Creative Worker in Schools Program at Aireys Inlet Primary School

This year I was selected to participate in Regional Art Victoria's Creative Workers in Schools Program, and paired up with at Aireys Inlet Primary School and local photographer, Rebecca Hosking for this collaboration. I moved to the Surf Coast, based on Wadawurrung Country for the duration of the program and worked with students from prep to grade 6. 

Over 6 months students at the school, Rebecca and I worked on a variety of projects focusing on Stop-motion Animation and film processes to explore analogue and digital skills including animation, frame rates, animation movement, camera and lighting set up, storyboarding, editing, sound recording, character design and augmented reality (AR) technology.

 Many of the projects were thematically linked to the school's inquiry topic of the term, sustainability.  Students in grades 5 and 6 worked to produce a creative response to the Board Riders Sustainability challenge by creating a series of stop-motion clips inspired by local marine species and using collected plastics as their materials. Through art and film, students discovered how to engage with the public and raise awareness of the issue of pollution.  

The grade 4 and 5 students worked with claymation and plasticine to create dramatic and humorous narratives with quirky characters, and also explored some alternative stop-motion techniques such as pixilation animation using their own bodies and animating with sand, shells and seaweed at the local beach.  

The grade 2 and 3s researched environmental issues affecting the local area, and created a series of plant based characters or 'Environmental Warriors' directly inspired from the Mangowak native reserve next to the school. Members from ANGAIR visited the reserve for an incursion and took students on a creative ramble to engage and transfer their passion and knowledge of plants with students. The characters were drawn on paper, cut out, animated and uploaded digitally to be presented back in the reserve where the public can view them virtually through Augmented Reality.

2021 lockdowns provided many challenges in delivering this program, however, we still completed a broad range of projects and videos which you can view in early November at https://aireysinletps.vic.edu.au/digital-creations/