Scientists in The City

The City

A Sense of Relief

Sample Rubbings

The Activity: Before going outside, have everyone make a crayon rubbing of a leaf, penny, sole of a sneaker, carpet or basketball. Encourage them to figure out that only the highest spots show up on the rubbing.; Take a "City Walk" or a "Texture Expedition" to discover some interesting city textures. Perhaps have everyone look for textures that fit in certain categories such as: a repeating pattern, rough/smooth, old/new, manmade, bigger than you are, created by a storm, smaller than your fist, made by an animal, something you might play with or on, made by an artist, texture from a part of a car, textures that help people do something, etc.; Have each participant pick a texture that interests them. Nothing hot or dangerous. Don't wander into the street!; Encourage them to spend some time exploring the texture. Look at it closely. Close eyes and feel it. Try to guess which parts of the object would show up if you made a rubbing of it.; Based on that familiarity, try to draw what a rubbing of it might look like.; Make the rubbing. Then perhaps try to make several other rubbings of the same texture which change how the texture looks, what it brings to mind, or the sort of feeling one gets from looking at it.

Sample Rubbings

Discussion and Further Exploration: Have each artist share why the texture interested them.; Make a class' shape library.; Hang a "How Well Do You Know Your School?" or a "Have You Seen My City?" bulletin board and challenge passers-by to recognize the unnoticed patterns they pass every day.; If outside and supervised (and NOT DESTRUCTIVE) use environmentally-friendly watercolor paint and a roller to make prints (storm drain, fire escape stair, grass, gravel, a leaf pile, etc.) Be prepared with water bucket and scrub brush to scrub the area clean again afterwards!
Extensions: Try to make a potato print that copies one of your city textures.; Try papermaking with artifacts from the city (confetti, flowers, grass, paper trash, leaves, fine gravel, etc.); Combine rubbings/printings of several textures in a multi-layered piece which represents a personal view of the city.; Consider the uses of relief: safety, traction, let light through, to hold water, biological purpose, strictly aesthetics; or the causes of relief: artists' tools, accident, working wrought iron, erosion, casting metals, fossilization, evolution.; Delve into other forms of printing. The earliest known printed images were made from carved reliefs in clay, wood or stone. Consider silk screening, tin-types, mimeograph, Xerox machines, etc.; Look for other examples of architects' use of relief in designing buildings and artists' uses (friezes) in depicting their messages.