For our second lesson, we will be splitting into groups to teach a skill we know to our classmates using a simple 6-step skills booklet. I chose to teach how to play Go Fish using a standard deck of cards. Below is the skills booklet I made:
For the Seminar class, a written component should accompany the skills booklet. Below is the text that accompanies the book:
I decided on teaching how to play Go Fish as my skill because who doesn’t love a little fun poker game that everyone can play right? Go Fish is a very simple game to play and explain so I split the rules into six steps. The aim of the game is to collect as many sets of fours, for example, four aces, or four eights and so forth. The winner is the player who has the most sets of four cards at the end of the game. Step one is to shuffle the cards and deal each player five cards (however if there are only two players, deal each player seven cards). Afterwards, choose among yourselves who should go first (a quick way to decide is to let the oldest person go first). The first player asks the player to their left for a specific card, for example “do you have any fives?”, and if they do they give you all their fives and you can continue asking them for more cards. However, if they do not have that card they say “Go Fish!” And you must pick a card from the main pile and it moves on to the next players turn. The game ends when there are no cards left in the main pile.
On the surface, knowing how to play Go Fish doesn’t seem like it would benefit you, let alone an artist, in any way other than knowing how to entertain a crowd if you have a deck of cards at hand. However, the skills that you must have to play and enjoy a good game of Go Fish can actually translate well into how you approach your art and just life in general. As you are given your first five cards, you don’t have control which cards you have and therefore must adapt to your situation and find a solution to winning. Learning how to adapt to new changes is an important skill and this can be seen through the evolution of the mediums through which we can present art. From analog drawings, we now use electronics and digital softwares like Photoshop to create art. Artists like Tatsuo Miyajima have the same concept throughout his collection of works but through the years he moved on from simple sketches of numbers to using LED lights and computer graphics to manifest his concept.
Bibliography
“Innumerable Life / Buddha.” Tatsuo Miyajima. Accessed January 29, 2019. https://tatsuomiyajima.com/category/work-projects/.
Rieland, Randy. “7 Ways Technology Is Changing How Art Is Made.” Smithsonian.com. August 27, 2014. Accessed January 29, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/7-ways-technology-is-changing-how-art-is-made-180952472/.
