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CLIMATE (EX)CHANGE A collaborative storytelling project between OXFord hills, waynflete, & friends seminary STUDENTS

// WHAT // The foundation for this experience is the Friends Seminary class Layered City: Urban Space through Art, Technology and Social Justice designed and led by Friends Seminary Co-Teachers Andrew Harrison and Remy Mansfield and pedagogy from The Modern Story. This class challenges students to take a hands-on, experiential approach to the critical social justice issues facing New York City. The course is organized around four thematic units, INTERSECTIONALITY, GOVERNANCE, ACCESS, & ADAPTATION that will provide a framework for investigations of the city. Through these themes, the students examine New York's public spaces and monuments, the incarceration system, public transit, and climate change.

// HOW // Through an EXCHANGE > REFLECT > MAKE collaborative process, students will EXCHANGE experiences unique to their geographies, REFLECT on the potential consequence of a (degraded) environment, and MAKE a creative visual response in a digital medium of their choice

// WHO // The Climate Change Exchange will bring together students from high schools in three geographically distinct locations (Oxford Hills, ME; Portland, ME, and New York City) and create a venue for participants to operate in small teams as collaborators, critical thinkers, and creators responding to issues of climate change through multiple lenses.

// WHEN // Zoom meetings:

  • Monday April 5 - KICK-OFF MEETING - GUIDED SMALL GROUP ACTIVITIES
  • Monday April 12 - GENERAL MEETING- GUIDED SMALL GROUP TIME
  • Monday April 26 - GENERAL MEETING- GUIDED SMALL GROUP TIME
  • Monday May 3 - FINAL SHARING

Weeks

// week 1: April 5-9 //

The video below is an overview of our class website and a synopsis of our first Zoom meeting.

// REFLECT //

Within your breakout room, discuss the following prompts and be prepared to share and report out responses from your partners at other schools.

  • // ROUND 1: About You // 4mins.
  • Name, graduation year, and where you live. What makes your community unique? What are the people, places, and things that make where you live interesting?
  • // ROUND 2: Climate Change // 4mins.
  • When you think of climate change, what words, people, places come to mind?
  • What does climate change mean to you?
  • // ROUND 3: Where & How & Memory // 4mins.
  • Where do you think climate change shows up (or will show up) in your community? Could be a specific place, person, trend you have noticed, or a memory. (this will lead into first assignment)
EXCHANGE_1: Photography

For our first exchange, let's focus on using photography to document where climate change shows up now, or may arrive in the future, in each of our communities.

// MAKE //

Using any digital camera (phones are perfect), make a series of 5 Images that visualize how climate change shows up in your community. Think about places, people, and ways of life that will be altered as the air, land, water, and access to food is altered. Think, also, about the following as you make your images:

  • Be Specific as possible, focusing in on issues unique to your surroundings.
  • Tell a story, however small, about your community
  • Make thoughtfully composed images (think about light, what's in the frame, what's not, camera angle) in order to tell a more intentional and interesting visual story.

PLEASE BE READY TO SHARE YOUR IMAGES WITH YOUR GROUP NEXT MONDAY (4/12)

// week 2: April 12-16 //

// EXCHANGE //

In groups today, students will exchange images, discuss, and build out Spark Page. Share link and report out quickly at the end of class (10 minutes).

  • Exchange: Spend a few minutes presenting your 3 of your 5 images to your group by sharing your screen and discussing.
  • Build: With your partners, populate the spark page with your image and text. Figure out how to do this collaboratively.
  • Text: For each collection of 5 images, add text explaining why you made these images in response to the prompt.

Adobe Spark Page

Think of Spark as a platform Adobe built to provide you with three distinct apps that are easy to use and produce beautiful digital work. Spark has 3 apps: Page, Video, Post. You can access Spark through a web browser and via apps (iOS/Android) on your phone/tablet. Your work between the web browser and apps syncs in the cloud, so you can work between devices. In our course, we will primarily be using Spark Page, but you can utilize Video and Post for your various projects. Here is what each tool does:

Demo / Tutorial Videos:

// week 3: April 19-23 //

Now that your group's Page is created, your next step is to individually populate the Page with your 5 photos from Week 2 assignment with the text explaining why you made these images in response to the prompt. Be creative in how you place the image (e.g. glideshow, window, gallery, photo grid, split layout, etc.) and accompanying text.

// MAKE //

What does climate change sound like? What are the sounds and voices? Think of how to capture sounds of people, place, actions… Go to those places and record.

STEP 1:

Your assignment is to record at least 3 audio recordings of environments around you that identify elements of climate change. Consider these questions as you decide what to record:

  • What does climate change sound like?
  • What are the loud sounds of climate change?
  • What are the soft sounds of climate change?

STEP 2:

Post your audio recordings to your group's Spark Page with a description about where the audio was recorded and why you think it captures the sound of climate change.

Note: You may need to use Adobe Spark Video or YouTube to host your audio files in order to post to your Spark Page.

STEP 3:

On Monday, April 26, be prepared to present and speak about one audio recording from one of your group members. This will require you to listen to the audio ahead of time and talk with the person responsible for recording it. Please do share your own reflection and interpretation, as well.

// week 4: April 26-30 //

Welcome to Week 4! This week, we will focus on our final project, which will ask you to step into the world of your teammates'. Using video and audio, you will create an experiential video that matches your video clips to the audio of your teammate. You are mixing and matching to build shared environmental landscapes marked by video and audio recordings from different locations. See below for the assignment (a.k.a. "ACTION").

