T
his lesson is an interesting meld of the history of Science, technology, crime scene
investigation, social media and of course includes creating artwork. Artists like Chuck
Close opened the doors to painting with fingerprints. This project blasts the doors right off!
What do clocking in and out at work, cashing a check, unlocking your iphone, drinking coffee, and
gender all have in common? Fingerprints can be used in all of these circumstances. From biometrics
to forensics and crime scene investigations, the unique elements of everyone’s fingerprints and biology
can be used in many important ways. Certainly we can add making art to this list!
In my Advanced Art middle school classes, students eased into Identity Art. First we tackled history,
then modern applications, and finally artwork using fingerprints as our common theme.
LESSON STEPS
1. Students read and discussed two interesting facts from articles about the history and modern uses of
fingerprints. These articles were printed from PBS.org, nova.org, and popularscience.com Certainly
there are many interesting resources that
could help students pinpoint areas of
fingerprint history and application, like the
development of manual filing systems
and classifications, biometrics, and latent
vs exemplar prints. Depending on the
time and the maturity of the class, this
section could dig deep and debate the
use of fingerprints in forensics as crime
evidence as well. I had them present the
facts to the class, then use them as a
springboard for guided discussions.
2. Students used water based markers to
make their own prints and tried to identify
the basic characteristics used by
authentication systems such as loops,
whorls and arches. Truly, the strange
vocabulary alone is enough to keep kids
on their toes! Or fingertips, as it were.
3. Students studied artists who have used
fingerprints to create, like Chuck Close
and Judith Ann Braun. We found artists
who use entire hand prints for fast
supersized print portraits. And we found artists who used paper quilling in re-creating a flat image
STEAMed Magazine
11
April 2016 Edition