Elective: ART • SD, HDV & 16mm direct • 30min • 2023 • Rental
Elective: ART is an art rock film that reflects on my twenty year journey as a high school art teacher. Original song writing and spoken word combines with performance art, archival footage and direct 16mm film elements to celebrate the freedom of imagination, autonomy in creativity and necessity of creative practices in our schools. The film depicts an art wizard unlocking a student's imagination sending them into a surreal world where a color wheel escapes the classroom. Aided by primary colors, a hero's journey ensues as the class clown is tasked with retrieving the wheel and freeing other students from the tedium of their school day.
Elective: ART is a celebration of youth and the freedom found in the creative process. It's also a reflection on schools. In particular, the lack of autonomy students' have in their education. The work is dedicated to adults who have graduated, but continue to embrace learning and find freedom in creative play.
Video, Music & Text: written, recorded, edited & performed by Tommy Becker • Vocals, Guitars, Keys & Drum Programming by Tommy Becker. Video synth elements by Kit Young • Interlude soundscapes by Tommy Becker & Lori Varga • "Yes/No" - Written & Read by Richard Olsen • Rhythm bed on Teenage Shaman by Stephen Becker. Bass guitar on "Into the Night", "Marks We Made" & “Line, Shape, Hue ” by John-Paul McLean • Shadow animations on, “Line, Shape, Hue” by Lydia Greer • Marbled 16mm film by Lori Varga • Operatic vocals on “Deer Children” by Caroline Clarke • Mask animation by Greedy Limb • Vocals recorded at Different Fur Studios & mixed by Grace Coleman • Archival 16mm film sourced by Craig Baldwin • Other archival footage sourced from Prelinger Archive & POND5. A huge thank you to my all students for participating in this film and creative adventures over the years!
60 page color zine with introduction by artist. Printed QR code gives access to full streamable film online. A four fold 16”x20” movie poster printed on 80# cover recycled paper. CD containing all ten original motion picture soundtracks plus bonus track - “Paper Mache”
Chapter One - Interlude into Teenage Shaman • 1:30min (clip)
A mysterious figure enters the classroom disrupting the monotony of the school day.
Chapter Two - Deer Children • 1:30min (clip) Operatic vocals by Caroline Joy Clarke
It's a natural response for teenagers to question and react against their cultural conditioning. Deer Children is an exhortation to embrace unfettered joy and chaos before the agonies of adulthood set in. It invites the viewer to momentarily indulge in the fantasy of youthful rebellion, self-discovery, recklessness, love, disregard, dream and contempt that continues to escape us as we are pulled further into the constructs of age and culture.
The title pages of the magazine display color wheel collage work I completed during my last year of teaching. A few of the works are used as props in the film. Over the years, I collected students' discarded color wheels and began to re-imagine what other stories these seemingly disposable exercises might have to offer. For first-time painters, the color wheel exercise is an alchemic play where undeniable magic occurs in the mixing of colors. In class, I was always surprised by how truly diverse the outcomes were for this activity. The students were denied a compass or pre-drawn structure to paint into. Some wheels were more oval than circular, and each color's space varied significantly. Personality also came through in the colors. Some greens presented themselves as saturated pieces of sour apple candy, while others evoked feelings of a dying lawn. The application of paint provided even more individuality. Some students' colors were painted so perfectly between the lines you would have thought they had been computer-generated, while others flooded out of bounds, providing a texture to the dried work.
After working on color wheels, my students moved on to painting landscapes with sticks and then to painting abstract forces of nature on dried leaves we collected outside the school. With each project, more diverse and defined visual voices emerged. Students who choose to continue in the visual arts discover freedom in a creative play that embraces failure and the unforeseen. In exploring ideas and materials, new combinations continue to open up to them. There is excitement in the journey's potential.