June 30th, 2018

Mapping the Art Class

Today we re-visited our previous exercise with maps. Given the students timid response to considering the Children’s center map, I decided to re-visit this lesson at multiple scales. These scales were either side of the previous project - first, the smaller scale of the classroom, and later the larger scale of Nagahaswatte road. We had a guest come in today, Lavanya Kumaran, an architecture major (again) who is studying low income settlements at the Royal College of Art. She had lived in Sri Lanka when she was young so spoke/ understood Sinhalese and Tamil, which assisted her contribution. 

We talked about maps and the ‘birds eye view’ to (re) explain this, I handed around a printed sheet that had an perspective as well as a plan/top views of a neighborhood. We had volunteers come to the white-board to draw the table, the cupboard, the computers, the trees outside, even a car in a ‘bird’s eye view’. A quick sampler. 

The students were provided with a basic framework - an A4 sheet with a grid which roughly demarcated the boundaries of the art classroom. I asked them to use the grid, if it helps, to demarcate a map of the classroom. 

Do you know where you are sitting in the classroom? 

Where are the windows? or the slanted walls? 

What about the trash can? Where is it? What if I move it here? 

Why not stand over it and look at they way a bird does? 

What’s on the table? 

They used colored paper to demarcate some of the objects.. and given the introduction of scissors and glue to the exercise, they took longer to complete it, and I didn’t have the guts to push them to speed up, as they were finally getting a hold of it and starting to enjoy making their plans.

What I wish I could change

My friend Dan Cohen works with High-school kids at the Falling Waters Summer program. He has a mastered the art of giving his students VERY fast, maybe 5 minute mock up paper model or idea drafting  charrettes, to get them to iterate quickly. It’s been hard to do the same with these younger students. Although I have attempted to hand them a piece of paper to quickly draft out their ideas, they still need some time or they get upset/frustrated. They also change their mind from their initial draft almost every time. I need to find a way to show them it’s okay to not have a prefect idea, its just a quick exercise to get the ball rolling.