Digital Visual Journal by Emily Gawne

Paper inquiry

emilygracegawne — 2019-07-22 03:27:43 UTC

Today we began our exploration of materials used in early childhood, starting with paper. Even though I always took art classes through high school, I haven't had the opportunity to just play with materials in the classroom in quite a while. This inquiry was a real eye opener to me as I realised that paper has no end to its uses. You can rip it up as small or large a you want and we can still create something new and original out of it which demonstrates that paper can shift properties in relation to time and space always. You can keep a piece a paper for days, week, years and still reuse or recycle it which is fun and very eco-friendly.

I used a few different types of paper:
- paper bag which was a brown colour, thin and flimsy, easy to rip.
- magazine paper was glossy, slippery texture but held strong which made it great for folding.
- newspaper ripped easily and was quite delicate, good for scrunching and ripping up.
- recycled paper (cardboard one) had great strength and I made glasses out of, as it was already moulded in a spherical way and I found was the easiest to control when ripping.

Art in the Community

emilygracegawne — 2019-07-25 03:07:28 UTC

What did you notice
about the materials you
saw used in art while
out in your community?

The easiest accessible type of art in my area was definitely street art. I did have the intention to visit a commercial gallery near me, but as I was travelling there I just passed artwork after artwork and just used them instead as it felt so raw and real from the community of Brunswick.

Did anything surprise you?

I knew there was plenty of street art in my area but I was surprised how often I would look past it, as I haven’t completed an art subject since 2017 in year 12. So once we were assigned this task of exploration I immediately began looking out for art in smaller, hidden places or even on busy roads in my daily/weekly routine.

What made you wonder?

I began to wonder why I stopped appreciating and taking part in art, It is something I've always loved creating through all my schooling life. It also made me wonder if a lot of this art is paid for, or considered 'vandalism'? I'm also curious what everyone perceives from the art or whether the artist had a specific intention/message to convey.

'We are not separated by our differences but connected by our differences'

emilygracegawne — 2019-07-26 02:48:51 UTC

During this unit and through our variety of inquiries it has become evident in my mind that we as educators with a full classroom of students, don't need a large budget for classroom materials. So much of it can be found tipped out as "rubbish" when really it is just any other material in need of another use or play from someone else. If more classrooms including my own were to really adopt this mindset I believe it can help take baby steps towards an equal and available education, rather than many families not sending children to school as it is out of their price range. I've definitely noticed through placement and through my nephew or second cousins for example that plastic manufactured toys usually only have 1-2 uses for learning and most of the time students are more interested in a piece of rubbish that has fallen in their eyesight.

Junk inquiry

emilygracegawne — 2019-07-29 02:29:53 UTC

loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways. They are materials with no specific set of directions that can be used alone or combined with other materials.

I noticed the variety of paints available for us to play with, and I decided I wanted to use on something that isn't paper of flat cardboard like a canvas. I found an old coffee tin and marbled contrasting colours, realising we can use inexpensive, recycled junk as a space for kids to create on using other materials such as paint and crayons. It also made me realise how useful and effective junk is for learning as it is all around us, a low. budget and such a wide range or materials to explore through play.

NGV Australia

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-04 11:58:28 UTC

As a group, we went to the NGV to prepare for our first ever stop motion creation! We decided to head to NVG Australia as we were hoping to see mostly Australian works in the free exhibitions. One of the final pieces we saw was from Rosslynd Piggott and it was a series of clouds. I think the colours immediately drew our attention, all 5 of us understood the concept quickly and it was fascinating that the plaque only had the name and date of the series- yet the "for kids" plaque was long and filled with information. It was great to see the specific inclusion of students in a public gallery in a exhibition not necessarily made for kids intentionally as it was quite conceptual works. We came back to Session 6 and straight away made our stop motion because we couldn't wait any longer! We made a movie called 'storm' made with cotton balls, pipe cleaners, food dye, paper... all junk we had lying around at home.

