Nes artists mentor and engage with local students from Hofðaskóli on a regular weekly basis throughout the school year. The varied experience of the artists gives students the opportunity to explore with the guidance of professionals a wide range of art mediums and practices including the following:
- Photography: including exploring portraiture, movement, light, documentation of image, directing photo-shoots, editing in Lightroom (photographic software)
- Performance: creating personalized characters, improvisation, attending professional dance rehearsal
- Stop-motion animation: creating a short work
- Drawing and mixed-media
- Creative writing and Poetry: writing own poems and stories
- Digital art technologies
- Collaborative practices, working in teams
- Critical thinking and analysis
- Creative experimentation and self-expression
Mentor: Iwona Knorr (Poland / Germany) Date: Wednesday 3rd May 2017 One-off class
Photography and documentation:
After a short introduction of the students, Iwona talked about her work as a photographer. She explained different approaches to visual storytelling and provided some insights into her documentary projects. A slide show motivated the students to a field exercise. All agreed to take photographs of the old harbour situated close to the NES studio using mobile phones. Iwona gave feedback to the students and made some suggestions how they could improve their way to photograph.
Mentors: Laura Cruz and Alejandro Rodríguez (Mexico)
Date: Wednesday 19th April
One-off class
Performance showing:
Kerryn escorted the students to the biopol dance studio space (í kaffistofu Gamla frystihússins að Einbúastíg 1 (efstu hæð), and watched a rehearsal that Laura and Alejandro were working on and performing in. The piece is about migration and exile. The students asked many questions about their working process, how they make up the dance movement, and also about life in Mexico and the differences between Mexico and Iceland in terms of crime.
Mentor: Oliver Hutchison (Australia) Date: Wednesday 5th April 2017 One-off class
Generative Art:
Ollie spoke about ‘Generative Art’ practice and artists whom work with this. They then worked with a computer program called ‘processing’ which is a digital program to write computer code, and this code is then translated into digital images. It is a visual programming language that is contextualized as ‘generative art’.
Mentor: Sophie Meehan (Ireland)
Dates: Wednesdays 1, 15, 22 March 2017 3 classes
Creative Writing and Poetry:
Throughout the three sessions the class discussed how poetry can be ‘quick and casual’ and doesn’t have to be formal or epic. They discussed poems that are rooted in location and the material world, and how one can relate the material and external world to an internal emotional world. The class read poetry from Frank O’Hara and also poetry from Sophie. The class discussed favourite lyricists and how lyrics can be poetry also. Students made poems out of cutting words from the newspaper, representing a good way to quickly create a poem out of found material, plus wrote their own poems and
Mentor: Amanda Marsh (Australia)
Dates: Wednesdays 8,15,22 February 2017 3 classes
Drawing and mixed media:
Each class worked with mixed media experimentation with ink, acrylic and oil paint. Students learnt basic drawing skills such as gesture, tonal eraser rubbing and how to draw an eye realistically.
Mentor: Alyson Jackson (UK)
Dates: 25th January and 1st February 2017 2 classes
Photography with Movement and Artificial light:
The workshop looked at the use of artificial light to create movement for a photographic image. The students created surreal images, using light in a darkened room. They learnt camera and lighting techniques and initiated and composed their own interpretation of images. The images were projected in the space, during the February opið hús.
Mentor – Kathleen Scott (USA) Wednesday 14 December 2016
Stop-motion animation:
In this two-hour workshop, students will create a short stop-motion animation. Skills that will be covered include (but are not limited to) production, scene design, lighting, rendering and editing. A variety of examples of contemporary stop-motion techniques will also be discussed.
Vimeo link to animation “Yfirnáttúrulegt” (“Supernatural”) https://vimeo.com/196178809 (password: NES)
Mentor – Claire Paugam (France)
8 classes: Wednesdays 5,12,19,26 October / 2,9,25,30 November 2016
Presented 8 sessions delving into Photography, Performance, Improvisation, Characterization, Developing Creative processes and Collaborative methods: Throughout these eight workshops the students had the opportunity to develop a creative project, learn methods of collaboration and critical analysis, explore and experiment through improvisation, writing, discussions and feedback sessions, lead a photo-shoot, and learn how to edit photographs on Lightroom software.
Two artists Charles Rosenthal and Garrett Hayes mentored over several weeks on a one to one basis Hofðaskóli student, Ivan, engaging with him over 11 classes through drawing and clay work.
Charles and student Ivan
Garret Hayes
Ivan working with Clay