Art/Technology News 

Here is what's happening in Art and Technology

Ms Helen Ifandis

Cyanotype Workshop at MUMA - Monash University of Modern Art

The year 11 Art making and Exhibiting students attended 'a hands on workshop' at MUMA with Australian artist - Rudi Williams. These workshops are offered FREE for Secondary schools across Victoria. 

The students experienced first hand, the artworks, life and inspirations of the artist. They use camera-less photographic techniques to create a cyanotype as well as a Silver gelatin print. 

The students were immersed in the creative process through the exploration of found objects on light sensitive papers and fabric, which were then exposed to direct sunlight. The compositions came to life once outside. The pre-treated fabric sheet was washed and left to dry, where as the Silver gelatin print remained dry. 

The students viewed the exhibition - IMAGE ECONOMIES, this exhibition explores the impact of evolving digital technologies on image-making, self-representation and media consumption.

Gallery design and exhibition layout, was key for the students, most importantly when they begin to make decisions about the who the audience will be for their own display of artworks. The students gained great insight into the roles of the gallery curator, education officer, director and the role of the artist. 

Art Making and Exhibiting - Year 11 and 12 TOP ARTS EXCURSION - March 17

The VCE Art students attended the annual Top Arts exhibition on the 17th of March. The exhibition provides a platform for emerging artists from across the state to showcase their skills, enthusiasm, and creativity. The exhibition highlights the increasingly innovative use of materials and techniques employed by students completing the VCE studies of Art Making and Exhibiting and Art Creative Practice in 2024.

Top Arts 2025 offers a captivating look into the inventive and imaginative spirit of young artists. For the artists in Top Arts 2025, it means wrestling with big questions, distilling complex ideas and trusting their instincts. Selected from over 1400 applicants, the forty students featured in this exhibition have created works that explore culture, identity, knowledge, beauty, portraiture, life and death, and the natural world – all while navigating the demands of VCE. 

The Westall students gained insight into the creative journeys of Top Arts 2025 exhibiting artists. Through hands-on access to the artists’ visual journals, sketchbooks and folios, the students gained a unique insight into how some of Victoria’s top students of VCE art subjects in 2024 developed their ideas, explored materials and techniques and resolved their final artworks.

Students experienced the following:

• Identify and explain the ideas and concepts explored in the folios of Top Arts 2025 exhibitors
• Examine how aesthetic qualities, art elements and art principles, and materials and techniques have been used to support the communication of ideas.
• Describe how sources of inspiration inform the development of Top Arts exhibitors’ ideas and artworks.

YEAR 12 ART MAKING AND EXHIBITING ECKERSLEYS WORKSHOP

The Year 11/ Year 12 Art students are required to explore an range of media, materials and processes as part of their visual arts journal. Dani Scaramuzzino, the art representative from ECKERSLEYS ran a workshop where students trialled the latest media. The students explored media related to their chosen art form. 

Dani demonstrated how to develop images using the Mi Screen, this was exciting to watch as it executes an almost instant photographic screen printed image.

YEAR 7 Design Technologies - Woodwork, Pencil holder - 'Snake'

The students have been working on products that serve a purpose and specific function. The pencil holder has been designed for a set of coloured pencils - the materials, equipment and tools used to create the 'snake' are treated pine, outdoor acrylic paints, sandpaper, belt sander and pedestal drill. The work in progress will be on display shortly!

Ms Helen Ifandis

Art & Technology Coordinator