The MCR groups trip to Doorly Park...

Sinead explains what the group from the MCR got up to last Saturday...

"We went to Doorley Park. At first the kids thought we were going to the playground are and some were disappointed when they discovered it was the back Avenue and down by the river. Some asked - what was there to do? They thought they might be bored. 

After the lakeside walk, the first suggestions were they make seats and beds from the wood. After their rest, they became very industrious, designing and building, experimenting with pieces and materials. When we ran out of wood, they improvised and searched for available materials and integrated these into their work in various ways.

We played at the water, racing twigs at the bridge and in the lake. We saw swans and cygnets, gathered acorns, pine cones and leaves, identified trees, made fishing rods from old branches, carved letters in the gravel, built bridges over the water as well as making temporary sculptures from the wood.

Utilising tree stumps that were already in the park - Bryan built a bridge.

Callum and Bradley made a bed from the wood, a pillow from the box we carried the wood in, a headboard from found branches and sticks, decorated it with leaves and added a foot-rest using our empty drink bottles. 

Some of the girls worked together and created a hotel for birds. They built a nest and restaurant from sticks, stones and leaves. They used the wood to make steps up to an elevated hang-out area where the birds can relax and meet."

Out in the parks...

The Groups from Caltragh and MCR both went out on Saturday and came back with some great photos and video footage. First up here are some images from Caltraghs visit to Mitchell Curley park...

What's happening at the MCR...

Tony outlines what he and Sinead have been doing with the group at the MCR...

"At MCR, we discussed sculpture and the different materials used in 
outdoor sculptures.
We questioned whether paper itself could be used as a material, which 
led us to explore the concepts of 2D and 3D.

The group tried different ways of folding and scrunching the paper to 
make 3D shapes. Initially there was doubt about using paper which 
started a debate about it's strength and size, comments were made 
about not being able to do anything with it. However once they got 
started, a huge variety of work was produced.

We made simple structures and experimented with balance, weight and 
strength.

We spent a lot of time working on improving the strength of the 
pieces, and how to support the paper. The group worked individually at 
first, but then shared their opinions and expertise, aiding each other 
with construction and started to collaborate on design.

Once we added additional tools (tape, scissors, markers, pencils), 
they moved very quickly onto intricate and imaginative pieces.
They made landscapes, towns, buildings, roller coasters, airplanes, 
helicopters, ashtray (complete with cigarette butt), cigarette (with 
smoke coming from the tip), houses, bridges, decorative pieces, flags, 
light sabers.

Then we decided to make objects that we could use in a game, and 
goalposts and a football, we played team games of football and 
dodgeball.

We then introduced wood - simple uniform pieces cut in 1ft lengths. We 
began by playing Jenga and then the kids took turns to build structures.

We animated some of the wooden structures, using interval frame 
recording. We also played around with simple time lapse sequences 
while drawing.

The group came up with different suggestions of what to do in the 
sequences, and we tried out various frame rates until they found what 
speed they liked best.

Next week, we will concentrate on designing and building the sculpture 
from wood and paper. When we visit the park, we will consider the 
conditions that could affect where to place the piece. We will also 
begin editing the sequences."

Sculptures...

Each of the participants in Caltragh has made one of these sculptures, when they're finished they're going out to the park...

The Game of the Goose has begun at Northside!

The Game of the Goose has begun at Northside!

Today the group at Northside Community Centre began work on a life size games board based on the Game of the Goose, together the participants created symbols for the spaces and have started to map out the board they will use to develop and alter the game over the next two weeks.

Work in progress

Here are some photos of work in progress. We are preparing some bike powered art making machines for the workshops that start next week...