Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Creative Meditations

Open your history of sculpture, and dwell upon those illustrations which are not the normal, reposeful statues, but the exceptional, such as have been listed for this chapter. Imagine that each dancing, galloping, or fighting figure comes down into the room life-size. Watch it against a dark curtain. Let it go through a series of gestures in harmony with the spirit of the original conception, and as rapidly as possible, not to lose nobility. If you have the necessary elasticity, imagine the figures wearing the costumes of another period, yet retaining in their motions the same essential spirit. Combine them in your mind with one or two kindred figures, enlarged till they fill the end of the room. You have now created the beginning of an Action Photoplay in your own fancy. Vachel Lindsay. The Art of the Moving Picture (Kindle Locations 1083-1088).

Teachers exploring literature can do this activity of creating statues to commemorate scenes in a novel.  Groups of students (3-4 is optimal) pose as a sculpture/sculpture.   The teacher than can take a digital picture and have a gallery of scenes.  The scenes will help students visualize the book they have been working through. 

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