The third workshop was held on Jan 19 at “Metasuppo Campus” established by the Ehime Prefectural Board of Education.
This time, we used Google Slides to create works of art by combining block figures on pre-prepared slides. This was inspired by LEGO Serious Play, which essentially involves actually combining LEGO bricks to create a piece of work based on a theme (I myself attended a LEGO Serious Play training session and became a certified facilitator). For example, when you try to form an idea for something with LEGO, ideas that did not appear in your head or on paper may (or may not) appear by sharing the work or artwork expressed with the blocks with others.
Due to the fact that the workshop was conducted on the Metaverse and that each participant was attending from a different location, this time we used the collaborative editing feature of Google Slides to allow all participants to enter and work on their own pages on a single slide. In the past two workshops, we tried to create works using Scratch, but although there were more than 30 participants (mostly junior high school students) each time, it was difficult to share the works during the workshop. We tried to make the participants feel a little more connected to each other during the workshop.
We started with an activity to make a duck by combining six block figures. However, by changing the overlap and angles of the block figures, it is possible to create combinations that cannot be expressed in three dimensions. In addition, this time, the size and color of the block shapes can be changed, adding even more freedom to the workshop. In fact, prior to this workshop, I had students in a seminar and class at the university try it out, and the works created in this workshop were even more diverse, with backgrounds added, favorite illustrations and photos added, and so on. Even so, I feel that the commonality of starting with a pre-prepared graphic connected the different works.
Finally, I added more block shapes to express my aspirations for the year.
Although we may not be able to provide direct support for the realization of each participant’s diverse aspirations, we hope to continue to provide opportunities for realization through our workshops.