"Long-Eared Furry Things"

In the current climate, we find ourselves looking for opportunities further afield - but this often leads to random trains of thought.  We do think that eventually these all magically link back into bigger things we're interested in pursuing - ideas and artforms and ways of working.  But the problem with responding to adverts is you think of an idea in response to a prompt, then you write up your idea, then you talk about your idea - and by this point you think THIS IDEA IS AMAZING - I CAN'T WAIT TO MAKE IT! .... And then more often than not you're not selected. (recessions seem to ramp up the competition exponentially..)

So - this may be another one of those ideas, and because of that we don't want to say too much - other than we picked a rogue prompt: "Long-Eared Furry Things".  Our idea was based around collecting 'sightings' of this mythical creature and then make them in 3D using a range of techniques.

To test the idea, we posed the question on Twitter, with about 2 hours worth of turnaround time for responses:

if you're bored this morning, could you draw a quick picture of a "long-eared furry thing" for me? i need any drawings before 11! rt please!

And here's the responses we collected!  What would your Long-Eared Furry Thing look like?

 

Credits:

1) Ben Waddington - @falsedog

2) Jon Clarke - @goatboyuk

3) Kirsty Hillyer (my partner in crime!) - @kfrilly

4) Ben Waddington (again!) - @falsedog

5) Lee Allen - @leeallenphotos

6) Keith Bloomfield - @hardluck_hotel

7) Paul Gallear - @paulgallear

8) "Quirky Joe" - @QuirkyJoe_

kaleidoscopes and telescopes

Just a little interin update - most of the installation at one of our PiCL schools has happened - but we wanted to add some home made kaleidoscopes as the school we're at is SEN and we wanted to try to engage a range of senses.  Some of these have colours, some distort the view out the other end, some rattle and make sounds.  We're going to hang them using elastic so they can be pulled down to a range of heights and moved about within the outdoor space.  They're made entirely using recycled materials - old glasses lenses, ceramic offcuts, coloured plastic and more.  They make fun photos!

"Watch this Space" - a joint commissioning project

We have just been commissioned to work on a project called "Watch this Space" - an interesting jointly commissioned project between Telford & Wrekin Council and Shropshire Council, with additional partners from the relevant Youth Services.

It's quite a large steering group and an equally large geographical area we'll be working across.  Saturday is the first day we'll get to meet the young people who've signed up to take part - but equally it'll be the first time they get to meet each other, as half are from Telford and half from Shropshire (Bridgnorth, to be precise!). 

The project itself will see us working with the young people to devise, create and curate an exhibition of work.  The young people will have MANY choices to make - from the location of the exhibition, to what the end product is going to be.  We're throwing Arts Award in for good measure, and feel pretty excited about the project - particularly as there's a weekend residential to the Welsh coast in the middle!

For now - we just wanted to share what we've been preparing prior to meeting the group.  In order to meet a potential variety of needs and abilities, we've devised an "explorer's kit" which will encourage participants to view their outdoor spaces in new ways, and to help trigger creative thinking from the moment we meet them.  The kit will be used whilst scouting for potential exhibition location venues at the weekend.

The kit includes: envelopes, tracing paper, carbon paper, prompts, instructions, a photocopied mini-zine with space for responses, a pencil, a biro, a piece of chalk, a wax crayon and a pastel.  Surely everything a good explorer needs?!