FB S4.4 Don't Look PROGRAM

Don’t Look – A Contemporary Stage 4 Visual Arts Unit

Inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and visual problem-solving in your Stage 4 Visual Arts classroom with Don’t Look, an engaging unit focused on the fascinating world of optical illusions and tessellations. Aligned with the NSW Stage 4 Visual Arts Syllabus, this unit invites students to explore how pattern, movement, colour, and geometric design can be used to challenge perception and create visually dynamic artworks.

Students investigate how artists manipulate the way the eye and brain interpret images, developing strong skills in drawing, observation, and design. Through structured creative processes, students construct their own optical illusion artworks while exploring the relationship between art and mathematics.

Key Features for Teachers

This comprehensive and faith-aligned resource supports teachers with clarity, structure, and creative depth. Key features include:

Structured Task Sequences
Tasks are built around the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (I Do, We Do, You Do), ensuring a clear progression from guided skill development to independent artmaking.

Do Now Activities
Targeted visual warm-ups build understanding of pattern, movement, symmetry, repetition, colour relationships, and illusion-based design.

Learning Intentions and Success Criteria
Clearly embedded to support student goal-setting, self-assessment, and reflective learning.

Artist Study
Students study the work of Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a contemporary Japanese artist renowned for his Op Art illusions, and make connections between scientific understanding of perception and artistic practice. They engage critically with the Structural Viewpoint alongside the Artwork and World conceptual framework while strengthening their creative voice through artmaking.

Christian Integration
Students are encouraged to reflect on how perception can be misleading and how faith helps us see truth beyond appearances (2 Corinthians 4:18). They explore the idea that God looks at the heart rather than outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7), while recognising how order, structure, and pattern reflect purposeful design in creation.

8 Ways of Aboriginal Pedagogy

This unit embraces culturally responsive teaching through:

Symbols and Images
Learning through structured patterns, repeated motifs, and visual storytelling to communicate complex concepts.

Non-verbal Learning
Visual and hands-on demonstrations of tessellation construction, pattern building, and illusion-based mark making.

Deconstruct / Reconstruct
Breaking down complex optical designs into simple components before rebuilding them into sophisticated artworks.

How It Meets Syllabus Demands

Aligned with the NSW Stage 4 NSW Visual Arts Syllabus (2024), this unit addresses both artmaking and critical and historical studies through:

Artmaking
Students create detailed optical illusion artworks using tessellations, symmetry, repetition, and colour theory while refining technical drawing and design skills.

Critical and Historical Study
Students analyse artists and artworks through the Structural Viewpoint, while applying the Artwork and World concepts to deepen understanding of visual systems and cultural contexts.

Literacy Development
Visual analysis tasks, reflective writing, vocabulary building, and structured artist statements.

Cross-Curricular Connections
Links to Mathematics (geometry, symmetry, tessellations, measurement, and spatial reasoning) and Science (visual perception, optics, and the brain).

Differentiation
Scaffolded tasks and extension challenges to support a range of learner needs.

Christian Values
Students reflect on spiritual discernment, the difference between appearance and truth, and how faith provides clarity when things are not what they seem.

What’s Included

• 10 weeks of structured, syllabus-aligned lesson plans (with extension tasks)

• Do Now activities

• Step-by-step drawing and tessellation construction tasks

• Artist case study on Akiyoshi Kitaoka

• Material and equipment lists

• Colour-coded indicators for content, adjustments, and assessment

Why Choose the Don’t Look Unit?

Don’t Look challenges students to question what they see and understand how visual systems can distort or manipulate perception. Through hands-on experimentation and reflective practice, students learn that not everything is as it appears, and that careful thinking — both visually and conceptually — leads to deeper understanding.

This unit builds technical skill, mathematical thinking, and creative confidence, while fostering curiosity, discernment, and appreciation for the power of visual language. Students leave with a strong understanding of how art, science, and design intersect to shape the way we see the world.