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Creating the brief:
Before we went straight into full day workshops with the 1st years we spent an afternoon giving them a brief. We knew exactly what we wanted from the first years but I felt it was important to put emphasis on making the brief, dynamic and cooperative. I wanted to make sure the brief was not just words on a sheet. I think our course is good at this, the brief isn't usually set in stone for any projects. This would prove to be a challenge because from experience with my own classmates I know there are people that love to follow a list, and need firm direction, then there are pupils who hate being told what to do. So I wanted to bring my own knowledge of being a student into creating the brief and attempt to find that balance between the students who need a “step by step” and those who would rather take work more independently.
How do I get over this challenge? My usual, lists, spreadsheets anything to keep organised. So I made sure I was going to the class with a plan, and of course an open mind, I discussed 3 things.
Brief
Timeline
Learning Outcomes.
I thought the best way to make the brief cooperative was to show my plans to the first years. Therefore, I got my google drive up on the projector and showed them everything. I’d spent a good two weeks on this, felt like I was exposing my soul, but pressed enter, showed the slideshow, and prayed.
I was all good, everyone liked the plan, everyone understood the outcomes, plain sailing. For any 1st years that didn't want to speak up in class we had one trip to the pub. I think I made friends, so I'd like to hope at least, they could feel they could let us know if anything wasn’t working well. For me, introducing the brief was a good start, leaving the first years on the Thursday afternoon, we all deserved a pat on the back.
Next step was leading the workshop!
Okay to begin with I knew I had to be sensitive with the language I used when discussing the project. We wanted to make sure each student would take keen ownership. To develop the idea of ownership and pride we would put emphasis on the students being “Magnificent makers”. We let them know the children are relying on them and explained the holistic view of Little Inventors. They were excited about this and the prospect of having their work exhibited was attractive. The I wanted the children to be referred to as clients and the 1st years, as makers. This was to help with the feeling of ownership, and to remind them they are designing and making with others.
It was important that the 1st years understood they were part of a bigger community and project. This reminded me of a guest lecture with Malcolm Innes and he spoke about his “12 closes” project and how it was a Co-Design project. I wanted to find out more about Malcolm's project and especially how he worked to design, with non designers, so we arranged a meeting. I thought this would be useful for us running the project and for us to get some tips we could pass onto the first years. Malcolm told us about Co-Design, and even though our project strayed in different parts from work he has done, there was still certain similarity. We thought we will incorporate this into a class within the 1st year to expose them to the concept.
Week 1:
This was time to choose designs. We had already filtered through them and picked what we thought were the most viable to get made. I decided to split the days into two, an exercise in the morning and one in the evening.
Morning:
Sorted into groups. They choose groups and themes. We choose teams to mentor.
Filtered through inventions, made notes on inventions.
Afternoon:
They have chosen which invention they are making.
They all got a poster and had to create a timeline/storyboard of how they'd make a model (One that wasn't chosen).
The goal of the poster storyboard exercise was to set the idea that they are creating a model for an exhibition and that they need to consider the whole process.
Reflection:
I think this class went well, it was hard to get the class to speak up about their ideas, but there were four of us so we all split up into teams and everyone became more friendly and talkative then.
Week 2:
We had set that this week they would come back with a concept drawing of their idea and cardboard model. Most did, about 1 or 2 without a model but everyone had a plan.
Morning:
Showed storyboard examples. Mixture of examples from or own work and pinterest of how the could storyboard their process.
Review their models and concepts.
Afternoon:
Speak about Co-Design.
Sum up deliverable again.
Reflection:
By the second class I was confident everyone was on the same page and clearly knew the deliverable. By week 3 we would have had the models finished and moving onto creating storyboards and exhibition planning but unfortunately Co-vid had different plans. Each student completely understood, they uploaded what they had onto the website and were happy to pick everything up in September.
I found communicating the brief and what was expected of the 1st years went well. For us as we all decided to mentor a team each and we all individually built relationships, so in terms of communication and management it was off to a good start. The big hurdle we were facing was the question of materials, materials, materials!! I was getting sick of the word upcycle. We are students as well and we all understand budgets are slim, but there's a limit to how much you can listen to. We told them we would try our best to help source materials, and we did get in contact with the remarkery and had plans to get in contact with charity shops etc. Honestly I felt most students didn't need us to go looking for materials for them, they just needed the push to think a little bit more outside of the box and I think everyone would have figured it out in the end.
We were building a good relationship for the first years and I think September will be great and hopefully we will hit the ground running once the project is started again.
Coming back in September the 1st years, now 2nd years, had moved onto a different brief. We where lucking a lot where near finished their models before lockdown. We just had to collect all the images and compact them into the exhibition now. A few 2nd years just forgot about the project and that was that but we where lucky to have most pull through and send us their work. I like to think that they knew how important this was to the children at Oxgangs, if not now more than ever.
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