I am currently enjoying the privilege of revisiting the Sound and Light Studio project with a new group of students at Burlington Children’s Space. As a teaching artist, I support young children’s fluidity in sound- and light- based media. My first opportunity to do this work was over 3 years ago. Since then I have been lucky to develop the curriculum components as afternoon preschool teacher. In this residency, we will explore these media, their possible interactions, and the mindfulness opportunities embedded in sensory awareness with each of the classrooms at BCS.
This story began with a set of homemade castanets (buttons, cardstock, glue) and preschoolers who heard their sound as crocodile teeth. One told me I needed to show the sound, in pictures on the wall. We made an appointment for later that day to catch his images. The other participants had their eyes on the nearby pile of cardstock in the studio. I edited the recording we’d made in the morning (of the button castanets) to match the number of crocodiles and hands shown in each shot.
This moving picture was drawn on a strip of adding machine tape by a BCS preschooler in 2011. The video is shot in one take by projecting the lateral movement of the story strip, while the author narrates the action.
-Rebecca Mack