Making Connections: Reading Takeaways (Week 6)

 My main takeaway from the readings was an expansion on a belief I already held. That being: one of the main benefits of teaching art is that children learn through play, which creative expression is undoubtedly a form of. In the case of stop motion, students are able to play in a very literal sense.

The tangibility of stop motion offers students a way of interacting with their art very directly, manipulating objects and giving them room to experiment with how they can influence their own art.

Stop motion seems an ideal medium to explore if the goal is allowing students to flex their creative muscles without being bogged down by technicalities. Stop motion is, by nature, incredibly forgiving. Much like live theatre, audiences understand that imperfections will be present, and they are often more willing to overlook them than they may be with other mediums. 

Stop motion does not require perfectly smooth movements to sell the illusion of life. We see objects moving without visible intervention, and we accept the reality we are being sold. Additionally, because stop motion is typically done with straight-ahead animation rather than keyframes and in-betweens, students are met with one of the more straightforward approaches to animation that we have.