HW 6.4 - Scanning Lesson Plan

Though scanning has been a welcome part of my art practice for more than ten years, I have never taught a lesson on scanography, nor had I ever thought to. This class changed that. I was really excited to share the possibilities of scanning, and the capabilities of the scanner with my classmates in my small group in New Media New Forms. This really inspired me to take scanning into the classroom, and consider how to introduce this media to a group of students. I would approach this as a material exploration, with dialog and discussion, and an experimental approach to the scanner. I think dialog about how a scanner works, and what the students typically think a scanner does would be the place to start. I would follow this with some opening up of the possibilities of the scanner - 3D objects, not putting the lid down and creating that depth of field, colour and manipulation within the scanning software as opposed to editing in Photoshop. Ideally students would (depending on the number of scanners in the room, if there are many - small groups, if there is one - one at a time) bring objects to the scanner and experiment with placing them or  moving them on the scanner and manipulating them in various ways.