St. John the Baptist P.S artist journal

November 11th 2016

Our Aim: To raise awareness of our bodies through measuring, scale and movement.

As I embark on this residence the first few sessions will allow us all to get to know each other. I have agreed to give Ms Harriot a session breakdown a least a week in advance of each session. This will include the aim of each session, a list of materials required and a minute by minute of how I plan on running the session. After the first session I am not quite so sure that this amount of detail is necessary. I had of course no real comprehension of how much we would get through in the first session or how much time it would actually take for us to listen to each other and hear what we are all saying.

I would like to get the know the children and understand what makes them tick, what their interests are, what gets them excited, how much they like to chat and how much they will want to share with me. I’ve had a little insight to what Ms Harriot likes and dislikes and seen a little of her great sense of humour so far. This of course is two-way and I would like the children and Ms Harriot to learn about me in the studio. Each week I am going to show them something from the studio, this maybe something from the clutter I keep there, a look at what I might be working on at the time, something that I would like their opinion on or even a piece of work that I have created in response to my work with them. Each week I am going to ask one of the children to bring something in from home to show and it can be anything at all that interests them. Ms Harriot brought something in to show for out first sessions. I showed some of my bug collection (all beautifully preserved in formaldehyde and not something breading amongst all the clutter I keep in the studio). My bug collection received lots of oohhh and ahhhs, this was a very good sign. The whiteboard is a fantastic tool as the bugs would have seem enormous to the children.

I like to use all sorts of things to help us think and to make art from. Often these are things that would not be found in the classroom or found in the art supply shop so I had sent a package in the post to the classroom. A large The package contained coloured vinyl and translucent coloured vinyl, a wooden mannequin, a handful of paper tape measures I had acquired form a very well know store and a some colourful bugs cast in a see through resin. Despite my detailed instructions of what I would present in the classroom I did not get to see it myself which I found rather weird. I normally work on a very large scale and though the images presented through the whiteboard would be huge their scale was not revealed to me. I had to just imagine.

I believe that children need to move about the room and get quite physically involved in what they do. I am a kinesthetic learner and naturally influences the approach to my collaborative work. Conscious of not being there I wanted to restrict the movement about the room for the first few sessions. But even so I invited the children to use their whole bodies to measure the size and scale of the room. I accompanied my verbal description of the tasks I asked the children to do with diagrams that they could see on the whiteboard.

We began by looking at the proportions of the body. I had drawn an outline of my body and had a balloon that was the exact size of my head. My head or the balloon divided into my entire body 7 times. I then asked the children to look at one their hands and see how many times this hand fits into their other arm. It should measure pretty much the same for all of the children! I wanted to make measuring and scale as fun as possible. Movement would be fun in itself. I asked the children to close their eyes and image they were a bird and to move their arms like a bird in slow motion and asked them to describe to me how this felt. The break came much faster than I had anticipated but before the children went outside I gave them a task. To observe the birds they could see whilst in the playground and see how they moved about, how they pecked in search of food and how they took flight.

After the break I asked the children to describe how any birds they saw in the playground moved as they walked, land, took fight etc. A few of the children came in front of the camera and demonstrated how the birds they saw moved. Whilst the children were doing this Ms Harriot handed out sheets of paper. I asked the children to draw not the birds but just the movement of the birds. The marks on the pages were quite difficult for me to see so we switched to markers. The array of lines and marks were incredible from small spiral swirls to generous circular repeated curls. Some lines were manic-like darting back and forth repeatedly on the page. The children brought their drawings to the camera for me to see. I hope Ms Harriot has been able to capture better photographs than I of their drawings.

Having looked at movement we returned to measuring again. Ms Harriot distributed the coloured vinyl to the children. I asked them to draw around their hand, cut it out and stick it directly onto their desks. Following this I set the children a number of tasks that used their hands as the measuring implement to measure the width, breath and height of their desks and recording the details in drawings of the table I had asked them to do. I then asked them to count the number of doors and windows within the classroom, what time of day the sun comes into the classroom and if so which windows does the sun come through. I want to get a mental picture of what the room looks like. The view of the room is a static camera of a computer set on a desk.

Continuing the measuring theme I asked the children to measure their classroom by using their entire bodies. My drawings gave them a number of options to choose from – lying on the ground with their arms straight in the air so they don’t place their feet on another child’s head; sitting in twos back to back with every couple their feet facing each other etc. This was quite good fun and I enjoyed preparing the diagrams for these. Sometimes it is so much easier and quicker to show visuals rather than use words.

I had initially planned to do more in our first session together. Getting the pace right and judging what is realistic to achieve within the time is going to take me a little time to gauge. I had also some links of birds in motion and in murmuration to show the children. This Ms Harriot would do in the afternoon and I can discuss with the children next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1uY7_wdYOA&sns=em

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY&sns=em

Despite being on-line possibly everyday since the turn of the century I suffered visions of constant signal interference. I had thought I would have to ask the children to move the rabbit ears a little to the right or a little to the left to ensure a good signal. For those who have no idea of what I am referring to I mean the wire antenna that throughout my childhood I was constantly asked to tweak to ensure a good TV reception. Thankfully following my first Virtually There session we had no such drama other than it being challenging at times to hear what was being said. This is possibly the result of having to use the built-in mike of not the most up-to-date computer to pick up the sounds in a large classroom.

October 2016

My anxiety levels were slightly higher than normal embarking on a new artist in residence with a school and a group of children I had never actually met and would not likely meet for a while yet. When I say meet I mean in person in the actual physical space as opposed to a virtual space. I knew also that I perhaps would have to curtail the scale and approach of what we would create together, the younger children of primary age.

As I began planning what and how we would work together I became more aware of what it is I actually do and how I do it. I now have realised that my first instinctive is to focus on ‘Up’. I enter the classroom and check out the size of the space we are going to be working in. How high is the ceiling, is there piping or plumbing at ceiling height that we can use to build ‘upwards’. How much space between the desks, how many windows, what journey does sun take in classroom throughout the day or does it ever reach this room? These are the questions that preoccupy me as I make my initial visit to the new class prior to actually starting with them.
My biggest challenge apart from the IT end of things was the possibility that we would need to sit still at our desks. I hate sitting still, I like us to move about I believe that this helps us think better. When we do use the desks it’s generally to turn them upside down or build a den underneath. I was also very conscious that I would not be there to clean up afterwards either. I usually create a bit of a mess!
I had met Joanna Ms Harriot in early June and we bonded over shoes, architecture, family and our love of trips to London. We had chatted a lot of what and where our ideas would take us with the children. We need to figure out how best we could work together to ensure that the sessions would run smoothly and Joanna would not be under too much pressure. This year Joanna who has prior experience of Virtually There would not have a classroom assistant and would be on her own throughout the session assisting, translating, repeating, demonstrating perhaps, distributing the materials, documenting the process, managing toilet breaks, squabbles and hopefully not pulling her hair out…….

Thankfully I have been able to observe another artist teacher partnership participating on Virtually There so I have been able to see first hand the pace and logistics within the classroom during an online session. This insight will be so beneficial to my own planning allowing me to feel a little bit more confident with being there without actually being there!

Image taken by me during an artist in residence with senior infants in Rathfarnham Educate Together National School, Co. Dublin.