July 21 2021 Session Plan
Part 1 Context
Started with describing what the goal was for the day…
Making a choice. out of the list of 5 ideas the group had which is the one that has the most creative potential for creating a:
- Dynamic and
- interactive sculpture
- that connects to the rest of the project and draws influence from the well.
Explained that this choice was the start of an 8 week process that this crew was going to undertake to make a giant sculpture for the Grumpus Exhibition. one of 8 sculptures made by similar crews, in other schools, groups of uni students and community groups, that will need to fill the huge SLQ gallery (4x the floor space of their class room and twice the Height)
the process into the future could look like:
next week building a miniature ( maquette) that creatively captures the essence of the key features, themes, atmosphere, feelings and or aesthetic of the idea we'll choose today
the week after work out how to practically build this at full scale making sure it is safe, scalable, module (for moving) and easy to install.
After this design the components
After this come and see some of the component parts being cut out at the Edge and start build the structure
After this build build build
Dynamic Sculpture - Inspiration
Giant cardboard sculptures may be hard to imagine, so we've got a Pinterest of inspo for you, from past SLQ Programs and from other creatives!
https://www.pinterest.com.au/Thebadlament/grumpus/
these are great examples of the dynamic 3d forms that can be created out of cardboard
Interactive Sculpture
Seeing how the target audience for this exhibition is children young people and the young at heart, we need to think about how this audience likes to play with interactive art works. This audience is totally different to the ones that normally attend high art exhibition spaces.
One of the things that drives childrens engagement with interactive works is their cognitive development. Kids brains love new experiences and working out how things work. Also as you get older theres something inherently enjoyable for adults about interacting with things like this - especially in a gallery context.
If we have a bit of info about the types of interactions kids will enjoy we'll be able to work this into our design. This is what our homework will be about.
Part 2 - What have we done so far?
Without looking at any documentation, each of the five individual sub-groups was asked to illustrate and label (on some butchers paper) what the key features of their concept that they had developed 3 weeks ago before the holidays. On top of this they were asked to extrapolate on why these features were important.
Each of the groups presented this to the wider group and everyone in the room was encouraged to ask questions (answers to the questions documented too).
Part 3 - Unpack the idea to a more abstract set of themes, atmosphere and feelings
Part 2 above resulted in very concrete (literal) ideas about how the concept they had developed, and the original thing from the well, could be represented in cardboard being presented. These ideas jumped to the point of suggesting ways that the concepts could use cardboard and lights to represent an idea.
In this 3rd part of the session we asked each of the groups to set aside the concrete ideas and discuss/ document what the key themes, atmosphere, feelings in the scenarios they have developed.
After this the groups again shared this and people were encouraged to ask questions.
Part 4 - Decision Making
We then entered into a series of decision making activities. Before we explained how different collaborative decision making (truely collaborative descision making) to how most decisions are made. We discussed how in most cases, including the arts, decisions are generally made hierarchically. Ususally people choose a person (leader) and decide to support their vision. In the case of a collaborative decision we'll hopefully have opprtunities to contribute throughout the process. The key to making this work is to, at some point, set aside our ego's (or need to gain approval from our peers for how smart our ideas are) and advocate for concepts on the potential they can unlock for the whole group.
4.1 Final individual opportunity to advocate for your idea
We went round the circle (time limited 30Sec) with each person saying why they thought their group's concept held potential - both concrete ideas in part 2 and the conceptual in part 3.
4.2 Review other peoples designs
People then had an oppportunity to go around and have a quiet look at the other groups' ideas.
4.3 Individuals / blocks advocate and vote for an idea
After this we again went around the room and individuals talked about the idea that resonated (made their brain vibrate) the most and why. They could not vote / advocate for the idea they were involved in developing.
A scribe captured the votes (i had intended for them to minute their reasons but probably didn't make this clear. maybe in a group this big you need 2 scribes)
4.4 Reps from groups review result of vote and discuss whether or not to endorse decision
as a last balance and check, reps from each group went outside to review the result of the vote. We explained that the voting was like direct democracy and this conference was like representative democracy.
And then we discussed the following:
- Whether we were confident that result of the vote provide us with a decision that was consistent with our goal for the days activity - the most creative potential for creating a Dynamic and interactive sculpture that connects to the rest of the project and draws its influence from the well.
- were we confident that we can take the concrete and thematic/atomoshere/feeling/aesthetics concepts within this idea into a giant sculpture over the next 8 weeks.
- we also analysed what the key potentials were in the runner up ideas - the gamification inherent in the 'Floor is Lava' concept - the bright, colourful movement of “light tunnel” - the world building potential of the “Pirate ship tornado” concept.
after this discussion reps endorsed the chosen concept unanimously
Reps then reported what we discussed and the final endorsement of the concept.
Homework
homework for next week.
For homework, students were asked look at one or 2 of the links below and be prepaired to report back to the group next week about what you've learnt or any ideas its given you. Half a dozen students committed to doing this.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1018320.pdf
https://www.funderstanding.com/theory/constructivism/
https://www.funderstanding.com/educators/observational-learning/
https://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/whats-connection-between-art-and-brain-development
http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/final.paper.pub/_pwfsfp/0000004a.htm
https://penfieldbuildingblocks.org/play/promoting-cognitive-development-through-play/
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/cognitive_development_and_sensory_play
https://theconversation.com/writing-and-reading-starts-with-childrens-hands-on-play-125182
BSH Workshop Report - 22 July
This workshop was facilitated by: Mick Byrne
Name of any other State Library staff present: Michelle Brown
Workshop Date: 2021-07-22
Workshop Location: Brisbane State High
How many Designed Things were sent into The Well? 5
Notes regarding Thing Submission
List the Imagined Things number or name a
- Two trees
- Pirate ship in a tornado
- Light tunnel
- Undersea dragon cave & Koi
- The Floor is Lava
What did you think was successful about the workshop? The getting a large group
- with 5 different ideas
- To unpack very concrete ideas and consider the ephemeral potential of these ideas
- to settle on a single idea
- commit as a crew to work on this idea for the next 8 weeks
What did you learn about the workshop?
- kids are used to structured activities
- you cant half-a*s* homework activities. you need to be properly prepared and have time to introduce the activity
Can you note any ideas for future implementation?
- Homework activity was rushed
- the Pintrest board was great and subtly (quietly with out much discussion) informed the.
- Again the participants automatically think in very concrete terms- i think because contemporary society is so literate in film and screen base story telling- and so most of their concepts are fairly representational. They are pretty good at analysing themes but by and large aren't as confident at abstracting ideas into textures, forms, colour movement etc.
Are there any immediate actions arising from this workshop?
- Wonder if a Teams type communication platform could be used to increase engagement between session and to facilitate activities like the Homework activity and possibly a crew pintrest. maybe the school has a platform we can use.
Can you share any memorable moments or quotes from participants?
What was/were your favourite Designed Thing/s from the workshop?
Did you capture any images, audio or video to share from the workshop? (optional)