Street Art h45

Street Art h45

Street art

Introduction

The subject of this lesson is 'Street Art'.

You’re going to read about a street artist. Street art is usually created in public places, and it usually hasn’t been requested. It is similar to graffiti but there are some ideological differences. However, both are usually created in public locations outside of the context of traditional art venues.

This lesson contains 6 steps and an evaluation. Work them through step by step.

 

 

 

Step

Activity

 

 

Introduction

Find out what you already know.

Step 1

Reading

Read an article about Bansky. Answer the questions.

Step 2

Words

Match words with definitions. Complete sentences.

Step 3

Grammar

About possessive adjectives and pronouns. Tick true sentences, fill in missing adjectives and/or pronouns. Check theory in Grammar Desk.

Step 4

Speaking

Think of five questions (in case you will meet Bansky). Answer to questions and give reasons.

Step 5

Reading

Definition of geographic profiling, read about it. An exercise and text about 'Geographic profiling'. Answer questions.

Step 6

Task

Write in 200 words about a disastrous holiday.

 

Evaluation

Write a discursive essay. Read the steps to work out your plan.

 

Difficult words? Search these on Cambridge Dictionaries

 

Step 1 - Reading

Reading: The story behind Banksy
Read 'The story behind Banksy' quickly.
What is Banksy’s real name?

Now read the text again and answer the questions.

Banksy melds street-fighting passion and pacifist ardor in his image of a protester whose Molotov cocktail morphs into a bouquet. (Pixelbully / Alamy)

On his way to becoming an international icon, the subversive and secretive street artist turned the art world upside-down

When Time Magazine selected the British artist Banksy—graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur—for its list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010, he found himself in the company of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga. He supplied a picture of himself with a paper bag (recyclable, naturally) over his head. Most of his fans don’t really want to know who he is. Pest Control, the tongue-in-cheek-titled organization set up by the artist to authenticate the real Banksy artwork, also protects him from prying outsiders. Hiding behind a paper bag, or, more commonly, e-mail, Banksy relentlessly controls his own narrative. His last face-to-face interview took place in 2003.

The Barton Hill district of Bristol in the 1980s was a scary part of town. So when Banksy, who came from a much smarter part of town, decided to go make his first expedition there, he was nervous. “My dad was badly beaten up there as a kid,” he told fellow graffiti artist and author Felix Braun. He was trying out names at the time, sometimes signing himself Robin Banx, although this soon evolved into Banksy. The shortened nickname may have demonstrated less of the gangsters’ “robbing banks” cachet, but it was more memorable—and easier to write on a wall.

Banksy’s first London exhibition, so to speak, took place in Rivington Street in 2001, when he and fellow street artists convened in a tunnel near a pub. “We hung up some decorators’ signs nicked from a building site, "he later wrote, “and painted the walls white wearing overalls. We got the artwork up in 25 minutes and held an opening party later that week with beers and some hip-hop pumping out of the back of a Transit van. About 500 people turned up to an opening which had cost almost nothing to set up.”

During the next 17 months, always in disguise, Banksy brought his own brand of prankster performance art to major museums, including the Louvre. There, he succeeded in installing an image of the Mona Lisa plastered with a smiley-face sticker. In New York City, he secretly attached a small portrait of a woman (which he had found and modified to show the subject wearing a gas mask) to a wall in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum took it in its stride: “I think it’s fair to say,” spokeswoman Elyse Topalian told the New York Times, “it would take more than a piece of Scotch tape to get a work of art into the Met.” While the value of his pieces soars, there is a certain sadness around some of Banksy’s creative output. A number of his works exist only in memory, or photographs. When I recently wandered in London, searching for 52 previously documented examples of Banksy’s street art, 40 works had disappeared altogether, whitewashed over or destroyed.

Source: By Will Ellsworth-Jones, Smithsonian Magazine , February 2013


Do the exercise.

Step 2 - Words

Words

Look at the text again.

