helenehugel's profile

My Posts

Day 16 - Land of Air | Puppet Portal Project - Hospital A
2009-11-18

Day 16 - Land of Air

Description

This is the start of the last 5 weeks of the project. Before this we had an artist`s meeting in which we brainstormed and discussed and developed ideas of working even more collaboratively across the live web link. The aim was to maximise the possibilities of using the link to unite our work across the four hospitals.

The ideas that emerged were quite exciting. Over the next 5 weeks, we will use one themed wallpaper backdrop on the computer, which uses the elements of air/fire/water/earth to create different lands. Each of us artists have a schedule of which land we will create and animate each week. We will work in pairs (2 hospitals) to meet on the live link, performing a journey through the land with the children. The journey will end in a meeting of the two lands (e.g. earth and water) which will end in an exchange.

My theme this week was air. I have left the idea of using hospital materials for the moment. However, I am going to stick to the rhythm of using the digital projector in the morning to project the live link on the ward window, and the overhead in the afternoon to project the children`s work.

We brainstormed ideas of what creatures might inhabit the sky. We made these from light paper. We also made backdrops using collage, one page per child. The backdrops were `sealed` by sticking an acetate overtop, so they could pass through the slit in the theatre box, and be animated. I am interested in seeing if we can make one long continuing backdrop over the next few weeks, adding on the different worlds as we go, finishing the last day perhaps using the entire piece.