This creative learning activity consists of replicating on cardboard a Mondrian painting, and then hacking it by using Scratch and Makey Makey. The final result is a physical device connected to a digital one. Touching with the hand the colors of our replica on cardboard, we change the colors of the original painting that we have on the screen.
For teachers, educators, or parents, here is a proposal of how to implement the activity (of course there are many variants and alternatives to explore):
Materials and resources
A piece of cardboard, coloured wax pencils, a black marker, copper adhesive tape, a Makey Makey kit (board, alligator clips, jumper wires, USB cable), a laptop, and Scratch.
For teachers, educators, or parents, here is a proposal of how to implement the activity (of course there are many variants and alternatives to explore):
Materials and resources

A piece of cardboard, coloured wax pencils, a black marker, copper adhesive tape, a Makey Makey kit (board, alligator clips, jumper wires, USB cable), a laptop, and Scratch.
Step 1. Learning about Piet Mondrian

If you are lucky enough to have a nearby museum with Mondrian works on display, the first thing I would recommend is a visit with the children. They can take photos (if allowed) or make drawings, copying or inventing new works inspired by Mondrian. If the museum option is not possible, the Internet is full of resources to learn. For example, the painting I chose is "Composition with Blue, Yellow, and Red" (1927), on display at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The museum's website has information about that painting, but also Google Arts an Culture let you explore the museum, or you can check websites like WikiArt, a visual art encyclopedia.
Step 2. Replicate or invent a Mondrian work on cardboard

Step 3. Connections with Makey Makey

In the example of the picture above I connected the blue area of the painting with the round "Space" pad on the Makey Makey. I also connected one end of an alligator clip to "Earth" on the bottom of the front side of the board. With this setting, every time I take with one hand the free end of the alligator clip connected to "Ground" and I touch with the other hand the copper tape in the blue area, I'm closing the circuit, so it is as if I were pressing the "Space" key on the keyboard. Of course now we need to program with Scratch so that each time this happens, the blue area of the painting on the screen changes color.
Step 4. Coding with Scratch
Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations. On this occasion we use it to make an interactive artistic project.

Check my project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/264910840/

The sprite for the blue area and its costumes.
The coding part is very simple. Basically we have to use blocks from the section "events" and the section "looks". The idea is to make the sprites change costumes when we press certain keys (or what is the same: change costume every time we touch a colored area of our cardboard work connected to Makey Makey).
Scripts for programming the blue area sprite.
I programmed it without using the Scratch extension for Makey Makey. But Scratch 3 includes an extension specifically for it, making it even easier.
If you're new to Scratch, you can take a look at the tutorials it includes, or I also recommend this great guide: Creative Computing Guide.
Step 5. Reimagine
I haven't explained all the details for implementing the activity, but I think I've highlighted the key points. Here you can see the Scratch project I made. Try it, explore it, remix it.
With the same core idea you can imagine many other activities:
- Change Mondrian for other abstract artists.
- Instead of making the colors change, make the shapes move.
- Add music. Every time we touch an area we can change the color and play a sound.
- Choose a figurative painting, and when touching the represented figures on the cardboard make a dialogue appear on the screen, or make them move, or make appear figures from other paintings, etc.
Thanks for sharing this great idea! I will be making one to show art teachers in my district.
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