Iron and Bronze Casting Collaboration

How does your project address an important problem or strength?

We wish to continue supporting the education of iron and bronze casting processes introduced to high school students over the past two years in collaboration with the sculpture department at KCAI and continued at Wickerson Studios during the fall of 2010.

To what extent does your project employ research-based effective practices?

High school student research involves both hands on demonstration through workshop exercises and conceptual development involving writing and presentations.

How does your project promote innovative and challenging teaching and learning?

Traditional methods of casting are not commonly introduced and accomplished during general curriculum at the high school level. Digital media can be used as a foundation for modeling and working traditional materials and processes in the production of cast bronze and iron.

Does your project advance discovery and understanding within its field or across different fields?

Metal casting can assist a student in a wide range of subject matter and interests. Historically it remains a basis of every civilization. Artifacts and implements speak of a cultures political and social significance. Religious and secular relics demand interpretations and economies are held together by the commodities and lifestyles which are dependent on metal casting production which defines everything from a civilizations military weapons to a civilizations household domestic utensils.

Student's interest in physics, chemistry and engineering will be able to take a keen interest in this ancient project and many student will discover their own personal voice through exploring their ability to craft forms and manage a complex studio/laboratory environment.

Does your project develop concepts, approaches, tools, methodologies or technologies to solve problems in a new way?

Computer programs are becoming more and more the foundation for how academics and businesses approach everything from architecture to designing cups and saucers. This virtual reality of computer-based technologies must still find it way into our world through actual object and form production. It is the bridge from the conception of an idea to the manifestation of the object-in-the-world that posses the greatest problem for anyone desiring to create on all levels of society. Sculpture still has a traditional relevance and importance in regard to this challenge for culture and society. New technologies are always welcome but they need not eliminate the traditional and old. Efficiency in a new medium does not negate the beauty of the past. The synthesis of the memories of the past and desires for the future need to reveal themselves in the present through a thorough understanding of all possibilities.