ArtRageous! The Amazing World of Art,

By, Softkey International, Inc. copyright 1995.

Reviewed by:
Jeff Rodriguez

Reference:

Softkey International (1995) ArtRageous! The Amazing World of Art (cd-rom) 

Contents

ArtRageous is basically a virtual reality city full of information and activities designed to help the student artist better understand—and also take some of the mystery out of—the elements and principles of art.

Plaza

In this city or town, there are six neighborhoods that can be visited and explored through easy navigation methods. The starting point is the Plaza. It is in the center of everything. These neighborhoods are: Color, Light, Perspective, Composition, Life of Art, and Database.

In these neighborhoods, there are hands-on activities and exercises that allow the viewer to participate in learning about the particular area of interest that the neighborhood is based on. There are also examples of art, as well as biographical information about artists and art movements throughout art history available for viewing.

Tour

At the launch of the cd-rom, the viewer has the option of going on a virtual tour. You can also have access to the tour at any time through the navigation menu, which is always on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Index

The Index provides instant access to each activity, painting, and artist in the program

Database

The database contains articles about the people, terms, and trends in art. It also contains biographical and historical information.

Timeline

Milestones in art are compared to world events in a timeline spanning 2000 BC to 1995 AD

Help

Click on help and receive detailed information on all the features of this program. Help also includes a list of all the paintings in the program and a list of suggested books for further reading.

Exit

Click on this anytime you want to quit the program.

Quote from the medium:

"Somewhere beyond your imagination is a world of illusion. In this dimension, light defines space, colors merge into shapes and familiar forms become distorted. This strange world of imagery is not beyond your touch, in fact it's even closer than you imagine."

It discusses, argues, outlines, showcases, or explains ……..

To those who don't participate or understand the creation of art, it's a mystery as to how easily an artist takes a bunch of smudges, marks, impressions, and rubbings and arranges them on a two-dimensional surface to create the illusion of three-dimensional space and beautiful, realistic representations of the real world. It seems so magical and complicated that one who is skilled in art is often perceived of as having a gift rather than being good at a skill.

This cd-rom attempts to take the mystery out of Art and how the elements of art work together on a two-dimensional surface to create these illusions. ArtRageous introduces the student to the basics in the elements and principles of art and takes it a bit further with activities, lessons, and examples that engage the student artist and furthers their understanding of them. The key to ArtRageous is the simplicity in which it communicates to the viewer. Everything is explained clearly and concisely by your “virtual guide.” He appears on an easel off to the side of the screen and talks to you throughout your visits. It is very easy to navigate and jump to any activity, painting, section of information, or particular point in the community.

The benefits of this cd-rom are two-fold. One the one hand, it helps students understand concepts and principles that will help them improve their technique, but it also contains a wealth of Art History information that is regularly integrated into the lessons and activities.

There were some notable features and activities that are worth mentioning:

Timeline

The timeline is one of my favorite features. I found myself losing track of time on this easy to use timeline, which ran from 3000BC to 1995AD. On the top half of the timeline you will see the milestones in the history of Art lined up chronologically with significant world events, which are located on the bottom half of the timeline.

Database

It's just what is sounds like... a virtual bank of art history information complete with it's own index and search features. Find out about art movements, artists, and art-related historical events in this section. You could even pluck a name or title of art work from the timeline and enter it in the search field to find out even more about it. The quickness at which this information comes up makes it worthwhile.

Color Mixing Wheel

Allows you use a virtual color wheel that is interactive so that you could practice mixing colors without a mess or spending money on paint. This is great for lessons on color.

Composition

The lessons in the area of composition were particularly interesting. In History of Composition you can choose a famous painting from a gallery of paintings and listen to your guide as he points out and explains certain compositional choices. Also explained are the compositional styles as they changed throughout history. While he is describing a part of the painting that particular part is highlighted and indicated by a glowing outline. It makes it really easy to understand what the guide is talking about as opposed to sitting in a classroom where a teacher may not be as clear as to which part of the painting is being described. It's also nice that the student chooses the painting to be discussed unlike the classroom setting.

Recommendation: Do you recommend this medium? To what age level? Your general impressions. What you learnt new. What it is about...

I recommend this software to anyone, art student or not. To the beginning artist it essentially serves as primer in art. It is an introduction that is more likely to create more interest in art, rather than to bore or intimidate beginners. To the experienced artist it serves as a fun way to refresh yourself on both technique and history. Even with my extensive art education, there was plenty that I learned from this cd-rom, especially in the art history area. Even a highly experienced artist would enjoy certain aspects of the software, like playing around with the color wheel, for instance. The guide, who employs a charming British accent, is pretty funny as well.

 Author's Writing Style:

What is your opinion about the way the author wrote this CD-Rom? Think about the author's choice of words, the point of view and his/her use of dialogue.

This cd-rom was written to be simple and appealing, and it is successful in this goal. The language is very basic and explanations clear and easy to understand. There is a bit of humor written into the lessons which I found to be refreshing and the guide that is with you along the way is a somewhat likable.

Theme- What are the major issues/ topics/ themes/ projects in this medium? What message was he/she trying to give to reader?

The main message is that art is not beyond the average persons comprehension and that anyone can learn to appreciate and participate in artistic pursuits. Another point made is that art is more interesting than it may appear on the surface and it is also considered to be a form of historical record keeping for the civilizations that preceded us. Art can add another layer of understanding when looking at historical events and looking at the past cultures.

Classroom Integration. Can you use the ideas in your classroom? Did it inspired you create a lesson plan, did it give you new strategies or methods?

This would be a great supplemental material item to include in the art education curriculum. Not only would it serve the students in understanding how to better create artwork, but it can also be used in lessons integrating history and perhaps math and science. This software will be useful for integration in one of my lesson plans on creating personal artwork based on a style of an accomplished artist. Part of this lesson will be a research assignment in which students will be asked to research a particular artist, the work, historical context, and influences. It could also be a resource that can be borrowed and taken home by students.

Multicultural, multilingual Perspective: Is this medium designed, or produced for different learning preferences, and abilities, do they included unbiased pictures, information?

ArtRageous was created primarily for the visual and kinesthetic learners. The graphics are very colorful and interesting and the cityscape is surreal and dreamy. The graphics frequently include imagery taken from famous pieces of art from the masters such as "Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo. It is culturally relevant to anyone providing they speak English. The history on the timeline covers world history on both the art and world event aspects. The artists’ covered are also from all walks of life.

Something Unique about this medium…

What's unique about this cd-rom is that you don't get tired of it within the first half-hour of use. Most cd-roms I've collected are collecting dust the following week. With this one, you can get tired of the activities and lessons, but it still contains the vast amount of historical information in the database and timeline and can be used constantly for reference and research.