Kaneleiden ryhmä kävi nauhoittamassa äänitallenteita!

(English below)

Kaneleiden ryhmä kävi nauhoittamassa äänitallenteita päiväkodin pihalla ja lähiympäristössä. Kohteina päiväkodin pihalla olivat kiipeilyteline, ulkokatos ja leikki siellä, päiväkodin lähimetsä, jossa oli puiden oksista tehty maja ja grillipaikka pöytineen ja penkkeineen. Lisäksi kohteena oli ympäristötaidepatsaat, jossa oli eri eläinten ylä- ja alaosia yhdisteltynä yhdeksi kokonaisuudeksi. Eskarit tykkäsivät osallistua omien kertomustensa äänittämiseen; he kertoivat vapaasti kohteistaan tai sitten heille annettiin avustavia kysymyslauseita kuten mikä tämä on? mitä sillä voi tehdä? jne.

Kanelit

+++

The Cinnamon group was making audio recordings of what they found around the daycare's yard and nearby surroundings. Around the grounds of the daycare were a climbing frame and an outdoor cabin to play. Nearby was the daycare's forest where there was a log house and a barbecue area with tables and benches. In addition, the point of our search was to find environmental art statues in which we could find the upper and lower parts of animals, which in the end, make a whole. The pre-schoolers liked to share their own stories and record them. They freely told about their discoveries or then they were given some questions to help guide their explorations. Some questions were "What is this?" "What can this do?"

The Cinnamons 

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Kontula #Helsinki #Piparit

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Kontula #Piparit #DearYou

Kontula #Piparit #Helsinki

Piparit #Kontula #Helsinki

Piparit #Helsinki #Kontula #DearYou

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Tämä on kanssa aika hauska!

(English below)

Talvi on jännää aikaa: välillä oli niin kylmä, ettemme päässeet ulos ja sitten hetkessä tuli suojasää. Pakkasella juostessa kenkämme narskui ja aurinko paistoi.

Suojasään jälkeen löytyi jäätä ja vettä. Loimme lunta ja rikoimme löytyneen jään, jään alta paljastui aarre: vettä!

Vettä ei voinut juoda, sitä varten on ruokavesi ja wichy-vesi. Onko vesillä eroja?

Terveisin,
Pippurit, Mantelit, Teija ja Satu

+++

Winter is an exciting time: at times it is really cold, so cold that we cannot go outside and then at times comes thawing of ice. When it is freezing, while walking there is crunching sounds and the sun shines.

After the thawing ice and water were found. We created snow and we broke the ice. Under the ice treasure was revealed: water!  

We cannot drink this water. We have water for food and mineral water. How do the waters differ?

Sincerely,
Pippurit, Mantelit, Teija and Satu

Mantelit #Pippurit #soundart #Kontula #Finland #Helsinki #environment

Mantelit #Pippurit #Kontula #MIF #Helsinki

The 5 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Piirtään ja väritään!

(English below)

Kaneleiden eskarit tekivät innolla ja keskittyneesti ensimmäistä tehtävää, jossa piti The Monkeysin lähettämät kuvat jäljentää ja värittää omaksi taideteokseksi. Jäljentämisen ja värittämisen apuna käytimme leivinpaperia, jonka laitoimme kuvan päälle. Kuvan ja leivinpaperin laitoimme ikkunaa vasten, jotta näki ääriviivat, joita piirtää ja värittää. Lisäksi meillä oli piirtämiseen lyijykynät ja värittämiseen puuvärit. Saimme yhden aamupäivän aikana tehtyä kaikki taideteokset. Tässä kuvia prosessista. Kaikki Kanelit lähettävät paljon terveisiä The Monkeys –ryhmän lapsille ja aikuisille. Jäämme mielenkiinnolla odottamaan seuraavia taideteoksia.

