why have so few modern, established artists ever ventured beyond the attraction and confines of the Earth?"
Ask your students what they think of the writer's views? Get them to write a critique of the above.
Task 2:
Get your students to research how the image of Mars has been portrayed through the centuries from the myths of the ancient world when Mars was a god, through to the present day, when spacecraft are exploring the planet and mankind himself is on the verge of his first steps into the Solar System.
How has Mars been seen in your culture through the ages? Your students should research it and compare it with another culture. Findings can be described in pictures.
Music
Task 1:
Carry out a survey of composers who have been inspired by and written about Mars. Listen to their works and comment either as a discussion or as an essay.
Task2:
Compose some Mars music based on a study of the images sent back by the space probes.
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