IB Diploma Guide - The International School Of Penang

GROUP 6
THE ARTS & ELECTIVES
VISUAL ARTS
The visual arts course enables students to engage in both practical artistic production,
as well as in independent critical investigation and exploration. The course is designed
to enable students to study visual arts in higher education and also for those students
who seek life enrichment through visual arts. Communicating with others is something
we all need to do. Many professions requires visual communication eg architecture,
engineering, planning, designing and even medicine. Art gives you the skills to explore
and communicate ideas.
The course has two components –
1. Studio work – 60%
The practical art work requires the students to choose media, techniques and
subjects of interest to them. Year 12 will introduce several different approaches,
after which, students begin to explore and research ideas of a more personal
nature. Some of the themes that students could research are: gender roles, the
economic crisis, global warming, the human figure, the kampong, religion, sea
creatures etc – in fact the choice of areas to research is endless, but it should be
something of cultural relevance as well as of personal interest to the student.
At the end of the course, students should have produced studio work that
communicates their understanding of ideas and concepts. The work must express
ideas and feelings and show an understanding of aesthetic concepts. The course
is not just about drawing nicely in a realistic fashion. In fact, realism and painting
and drawing are not set requirements of the course. The media/techniques that
may be used are as diverse as clay, digital imagery, painting, collage, design,
fashion, printing, mixed media etc. IB does not define the media or the approach.
Like the theme, the media is generally the student’s choice. For the final exam,
the students will stage an exhibition of their studio work. There will be a visiting
external assessor who will view the exhibition, read the workbooks and hear
what the students have to say about their work. This gives the students a great
chance to prove what the actually know about art.
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