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.

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.

First Fence Panel

The first prototype fence panel and marble run is under construction with the help of Wellington Makerspace. We have used one of the student's drawings of a butterfly and this is being cut out and the butterfly shape pieces will form the marble run elements. These pieces will have magnets attached, so they can be placed on the perforated metal grill attached to the fence, and then the students can use them to make the marble run in any form they wish. 

This prototype will allow us to test how well it all works and if all goes well, and we get some more funding, we can start on some of the other panels. 

As well as the marble run panels on the fence, students and I have developed a range of ideas for other areas of the fence such as a vertical garden, mini wind farm and weaving panels.

Otari School - Otari Bush

Students designs showing different plants, insects and birds found in Otari Bush, these designs will be used for the marble run.

Marble Run Panel

This is a mock up of what one of the panels will look like, with the student's designs. The idea is that the shapes will be cutout and used to form the marble run, the other piece will be used on the other side of the fence panel as a decorative element. The cutout pieces will have magnets attached and placed on a metal grill, students can then use the pieces to form their marble runs. The above images are just the early design ideas, once we have some input from the fabricators the designs will needed to be changed.

Marble Run

I have been working with the students developing a range of ideas for the fence running down the side of the school. We have decided to start with a marble run, but not any old marble run this one is inspired by the native plants, trees and animals at Otari Bush Reserve.
The plan is to test some ideas out and then get help to have the student's ideas manufactured, the marble run will need to be well made to stand up to the elements and the children.
I will post more images and designs as the project progresses, the image below is the start of the process of gathering images and simplifying them ready to see how they might work in the marble run.