Fitzroy Cubbies

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-05 01:21:10 UTC

After watching 'The Land' short documentary in class, I decided to do some research on the adventure playgrounds we have here in Melbourne. Fitzroy happens to be an area I visit regularly and unknown to me- I have definitely parked right next to and looked into one of the playgrounds "Fitzroy Cubbies". When I first saw it school children in uniforms were playing on it, yet I and my friends assumed it was just an old junkyard they happened to be playing in after school. Little did I know it was an adventure playground where kids were exploring and learning through play.

I found it very interesting to now research and understand what it is and the benefits it reaps. According to timeout.com, the playground also power generates all of its own power in the huge flowers pictured below making it even more economical and environmentally friendly than it already was playing with recycled junk.

"Better a broken bone than a broken spirit" - Lady Allen

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-05 01:21:45 UTC

Adventure playgrounds are outdoor spaces for children where they value free, unstructured activity. The playgrounds are places where children can use their imagination, run, climb, jump, create and play. The first adventure playgrounds were based on the ideas of Carl Theodor Sørensen, a Danish landscape architect, who noticed that children preferred to play everywhere but in the playgrounds that he designed. We got to a short documentary about The Land Plas Madoc in the UK. An adventure playground which really caught my interest as I see so many positives in this play experience, I did some more research.

This quote was written on the board during a session and it really made me think about the land and how I think really sums up the experience in adventure playgrounds, that needs to be conveyed to potentially anxious parents in my mind. Nowadays with higher levels of education and easy access to the internet, we tend to not take as many risks as we assess them before even trying. I think it is so important for kids to experience risk and challenge for themselves, as they will easily work out if they can or can't do things. As an example, on my EWP placement a 3 year old boy picked up a large rock and drop it in front of him. He had looked around to make sure nothing was underneath, I watched him do it yet parents of other children immediately gasped in fear something bad had happened due to the loud thump. I wasn't going to stop him... yes it may have been a risk, but not. hazard which he was learning for himself! Understanding weight and whether the rock would roll, break through the floor, make a Loud sound etc. This to me linked up with the land as it was a common everyday object or piece of "junk" he had found, and wanted to play with it- just like the set up at The Land.

Clay inquiry

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-05 02:03:43 UTC

How does the Clay react when you pick it up?
our clay inquiry definitely felt very different to paper or junk as it was a whole different texture- a heavier weight yet felt so much wetter, easy to cut without scissors. I felt as if my creation could be much more easily identified by my peers as I felt subconsciously, that I needed to create some type of identifiable object which didn't feel for junk or paper for whatever reason. I used the grey clay rather that the terracotta which was easily moulded and very wet- I didn't need any extra water to mould where as the terracotta did.

What stories does it hold? Does it bring up any memories for you?
Vivid memories of my art through high school, I always did an art subject including a clay extra curricular! Our awesome teacher provided us a space where we just got to play- with no boundaries, much like we do here. I enjoyed it so much, I even ended up making a life size 3D, glittery, vibrant coloured fish in my second unit of VCE Studio Arts.

Light inquiry

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 01:38:10 UTC

How does light offer us a different way of 'seeing' or a different perspective?

I suppose generally speaking, we never consider the impact light has on our learning, its is all around us... natural light, computers, projectors, tv's, different materials etc. I mean quite literally speaking different lights can impact our learning to be affected as we can and can't see things with different types of lighting. I also suppose that we never consider light as a material but more a the setting or surrounding we are in through a classroom setting, which we can actually use it alongside other materials to make reflections, rainbows and even create heat!

How might we 'think with light'?
We can think with light as a material to create artworks or activities in the classroom rather than the conventional paints and texts on their own. We could also think of it as learning to be affected as sometimes our sight may be altered or impaired with different types of lighting. Meaning the levels of light and brightness, maybe the different colours and where the light is projecting- it can stimulate different types of ideas and creativeness amongst students and even teachers for that matter through an exploration of play.

What can we see with light?

