College One:Narrative and objects...

Today's workshop was ran by Lynn. Lynn gave us a set of tasks which were time-managed. The first task was to describe one object using either or both visuals and words. She asked us to consider where it was from, how it was made, did it have a function and what is was made of? The object below was given to me.

I was given what looked to be a mouse, a yellow mouse, made out of plastic bags that were shiny. The plastic bags were ruffled and attached together using a piece of wire, the way the ruffles held reminded me of flowers. The mouse had four legs, 2 eyes, 1 button black nose, and a long tail, the tail and legs looked to be made out of yellow tape wrapped round. The mouse looks bigger than what a normal mouse size would be. It is textured but the materials would be suitable for the age group that I would be teaching in the Secondary School. I tried to combine the use of language and visuals with the shape of the object. This Task One was expected to take 15 minutes and once the time was up, I was hardly finished. If I was to do this exercise as part of my workshop, I would maybe consider adding more time.

Task Two was about describing a group of objects that was allocated to a group of people in the class, using either or both visual and words. I chose to look at the 2 items nearest to me as I could see them clearer.

The items I draw were what I thought to be a large spool with cherry pink thread attached to it and a tag (label), these items turned out to be a kite handle with the string attached and the label turned out to be a cow tag which is attached to a cow's ear. This exercise shows how deceiving objects can be. I used chalk pastels to draw this out so it become slightly messy. The wooden handle looked glossed with red writing on either side. As the kite handle was brought back from India, I could not read the writing on either side. The wood was smooth and glossy, where as the thread is textured and colourful, it is a linear pattern. The tag label was flexible, made from an unknown material, the numbers and letters are shown to categories the cows so if one died it could be recorded. Both objects have functions. This Task had a 15 minute deadline and I found this timeline more suitable than the previous task.

Our next task was a group one. From the objects we all had, we put them in a group composition and create  a shared narrative, it could of been visual, written or both. Beginning this task was fairly daunting because not all of us knew each other, we began by expressing our ideas and putting them together, I consider us to have been playful and imaginative at the beginning, The below image is of our first narrative story and it is definitely imaginative.

Once we began to become more serious about this task, we wanted to find a connection between all the items to put them in a certain order. Below's image is of the order it ended up in. We worked this order and came up with other individual stories but nothing stuck with any of us.

We decided to play the game called 'consequences', in this order above, we started off with me and began writing lined sentences to each object, we went around the table until each object was complete. We had to nominate one person from the group to read out the story. Even though the story worked, it was confusing, however, it worked because we came together as a group and decided what to do together. I like the story created it had a bit of each of us within it, we all played our part. It makes me ask the question on whether we like the object or task, does it effect the outcome? Even if the story is unsuccessful does it matter, is it the process that got us to the outcome more important?

 
This idea for a workshop would work for the Secondary School but I would change a couple of things. I would change the objects and ask the students to bring in something personal to them, this may improve their drawings and may even improve their story telling as how they came across it could be used. I would also change the amount of time given for this task as we as a group thought an hour was too long, I have to admit we did not take this task seriously. I would argue that structure is important within any workshop. The reason for doing a certain workshop can become more clearer after the outcome. I would say that we was not stuck on ideas, we all seemed enthusiastic. I would maybe also add a twist to these tasks by maybe asking the students to feel the object and draw what they feel, or draw what their partner is describing, these would bring the students out of their comfort zone and not worry about a blank white page.