Kitundu workshops

Hey ya'll. Still catchin up, and I don't want to miss giving my point of view on the Kitundu experience. In the week before Mindfest, Walter introduced a few more activities to DesignIT we had never done. They went over perfectly. So here's what I got to participate in and some photos to go with it...

Shadow Paintings

dates: Monday, October 17 and Tuesday, October 18

big idea: Create 3 dimesional sculptures that caste shadows creating 2 dimensional paintings. The order of activities to lead to his was well planned. First, we had a group discussion on what light is and its different characteristics. We then went outside and then discussed the medium we'd be working with- shadows. We talked about charactristics of shadows including things we noticed about different light sources and how its distance effected the shadow's shape. When inside, we divided into pairs and each had a table with a overhead desklamp and various materials. One challenge was to build a sculpture that created a shape with its shadow while the sculpture itself looks nothing like the shape. With that shape, we continued to the next challenge which was to create an image. Some of the kids' images included a bleeding heart, a spider, a clock, and a pair of scissors. Finally, another challenge included creating a sculpture that created half an image, where the other half was drawn on the table itself, therefore the image was incomplete without the light. Some of these included a knight fighting dragon, an alien, and a hangman.

attendance: the blue dot crew (about 15 second and third ALA year teens)

supplies: overhead desk lamp, butcher paper, hot glue guns, hot glue, various small wood pieces, other assorted craft materials

best part: Seeing the images come alive as they worked. This activity takes time and patience, but as you can see from the pictures when kid's got going they came up with some creative images.

hardest part: The hardest part for our group was crafting stable structures that would not bend after a certain amount of time. This part took patience and some time learning the best way to craft the structures. Another challenge was keeping the sculptures themselves interesting looking, even without the shadows. This was best done through Walter's advice of creating the lines in your shadow image through crafting the wooden pieces at variuos unexpected planes above the table. After learning that trick the sculptures started coming alive.

Light Painting

dates: Wednesday, October 19 and Thursday, October 20

big idea: Using digital cameras to create light paintings with various colorful light sources. By working in a dark room, keeping the camera still on a tripod, and keeping its shutter open for a certain length of time (in this case 10 to 15 seconds), one can be very creative in creating images. We seperated into groups of three, each person having a specific job. One controlled the camera, while the other two created the art. It was important to make sure the camera focused correctly before begining, so one person would usually use a flashlight to create a light sorce on the subject bright enough to do so. The groups had the choice of working within a frame created out of cardboard to match the dimensions of the camera's view. And finally, different challenges were also introduced to each group at various times to keep the creative juices flowing. Some included...
-create a shape
-outline a friend
-give a person wings
-make someone a super hero
-create an image evoking an emotion
-create an image representing your personality
-make something appear at least 5 times
-draw a landscape
-write your name
-make part of someone/something dissapppear

attendance: again, the blue dot crew (about 15 second and third year ALA teens)

best part: How into it the kids got! Immediately they started creating and when the time was up they did not want to stop.

hardest part: For our group, the hardest part was our last challenge-create an image evoking an emotion. We chose scary, and decided to create an image of one person holding a decapitated head in each hand. It proved to be a challenge due to controlling the light where it would not bleed onto our bodies. It took us six attempts, but finally made an image that looks awesome.

Above I've included some images, and we cannot thank Walter enough for teaching us two new outstanding activities. We tried light painting a few weeks later at Panther, and we had the most attendance we've ever had. I'll be blogging about it soon. Best to you all.