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Kenzie McKeon
Conceptual Age Curriculum Document
-The following curriculum is intended for a high school level digital art
courseSETTING GOALS & EXPECTATIONS
1. Conceptual Structure
Big Idea: Transforming Space
Rationale: Throughout time and across cultures, people
have used art to bring their imagination to life
Key Concepts
o Students will investigate how space can be used as
metaphor within a work of art
o Students will consider how artists use surrealism to
express and idea or feeling
o Students will play with the idea of hybridity and
manipulation within a digital realm
o Students will consider scale, point of view, and
composition to enhance an idea
Essential Questions
o What draws us to the unknown?
o Why do artists/writers make fictional work?
o If you could create an alternate world, what would it
look like?
o How can a space or an environment contain a
metaphor?
o What does it mean to leave one space and enter
another?
o What significance do dreams have?
o What books/movies/artwork have you seen or read
that transport the viewer to another place
o What is impossible that you wish you could make
possible?
o How can different spaces make us feel?
RESPONDING & CONNECTING
2. Instructional Activities
By the end of the unit students will:
o Analyze the work of postmodern digital artists

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o View and respond to artwork by participating in a
VTS discussion
o Arrange and take their own photographs with
composition in mind
o Improve their skills handling various Photoshop tools
(i.e. magic wand, crop tool, lasso tool, selection
brush, etc.)
o Utilize layers in Photoshop to overlap images and
details
o Be able to defend their artistic choices as they relate
to the big idea
o Recognize and/or be able to use symbolism within a
work of art
o Construct a visual metaphor

Exemplar Artists:
o Caras Lonut
Roman digital artist and photographer
Created magical series of impossible images
inspired by dream-like memories and fantasies
o Kinga Britschgi
Hungarian digital artist based in the U.S.
Her dreamscapes are populated with stunning
imagery including a keyhole cutout of a starry
sky, and hair transformed into the branches of
a summer tree.
Other Connections: (Literature)
o Movie: Narnia
Adapted from C.S. Lewis novel The Lion the
Witch and the Wardrobe
o Movie: Finding Neverland
Tells a story about the writer of Peter Pan
o Movie: Jumanji
Adapted from Chris Van Allsburgs illustrated
childrens book
Questions to help students work through big idea
o What type of space are you transforming?
o What are you transforming the space into?
o What feelings or moods accompany this space?
o Who/what exists in this space?
o What makes this space impossible, imaginary, or
dream-like?
o What metaphor(s) can you connect to this space?

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o Is the space a place of departure, transition, or
destination?
o Are there rules within space?
CREATING
3. Art Making Activities
Brainstorm ideas through lists and sketches in art journal
Photograph images to use in Photoshop (taken inside or
outside of class)
Combine two or more original images to create a digital
manipulation
Optional to add vector drawings, digital painting tools, etc.
4. Assessment
Rubric
o Criteria
Pre-thinking/artist journal
Composition
Attention to value (lighting/contrast/color)
Image integration
Craftsmanship
Risk taking/creative leaps
Artistic professionalism (work ethic)
o Point Values
Excelling (10-9),
Proficient (8-7)
Improving (6)
Needs Improvement (5-below)
Artist Statement
o A few sentences to a paragraph in length
o Written accompaniment to explain artists idea
Critique
o Collaborative and constructive class discussion of all
student work
Data
o Pre: Sketches
o Mid: Screen shots of in progress work
o Post: Final project with artist statement
STANDARDS

VA:Cr2.3lla: Redesign an object, system, place, or design

in response to contemporary issues

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VA:Cr3.1.lla: Engage in constructive critique with peers,
then, reflect on, reengage, revise, and refine works of art
and design in response to personal artistic vision
VA:Re7.2.la: Analyze how ones understanding of the
world is affected by experiencing visual imagery
PRESENTING
5. How

students work be presented and curated

In class student critique
Displayed throughout school walls
Digital gallery/class website
Collaborate with other art classes to form an exhibition
TEACHER REFLECTION

6. How the curricular design fosters skills for the Conceptual Age
Students are working with a digital medium that reflects
the rise in technology
The big a idea of transforming spaces asks students to
think reflectively and metaphorically
Students must notice carefully, respond, and provide visual
evidence during VTS discussions
Students must demonstrate symphonic thinking through
their art making process. They ask themselves: how do all
these layers and pieces fit together to create my end
product?