Majority Rule
Student learning materials and activities
VISUAL ARTS
Draw a picture of what Australia would look like in 2017, if European’s did not colonise Australia.
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Majority Rule (Image 3 of 7)
Artist: Michael Cook
Date Created: 2014
Location Created: Australia
Medium: Inkjet print (Epson UltraChrome K3 inks on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Bright White 310 gsm paper)
(Cook, 2014)
Majority Rule is a series of photographs created by Michael Cook.
Each photograph is of a crowded city location.
What can you see in this photo?
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Make a list
Look at the men in the photograph.
Which man do you look at first? Why?
What are the similarities and differences?
What do their different positions tell you?
What do you think the artists was trying to do when he chose the different positions of the men?
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What Elements of Art has the artist used to create this image?
Line, colour, shape, texture etc...
What effect (Principles of Art) do they have on the artwork?
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Hold your mouse over the dots to discover the artwork
Explore the other photographs in this series.
Select another photo from the series.
Analyse and appraise your chosen photograph
What do you see?
How does it make you feel?
What Elements of design are used? What effect do they have?
Why did they artist create the photograph?
Compare your selected photo with the one above:
What are the similarities?
What are the differences?
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Viewpoints and discussion
Does this crowd of Aboriginal men represent your community?
Consider what your community would look like if most of the population was Indigenous?
The artist is asking
What if Indigenous people represented the majority of the Australian people?
What parts of the artwork make you think about this question?
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How might the artist have created the photograph?
How does the use of photography help the artist ask his question?
Are these photos Aboriginal art? Why? Why not?
What do you think the artist is trying to say about the representation of Australia’s diversity in artwork?
The artist has used one man to represent a crowd
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The idea that the larger number of people should have the greatest power
Majority rule
There are a lot of different things or people
Diversity
Explore the representation of Australia's diversity in other Australian artwork online or in your local gallery
Create your own ‘crowded’ artwork using a location in your school
MAKE
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Experiment with different techniques to create your crowd.
You could use collage or create layers using an app such as PicCollage.
Make your artwork.
Present your artwork to your partner, group or class and identify and explain your choices.
As a class, decide how to present your artwork. Where will you hang it? How will it be mounted or framed?
Does your class’ artwork represent the diversity in your classroom, school or community?
(Cook, 2014)