Asia Education Foundation

Visual Haiku

cover image: Arts/Media Unit: Visual Haiku

Students will discover, adapt and present elements of traditional Japanese haiku poetry in non-traditional ways. They will develop ‘visual haiku’ – incorporating imagery and text to interpret and represent a haiku poem. In developing this visual haiku, students may use digital cameras (moving and/or still), electronic imaging software and traditional art-making techniques to construct a series of images. Sounds may also be used. Discussions about how art forms convey beliefs and values form an important part of this unit.

 


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Activity 2: Generating ideas for imagery

Prepare for this activity by providing several large pieces of paper (placemats), enough for one placemat between 3-4 students. In the centre of the paper include a haiku (a different one for each placemat would be better and these may be haiku written by students in the previous activity). For an example of this layout, see Resource sheet 2.

  1. Invite the students to sit in groups around each placemat. In silence, they should read the haiku on their placemat and respond by writing down as many ideas for imagery as they can accomplish in a given time (five minutes). Once they have completed this they should:
    • Share their ideas with the others at the table and identify as a group some common and unexpected responses
    • As a class, share the haiku and interesting visual interpretations from each group.
  2. Remind the students that the artwork or artworks that they will be producing should communicate in some way the essence of the sensory aspects of their poem.
  3. Using their own haiku as a starting point, students should brainstorm on a page in their visual journals, possible imagery for their artwork. Before starting this task remind the students:
    • How you approach the development of imagery is your decision. Carefully consider the sensory information that is presented in your haiku. What imagery or text does it infer?
    • Do you want to include obvious or subtle imagery to present the haiku?
    • Identify how you think you will gather/generate imagery.
    • Will you include text, or no text? Consider providing options for both. Will you include the entire poem or selected words?