Louise Short – artist in residence at the Wilderness Centre
Children from both Newent Community School & Heywood Community School came together at The Wilderness Centre to learn some fantastic things about pinhole cameras. The residential workshop, initiated by the Trust as part of their 21st Anniversary, involved 25 youngsters working with international artist Louise Short to experience the wonders of making and using pinhole cameras, starting by actually going inside one that Louise made before they arrived.
Sponsorship from Arts & Business for the Trust and Lydney Containers to develop partnership working involved the company supplying a 21 foot container which was modified to create a camera obscura. The children entered it and watched in amazement as the ‘photograph’ of the landscape outside emerged on the wall of the container. What a wonderful way to understand the science of light – education in action. Outside their friends staged performances for them, entertaining them so much the container rattled with their laughter.
Then they all made their own pinhole cameras, using tins, and learnt traditional dark room techniques. They went away with a sense of achievement and you will be able to see why when they put up their exhibition at Beechenhurst on 21st June. On display will be both their cameras and their images, alongside documentation of what happened over these magical three days. Creative Partnerships supported the project as part of an initiative to encourage children to appreciate their environment, These workshops gave everyone a whole new viewpoint of the Forest and skills to take with them.
“I found out a different way of capturing life” Year 8 student
“I found out there is more to photography than an expensive camera & photograph” Year 9 student
The Wilderness Centre Team (photograph copyright Sam Bardsley)
Audio artist Duncan Speakman
…….worked with young people during May creating MP3 digital stories in the forest. Young people from Forest View Primary & Heywood Community School worked with Duncan to record narratives relating to journeys in the forest. The Heywood children chose to create a haunting storyline whereby the trees narrate their story, whilst the younger children all wrote highly imaginative material about inhabitants of the forest.
link to download MP3 files, simply transfer to your MP3 player, ipod or mobile phone before you leave home. The walk lasts around 40mins and begins at Beechenhurst Lodge. These soundwalks were commissioned by Forest of Dean Sculpture Trust and created by pupils of Heywood School and Forest View school working with audio-artist Duncan Speakman:
“After walking parts of the sculpture trail with both ears and eyes open, the pupils made audio recordings of the forest ambience and its inhabitants. They then used special contact microphones to capture some of the physical texture of the forest through sound. The Heywood pupils wrote a script that let’s you see the forest from the point of view of one of it’s most common but silent residents, their sound piece is designed to be listened to on a walk from the Beechenhurst lodge up to the chair sculpture. The Forest view pupils wrote a mixture of fictional and factual stories based on memories of events in the forest. the finished sound work can be listened to anywhere on the sculpture trail. “
