Week 5: First Theme Tutorial

This week was the first of our themed tutorials. We began with introductions and other formalities, before moving into some specific exercises based on our theme 'through the eyes of a child.' We took a wander into the Botanic Gardens, removing ourselves from the studio environment in order to focus on our memories. We were challenged to think back to our first learning experience...

My earliest memories of learning are of my grandparent's property in Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. It could not strictly be classed as a 'farm', more a smallholding where they kept chickens, had a worm farm and grew vegetables. The property was bordered on two sides by a large macadamia plantation, and I have distinct memories of my brother, my cousin and myself running up and down the property, stealing macadamias that had fallen over my grandparent's fence.

Some of the key words I came up with in my two minutes of thinking were:
* every smell - fresh - sounds of animals and freedom
* hiding in the chicken coop - chasing the chickens, running away from them and looking for their eggs
* trying to find macadamias, occasionally climbing the fence to get the best ones.
* riding in the trailer on the ride on mower, up and down.

This is sketch I produced.

Clearly, it is of me chasing a chicken.

I can remember being fascinated by the worm farm and the chickens and their chicks. I was also fascinated by the plants and flowers in the garden.

We would travel to Beerwah almost every weekend.

We would also travel to Nambour Hospital almost every weekend.

My grandmother was very ill with bowel cancer, and spent a lot of time in hospital. When I was six years old, she couldn't fight it any longer.
I can remember the funeral quite clearly. I was six, and I didn't really understand what was going on during the ceremony. A child does not really understand death, all they understand is that the person is not there anymore; where are they? But, when I walked out of the ceremony, I burst into tears. I still think, to this day, that learning about the lifecycles of plants and animals on my grandparent's property made me realise that Grandma wasn't coming back.

In the second exercise, we were to think back to primary school. The first memory that popped into my head was Grade 5 camp. This was the first time that I was properly spending time away from my parents.

Some of my thoughts:
* Being away from mum and dad for the first time - not scared, excited.
* couldn't wait to try new things, with friends
* couldn't sleep, was too excited, everything was new
* so much build up

This event was one of the happiest times in my life, where I truly could just escape and enjoy myself. I think I learnt much about friendship on Grade 5 camp. It was one of the last times my best friend and I could spend really easy and happy times together. In the following years she got very sick with migraines, and we drifted apart, because I couldn't be alone all the time.

The campfire we made at the camp - enjoying how beautiful it was with my best friend - this is still one of my fondest memories.

From this exercise, we returned to studio and shared our experiences. Many of were of school excursions to the museum or similar. Then from here, we were challenged to pull the core concepts - parameters - from our Folie project to then become the parameters for our Folie to Building project 2. I found this quite difficult in the tutorial!!!