Happy New Year! To begin the year, we’ve found this wonderful animation of a pop-up book based on the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. We think it’s a great example of pop-up iconography. Click here to view it.
January 10, 2009
August 2, 2008
Book Animation by Chris Northey
Chris Northey did this inventive 3-dimensional book animation, called “Start Running Pico,” while living in Japan. It speaks to the dynamic balance between creation and distruction that is part of most mythologies. Watch it here on YouTube.
May 16, 2008
What is Art?
What is art? Critics have debated this question forever. Here is a funny yet thoughtful discussion of the subject, presented in claymation by a host of gregarious animal characters. Though they don’t answer the question definitively, they make some pertinent points.
April 21, 2008
Young Sudanese Paper Engineers
Ruth Marcus teaches an art class with students who are mostly Sudanese refugees. Recently she did a project where they learned how to make some basic pop-ups. “With only two pieces of paper, some cutting and some glue, the kids can make moving cards of their very own, and color all over them as well.” Visit the kids at Ruth’s blog to see more photos.
April 17, 2008
Volume Two, The Pocket Paper Engineer
The long-awaited Volume 2 of Carol Barton’s The Pocket Paper Engineer is on it’s way, and will be available in late June. This volume will cover the steps in constructing four glued pop-ups: platforms, props, spirals, and straddles. The book includes ten new projects to be constructed right out of the book, plus lots of photos, ideas, and step-by-step instructions for creating your own pop-ups.
Visit http://www.popularkinetics.com/sales_page.html to place your pre-publication order now!
November 30, 2007
Radio Lab: Radio at its Best
Here at Popular Kinetics, radio is our constant studio companion. One of our favorite shows is Radio Lab, produced by New York Public Radio station WNYC. With themes such as Sleep, Morality, and Time, each hour-long segment approaches its subject from a scientific, artistic, and philosophical viewpoint. The station only produces about five shows a year because they are so research- and labor-intensive. Each program is funny, insightful, and full of great storytelling.
Here’s a sample podcast. Sleep Every creature does it – from giant hump back whales all the way down to fruit flies – and yet science still can’t answer the basic questions: Why do we sleep? What is it for? We’ll eavesdrop on the uneasy dreams of rats in search of answers. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/05/25
November 26, 2007
Paper Cut-Out Music Video
Paper Animation is hot this year! Fraud in the 80′s is a light-hearted music video by the band Mates of State that combines paper cut-outs, collage, dancing art materials, and more. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERW1UfLalw4
October 4, 2007
Art, Books, Creativity Classroom Curriculum
The ABC web site is now up! ABC stands for Arts, Books, & Creativity, and is an elementary-level arts integration program that helps students make connections between visual art, writing, and other classroom subjects. Based on a two-year pilot program designed by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, ABC is a model for integrating the visual arts into core school curicula.
A complete set of lesson plans on incorporating book arts into the classroom is now available on the web site, www.artbookscreativity.org Please pass this information on to any teachers who might be interested in utilizing this important resource! I’ve been involved as one of the artist-teachers in this program from its inception, and have found that teaching kids to make their own books empowers them to improve their reading and writing skills, explore new subject matter, and develop three-dimensional design and trial-and-error problem-solving techniques. In an era when the arts have been reduced or cut from many school programs, this is an important way to incorporate them back into the classroom as a vital teaching tool.
September 8, 2007
How to Make a Pop-Up Photo
Did you ever want to pop up photos of your family, your pet, or your best friends? Now you can, by following the step-by-step instructions we’ve posted on Wikipedia’s How-To Encyclopedia. Just go to http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pop-up-Photograph.
The Wikihow Encyclopedia covers a wealth of subjects, from crafts, to plumbing, to how to make Eggs Benedict. You can add the “How-To Of The Day” selection to your own Google page by going to www.google.com/ig. And we’re excited that our Pop-Up Photo How-To has been chosen by Google to appear as their feature on September 10th!
August 16, 2007
Attention All School Teachers!
Lesson plans on how to incorporate book arts into standard classroom curicula will be available this fall on a new web site sponsored by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The web site will be posted in September. Please pass this information on to any teachers you know who might be interested in utilizing this important free resource within their classrooms! Email me and I will send you an announcement with the web address when it is up.
ABC (Art, Books, and Creativity) is an elementary-level arts integration curriculum that helps students make connections between visual art, writing, and other classroom subjects. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, ABC is a model for integrating the visual arts into core school curicula. I have been involved as one of the artist-teachers in this program from its inception, and have found that teaching kids to make their own books empowers them to improve their storytelling and writing skills, explore new subject matter, and develop three-dimensional design and trial-and-error problem-solving techniques.
In an era when the arts have been reduced or cut from many school programs, this is an important way to incorporate them back into the classroom as a vital teaching tool. Please take advantage of this resource!
