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“I travel the world a bit and I always check out family outreach. The Edge is the finest offering I've encountered. It respects children's imagination and allows their thoughts to grow and come to life! The entire staff, including the winter events crew are masters at invitation and encouragement. A Canadian, teacher, mother and grandmother.”

We all totally loved it. Hours of fun. You guys did an amazing job! Love your work

I'm blown away by the Rumpus. The scale and detail in everything is so amazing.

Education Student

What did you do during the Great and Grand Rumpus program?

I engaged with the workshops on a Monday evening which looked at design. Took ideas from kids who were engaging through the library and then took those ideas and brought them into a level of fruition. Translated those ideas from little people to what we could make on a larger scale.

During that process of coming on a Monday night did you learn anything?

I think that's an understatement. There was a huge amount of things that I learned. Explicitly I learnt about how to navigate Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator to create cut files for the laser cutter. I also learnt about engaging through that design process and being a component of that rather than being a person who takes it from the beginning to the end. Then learning a little bit more abstractly about how The Edge operates and how it engages with individuals and with people who are working in this space and the community.

Are there any of these skills that you will use once you are a teacher?

The kind of resource bank that I've become aware of and then been engaging with like the Wiki and the intellects of the people that work at The Edge or volunteer through the edge that I've been able to engage with. They will be resources that I'll be able to utilize in my professional career.

Is there anything that you would tell other students who have never been to The Edge and was thinking about getting involved in a similar project or the Great and Grand Rumpus?

As somebody who hasn't done a huge amount of work within coding or electronics, in either a professional or a hobbyist way it can be a bit overwhelming to move into a space where there's a lot of moving parts, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of new ideas and so, I think do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for assistance, to see the opportunities and to engage with people that are both working for the library at The Edge or volunteering at The Edge. To engage with them in both a professional and on a personal level as well, and they can be probably the best support that you will get using the technology that's available.

Edge Volunteer - Emerging Arts Worker

How long have you been coming to The Edge for?

I have been coming to The Edge, I think for over 12 months now.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you did during the Great and Grand Rumpus?

I think I did a bit of everything actually. I predominantly did the fabrication side on the Thursday nights. I was heavily involved in that. I did some of the smaller maquettes, the mark-ups and things like that. I also did some manipulation of some of the files, but not a great deal of that. Mostly building and constructing things, and gluing things.

As an emerging artist what would you say you got out of being involved in the Great and Grand Rumpus?

Where do I start! I look at it in different areas and zones. I've got the part where I'm always watching you and Mick, and seeing what you guys are doing and how you make things happen. Beginning with an idea and making them grow and become something. Then we are doing it and seeing it being done.

I really enjoyed seeing the ideas brought to life with the design part of it. I got a lot from seeing how that's done like how a picture that a child has provided goes through a process and then it's turned into an actual installation. I got a lot from that.

Did it trigger any new ideas for you as a maker and artist?

A hundred percent! I felt really drawn to wanting to be involved in the ideas and design part, and I want to bring something to life that comes from my head. So it got me energized towards that.

It made me inspired for my own creative work. It made me want to bring to life some of the ideas that I have. It got me fired up around thinking what my ideas are and what would I like to do. Seeing the installation brought to life showed me the reality of what can be achieved.

Have you met many people while coming to The Edge?

I've met so many people. I reckon I meet someone new every couple of weeks. I really enjoy that. Like for me it's really great to have a place where you can come where most people are new and you don't know everyone. There's like a common theme that runs through everybody at The Edge.

Everybody's really helpful, everybody's got different ideas, they've got different specialties. You can learn from so many people here, and I've gotten a lot from watching how other people approach certain tasks. I like to dive in and get straight into it. But sometimes it's nice to consider it a little bit more. That's learning for me. There are always new people down here. I really enjoyed that part of it. To me, I like being around people that think like me, so. I find that exciting.

Were there any major challenges that you encountered?

There's material challenges, and the limitations of the pallete. You might have a fantastic idea. There is an art in being able to strip it back. That is a challenge if you are not used to doing that. You'd be surprised what you can make out of cardboard, I guess.

I would like to do more of the design stuff, and I would like to be across the whole project because I found that although we had the design team, and the fabrication team, it sort of became two separate things just because I guess people show up on different days. Me, I was only here on Thursdays. And I think it's really important for you to design and fabricate, and if you design without experiencing the actual construction part, you just don't get the limitations on the materials. So, we would have designs that we would have to spend a lot of time on a Thursday changing, essentially redesigning or re-prototyping, just so that they could actually be built at large scale. So I think it probably wasn't my challenge and that I didn't do the designing, but it was definitely my challenge when I was doing the fabricating.

If you are going to design something, it's really beneficial for you to experience the building side of it because when you put those two experiences together, then you have a solid idea of how to make something on the computer because you have a clear idea of how that actually would be made in real life. It has like a whole heap of constraints that you just don't think about when you're making something in small scale or if you're just doing it on the computer. You just never see those realities. But then, when you get it life size and it falls over, then that's the challenge.