+++

The Cinnamon preschoolers excitedly and with great concentration made their first project from which The Monkeys sent their woks. From those artworks we traced and colored in the picture to make our own artworks. We used baking paper to trace by putting the baking paper on top of the picture. We put the picture and the baking paper against the window so that we could see the outlines we would draw and color. We used colored pencils and crayons. We did everything in one morning. Here are the pictures of the process. All the Cinnamons send many warm hellos to the Monkey kids and adults. We look forward to the next artworks. 

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Festivities here and there!

Class 7C in Kontula were all very excited that they received a package from our friends in China!  We displayed their artwork and discussed them.  Many of the artworks had very warm and welcoming thoughts on them such as, "Welcome to China!".  Finally, we figured out what C & F stands for - China and Finland!  I hope we are right!

On one of the artworks had some questions written on them. 

These questions translates to: Firstly, it is very nice to meet you. Can we make an exchange using QQ? What kind of Chinese food do you like? Do you have some interesting festivals there?

We try to answer you the best we can:

It is very nice to meet you too!  We do not know what QQ is. What is it?

Some of us had said that they like the fried pork, fried rice, white rice and the duck.

Finland has all kinds of festivals. We celebrate Juhannus, which is called Midsummer in English. This happens towards the end of June where it is usually the longest day of the year.  We celebrate Pride, Vappu (May Day), Tikkurila Festivaali, Vegan Festivaali, and Ruis Rock, which is a big music festival.

Yesterday, in Helsinki there were two big celebrations. One is called Penkkarit and the other you will know very well, Chinese New Year!  Senior high school students ride on the back of trucks in costumes to celebrate before they have to start their matriculation exams.  There is lot of honking the horn and throwing candy at the crowd!!  The Chinese New Year celebrations were so beautiful this year! There was dancing, Kung Fu, music, Dragon Dance, Lion Dance, and ice skating too to happily bring in the year of the dog!

We wish you all a happy new year!

The 13 year old artists at Shenzhen High School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with 7c, 13 year olds, from Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland.

Looking at us through a lens

The artists at Vesalan peruskoulu in Finland are so excited to have new friends in Spain!  We had a good discussion about languages and all the different ways we can communicate.  In the group we have people who speak Finnish, Russian, Arabic, English, and probably many other languages, but we realized that art is a language too!  And today we experimented with using photography as our medium! 

Since this was the first project in getting to know our friends we first thought of things we like about ourselves and characteristics that we would like to share with them.  

Then we experimented with photography!  The characteristics we wanted to highlight guided our camera.  Some of us went outside (in freezing cold weather!) to take the self-portraits while others used different techniques to spread their message such as drawing.  In any case, the final work was a photographic self-portrait.

To round out the session we looked at some self-portraits from Nan Goldin, Josef Koudelka and Zev.  Everybody could share their own perspectives on how that photographic spoke to them.

We look forward to seeing our friend's self-portraits!

The 4th graders at Vesalan Peruskoulu in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5th graders at Escola SOLC in Barcelona, Spain.  Artists in both groups are 10-11 years old.

Luovat eskarilaiset, Kanelit -ryhmä

(English below)
Eskariryhmässä on 15 lasta, iältään kaikki ovat tällä hetkellä 6 –vuotiaita. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät ( 3 asiaa ). Sen jälkeen he saivat valita jonkin heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.

Esikouluryhmä Kaneleiden lasten ajatuksia itsestään ja siitä, mistä he tykkäävät eniten ( 3 asiaa ):

