Spooktacular Light Design

This week we made fantastic light designs. We challenged the kids to do this using only foil, pipe cleaners and a hand held torch or a string of fairy lights. By constraining the materials available, we forced them to explore the possibilities and limits of what you can do with foil -squish it, mould it, fold it, fan it, puncture it etc.

When we turned off the lights in the studio, the fun began. There was lots of exploration of the qualities that foil might contribute to the design- whether the light is reflected by it, passing through a space in it or distorted by an edge of it.

This cat alien has devilish red ears and waggling foil legs and is wound round with pumpkin-coloured fairy lights. 

These ghost masks have internal lights shooting out of ghoulish eyes (and blood streams for the top light).

Some of our students made sculptures-moulded with foil-to project interesting shadows -this one's a witch -onto the wall.

Others were entranced by the reflective properties of foil and built a giant space age plane with tiny magical animals flying on the top of the fuselage.

This student made a series of horseshoe shaped ornaments, with candy cane like pipe cleaner stripes, this became a visually appealing garland.

This lantern box made good use of a coloured scaffolding and cast an interesting shadow.

In this team effort, our designers made a large flower with illuminated squirly stamens in the centre and a twining decorated vine. Nice job!

Fall Feast

It's picnic time at invention squad!

This week, we asked our students to design a transportable food system for an outdoor picnic. This industrial design challenge may seem pedestrian at first sight- especially for those of us who have to scrape leftovers from a school lunchbox every evening. You might think that a picnic basket is just a box with a handle, but in the hands of a set of eager kid inventors there are many interesting possibilities for innovation.

How to make it easy to transport? Could it be eco-friendly? How could we adapt it for special types of food? Could it be multifunctional? The prototypes ranged from wild : a water delivery mechanism with personal waterfalls to serve food on boats to each picnicker) to pragmatic: a dipping tub for fries with personal lidded sauce containers (above).

Sometimes the picnic carriers were specially designed for a particular food: take this subway baguette carrier made by one team.

Or this sandwich holder- which looks as stylish as a brief case.

Each picnicker gers a personal noodle pod (sealed with a clip). This design demonstrated a clever use of materials and emphasized the modular nature of picnics.

Some of our inventors combined functionality with visual impact. This team's sandwich holder had two interlocking layers creating many different compartments and a very unified aesthetic.

This young designer did a great job making many different receptacles for different food items and we like the washable face on the food tray which adds a playful element to a kids' picnic.

Some designers considered portability and opted to add wheels to their prototypes to create pull along picnic carriers.

…..and if all else fails why not turn your picnic basket into a potential animal trap for the ultimate BBQ?

Rainy Daze

 In our second class at Artscape, we consider whether the umbrella needs reinventing. We've all had an uncomfortable encounter with an umbrella. Whether it's the classic inside out one in a wind squall or colliding with a passerby on a crowded sidewalk or just the damp soggy dripping mass after the rain. And could the umbrella just be more fun or do more?

Sometimes invention is about adapting a pre-existing design. Quite a few attempts have been made to innovate and beautify the umbrella. Here are our attempts. Some of our students wanted to see more clearly when walking with the umbrella. In this design a whole segment of the umbrella is replaced with clear material.

This design improved the underside of the umbrella by adding animated video game characters.

This defensive umbrella included a slingshot and ammo basket on the underside.

This designer considered functionality by adding a backpack shield and later a hanging storage unit and  removable front visor screen. Nice job!

This umbrella will extend above the crowd with a seussical candy-striped handle.

Two of our inventors, decided to turn the umbrella into a water collector. Tubes were connected to the top surface and the water drips down into a drinking cup attached to the handle. In one case there is also a filter unit. 

And here's a space like poncho design for those sudden downpours.