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Beginning of April, Little Inventors was the last thing on my mind. Farm relief was in desperate need, with half of Raphoes farmers being over 70 and sheltering. Once the farm labours on our family farm where called to cover for other elderly farms sheltering, I found myself transfer from student to full time farmer. At that point, it seemed like I would never return to university and finishing Little Inventors was impossible.
Once Little Inventors reached out to us in summer asking for a hand with social media, I jumped at the opportunity, because I had got sucked into the tiny world of farming in Raphoe and needed to think bigger. I love my hometown but it's easy to believe nowhere else exists outside of it, and during lockdown I began to believe that. Sitting in university watching the Creative Edinburgh Awards, seeing our name shortlisted was a dream. April was long forgotten.
I felt so proud of our team for pulling through, we made the exhibition, Not the one we thought it would be, but we still reached our goal, which was to show the pupils of Oxgangs that we believed in their creativity and we believed in them.
Exhibition Planning
We were used to seeing each other every day so moving online was a struggle but we eventually got used to it. We had a google drive set up, that is where we shared all our ideas and plans. First thing was to figure out how would we make a digital exhibition. Kat and Jordan did some research and discovered Kunstmatrixs. We all chipped in and bought a membership for Kunstmatrix, which was essentially Minecraft but for gallery spaces.
Next step was gathering all the work. We were all responsible for gathering the work from our classes and the 1st years in our groups, we labelled them and prepared them for Jordan to upload to Kunstmatrixs. Chasing down the 1st years and getting ideal photos was a mission, but after a few Facebook messages I had gotten all the photos I needed. We then transferred everything into Photoshop and Lightroom to give touch ups.
We liaised with the school to decided how best to display the work in the gallery. We settled on having a space for each "continent" class. We also decided to display every drawing, along with some photos from the workshops.
Our "Made Reals"
The invention I made real was Lexis Solar Powered Santa Sleigh with Electric heated straps for the Reindeer. I decided to make this one because Lexis' design fitted the brief perfectly, she showed the real traits of a designer. I asked the children to design something for someone from Europe, she chooses one of Europe's most famous people, Santa Claus and his reindeer. She also understood that innovation is as important as invention. Santa has to upgrade, she told me
"Those poor reindeers, Santa just gets fatter every Christmas, and they have to keep carrying him about. Its about time Santa went more eco -friendly and got a solar powered sleigh that he could charge in the summer and use on Christmas Eve. It also would heat up the reindeer"
Lexi P5A
I decided to make the sleigh on Fusion 360 and Photoshop because Lexi showed a particular interest in 3D modelling software and I wanted to show her what you could achieve on CAD.
Exhibition Launch
We where invited to the Creative Bravery Festival and the timing of it ran hand in hand with our exhibition plan, therefore we decided it would be the exhibition launch. Exhibition was ready, slideshow was made, script written, invitations sent. We agreed I would act host, and everyone had their bit to say. Speaking to everyone on zoom was very different from real life presentation so we did practice that a good bit. I think the launch was successful, lots attended and it was great being part of the creative bravery festival.
I really enjoyed the project; I can safely say it kept me sane over summer and gave me skills I wont forget. Being able to manage a project like this so early in my career is extremely valuable and being able to manage and make it succeed through a pandemic is even more valuable. I 100% believe now that everyone is born creative and it is a shame, we grow out of it. The soft skills I will take into my professional life but what I learnt from the kids I will take everywhere, they really taught me to be brave and never think your idea is so weird or wacky, all you can do is try and if you get shot down, then try again.
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