Summary

In summary, while the collaboration with this group of teens had a rough start, it was ultimately a very rewarding experience for all involved. The groups that completed their work were very proud of their accomplishments, and called over friends to show off their animation. Their teacher, Tony Terry was impressed with what they were able to achieve in the short period of time we had, and is planning to show off their work to the school. I grew very fond of the kids, and was very proud of how far they came from the first class period. There are a couple girls in the group that really started to get a grasp on Photoshop, and a few times when I came into the lab, they were applying what they'd learned to their own digital photos just for fun. I'm looking forward to working with them again in June.

In terms of how and when the PSA's will be seen, I'm planning on sending some quicktimes to my contact at the Nokia Theatre in case he wished to run them in May, and the PSA's will be screened on the monitors at Manual Arts High School. When I return, I will also look at what the options are for getting the PSA's aired on t.v., even if it's just on public access...

PSA - Group 3

Group 3 had 4 team members: Richard, Betzayda, Veronica, and Jenny. This group decided to inform teens that they have the right to safety training on the job, and point out how many kids are injured each year because they aren't properly informed. This is the group that made some headway early in the game, and then just sort of stopped coming consistantly. Unfortunately one of their group members also may have lost their USB drive with all their work...I backed their stuff up the week before, but I don't have their most current flash project that had character animation in it. So below is their "spot the hazard" part of their PSA...

PSA - Group 2

Group number two consisted of Beatriz, Jackie, and Gabby. They decided they wanted to raise awareness about sexual harrassment, and to tell girls that it might just seem like a nuisance that makes them uncomfortable, but that it is serious business, and should be stopped. They decided to use a grocery store as their location, and have a manager pestering an employee. This is the group that hasn't gotten to the animation stage yet, I showed it to John Helton, and he thought it might look cool pixellated...we might play with that when I get back. In terms of the script, I asked the girls to use lines that guys actually said to them to keep the content based in reality.

PSA - Group 1

Group one consisted of Edwin, Lizbeth, and Kevin. Edwin was a big fan of Banksy, and really wanted to go for a silhouette over brick look. Lizbeth was particularly interested in undocumented workers, and they decided to base their content on something that happened to Edwin's mom. They wrote the script, and decided they wanted their location to be a local Swap Meet. They produced the content in both English and Spanish. I'm including the English version below.

Working with Teens at Manual Arts High School

I was able to find a group of teens that wished to create animated PSA's based on a subject of interest to them: Safe Jobs for youth. The teens had established their own after school group called Youth in Power, and their mentor, Tony Terry was my connection and support in working with this group. After a rocky start, we settled on 3 teams of 3, each group dealing with a separate issue regarding youth and job safety. The topic chosen by the teams are: Sexual Harrassment, Safety Training, and Undocumented worker rights.

Tony Terry encouraged the kids to keep the content of their PSA's focused on their community, He also mentioned to me that a couple of them really got into Graffiti, so I showed them images from graffiti artists, including Banksy...it really inspired a number of them.

During the concept development stage, the groups had total freedom, I relied on their teachers who were more knowledgeable about the content to approve their concepts. My role during this period was to keep the projects do-able, and concise, and require them all to have an end screen that pointed viewers to more information.

When the groups completed their storyboards, I showed them some examples of "assets" that one might pull together to make an animated piece-- background, props, character sketches, collage characters, etc--and I asked each group to write their list of assets needed. Based on these lists, they were sent out with a digital camera to capture images for backgrounds, characters, and props.

We spent a fair amount of time in Photoshop. With time being a concern, I showed the group 3 ways to approach the look of the piece: Silhouette cutouts, unaltered photo cutouts, or filtered cutouts. One group opted for silhouettes, the other two filtered their photos.

I did a couple of flash lessons, and two out of the three groups had animation in their project. Only one of those groups "finished" however, as the other group had very spotty attendance. The third group that did not have time to animate their PSA opted to go for a comic book look, and work with stills and speech bubbles for now.

At this point, I plan to rejoin the teens in June to get them all to the next level, refine the animation a little, add animation where applicable, and add sound/music.

Social Sculpture & Joseph Beuys

I just learned of Joseph Beuys as I was speaking with my friend Mark whom I've collaborated with in several "Social Sculpture" projects.

Joseph Beuys is responsible for coining the phrase "social sculpture" and believed that "Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and condition our lives."

From the Social Sculpture Research Unit. http://www.social-sculpture.org/
Social Sculpture refers to a conception of art, framed in the 1970s by Beuys, as an interdiscplinary and participatory process in which thought, speech and discussion are core 'materials'. With this perception, all human beings are seen as 'artists' responsible for the shaping of a democratic, sustainable social order. Social Sculpture lifts the aesthetic from its confines within a specific sphere or media, relocating it within a collective, imaginative work-space in which we can see, re-think and reshape our lives in tune with our creative potential.

It seems to me that the vast number of community based art programs could be included in this concept of social sculpture.

http://www.markrumsey.com/id3.html

Bill Strickland

I met Bill Strickland when I worked at the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology. I'd been working with kids for ten years by that point, in a variety of situations and environments. Meeting Bill, and working at that center helped me realize that I want to participate in the vein of art that is channeled toward empowering people to improve themselves and their communities.

http://www.bill-strickland.com/video1

http://www.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20020602strickland0602fnp3.asp

http://www.manchesterguild.org/youth/Digital_Arts.htm

http://www.wmcat.org/