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To observe a garden through its range of contrasts
OBJECTIVES
To observe a garden and highlight the contrasts which bring it its balance and harmony.
To transfer notions of aesthetic analysis to the reading of a garden.
SKILLS
To perceive, discover and grasp plastic language.
To confront one’s work to others’ to collect opinions and express one’s views.
To argue and qualify one’s opinion .
MATERIALS
A.4 thick cardboard.
A rough plan of the garden
Transparencies to put on the map of the garden.
Markers to write on transparencies.
Puns written on small pieces of cardboard.
PROCEDURES
Each student is given a word referring to a notion :
empty, full
bright, dark
natural, controlled
open, closed
– hot, cold…
After a walk about all the garden, they spot on their transparencies one – or several – of the spaces that fit the notions they have been given.
The transparencies are compared :
the transparencies that study the same notion.
superposition of transparencies referring to opposite notions
superposition of transparencies referring to the same spaces.
FOLLOW-ON ACTIVITIES
To analyse contrasts in historical gardens : formal garden, landscape garden, Japanese garden
To search the history of painting for works which contain gardens, take the given notions and use them to analyse a whole painting.
TRANSPOSITION
For the younger ones, contrasts can be made easier : horizontal, vertical, or curved, straight.
For the older ones, contrasts can be made more intricate to imply some research beforehand : botanical, native, exotic.
The contrasts can also be :
tactile : rough / smooth
olfactory : scentless / scented
ASSESSMENT
The students should be aware of the balance and harmony of a garden through the well-thought-out mixture of contrasts.
Claire -Hélène Blanquet Association "Patrimoine à Roulettes" Belgique