Donaghey P.S. | Artist Journal

I am in my studio today working online, so I am connecting with the children virtually. This will be the first virtual session for some of the class, so we have been spending some time discussing that and we have started to take portraits of everyone in the class to get the new children used to the whiteboard controls.

We reflected on our work from the previous session to see what stuck in everyone’s head and we looked at photos from last week. It was a chance for everyone to see other people’s work as last week was so focussed and intense there wasn’t much time to look at what anyone else had been doing.

At breaktime I went out and found some things that were alive. One live thing flew away before I got to photograph it and another steamed up my camera and is now roaring loudly in the background! More of those later. I found some things that I thought were alive and brought them into the studio. When the children were ready we discussed some of the objects from last week and thought about the fossilised coral and what it might be like when it was alive. Someone said it was like bones.

ME: “Are bones alive or dead?”

CHILDREN: “DEAD.”

This is a worrying trend -last week some people had no pulse and this week they have dead bones! We felt our hands to see what was going on inside. Definitely some bones… Investigations continue on that topic.

The children have gone outside to see if they can find anything that is alive. They aren’t allowed to hurt anything so the bugs and spiders are safe for now.

I don’t know what the children found but they are making paintings to show me what they have discovered on their explorations. People have been taking photos throughout the day so I am hoping to see more of what they chose and how they represented it. They had a choice of media -pen and wash, oil pastel or paint. This week most of them chose watercolour and a few did pen and wash. We talked about the delicacy of watercolour paint. The children thought that delicate might mean “easily broken”  and one of them said  it meant “fine”. I think that’s a lovely definition, especially in relation to watercolour. The time flew in so quickly. They were so focussed and the new children were so quick to adapt to the new way of working. One said at the end that it was a bit strange:

“You’re just painting away and then this voice comes out of nowhere.”

One of the drawbacks of working online is that I have to be very patient and wait until next time to see the work that has been created. As the children were painting I didn’t want them to walk about and make the watery paint run down the page. Roll on next week.

It’s always very exciting to make a fresh start. Every time we have started a new phase there has been something new and different. We are going to update our journals this morning together as part of the session. It’s an experiment.

Last week I made my first visit to Donaghey for this school year. I met some children from Mrs Wilson’s class who had worked with me last year but the rest of the children were new to the project. It was great to see the familiar faces and to meet all of the new people. I am still learning names. We talked about what an artist does and a lot of the new children had very traditional ideas about that.

I had been finding out from Mrs Wilson what the children had been working on in school and was really interested in the work that they had been doing about life cycles. We thought that we would start this phase by looking at ideas around that theme. We also wanted to experiment with drawing and painting as we hadn’t done much of that the last couple of years. The children are going to add to their journal to tell you more about what we did and then I will add more information later.

We moved on to discussions about things that were alive and how we would know if they were alive. I had brought some objects from home to see if the children thought that they were alive or not. Or if they had ever been. There were some tricky decisions to make as some of the object were difficult to categorise like shells and eucalyptus “buttons” -the amazing little seeds from the gum tree. The class had already talked about lava another day with Mrs Wilson and decided that it wasn’t alive. They said that fire wasn’t alive because it had no DNA. The group suggested things that would signify life -e.g. things that could breathe, breed, that had a pulse. Worryingly, some of the class seemed to have no pulse. Yet they were able to make beautiful paintings and drawings later on. Before that we looked at a tree of life from Egypt that represented different stages of life and a piece of text that talked about life cycles and thought about whether we agreed with what it was describing. There were great words in there like “mewling” and “puking”. We thought about how many cycles there were in a human life and compared it to the piece of writing. The class thought that there were 5 or maybe 6 stages in the human life cycle whereas Shakespeare in this piece had described 7.

With plenty to ponder on we returned to our objects and spent a lot of time enjoying painting them and mixing and using the brush in different ways and experimenting with different kinds of paper, using the brush to lift paint away, using paper towels to lift water for different textures. We also experimented with various papers and with pen and wash. The children responded really well to every challenge offered throughout the day. It was a fantastic start to the project.

 

 

 

25th June

 

Every teacher in the school has put on a fantastic art display and we are showcasing work from our last three phases of Virtually There in the school as part of an exhibition to close off the school year. It has taken a lot of time and effort to put all the work together and Mrs Wilson has, as usual gone that extra mile to make everything look amazing. The children have been involved in decisions regarding the way that their work is shown and they are really tuned into the details. Some of the work that is being shown comes from the children’s visit to the FE Mc William gallery to see the Virtually There exhibition. This visit happened right before the final day of the current phase and it was a serene and envigorating experience. According to their own ideas, the children brought objects with them to the gallery that were important to them -the kind of things that some of them had been working with through photography as part of the Precious Objects phase. Once they had explored the exhibition, they settled themselves down, got out their objects and became almost totally silent. They painted, drew, used pen and wash, mixed colours for about an hour. Apart from the occasional murmured conversation, they were so intent on what they were doing that you could have heard a pin drop. They were so calm. They are an amazing bunch of children. It’s always a privilege to work with them and with Mrs Wilson but this was a really special day.