Banksy melds street-fighting passion and pacifist ardor in his image of a protester whose Molotov cocktail morphs into a bouquet. (Pixelbully / Alamy)

On his way to becoming an international icon, the subversive and secretive street artist turned the art world upside-down

When Time Magazine selected the British artist Banksy—graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur—for its list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010, he found himself in the company of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga. He supplied a picture of himself with a paper bag (recyclable, naturally) over his head. Most of his fans don’t really want to know who he is. Pest Control, the tongue-in-cheek-titled organization set up by the artist to authenticate the real Banksy artwork, also protects him from prying outsiders. Hiding behind a paper bag, or, more commonly, e-mail, Banksy relentlessly controls his own narrative. His last face-to-face interview took place in 2003.

The Barton Hill district of Bristol in the 1980s was a scary part of town. So when Banksy, who came from a much smarter part of town, decided to go make his first expedition there, he was nervous. “My dad was badly beaten up there as a kid,” he told fellow graffiti artist and author Felix Braun. He was trying out names at the time, sometimes signing himself Robin Banx, although this soon evolved into Banksy. The shortened nickname may have demonstrated less of the gangsters’ “robbing banks” cachet, but it was more memorable—and easier to write on a wall.

Banksy’s first London exhibition, so to speak, took place in Rivington Street in 2001, when he and fellow street artists convened in a tunnel near a pub. “We hung up some decorators’ signs nicked from a building site, "he later wrote, “and painted the walls white wearing overalls. We got the artwork up in 25 minutes and held an opening party later that week with beers and some hip-hop pumping out of the back of a Transit van. About 500 people turned up to an opening which had cost almost nothing to set up.”

During the next 17 months, always in disguise, Banksy brought his own brand of prankster performance art to major museums, including the Louvre. There, he succeeded in installing an image of the Mona Lisa plastered with a smiley-face sticker. In New York City, he secretly attached a small portrait of a woman (which he had found and modified to show the subject wearing a gas mask) to a wall in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum took it in its stride: “I think it’s fair to say,” spokeswoman Elyse Topalian told the New York Times, “it would take more than a piece of Scotch tape to get a work of art into the Met.” While the value of his pieces soars, there is a certain sadness around some of Banksy’s creative output. A number of his works exist only in memory, or photographs. When I recently wandered in London, searching for 52 previously documented examples of Banksy’s street art, 40 works had disappeared altogether, whitewashed over or destroyed.

Source: By Will Ellsworth-Jones, Smithsonian Magazine , February 2013


Do the exercises.

Step 3 - Grammar

Grammar
Let’s look at ... possessive adjectives.

Check the theory in the Grammar Desk.

Possessive adjectives


Do the exercises.

 

A bar at the Folies-Bergere by Manet

Read the sentences: I have got a hat. It’s my hat. The hat is mine.
Jack hasn’t got their landline number.
Whose is this pen? It’s hers.

 

In exercise 2 you fill in the missing possessive adjective or pronoun.
These sentences are about this painting of Manet.

Step 4 - Speaking

Speaking
Imagine you could meet Banksy, what questions would you ask him?
Think of five questions. Write down your questions for an interview with Banksy.

Discuss with your classmate.
What does he/she think Banksy would answer to your questions? 
Now take a look at the questions of your classmate. What do you think Banksy would answer to his/her questions?

 

Then discuss the following questions with a classmate:

  • Why do you think that Banksy doesn’t want his/her identity revealed?
    Give reasons.
  • Can you think of a situation in which you would want to be anonymous?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of anonymity?
    Give your reasons.

 

Step 5 - Reading

Reading
Some people wanted to discover the mystery behind Banksy’s identity and so they tried to find out who he (or she) is. Now we’re going to read about how they think they have discovered who he is.

A definition of geographic profiling is: 'a way of finding out the residence by connecting places that a person has visited'.

First read about geographic profiling.