S; Mä tykkään hevosista, sota- ja rosvoleikeistä.
A; Mä tykkään mustekalasta, poliisi- ja rosvoleikeistä, Spiderman ja Superman vaatteista.
Sh; Mä tykkään kissoista, seistä päälläni ja värittää paljon.
Lu; Mä tykkään hevosista, kissoista ja värittää paljon.
To; Mä oon mustekala ja mun lempieläin on mustekala. Mä tykkään koirauinnista ja päällä seisonnasta.
La; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla, koiraleikeistä ja tykkään leikkiä Pokemoneilla.
El; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla Laurin kanssa, simpukoista ja meritähdistä sekä apinoista.
Le; Mä tykkään poneista sekä tehdä hamahelmiä, lumipalloja ja lumienkeleitä.
Lun; Mä haluun leikkiä ulkona, mennä Hoplopiin, tehdä sirkusta ja piirtää.
Ma; Tykkään perhosista sekä mennä ulos ja tehdä lumiukkoja.
Z; Tykkään mennä Hoplopiin, Lampipuistoon, olla ulkona ja leikkiä Terhin kanssa.
Te; Tykkään apinoista sekä tehdä kärrynpyöriä ja harrastaa jumppaa.
Ay; Tykkään päällä seisomisesta, siltakaadosta ja kärrynpyöristä.

+++

There are 15 children in the kindergarten group and all of them are currently 6 years old. In the workshop, the children were asked to tell something about themselves. For example, what are three things they like. After that, they chose one of their favorite things and figured out how to turn it into a self-portrait in photographic form.

Here are the children's answers;
Su; I like horses, playing war and robbers kind of games.
Al; I like the octopus, playing police and crime games, Spiderman and Superman's clothes.
Sh; I like cats, stand on the top of my head and coloring a lot.
Lu; I like horses, cats and lots of color.
To; I am an octopus and my favorite animal is an octopus. I like doggie paddling and making headstands.
La; I like to play with blocks, doggie paddling and I like playing with Pokemon.
El; I like to play blocks with Lauri, seashells, starfish and monkeys.
Le; I like ponies and to make hama beads, snowballs and snow angels.
Lun; I want to play outdoors, go to Hoplop, and to make a circus and draw.
Ma; I like butterflies and to go out to make snow angels.
Za; I like to go to Hoplop, Lampipuisto, and to go out to play with Terhi.
Te; I like monkeys, making cartwheels and going to the gym.
Ay; I like making headstands, making a bridge, and doing cartwheels.

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Mantelit ja Pippurit tekevät taidetta!

(English below)
Viisivuotiaiden ryhmässä on lapsia kahdesta eri ryhmästä Manteleista ja Pippureista. Meistä on mukavaa, että voimme tehdä yhdessä tätä projektia. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät: ”Kerro kolme itsellesi mieluisinta asiaa”. Sen jälkeen lapset saivat valita yhden heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.

Tässä lasten vastauksia:
Hamza: Jäätelö, karkit ja suklaa – myös paloautoilla leikkiminen on kivaa.
Laura: Piirtäminen & maalaaminen, keiton keittäminen, halit
Jasmin: Istuminen, äidin kanssa kaupassa käyminen, Danielin kanssa leikkiminen
Matvei: Elisein kanssa leikkiminen
Marva: leikkikaverit, lääkärileikki, poliisileikki, barbit
Adna: kaverit, palikat & palapelit, ponit
Amina: maalaaminen, piirtämineen, nukkekotileikki
Noor: kaverit, heppa-leikit, piilosta
Alniz: hevoset, kaverit, linnat

yt. Teija ja Satu

+++

The group of five-year-olds is a combination of two different groups; the Almonds and the Gingerbreads. We are delighted to be able to do this project together. During the first workshop, the children were asked to say something about themselves or what they like: "Tell three positive things about yourself". After that, the children were allowed to choose one of them, a nice character from from which they created a photographic self-portrait. The children took the pictures themselves!

Here are the children's responses:
Hamza: Ice cream, candy and chocolate - even playing with fire engines is fun.
Laura: Drawing & painting, making soup, hugs
Jasmin: Sitting, going with Mom to the shop, playing with Daniel
Matvei: Playing with Elise
Marva: playmates, playing doctor, police games, barbies
Adna: friends, bricks & puzzles, ponies
Amina: painting, drawing, playing with the doll house
Noor: friends, playing with horses, hiding games
Alniz: horses, friends, castles

Sincerely,
Teija and Satu

The 5 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Tarinoita ja juhlat

Dear You -projektimme viimeisellä kerralla Kontulan ostarilla sijaitseva the Museum of Impossible Forms kutsui meidät vierailulle. Vierailun aluksi katsoimme videoterveiset Kiinasta. Saimme myös nähdä taideteoksia, joita ystävämme olivat tehneet.