 

So some of those images were on the wall as well as work from the current phase including contact sheet style prints of their photographs. I edited all of the voices together and put them in order of age. This became a sound piece called “Every voice in the school” and people could listen to it on headphones.

The exhibition was really well attended and the wider school community was, as always, really engaged with the work -not just from Virtually There but from all of the children. I am very lucky to be working in such a great school and, as ever, have the greatest respect for Mrs Wilson. I think that this year she has gone even further with experimentation and with the sheer volume of work -the children were photographing every single day in the school. It takes a huge amount of dedication and concentration to keep that thread running through a really busy school environment.

Thanks, again, as ever to Kids’ Own for supporting the work and allowing me to continue with this amazing project. The Virtually There tour has been running alongside the work throughout this phase and I think that it has really enriched my experience this time around. Long may it run.

12th March

 

A real visit today and as usual it was a very full day.

This is the day that we have set aside to record every voice in the school: all of them -from P1 to P 7. The intention is to show the change in voices as the children move through the school. We divided the children into groups and worked methodically through the different classes. There are other groups recording with other children at the same time. For most of the time I worked out in the mobile as it is a quiet space and we aren’t interfering with other recordings that are happening at the same time. Mrs Wilson’s class was so good with the other children, especially the small ones. It was amazing to see them communicating patiently and clearly with P1s and being so confident with the recordings.

All of the practice and preparation has really paid off.

 

The children are taking notes of each voice that they record and we should have a full list by the end of the day. If anyone isn’t in school, Mrs Wilson will get them in the next week or so and then I will edit the voices together.

Mrs Wilson’s class think that it should be from youngest to oldest in the school I don’t know if that will be easy for me to arrange as I don’t know everyone’s DOB and it wouldn’t be appropriate to ask for them. I can do from P1 to P 7 at least.

5th March

 

There are 12 new ipads that have just arrived in the class -it’s very exciting to think about what we might be able to do with them given time. Unfortunately it’s a bit late to make the most of them in this phase of work.

The children took their photos as they have been doing every day and then we listened back to our experiments with sound from the previous week. There was a real focus on the differences between the different classes when we listened back.

We did some test recordings with some people in the classes pretending to be P1s and other children having to explain the process to them -what we are doing and what we would like them to say so that we can make good recordings.

The class were also conscious of room sounds and talked about echoes hitting off walls and bouncing back and they were very aware of background noises -they would not have noticed these things back at the start of this phase. It was a calculated risk to allow the children to go off and make recordings in other classrooms. I think that it is important to let them try this kind of thing -to apply the skills and concentration that they have been building up but do it outside the jurisdiction of myself or Mrs Wilson.

Ironically, with this being our last online session, the quality of sound is pretty bad today. Our technology hasn’t let us down so much this time but it’s gone flaky at the end.

26th Feb

As the project is progressing, taking photos has become a routine – a habit.

I am really enjoying the daily ritual -even though it is sometimes challenging or well nigh impossible to fit it round other work commitments. I have even started to wear some tracks in and around the house as I do my daily round. I got to see some of the children’s images on a memory stick and am conscious of the focus being more on the activity than on the images. It’s probably the same for me at this point even though I am very aware of the light and shade and the composition of the photos and have a bit more practice at taking photos.

After talking to Mrs Wilson about it, we are refocusing the children’s attention on HOW they are performing the task. Physically it is difficult for some of them to be still and not have shaky arms as they take their photos and this, combined with the exuberance of being outside, can result in a high proportion of blurry images. Today we slowed them down, got them to think about steadying their images, using something or someone for support -maybe a shoulder or a chair that could be brought outside for use as a support. They learned to listen for the sound that the school cameras make when they are in focus and to review the images and, if necessary, take a second photos in order to get a good image. They are quite good at working in camera groups and supporting each other in other ways -this is just boosting that natural instinct and clarifying the core task once more.

The children have had lots of ideas about what they want to try and record so we are trying to let them have a go at their experiments between now and the end of the project. To this end, some of the children went outside to record birdsong, while others went into the P1 and P2 class to record their PE lesson. Some of the children recorded in the school kitchen and others went to Mrs Slane’s room or Mr Harrison’s room.

12th Feb

Today we did lots of work, starting with photos outside as usual -I normally do mine while the children are doing theirs on a Thursday. The children returned to the original spots where they had recorded earlier in the year and made a second recording to compare and contrast any changes. It was a great day for it -the weather has been really unpredictable so far this spring.

The children offered different possibilities for how we could continue with our work together. They voted within the class for their favourite ideas. Then we worked through the different suggestions that the children put forward for recording sound and figured out the practicalities of different options -eg some people wanted to record at home, so we couldn’t try that during school time.

As some of the group went out to do test recordings, the rest worked with Mrs Wilson to make an amazing display showing some of the photos that they have taken to date. I really like it when the children are motivated and working on tasks that they have set themselves and Mrs Wilson and myself are supporting them in their experimentation.

Mrs Wilson is going to send me all of the children’s ideas so that I can think about how to incorporate as many as possible of them in the remaining weeks that we have. One of the most exciting is the idea of recording every voice in the school in order to show changes in the voices over time.

