Environ-mental Part 1: In this first part of the 2-part, collaborative “Environment-mental” project, youth will create an enclosed mini-environment installation. Thinking about how elements like color, texture, and light affect a person’s mental and emotional state, they will fabricate a space that conveys a certain mood or atmosphere to the viewer.
Environ-mental Part 2, Soundscape: In this second half of the 2-part, collaborative “Environ-mental” project, youth will create a computer-generated soundscape to accompany the installation they fabricated the previous week.
Working on this project with the Art Brainers was pretty incredible. It was one of the most stressful projects I've done so far with kids, simply because there was so much to complete, but I am so proud of how it all came together, and I know the campers were too.
We talked again about different kinds of installation art, and about how artists use elements like light, color, texture, and sound to affect the viewer's mood and emotional state. Working collaboratively, the campers aimed to create a small enclosed space that made the viewer feel a sense of magic, mystery, beauty, and excitement. They painted the walls of the little cardboard room (about the size of a telephone booth) in swirling sections of slightly metallic blue, red, and orange, and covered sections of the wall with colorful stalagmite-like forms, flowers, reflective plastic jewels, and more, while glitter-encrusted colored balls rained down from above the viewer's head (along with a lone bat!) where light entered through small holes cut in the ceiling.
THEN, using Garage Band, we also created an accompanying soundscape for the installation, which reminds me of the inside of a watery, shimmering cavern filled with undulating light. We first looked through the sound libraries to pick out a selection of sounds we felt fit the mood we were trying to convey, and then each camper individually selected from these sounds, playing notes on the keyboard to record multiple layers of tracks. Please play the video below to hear the campers' soundscape - they did a fantastic job. Between this project and the kindergARTen Brains Belly of a Whale project, I think the Fall 2011 ART BRAINS Camp had an outstanding season finale.
Play the video below to hear the Environ-mental soundscape!:
