Sunday, March 31, 2013

Racing Otari

Another group have started work on a race track, which will snake it's way along the fence and through the trees, with jumps , curves and loops. The students will plan the route of the track and look at some of New Zealand's native climbing plants and trees such as rata and supplejack to get idea for the track climbing through the trees.
They will also look at designing their own model cars and may set up a competition for the rest of the students to design and make their own cars.


Secret World

Mireen, Oscar and Aimee are working on Secret World, which is an idea to look at the world underground and behind doors, once you start researching this you come up with lots of examples used in literary, films myths and legends and that is not to mention the real world of underground flora and fauna.
They are testing out their research by developing a range of diorama ideas with the intention of turning these into real models to be embedded in to the retaining wall shown in the photo. This will need to be tested but we have some alternative plans if we cannot cut into the retaining wall.
When it is completed we hope to have a series of doors that the children can open to discover the Secret World underground.




Saturday, March 30, 2013

Face Fence

Geordie and Izaak are working on an idea to develop a series of portraits to use on the fence, the portraits are superheroes, people from New Zealand, the local area and Maori myths and legends. The idea is for the students to be able to use the portraits like masks and have their pictures taken with the portrait of their choice. Izaak and Geordie will be working on who will go on the fence over the next few weeks.




Vertical Garden

Huia, Luna, Tania and Natasha are working on ideas for a vertical fence garden. They have been looking at various options for things to grow the plants in such as gutters, plastic bags and recycled milk cartons.
The plan is to test out the various options in the school's vegetable and plant growing area to see what works best.







Monday, March 25, 2013

Tim Knowles Wind Work



Tim uses wind in many creative and innovative ways in his work. More information about his work can be found at his website here.

More Wind - Charles Sowers

Charles Sowers


Wind Fence Inspiration





Wind Fence

Another idea the art group has been working on is to use part of the fence as a resource for the school and community to use to study the wind, as part of this years school theme of physical phenomena. We have looked at how various artists have visualised wind as a starting point for developing ideas for the fence, I have included some of the work we looked at and some early ideas the students have come up with.


Tim Knowles


Jeff Wall

Living Fence

Huia, Tania, Luna and Natasha are working on a living fence. Over the next few weeks they are developing plans for the things they want to plant, best places for the plants to grow, where to collect water and all the other aspects they need for their vertical garden.



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Photo Map Otari School

We now have three separate maps, sound, textures and photographs showing the Otari School and grounds. Students will be working on combining the sound, texture and photo maps into one large scale map of the area. 



Thursday, March 14, 2013

Sound Maps



Mapping Otari School

First session of the year and the students and I spent the afternoon mapping the School grounds in various ways, texture rubbings, sounds, drawing and photographs. Our first test map is of the textures around the school, they are a mixture of surfaces such as the playground matting and wood on the fence. Over the next few weeks will refine the maps into a series including the sounds and photographs that have been collected.


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Update 2

Ideas that we looked at last year for the fence included the marble run, wind and solar power, fence garden and using sound in different ways. I am making applications to various funding bodies to help support individual elements for the fence and one is to work on a section of the fence using wind power as a theme, this will fit with this years School theme of Physical Phenomenon.

Sound is another aspect we have been looking at incorporating into the fence and we have looked at some ideas such as getting bird sounds from the bush into the playground. So as part of the mapping of the school grounds we will make a sound map and soundscape recordings to see what sounds are already present and how much noise comes from traffic, planes and other stuff such as lawn mowers and of course children. 

While looking on various web sites for information and ideas about incorporating sound into the fence I came upon the work of greyworld 

"greyworld are a group of artists that create public art – usually in urban spaces. Our work is about play, and allowing creative expression in parts of the city that usually exclude it. Over the years. we have created permanent installations in many countries around the world."

Lots of exciting, innovative and creative ideas to inspire us but it was their musical fence project that initially caught my eye and catch my ear when I can find a recording of it. But look at their web site and as play is an important element in their work we can't go far wrong.

Update

I will be starting back with the students this week and planning the next stages of the project. The marble run sections of the fence are being made at the moment and once a few things have been sorted out we hope to get them up in the next month.

Image via Mapping Weird Stuff
The first workshop with the fence group will be making a map of the school site, this will allow us to explore and discover other areas of the grounds that work might be made for and that link to the ideas we have already developed for the fence. The map will have some traditional bits in it such as layout of buildings and paths but also, using ideas from psychogeography, which we will incorporate into the map. This might include sounds, textures, rubbings and other things we discover.

One idea that we will be working on is the design and making of a series of tiles to go on the top of each of the fence posts. The plan is to involve the whole school in coming up with ideas for the tile designs and this will involve a design competition and the fence group deciding which tiles to use, but all the designs will be used as part of a large collaborative artwork to be hung in the school.