Tautoko (Ass.2)
Reminder: this is a 30 credit course, with an expected workload of 20 hours per week, including 6 hours of class/studio time on Tuesdays and Fridays 9-12.
PROJECT 2:
TAUTOKO
supporting transformational learning
Kōrerotia ka wareware
Whakatūngia ka mahara
Whakamahia ka mohio
Tell me and I will forget
Write it down for me and I will remember
Involve me and I will understand
—Frontispiece to Tony Watkins, The Human House, 2009
note re quote:
We had an interesting discussion about this quote in the first studio session. A group of students discovered that the above text is not a Māori whakatauki (proverb/saying) but originates from a Chinese proverb that was adapted by Benjamin Franklin and then translated into Te Reo Māori, possibly by Tony Watkins or someone he engaged to do so. Each translation slightly shifts the meaning – “may remember” changes to “will remember”, and the Te Reo Māori translation for “write it down” could be read as “establish it” or “build it”. This highlights questions around translation, meaning, and context in relation to culture, time and place that are all key considerations as we move forward in this project.
Project Overview: Facilitating narratives of Māori STEM learning through Spatial Design
This project aims to support the kaupapa (agenda) of the Pūhoro STEM Academy – supporting young Māori students in their journey toward careers in science and technology – through designing a mobile space for transformational learning that integrates hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) learning with local (place-based) cultural narratives. We will explore how a space can embody and transport past, present and future stories that inform how we care for ecologies and enhance the wellbeing of people and places.
“[We] have forgotten how to hear, communicate, and participate in meaning making with our places on the living earth.”
— Gruenewald, Foundations of Place, American Educational Research Journal, Autumn 2003, p.624
Tautoko:
Tautoko is to demonstrate support or advocate for, and implies a level of consensus, however this goes beyond simplistic notions of support. Tautoko can be used as a means to define/refine exactly what it is you or your group is offering its support to – in this way it includes the negotiation of positions.
What discourses or positions do you, and those you work with, bring to the table in collaborative projects? How do you build on these discourses in an inclusive and cohesive way without undermining another’s, or your own position/approach?
Brief:
In groups, you will design a mobile science/story lab for Pūhoro. The lab is to be equipped with the tools necessary to inspire and enact a science learning experience based around a pūrākau – a Māori narrative. The lab will travel to regional kura (schools) and then return to tell the story of the students‘ experience at a mini-festival of science learning.
Part 1: Generate spatial design concepts
What can spatial design offer to support this kaupapa (agenda) and mahi (work)? Through drawing, model-making and 1:1 explorations, develop a series of design concepts in response to the brief and pūrakau.
Part 2: Develop a design proposal in collaboration with the clients
Work with the clients to select and develop your design concept through drawing, making, testing, kōrero (discussion) and iteration.
Part 3: Refine and communicate the design proposal
Further develop a well resolved design proposal that responds to the kaupapa, embodies a clear design concept, considers how the experience unfolds over time, and supports this experience through the design of the space (materials, construction, atmosphere, systems e.g. light, sound, digital). Develop material that communicates this via a multimedia presentation and a visual booklet for the clients.
Week Seven: intro, group exercise, set up prototyping space
For Tuesday: please read the brief and the reading Introduction to Māori Perspectives: Ranginui and Papatūānuku.
Tuesday: Introduction to project and brief. Set up “shipping container” prototyping space. Form groups. Workshop initial responses – spatial/experiential storytelling.
For Friday:
- group activity: experiential story-building in response to your common connection to an environmental element/atua.
- create a shared experience
- capture the story of that experience via various media – e.g. sound, video, photography, drawing, writing, making, materials, etc…
- explore how you might tell or recreate the experience of that story in the 1:1 prototyping space – for Friday, come prepared with sketch concepts
- base model: make a basic cardboard/foamboard scale model of the container volume so that you can workshop installation concepts through (rapid/sketch) model-making
- suggest 1:25 scale
- bring model-making material (e.g. card, foamboard, paper, glue, tape, blutack/plasticine, measuring/cutting equipment
- reading: do the assigned reading (more info to come) and discuss as a group
- extract key concepts/ideas/strategies to share in studio on Friday
- blog & form: set up blog and submit blog form (individual) – link to form here
Friday: Discussion in response to readings. Explore alternative configuration for prototyping space. Workshopping of installation concepts through drawing, sketch models, 1:1 testing.
Study Break: develop 1:1 storytelling installation
For Tuesday Week 8:
- storytelling installation: as groups, develop your 1:1 installation/experience that tells or recreates the narrative of your group experience of connection to your group’s environmental element
- parameters:
- installation must be easy to set up and take down to allow for quick changeover between groups in the prototying space
- duration of audience experience – 3 minutes
- use available or easy-to-source equipment and materials (can be ‘lo-fi’, not expecting significant financial outlay on materials)
- communicative / evocative experience that doesn’t require verbal explanation
- parameters:
- readings: as individuals, spend some time exploring more of the readings to help develop a critical framework for the project
- post responses/reflections on your blog
- precedent research: explore and analyse works of art, design, storytelling and participatory/learning spaces that extend your understanding of the spatial possibilities…
- post responses/reflections on your blog
Last modified: February 22, 2021