An examination of middle school students' perceptions of kinetic art through application: A case study

Kinetic art is an art movement that emerged after the 1950s and contains the effects of Constructivism and Dadaism. In kinetic art, in which the approach of using "movement" as a design element in works of art is adopted, works that move or appear to be moving by the viewer are revealed. Plastic arts, which usually symbolize a static and single moment in the traditional approach, gained a different meaning with kinetic art and became one of the important movements in the history of art, especially with the important works on three-dimensional works. However, kinetic art is an important and interdisciplinary movement in that it contains many fields such as physics, engineering and mechanics. It is very important to bring different disciplines together in the education given in schools so that individuals can better comprehend and integrate knowledge. In this respect, the visual arts course is an important course that aims to develop the student in all aspects. Visual arts course, which can be easily integrated with many fields such as physics, chemistry and biology, is an important tool in increasing the quality of education. One of the best examples of this is the kinetic art movement. With the kinetic art works that can be practiced within the scope of the visual arts course, students can better understand the subjects such as weights, forces and balance, which are taught in science lessons. As it can be understood from these and similar examples, the contributions that the visual arts course can provide to the education-teaching processes are innumerable. However, subjects such as kinetic art, which can be difficult to apply, can be ignored in visual arts classes that cannot be taught efficiently due to insufficient course hours and physical conditions in educational institutions. From this point of view, in this research, it is aimed to develop applications that can be taught in the visual arts lesson about the kinetic art movement, which is one of the important movements in the history of art, and to evaluate the perceptions of the students participating in these applications towards kinetic art. In this context, this research will be carried out in a secondary school in Bartın by applying the case study model, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The application part of the research, which is planned to be composed of the 6th or 7th grade students at the secondary school level of the relevant school, will be carried out for four weeks, one hour a week. In the research, data will be collected by observation and interview methods and analyzed by content analysis method. According to the results of the research, suggestions will be made about what changes can be made in the visual arts course.