Also, here are each group's Spark Page:

link to Page
link to Page
link to Page
link to Page

// ACTION //

Goal = visualize your partner’s world in your world. The result: a blending of two spaces, two experiences, and two understandings of the environment.

Goal = Choose 3 images to blend together to tell a story: 1 Waynflete, 1 Oxford Hills, 1 Friends Seminary

PART 1: photo layers

  • All group members share your photos in a common Google Drive folder
  • Using PS Mix, blend together three images (1 from each geography)
  • Goal is to choose images that when overlapped tell a story about climate change between locations
  • For example: these images could all be different; they could share similar elements; they could be in contrast to each other

PART 2: video & audio layers

Goal = visualize your partner’s world in your world

Record an audio these elements of your day; each clip can be 10-15sec.

  • Transportation - How do you get where you are going? What’s your primary mode of movement? What impacts do you think this has on your environment?
  • Food - Where do you get your food? Where does it come from? What types of food do you prefer and eat? What impacts do you think this has on your environment?
  • Air - breathing; When do you notice the air quality in your community?Where are those spaces? When is it good? When is it poor? What impacts do you think this has on your environment?
  • Land - Land - How would you describe the landscape you travel through and live in? What are the ways your behavior impacts the land?
  • Water -Describe the body of water closest to you? What is it like, what is its quality, and how do you interact with it? Where does your drinking water come from and how do you access it?
  • Energy - What does your energy use look like in your day-to-day? When do you use the most energy?

Start by writing responses to the above and then create audio recordings. Share your clips in a shared Google Drive folder so that all group members can access; label your folder with your name.

Each partner is tasked with recording audio to accompany each video clip of their partner’s.

// week 5-7: May 3-21 //

// ACTION //

Blended landscapes and realities of climate change

From top left to right and down: Abby Ayres, Alden Timm, Ali Levy, Ali Levy, Kate Morgan, Florence Stringer, Liam Barkey

// REFLECTION + ACTION //

1) Make a second and final edit of your video. This will mean different things for different folks depending on the effort you put into your first draft

  • Addition of proper titles, both opening and closing credits.
  • Addition of sound, perhaps intro & outro music.
  • Addition of footage that is more thoughtfully collected and technically shot (avoid fast pans or vertical video format).
  • Additional footage to bring your full video time up to 1'30".
  • Making the footage more visually dynamic (split screen, double exposure, transitions).
  • Upload your multiple exposure image if you did not already complete this part of project.

2) Complete a close viewing and reflection on a video of your choice. Below is a link to a reflection document that will be your guide:

link to Page
link to Page
link to Page
link to Page

3) Complete the FIVE PART (five separate audio files) sound recording for you SUBWAY SCULPTURE PROJECT (must be completed by FRIDAY MAY 14th. In class FRIDAY we will begin to integrate your sound boards into your sculptures.

// week 8: May 24-28 //

// INSPIRATION //

// REFLECT //

(Aiden<>Liam) (Petra<>Hilary) (Ben<>Charlie) (Florence<>Tyler) (Ali<>Ada)

Watch the video above and work with your partner to reflect on the following questions in your SPARK PAGE:

  1. What is a ghost forest? Describe one way that climate change contributes to creating a ghost forest (hint: listen for Maya's example from Hurricane Sandy...)
  2. How tall are the trees, and why is scale important for Maya Lin?
  3. How did she determine how each tree would be "planted" in the park? What were some of her considerations?
  4. Once planted, what other element revealed itself to be an integral part of the artwork?
  5. How did the project off-set its carbon footprint? What do you think about this idea of off-setting your carbon footprint?
  6. What is your general reaction to the project? How do you think it shows-up on this public space?

// ACTION //

With your partner, devise a PROPOSAL for an intervention into the physical space of Maya Lin's Ghost Forest. Your intervention can take any form, but must be designed with intention to reveal something new and unique for the viewer related to climate change. Think of it as adding an additional layer to the space, much in the same way we did with monuments in the fall (ex. George Washington statue in Union Sq.). Identify additional online resources to give you a better understanding of the artwork.

On WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 we will visit the installation in-person. in the meantime

Modes of Intervention...

EXPAND / ADD

REMOVE / REPLACE

COVER / REVEAL

INTERACT ALONE / TOGETHER

SOUND

MOVEMENT

COLOR / TEXTURE

IMAGE

EVENT / HAPPENING

PROPOSAL MEDIUM: Work in any medium you and your partner desire. Below is a list of requirements to include in your proposal. You and your partner should create a new Spark Page and both have it linked to from your existing Spark Page.

  • Artist intention... what are you trying do? What do you what to happen when a person visits and/or interacts with the ghost forest?
  • Finished drawing... digital or hand-drawn
  • Written description of the intervention you chose
  • Creative element... video, model, soundscape, etc.

FINAL PRESENTATIONS: WED. JUNE 9 (in-person)

Credits:

Created with images by jodylehigh - "climate change drought climate" • stokpic - "hands world map" • spalla67 - "iceberg antarctica cold" • dexmac - "thunderstorm storm sea" • Pexels - "audio microphone condenser microphone" • Bergadder - "trees forest fog" • Nika_Akin - "blue ink color" • fietzfotos - "grain cereals field"

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