Judith Takes Us on a Hopscotch Marathon

It was Judith's turn to lead the class. She took us to the Park blocks, directly across the street from the Portland Art Museum and had the class build one giant and wild hopscotch. The hopscotch map led in and out, over and around, and had all sorts of surprises. See the video below to see Davis hop through the entire thing. After we all jumped through it, we left it there for some lucky person or child (we were right next to a daycare of some sort).

Lily Leads Sleep Exploration Class

On Monday Oct. 20th, Lily Gael led a discussion in the classroom about what makes a particular art project fall within the realm of social practice. She then took us on a mini-tour of the PSU campus in search of places to nap in public, wanting to get comments and support for her idea to create a Napping Station for PSU students/teachers. This seek-and-sleep experience became a collaborative experiment with everyone in the class suggesting places to stop and nap. The Roving Napping Pod eventually napped in both a fairly private landing space, and in a much- traveled hallway at Smith Hall, in the Psychology Dept's waiting area on couches and chairs, and on the first level of a stairwell in Cramer Hall where they stretched out shoulder to shoulder to fill up the space. Passer-bys (the audience) got into the Napping act and participated with spontaneous cultural gestures that seemed natural to being in the presence of others sleeping (even though the locations chosen for napping were unconventional). The audience tiptoed up stairs, lowered their voices to whispering when passing by, used charade-type sign language to communicate with friends if sitting close by, and took circuitous routes to where they were going to not disturb the napping group. The experiment led to many inspiring ideas from the class about how the Napping Project might evolve.

Our Trip to Hangar Orthotics And Prosthetics

The other day we stopped by an orthotics and prosthetics office called Hangar. This gentleman was nice enough to show us how some of the equipment works as he explained to us the many types of prosthetic devices they could produce.

In this image, he had scanned Zach's hand with a device. The computer could read Zach's hand and sent an image to the computer that could be turned and rotated in any direction. It was pretty amazing.

I also took a video of him testing an electronic device on Lily's leg. You can see how it causes her lef to move uncontrollaby.

Greg Leads Class To Marquam Park

Greg led our last class. He took us to Marquam Nature Park just off the PSU campus. We hiked silently for about an hour or so. Before we entered the park, Greg led us through some excerices that brought us into a greater appreciation and connection to our surroundings. He reminded us of how every breath we take is part of a cycle of life between people and trees. This was a beautiful experience for myself and for a group activity. Thank you Greg. These are some pictures that I took and a video of a Wooly Caterpillar at the bottom of the post.

Lori Gilbert Leads Class

Last Monday Lori Gilbert led the social practice class. She had us take photos with strangers as if we were in a band with them. Then she turned the photos into band posters. The one above was with some guy wearing a suit and carrying a brief case. He really got into it. Thanks Lori for the fun exercise.

Welcome Back!

The summer is over and a new class has started this Fall. I will be updating this blog with documentation of group projects and group activities. Feel free to subscribe via email or with an rss feed over on the right side.