‘Made for this World’ Research Project
In 2006, the Queensland Art Gallery undertook a research project in conjunction with the Children’s Art Centre exhibition ‘Made for This World: Contemporary Art and the Places We Build’ (26 November 2005 – 19 February 2006) to investigate the many ways that children can learn through their interaction with contemporary art.
Teachers, students and families were interviewed during their visits to 'Made for this World' and Box City (15 January 2006), in which children worked with over 30 Queensland artists to build a giant city within the Gallery.
The following videos were compiled from the project, revealing children's interests in learning about the built environment, and experimenting with ideas relating to the architecture, design and functions of the many places that make up our world. The ideas presented in the videos can be utilised by teachers for preparing classroom activities.
For more information about the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition, please visit the exhibition archive.
Box City Summer Family Day (15 January 2006)
Watch as children and their families transform cardboard boxes into a city inside the Queensland Art Gallery! Held in association with the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition.
High bandwidth | Low bandwidth (3 minutes 30 seconds)
Why is the Gallery an important place for learning?
Listen to parents discussing the value of children’s interaction with contemporary art.
High bandwidth | Low bandwidth (3 minutes 30 seconds)
What I like to do at the Gallery
Hear children talk about why they like visiting the Queensland Art Gallery.
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School visits to the Gallery
School students explore the art works and interactive features of the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition.
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Ideas for the classroom
Teachers share their ideas for linking visits to the Gallery with classroom activities.
High bandwidth | Low bandwidth (1 minute 42 seconds)
The following discussion questions and activities address the Early Years and Primary curriculum areas, extending from the information and ideas gathered during the ‘Made for this World’ research project. These curriculum activities have been designed to link with ideas presented in the above videos.
For Early Years teachers
Active learning processes: Investigating environments
For discussion:
Describe some of the different buildings in your area. How tall are they? What are they made of?
In what ways could you use recycled materials such as cereal boxes, containers, or found objects to make a building inside the preschool?
Howard Arkley has painted the outside of a house. What would the inside look like?
Activities:
Create a large model of your preschool. Include a playground, kitchen, office, book corner and inside play spaces. Encourage the children to personalise the preschool by using a range of natural and manufactured materials.
Louise Forthun’s Luscious 1993 is a painting of the city of Melbourne at night time. Bring along photographs of Brisbane during the day and night for children to explore the differences and similarities in the images. Both represent the same city, but they are also different. How?
For Primary teachers
Visual arts
For discussion:
What types of materials do some contemporary artists use today to express their feelings about living in a city?
Look at the work of Rodney Spooner and Aleks Danko. What ideas about living in the built environment do you think these artists are exploring?
Activity:
For the Box City Summer Family Day, over 30 Queensland artists worked with children to create a large-scale city within the Queensland Art Gallery, using cardboard boxes, paint and collage. If you were to create a miniature suburb, school or house, what materials would you use? What furniture or items would you include to personalise your city?
Maths – space
For discussion:
How would you describe some of the patterns on the inside and outside of your house? Think of the bricks, wallpaper, bathroom tiles, carpets or rugs.
Activities:
Using grid paper, represent the size and scale of your favourite room. Simryn Gill’s Dalam 2001 of many different types of house interiors will provide some inspiration.
What well-known landmarks are there in your neighbourhood? Mark these on a map. How many alternative routes to these landmarks can you find from your school? Which is the shortest route?
SOSE (Studies of Society and the Environment) — Place and space
For discussion:
Which spaces in your home are your favourites? Why?
What makes your home different to others?
Name some occasions during the year when people decorate the inside or outside of their houses.
Activity:
What might your neighbourhood look like in the future, ten years from now? Express your ideas through a drawing or describe in a short letter to a friend.
English — writing and shaping
For discussion:
Read about Lee Mingwei’s ‘Letter Writing Project’ 1999, an interactive work featured in the ‘Made for this World’ exhibition. Why do you think people write letters? What other forms of writing or expression are used by people today?
Homes are more than just a roof over our heads. They are places where families engage in activities such as eating, playing games, talking and watching television. List as many words as you can to describe what your home means to you.
Sometimes people refer to the city as a concrete jungle. List some other terms for the city or for people’s experiences of living in the city (e.g. a ‘rat race’). What do these terms say about city life? Ed Rusha captures the feeling of his city, downtown Los Angeles, in the work Vine Street intersects four other streets 2003.
Activity:
Write a letter in response to Lee Mingwei’s Writing the Unspoken 1999. Design some music or use sounds effects on the computer to reflect the mood of your letter.
Artists for further research
