How can something be still and move at the same time? Say I have a painting of a fish. I suggest that it shows show the stillness of a fish at an instant in time. But could we show how the fish moves in a painting? Is that possible?

"Movement in a fish tank" Hiral Depala 8 Bow

Around 100 years ago, a group of Italian artists tried to describe movement on the flat, still surface of their paper, canvas, metal or wood. They were called ‘Futurists’ and through their art, they celebrated a world in constant movement. Using tricks such as recording by overlapping and blurring shapes, the Futurists experimented with representing movement.

Last half term, Year 8 explored Futurism and used their ideas to make their own 2D outcomes. At the same time, they investigated the working properties of plastic and wood, learning how to use new tools and machines. This term, students will attempt to take the aesthetic qualities of their 2D outcomes and explore how we can make a 3D outcome from wood and plastic. To make it really interesting, students have soldered an LED circuit board and will explore how this can be incorporated to generate interesting lighting and shadow effects.

Year 7 meanwhile have been exploring how we can record smells, sights, sounds using a variety of different media. To tantalise the senses, some students have also been cooking. If you haven’t had any lovely chocolate muffins made by our budding Year 7 chefs yet, you are missing out!

Well done to the winners of the Big Draw competitions where students were given a mini sketch book to record the world around them and also their ideas and thoughts. Prizes were given to the best sketch books.

The winners were: Julia Wynter (8 Holborn), Frances Ingram (8 Holborn) and Selsebil Allani (7 Ludgate). Luke Barbaro (8 Ludgate) and Hannah Pacht (8 Walbrook) were commended for their sketch books.

Elizabeth Lelliott, Head of ADT elizabeth.lelliott@wrenacademy.org