I think that more "scientifically" speaking light allows us to see everything... during the day and during the night, when we choose to eliminate light we can simply shut out eyes or cover our eyes. During session 10 I was able to play with a stand up light box in which I experimented with cellophane, paper, junk but a cd was my favourite to play with. Its bottom glass mirror face was able to reflect against the light box and project rainbows against the wall and over the face of the cd as displayed in the video. Rainbows can be extremely exciting discoveries to a child as there is so much represented in the colours, and so many stories to be told for example.

Clay; Ecologies reading

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 02:08:13 UTC

The opening sentence of this textbook chapter of Clay Ecologies immediately caught my attention as it resonates with me and how I felt when using clay in the classroom; "pinch it, poke it, shape it, throw it, scape it, form it, lift it. Clay is incredibly versatile" (Pacini-Ketchabaw 2017, pg.56). I think not only does it describe the versatility of the clay but could also metaphorically represent our classrooms both with flexible, mouldable yet already presents students and teachers. We as a school community can be thrown lots of changes, adjustments, textures on life or similarities and we can mould into something new and beautiful through learning and play.

Reggio Emilia Blog Post 2012

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 02:08:19 UTC

Some supportive articles for our content in this unit included a blog post from a Reggio Emilia trip filled with documentation; which we as pre-service teachers understanding is very effective like "a suitcase of experiences, past and present, they help the adult make decisions of what has been thought, done or said, they should be reflected with the child." (2012, pg. 1). Filled with photos surrounding a light inquiry inspired our play at it showcased so many types of methods to play and use light in the classroom setting. I found this article not only helped my play during our inquiry, but it really got me thinking about how oblivious or naive we may be to low budget, natural materials like sunshine for example. Therefore through this subject I have learnt so much and been able to play in great depth to not only understand materiality, but also how a low budget is no barrier for creativity and can sometimes work better in the early childhood setting.

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 02:54:23 UTC

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 02:55:21 UTC

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-09 03:13:57 UTC

Reference list:

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-12 01:27:42 UTC

BBC News (2013). “They can come here and let it out.” [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-wales-24751534/junk-playground-the-land-wrexham-inspires-us-guests Accessed 10/08/19

Fitzroy Adventure Playground (2017). Fitzroy Adventure Playground. [online] Time Out Melbourne. Available at: https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/kids/fitzroy-adventure-playground Accessed 10/08/19.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., Kocher, L. (2017). Encounters With Materials in Early Childhood Education. 'Clay' New York: Routledge, accessed 09/08/19 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743257

123 Explore and Create, 2012, 'BEPS Reggio Emilia Study Tour 2012' [blog post], accessed 12/08/2019

Light Play, 'Education Resources 24 July- 25 August 2017'.

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-12 02:27:09 UTC

Curriculum links

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-12 02:40:23 UTC

One of the pre class activities I found it extremely interesting- how easily visual arts interrelates and overlaps with other curriculums such as chemical sciences and physical sciences. I found this table from the Ipswich art gallery a real eye opener for even more benefits of a light inquiry in my future classrooms to better the students understanding from a young age to easily fit into the curriculum one day at primary school. Also a great way to back ourselves as teacher when introducing new activity or inquiry ideas to family members.

emilygracegawne — 2019-08-12 03:15:25 UTC

Stay aesthetic

2025-05-20 18:46:33 UTC

Never give up! enjoy your time and life in a beautiful breezy personal life! i hope that gives you motivational thoughts about how you treed your self! so stay positive..

silhouetteofmemories — 2026-05-10 12:05:43 UTC

i’m grieving right now. i was actually in a relationship, but something happened that led to a breakup. honestly, it was my fault because my mood changes really quickly. when i feel secure with someone or feel like they’ll love me no matter what i do, i tend to push them away and suddenly not want to talk to them.

now, i feel really guilty about what i did to her. i want to go back to her and make our relationship work, but the thought of her crying every night because of me hurts so much. i don’t know. i don’t want to cause her more trauma, but i really miss her.