Geographic profiling
Geographic profiling is an investigative methodology that uses the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area that an offender lives in. Although it is generally applied in serial murder, rape, arson, robbery, and bombing cases, geographic profiling also can be used in single crimes that involve multiple scenes or other significant geographic characteristics.

Developed from research conducted at Simon Fraser University's School of Criminology and rooted in the pathbreaking work of Brantingham and Brantingham (1981), the methodology is based on a model that describes the hunting behavior of the offender. The criminal geographic targeting (CGT) program uses overlapping distance-decay functions centered on each crime location to produce jeopardy surfaces—three-dimensional probability surfaces that indicate the area where the offender probably lives. The distance-decay concept conveys the idea that people, including criminals, generally take more short trips and fewer long trips in the course of their daily lives, which may include criminal activities. Thus overlapping distance-decay functions are sets of curves expressing this phenomenon and suggesting, for example, that it is more likely that offenders live close to the sites of their crimes than far away. Probability surfaces can be displayed on both two- and three-dimensional color isopleth maps, which then provide a focus for investigative efforts.

Geographic profiling can be used as the basis for several investigative strategies. Some of the more common ones include:

  • Suspect and tip prioritization.
  • Address-based searches of police record systems.
  • Patrol saturation and surveillance.
  • Canvasses and searches.
  • Mass DNA screening prioritization.
  • Department of motor vehicles searches.
  • ZIP Code prioritization.
  • Information request mailouts.


Do the exercise.

Now read the text 'Banksy unmasked?'.

Banksy unmasked? Scientists use maths and criminology to map artist's identity

British academics have used combinations of maths, criminology and geographic profiling to back up a theory over the identity of mysterious street artist Banksy. Scientists at Queen Mary University of London
said the pattern of how Banksy’s artworks were distributed suggested he was artist Robin Gunningham.
Gunningham was first named as Banksy by the Daily Mail newspaper in 2008. Banksy’s politically-themed street art has made him a celebrity in Britain, despite his true identity never having been confirmed. His most high-profile recent project was Dismaland, a “bemusement park”, located in southwest England. Geographic profiling is a technique used in fields from criminology to the study of patterns of infectious disease. The research, published in the Journal of Spatial Science, analysed a series of locations of Banksy’s artworks in London and Bristol and mapped them against “anchor points” such as the homes of people suspected of being Banksy to draw conclusions about possible identity.

“Our analysis highlights areas associated with one prominent candidate (e.g. his home), supporting his identification as Banksy,” the paper said. “More broadly, these results support previous suggestions that analysis of minor terrorism-related acts (eg graffiti) could be used to help locate terrorist bases before more serious incidents occur, and provides a fascinating example of the application of the model to a complex, real-world problem.” One of the research team, Steve Le Comber, told the BBC: “I’d be surprised if it’s not (Gunningham), even without our analysis, but it’s interesting that the analysis offers additional support for it.” The BBC also reported that Banksy’s legal team had contacted staff at the university with concerns about how the research was to be promoted.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/

 
Do the exercise.

Step 6 - Task

Task
You are going to write a discursive essay.
Discursive essays are like a debate, where you give different arguments about the same topic. It presents a balanced and objective examination of a subject.
The topic may be controversial, but the discursive essay attempts to present a much more balanced discussion of the issue.

The topic of this discursive essay is: Graffiti – vandalism or pure art?

  1. Note down reasons that people think graffiti is an act of vandalism.
  2. Note down reasons that people think graffiti is pure art.
  3. What do you think?

Your plan:

  • Para 1: Introduce the topic and outline what you are going to say.
    Your first paragraph should identify the issues that you are going to discuss and be interesting!
  • Para 2: why people might think it is vandalism.
    Word your reasons carefully. Make sure that your points are logical.
  • Para 3: why people might think it is art.
    Open with 'Contrary to this...' 'On the other hand...'
    List the opposing side’s reasons but do not change your opinion.
    Use phrases like: 'some people claim ...There are those who say...'
  • Para 4 conclusion and your own opinion.
    Make sure that your opinion is clear. Begin with phrases like: 'To sum up / In my opinion / To conclude’.

To write a quality essay, it's good to know on which points it will be assessed by your teacher. See the rubric on the next pages.
Finally hand in your essay to your teacher.

Discursive Essay rubric
Guidelines for scoring a discursive essay. These should be at B1 level as per CEFR.

  Fair (2 pts) Good (3 pts) Excellent (4 pts)
Planning
Plan
Some points but not all are clearly relevant. Clearly relevant supporting points. Good planning supporting points and a logical method of organization: considers pros/cons
Introduction
Gets the readers attention and clearly sets out what is going to say.
Introduction is adequate. Introduction prepares reader for the essay. Introduction is creative, gets interest and prepares reader for the essay.
Logical order
Does the order of the supporting details make sense?
The writer attempts to develop the essay in a logical order, but some of the essay may be presented in an order readers may find confusing. Most of the essay is presented in a logical order, and readers should have little trouble following the supporting details. The essay is developed in a logical order appropriate to the writer's purpose and reader's needs.
Conclusion
Does the conclusion restate the topic in a new way to tie the details together?
There is an attempt at a conclusion, but it doesn't restate the topic clearly or tie the details together in a fresh way. (simple repetition of the main points) The conclusion sums up the topic by restating it in a fresh way; it ties the details together in a non-repetitive fashion. The conclusion sums up the topic by restating the ideas in a fresh way; it ties the details together well.
Grammar and Vocabulary
Does the essay indicate that the writer has control of the spelling, grammar and vocabulary?
The essay contains errors of grammar, vocabulary or spelling to such an extent to impede understanding. The writer is able to express him/herself well although a few errors are present. There are very few errors and the writer has good control of the features of grammar and vocabulary at this level.

 

Evaluation

Fill in the schedule and answer the questions below.

Activity

 

Needs improvement

Satisfactory, good

Excellent

Step 1 - Reading

I can read the text about Banksy and answer the questions.

 

 

 

Step 2 - Words

I can understand and use the words.

 

 

 

Step 3 - Grammar

I can understand and use the grammar.

 

 

 

Step 4 - Speaking

I can think of questions I would ask Banksy and discuss about Banksy with a classmate.

 

 

 

Step 5 - Reading

I can read the texts about geographic profiling and Banksy 'unmasked' and answer the questions.

 

 

 

Step 6 - Task

I can write a discursive essay.

 

 

 

 

What have you learnt in this period?
Answer the following questions:

  • What did you already know?
  • What was new to you in this lesson?
  • What was the most interesting part?
  • What do you have to ask your teacher?
  • Het arrangement Street Art h45 is gemaakt met Wikiwijs van Kennisnet. Wikiwijs is hét onderwijsplatform waar je leermiddelen zoekt, maakt en deelt.

    Auteur
    VO-content
    Laatst gewijzigd
    2021-06-16 12:36:19
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    Aanvullende informatie over dit lesmateriaal

    Van dit lesmateriaal is de volgende aanvullende informatie beschikbaar:

    Toelichting
    Deze les valt onder de arrangeerbare leerlijn van de Stercollectie voor Engels voor havo, leerjaar 4 en 5. Dit is thema 'Art'. Het onderwerp van deze les is: Street Art. Deze les gaat over kunst in openbare plaatsen, waarbij gesproken wordt over de kunstenaar Banksy. Ook wordt het verschil tussen straatkunst, graffiti en vadalisme besproken. De grammaticaopdracht gaat over possessive adjectives and pronouns.
    Leerniveau
    HAVO 4; HAVO 5;
    Leerinhoud en doelen
    Engels;
    Eindgebruiker
    leerling/student
    Moeilijkheidsgraad
    gemiddeld
    Studiebelasting
    3 uur en 0 minuten
    Trefwoorden
    arrangeerbaar, banksy, engels, graffiti, hv45, possessive adjectives and pronouns, stercollectie, straatkunst, street art, vandalisme