Assembly-Line Art
By John W. Healy

Six-year-old Danielle (top) created the original car that her classmates (above) mass-produced. Groups of students were in charge of "assembling" the wheels, lights and windows.

I once had the privilege of working on a mural project with the mother of one of my students. She was an executive in a major corporation, and every time I used the word "interdisciplinary," which is often used among educators, she said, "Yes, let's think outside of the box."

A terrific way to get your students thinking outside the box is to combine the design of an original artistic creation with methods of industrial mass production. When creative thinking and originality is associated with a regimented process, the resulting mass-produced product can benefit many people.

From one to many
To demonstrate how these two very different ways of thinking and creating interact, I start by showing the class various one-of-a-kind, handmade objects such as a piece of pottery, a carving, an original painting, etc. The children and I consider how long it may have taken the artist to create each artifact. I ask the students, "How might it be possible for many people to enjoy ownership of such beautiful works of art? Is there any way to produce these objects in great numbers, and quickly?"

At this time, I show the students an everyday, mass-produced product that is based on one original design. I ask the children, "How can this product be sold so inexpensively?"

The purpose of this lesson is to clarify and demonstrate the differences between a one-of-a-kind, original work of art or other man-made object, and mass-produced replicas of such products. While the value of a mass-produced product will depreciate as it increases in availability, the product will, on the other hand, often benefit more people due to that increased availability.

A factory in the classroom
In this activity, students will experience the process of industrial, "assembly-line" production as they mass-produce an object that was originally designed by a member of their class or work group.

I start the project by asking each student to design a product for mass production. Cars are most commonly associated with this process, but you can use any object that has a number of distinct parts to it. The object the children design should be intended for the use of bettering our lives. If you have a large class, the children can be divided into cooperative work groups.

I then select one drawing from the class or from each work group and make an enlarged photocopy of it, which I then cut into five or more clearly-defined sections.

At this time, we have a class discussion about the concept of the subcontractor who produces individual components of a product, and each student or group of students selects a component of the original design to trace and reproduce at least six times. In the case of a class that is creating mass-produced cars, some children may choose to be the "subcontractor" for the tires, and create all the tires for the class' mass-produced car pictures. Another group of children may choose to produce all the windows. Yet another group may volunteer to create all the headlights for the cars.

When the children in each group have completed their component, I ask the class to organize their work groups into a sequence of assembly – it's terrific practice in sequencing – and production begins. The pictures are passed to the windows group, and those children paste on the windows for each car. When the windows are finished, the pictures are passed to the headlights group, who adds their creation. The process continues until we have finished our pictures of cars. We make a bulletin board of the finished products.

Creativity takes flight
Making connections between one's own discipline and another can be a great joy, and can open our minds to new ways of thinking. I think of behavior modification experiments in which a pigeon in a box was rewarded with a kernel of corn each time he pecked at the correct sequence of lights. Though the sequence became progressively more complex, at no time did the pigeon choose to leave the box. We, however, don't have to limit our creativity. We all have wings that can take us to new and exciting places if we choose to "think outside of the box."

Dr. John W. Healy teaches art at Woodland Middle School, East Meadow, NY.

October, 2003, Vol.34, No.2