‘buzz’ and momentum for our first permanent sculpture project in the
school’s courtyard.
I returned to Drew the following semester for a 30 day residency to
coach 5th grade students from the technology, robotics, STEM, art,
and engineering classes to collaborate on the design and fabrication
of a 16 ft. wide environmental sculpture in the courtyard based on
the theme of ‘Flow’. This theme emerged organically from
conversations that were happening about the development of the
courtyard. At the opposite end of the courtyard a water sculpture was
being installed by school partner, Grady Cousins, above a large
underground cistern, to call attention to the rain water reclamation
project. This sculpture’s “flow forms” were developed by the late
British artist, John Wilkes, and fabricated to Grady’s specifications at a
flow form sculpture studio in California. The movement of the water
through the layers of this sculpture makes lovely gurgling music that
resonates in the courtyard. The 5th graders designed their site
sculpture to respond to these sounds with it’s own flowing forms and
with percussion music. The two sculptures now ‘bookend’ the
courtyard space visually and with ‘call and response’ sounds.
Technology
The 5th graders developed their design proposals for the sculpture
during the R & D (Research & Design) process by doing freehand
perspective rendering on grayscale site photo sketch paper. They
further developed these design proposals on iPads (using the
Dance students at Drew Charter School celebrating the dedication of the Flow sculpture in
the school’s courtyard.
ProCreate app), working on the same site photo backgrounds. They
shared their design thinking out loud with some of the school’s
community partners, including Grady Cousins and the courtyard
garden designer and landscape architect, Lindsey Mann, and
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