Earth Group

Last week's scavenging activity has been the subject of my thought process as we forge forward in the creative process. Tae and I noticed right away the effect of the wind in regards to movements in the flags around Washington Square park as well as the circular spinning motion of all of the wheels on cars passing by. The sound of the wind and the cars moving through the wind provided our soundtrack to the scavenger hunt. I must say it felt as though we were capturing little "snippets" of movement and sound as we filmed. I know each time I had the camera I felt like there were so many things to record and I was indecisive as to the "correct" choices to make. I originally thought our video was only random "snippets" of what we had seen, that we thought could be interpreted in class. However when I watched our movie on the website it really seemed as though these "snippets' were indeed an actual movie.
Something that has struck me through this activity is the idea of "scavenging". I always felt this word had a doom like connotation, like hawks circling their prey that is soon to die! However when looking at scavenging in a positive light, for example in terms of more of a collecting connotation this word has many possibilities for the creative process. I suppose we are constantly scavenging and looking for inspiration that will drive our next lessons, compositions and stimulate our minds.
The movement, sound and approach that our Earth group took has inspired an idea for a classroom activity. I would like to create an on the spot composition with my students called "Sounds of the Park". It would be really interesting to see what sounds my students have scavenged with the idea of a park in mind and then how their creative process works in order to re-create or interpret these sounds. For example perhaps a few children could be the wind, blowing the flags, perhaps some children could be the sound of a handball hitting against the playground wall and maybe a few students could be the sound of people milling about in the actual park. I feel this type of creativity and scavenging of the mind and memory would be a great exercise for my students.