- Description
- Resource Material
Initially, the students are taught by a math teacher who introduces them to the mathematical definition of harmony and its geometrical aspects. The math teacher follows the historical development of the concept of harmony explaining and underlining its close ties to the arts and study of the universe and the living nature. First, the students learn about the golden section, its geometrical definition and that it is the positive root of a certain square equation. Then, the students learn about some generalizations of the golden section – the silver section and other metallic means, how they can also be defined as roots of square equations and their connection to regular polygons. They also learn about the connections of these irrational numbers to famous number series, like the Fibonacci, Lucas and Pell numbers. The students solve geometrical and algebraic problems involving the golden and other sections. A biology teacher explains to the students where the golden ratio and the Fibonacci spiral (logarithmic spiral with the golden ratio as the growth factor, i.e. the spiral of growth) are found in various shapes of living organisms. The art teacher (visual arts, preferably with experience in graphic or logo design) introduces the students to the concept of harmony in the arts, to famous works of painters (for example Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Dali) and sculptors (for example Phidias), artifacts and buildings from ancient times to modern days which are based on the golden section or silver section. An IT teacher or the art teacher introduces the students to some basic functions of computer software which can be used for graphics and logo design, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, Wix Logo Maker, Canva, Adobe Express, Ucraft, GIMP or others.
(Optional) A music teacher explains to the students how the concept of harmony in music is based on the same principle as in mathematics – ideas going back to the school of Pythagoras about the harmonic series, musical intervals and musical distances which sound pleasing to the human ear. The students can browse the Internet and/or visit art galleries and museums together with the math and the art teacher to look at various works of art and discuss the golden ratio and other harmony relations presented in them. Next, with the assistance of the school management, a meeting with a professional graphic designer is organized. The graphic designer also explains to the students how to use software to design a simple logo or a simple digital artwork and how to incorporate the concepts of harmony to make it more aesthetic. The designer presents to the students some of their artworks or works by other designers which he/she finds beautiful and inspiring by explaining how they make use of the golden section (harmony). At the next stage, the students assisted by the art teacher (or IT teacher) and the graphic designer develop their own project for a logo design (for real or imaginary brand of student’s choice) or digital artwork which is related to the golden section or other metallic means. For inspiration, they can use natural shapes as taught by the biology teacher and browse the Internet (Google or websites like Pinterest) to look at some digital designs. The students can first sketch their designs with pencils on paper, discuss them with the art teacher and then proceed to draw them with the graphic or logo design software chosen by the IT teacher and the graphic designer. At the final stage, the students’ artworks can be printed and shown on a school exhibition and discussed among them. Each student can explain to the teachers and his/her peers where they derived the inspiration from and how they incorporated the concepts of harmony learned from math and visual arts theory. The work on the subject lasts 18 hours.
