Slot Shelters

Slot Shelters

Slot Shelters explores community identity through structures built collaboratively online as well as through slotted cards which are assembled into models of shelters in public spaces.

Fifth Grade students from schools in Silicon Valley and abroad will collaboratively design these cards printed with their digital photos and patterns distilling their ideas of community life past, present and future. Student written reflections on community will be printed on the back sides of the cards.

Slot Shelters aims to instill a vision of aesthetic possibilities and anchor Silicon Valley with a sense of place. It will also aim to bring people together in playful experimentation as they assemble the cards, metaphorically connecting and balancing community components.

Components of Project:

1. Google Sketch Up virtual collaborative community

Google Sketch Up will be used by students to collaboratively design 3D modeled visions of community spaces and structures. Google Sketch Up will be used to collaborate online with students of different communities and the resulting virtual community of structures (texture mapped with their Repper patterns and digital photos) will be shared online.

2. Slot playing cards

Decks of slotted card (both printed and downloadable from project site) which can be assembled into whimsical models of buildings.

Inspired by:

• Eames House of Cards http://www.exhibit5a.com/design/eames-giant-house-of-cards

• Klutz building cards http://www.klutz.com/Building-Cards-How-to-Build-Castles

• Totem building cards http://www.kidsonroof.com/new/index.php .

These decks of cards will be hosted on the project site and downloadable for printing on cardstock paper.

Cards will also be used at public art events (2012 01SJ Biennial? Alum Rock Salsa Festival? Libraries?) at which tables will be set up and children and adults can play, mixing and matching decks of cards to build mini communities of models. Blank slot cards will also be provided so that the public can design cards to add to the building collection.

3. Large fort sized cards for public installations

Large scale slotted cards for large scale temporary playful shelter structures. This deck of cards will be brought to festival spaces and community events for the public at large to explore and assemble into unique structures. Blank slot cards will also be provided so that the public can design cards to add to this set of human scale building cards.

4.Website

Site will house each step of lesson plans and be hub for student collaboration resource links as well contain a library of student created cards from around the United States and the world.

http://slotshelters.wordpress.com/

Timeframe:

Winter 2011: Engagement workshop assembly.

Spring 2012: Workshops series.

Summer and Fall 2012: Large slot cards at festivals in U.S. and abroad.

Corinne Okada Takara

http://www.okadadesign.com/

& Co_Lead of Curriculum Development

Pantea Karimi

http://www.redcanvas.net/

Cureton Elementary, San Jose, CA

Stevens Creek Elementary, Cupertino, CA

Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Waimea, HI

The International School of Azerbaijan (TISA)

• VoiceThread for student peer critiquing of photos and patterns
• Google Sketch Up for collaborative creation of 3D structures in online environment
• Repper Pro for creation of digital surface patterns using student photos as source images. These patterns will be used as skins in Google Sketch Up and will be printed on slot cards.
• Flickr or Picassa for upload and download organization of photos.
• Google Forms for assessment of student learning
• Project site will be created in Weebley

Steps of Project:

• Engagement of students in 1.5 hour assembly with design professionals who will introduce students to brainstorming and usefulness of rapid prototyping with simple materials in their respective fields. Students will work in groups creating slot cards out of cereal boxes and other recycled materials.

• Exploration of community visual vocabulary through radial pattern design using color pencils, pens and tracing paper.
• Peer critique of student hand drawn designs using VoiceThread
• Documention of community in digital photography and pattern generation in Repper Pro (geometry and fractions explored)
• Use of student photos and digital patterns as surfaces on collaboratively designed structures in Google Sketch Up
• Students instruct public in creating slot cards (large and small) at art festival.

Potential Participant schools:

http://www.tisa.az/

Instructors:

Goals of Project:

Digital Tools: