Activity Imagine the Rumpus

Aim/ Key learnings This workshop aims to allow 5-10 year olds to develop ideas and build on them together in a fun, play based setting. The ideas will be recorded as drawings, models, recordings. The emphasis will be on developing a narrative this week.

Age Group 5-10yrs

Method Family group workshop

Ratio Participant/Facilitator 4 artists to 5 family groups of 5

Duration 90 minutes

Materials Required Coloured paper, Felt pens, Scissors, Glue, Sticky tape, Pipe cleaners, Paddle pop sticks, Paper cups, Plasticine, Raw brown card.

Preparation Required Meet with Marianna (writer) to plan Narrative development Print out reference for Elephant and water rat sculpture story starter. Organise materials and space with Rena (Project Officer)

Aim of workshop To collect and document the ideas that show potential to be used in The Great and Grand Rumpus installation at the Edge.

Facilitators Sue, Marianna, Mari, Tim

Is a feedback form required? No

Marketing and communications tools We need a team of advisers, story tellers, artists to join in our play based workshop to help us come up with the ideas for The Great and Grand Rumpus Installation

Venue Requirements Breakout play space, Tables and chairs, open blinds for people to see in.

Is a media release required? No

10.30

• Welcome and name tags - come up with a team name
• We collect names and email addresses of the families participating

10.35

• What are we are doing today? ‘We have run out of ideas and we need your help to come up with some more.’

10.40

• Group story game led by Sue;

Sue tells story of the Elephant and the Water Rat sculpture (located nearby to The Edge where this workshop is happening) –‘ The water rat turns the elephant upside down to see it from a different angle and discovers it was very friendly when it could see eye to eye’ Story starter… what happens when the library is turned upside down?

11.00

• Drawing challenge
• Draw what you see when the library and the river are turned upside down by a very strong girl water rat.

11.15

• Continue the drawing into crafting a model.
• Introduce the idea of building a world with the blue blocks that extends play beyond the craft.
• How can the craft interact with the space created by the blocks?

11.30

• Sue starts to document the ideas that have come about.
• Other artists ask the participants to reflect on what they have made and inform the documentation.

11.45

• Break out play is winding up
• Final group reflections
• Any group activity that might create a party /Rumpus

11.55

• Clean up

12.00

• Finish

Title and facilitator

Sue Loveday, Mari Hirata, Marianna Shek, Tim Mullooly

Attendants and ages:

Morning session - 11 (incl adults) (We did not have any participants for the second workshop but we used our time productively by engaging with the children at the Corner and also by having a much needed team meeting to discuss production strategies)

Aim of Workshop:

Generate new concepts for story ideas to fill the stations inside the Rumpus. Use the hat game Develop the concepts through drawing, model making and building/ playing with blue blocks

Inspiring quotes from young people:

First workshop ‘Hey dude, what’s up?’ ‘Maaaaaan, I’m sticky’ ‘Don’t worry dude, it’s just sweet.’ ‘Lets bounce’

Stand out ideas or outcomes:

1st workshop:

A lifeguard came out of the closet and started ninja-ing. Unfortunately, a guide dog trainer from a whale’s stomach was making honey and making a sticky mess. It was hard to do any ninja-ing. Fortunately, the Dude from the cubbyhouse was bouncing along and said, ‘It’s alright, everything is sweet as.’ And they ate all the honey together.

Tim and Arabella made a pair of sunglasses and role played the Dudes.

Sue asked the kids what would happen if the world turned upside down and Tim and Marley mimed climbing up a rope and falling off the wall. (Tim raised the idea of turning this play into an interaction at the Edge)

Sebastian and Floyd made complicated towers and practised their ninja kicks

Things to consider next workshop:

We are now generating some fantastic ideas and need to work on developing interactions and tying threads together.

In week 4, we will return to the ‘Then what happened’ game using another story scenario for deeper levels of story engagement.

Specific outcomes required in the next workshop:

We would like to start visualising/ conceptualising the form of ‘Janet our placeholder’ the custodian of the Unheard Stories.

Are there completed media release forms?

No

Are there completed feedback forms? No

What was challenging and how was this handled?

This group had excellent chemistry and played very well together. At one point, a younger sibling of one of the participants didn’t want to do the activity and was making loud, disruptive noises a that were disturbing some of the other kids. The parent was excellent at diverting his attention and getting him to participate in block building. Sue was able to feed this back into the exercise which was to develop the collaborative story idea through drawing and plasticine modelling.

To run this exact workshop again, how would I do it differently?

We were pretty happy with the way the workshop ran.

week_3_artifacts.pdf