5th Feb

 

There is a question arising about how much we make the rest of the school aware of what we are doing and also about whether we interfere in any way in order to make changes within our photos. A branch fell off during a recent storm and it has been in my photo under the chestnut tree every day since. I kind of want to move it but am not sure about interfering in the scene that I am photographing. I want to be aware of the changes but wasn’t originally intending to make any myself. I have even been holding off cutting back hedges rather than interfere directly with the places that I have been photographing.

I asked the children about it and showed them what I meant. They didn’t seem to think it was a big deal either way. Having said that, one of the children is photographing in the polytunnel every day. He was pretty sure that something would have been planted in there by this point but so far nothing has happened. The main changes that he can see are levels of condensation on the sides of the tunnel. We discussed the idea of asking the class who might be planting to see if they were planning to do anything soon. He wasn’t keen to interfere either.

But the big question today was: which is better at recording change -Images or Sound?

We listened to extracts from recordings since early January and compared the sounds. A lot of the children thought that images were better. Mrs Wilson played a bit of the recording of my Da that I had left with her way back before Christmas time and we discussed what they could hear. The children picked up a lot of really interesting details about the recording. I asked them if it had anything to do with the things that we have been recording. They picked up that the person in the recording mentioned a lane and that I talk about a lane. They talked about birdsong and how some of them have been recording birdsong. They thought that the man in the recording might be Scottish -they were picking up quite a soft South Antrim accent. Then I played the recording of me when I was small. I asked them about the younger voice. Some of the children thought that the young voice sounded like the older voice -perhaps the man was the child grown up. They were really getting the idea of time passing. When I told them that it was my voice, they got really excited. I asked them what they thought now about the idea of using sound to record change and they had a very different perspective. They all wanted to record themselves and their own voices. It was a really amazing session -intense and inspiring. Lots of ideas were bubbling up -can’t wait to see how they develop next week.

29th Jan

We have realised that we can’t record sound while photos are being taken as everyone makes too much noise during that process, so while experiments with sound continued outside with Mrs Wilson and other groups uploaded their photos onto the computer and updated their written journals, I worked with smaller groups in rotation asking them each the same set of questions about the work so far.

Q: What are we noticing about our photos?

Birds in my nest, a robin on the pitch, that the time and date on the camera isn’t set.

They haven’t changed.

There is change every day.

No people.

Wind changing direction.

Windmill spinning

Daffodil buds growing

 

Q: Which two of each person’s photos are the most different?

 

Most people picked one with snow and one without. Euan’s photo of the bird bath shows the water going up and down and freezing.

 

Q: What they think needs to happen to all of the photos?

 

Put them in order

Display them on a board in the hall -the one closest to the classroom

Look at them all

Order them by place

Upload them onto the computer and print them out.

Show the first and the last.

Make a poster.

Put them in the journals

Laminate them

Write sentences about the changes between January and March

Show each person’s separately.

Count them all up

Use a graph tot show changes

Put them in order darkest to lightest

Blurriest to non-blurriest

 

I thought it was interesting that some of them aren’t concerned with that -they just enjoy the activity.

 

Q: Are you enjoying anything in particular about the experiment?

 

Looking at changes

Going outside taking photos -don’t usually get to go outside during class time.

Going round and seeing things

Taking photos with friends

Hearing birds and seeing nature that I haven’t seen before

Fun and getting fresh air

Get to see all the colours

22nd Jan

The task of taking photos every day has been continuing for me since the 8th January. I picked my spots at the same time as the children were picking theirs.

I am photographing:

Horse chestnut

-top of the tree to see the leaves grow.

Under the horse chestnut tree.

I know that bulbs will grow there because I planted them -I’m just not sure exactly where they will pop up.

Witch Hazel -should have lovely yellow flowers on bare stems early in the spring. I’m hoping that they will come out pretty early.

Cherry trees and lane.

There will be daffodils and cherry blossom coming out through the spring.

There are loads of bulbs on the bank -again, I’m not sure where they’ll grow.

I’m also photographing some of the branches of the cherry tree.

 Lilacs.

Under one of the cherry trees the lilac bush is fragrant and vigorous -I am hoping for some spectacular blossom.

Whitebeam

I am photographing this in two directions -top and upwards.

the whitebeam is usually one of the earliest trees to come into leaf and the leaves are an amazing pale soft silvery green -a really beautiful tree.

Sycamore

I can see the sycamore tree from inside my studio -it is my default view so I am always conscious of how it changes through the seasons. I would like to photograph these changes this year.

 My left hand -fingernails growing

I thought that it would be interesting to show how I am changing during this process. Fingernails are fast growing -will there be more movement there than in the buds and blossoms?

Meanwhile……

The task of taking photos every day has been continuing for the children in Donaghey as well. Mrs Wilson says that it has been really good -there will be a lot of photos by the end of this. The children have made a big map and marked the places where they did their sound recordings and where they are taking their photos every day.

The children wanted me to listen to the recordings they had made and also to look at their photos.