Thursday, October 17, 2019

10/17/2019

Shadow Perspectives

When reflecting on where we are in our exploration of body movement through the language of shadow, we wondered how to further prompt children's thinking about the way the size and shape of shadows can change. We thought about distance and angle between the light source and the object. We also wondered about multiple light sources and what children know about how this can effect shadows. These thoughts directed today's provocations.

Shadow Building with Multiple Light Sources

We introduced the idea of multiple light sources during meeting:

Q: What if we had two or three lights?
Austin: "Two would be like...one there and one there."
Leigh: "We could do candles."
Austin: "If you mostly go that side" (gestures to the right) "it shows over there" (gestures left.)

Leigh has an idea for ways to obtain multiple light sources. Austin demonstrates the way multiple light sources create multiple shadows. He also gestures to the right and left indicating where you may shine the light and where the shadow would be as a result.

After lunch the children set work with blocks, an overhead projector, projection materials, two other light sources, and animals. It turns out the second and third light sources didn't compete very well with the light from the overhead projector but the children had meaningful work with the materials exploring projection, layers of transparency, opacity, shadow placement and "blocking", design, and construction concepts.

Here are some images from their experimentation:

While building
Maren: "I'm building a dungeon."
Lou Lou: "I wanted to make a cage for this little lion."
Evelyn: "Here's a cage, Lou Lou."
Maren: "Yeah, let's make one."
Evelyn: "It's looking great."
Austin: "Sam, this one is not showing" (pointing out an animal behind a block which is blocking the animal's shadow) "so let's move it."

At the projector
Evelyn: (Adding red cellophane to the projector light) "This makes it too dark." (Noting too many pieces are layered) "Let's take something away." (Evelyn removes some layers.)
Maren: (Checking out the projection over the building) "It works! It works!"

Shadow Tracing with Moveable Lightsource

Our second provocation today involved tracing the shadows of the adjustable figures we had used to brainstorm ideas for the Shadow Ballet. Children were prompted with a moveable light source directed at the figures standing on a long table. We wanted the children to have an opportunity interacting with the long shadows and possibly with the ability to change angles of light. Here are some of the observations of the children:

Leigh: (pointing to a long figure shadow) "It's longer!"
Leigh notes the length of the shadow is longer than the figure.

Lane: (comparing the different shadows) "This one has a shadow that's all the way and that one I can only see the feet, not all the way."
Lane notes the different length of the shadows, one casting so far it extends off the table.

Lane: (Tracing legs of a shadow) "But I can't see the head." (She adjusts the figure.) "Now I can do the other leg. This is too long for me too finish."
She notes the figure's long fading shadow makes it difficult for her to trace the entire shadow.

Grace M. took a different approach, drawing the figure first. She made a plan to compare the figure's shadow with the drawing later. Grace formed the figure into a "leap" and drew each section of the figure's body as she saw it.

Grace D. tried to find the shadow which was somewhat blurred and did not clearly show the form of the figure. It was difficult to see and define. Jessica helped her move the light to make the shadow sharper and Grace traced it. At times, Grace switched between drawing and tracing, showing her thinking about the form of the figure and possibly how to represent it.