Viimeisessä työpajassa kirjoitimme ja äänitimme pienissä ryhmissä äänitarinoita, joissa teemana oli Differences and Similarities. Työskentelyn päätteeksi Arlene oli kutsunut vieraaksemme lapsiryhmän Kontulalaisesta päiväkoti Pihapirtistä. Pihapirtin lapset aloittavat ensi vuonna oman Dear You -projektinsa. Iltapäivä jatkui juhlavilla tarjoiluilla ja luotujen tarinoiden yhdessä kuuntelulla.

http://hyllinkuvis.blogspot.fi/2017/12/tarinoita-ja-juhlat.html

Making inspiring stories calls for a party!

We are watching a video our friends in China made for us!

For the last project of this session, we thought it would be great to bring the artists in 7C from Helsingin yhteislyseo to get to know another artistic space in Kontula, Helsinki. So we gathered in Museum of Impossible Forms to create Inspiring Stories art project and celebrate with next year's Dear You group from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti, who are also located in Kontula!

We started the session by looking at a video a few of the artists from Shenzhen Middle School made for their friends in Kontula. They had made a sweet introduction of themselves and also shared with us the art that they have been making in China.

Looking at our friend's artwork and thinking about past Dear You projects we have made gave us some material to work with as the next step was to make an audio story.  One artist said we need to keep in mind the sanoma (the message) when creating a story.  Some other creative writing elements are to designate characters and what is the beginning, middle, and end of the story. 

We then got into small groups and came up with four different amazing stories! When it was time to record, we thought about intonation, sound effects, and tone of voice to enhance the story.

Brainstorming in small groups

And action! Recording our audio story.

Anastasia and the groups then edited their audio recordings

The stories were all so different! Have a listen! 

MuseumofImpossibleForms #Forest #Kontula #Helsinki #Finland #13yearsold #InspiringStories

Forest is a story about a boy named Ajax. He lived in the 1940s in a small village. Ajax went to pick some berries and mushrooms in the woods. About an hour into the journey, he found himself lost. He then saw a mökki (a small cottage) and peaked through the window. Inside he saw an open cupboard, which had a lot of food in it. He went inside and ate a big loaf of bread. After that he left the mökki to try and find his way home. Along the way, he met an old person and asked this person some questions. The old person didn't understand anything!

DearYou #Kontula #Helsinki #Finland #InspiringStories #13yearsold #MuseumofImpossibleForms

DearYou #Kontula #MuseumofImpossibleForms #Helsinki #Finland #InspiringStories #13yearsold

The storytellers from Differences and Similarities have more questions for their friends in China.

Do you pack your own lunch? Or do you pay 1euro for it? Or how much?
Do you have a lot of homework?
When does your school day end?
Are your tests difficult?
Does your school have any after-school activities?

Helsinki #Kontula #MuseumofImpossibleForms #DearYou #InspiringStories

Eläimet puussa , Animal in the tree (English translation)
All the animals are meeting under a tree and they decided to make a pack. The pack leader is the lion. The walrus also wants to be a leader. They start to fight and the walrus wins. The walrus will become the leader and so the lion has to go. The walrus was a good leader but the lion returned. The lion took a coconut from the tree and hit the walrus in the head with it while the walrus was asleep. The walrus got a mild concussion! The lion became the leader again. The animals didn't want the lion to the be leader so everybody else left the pack.

We had a great time making these stories for you!

Thank you! Kiitos!

With love,
Arlene, Anastasia, Saara, and the artists at 7C

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

From left to right: Saara Raevuori, Arlene Tucker, and Anastasia Artemeva. Saara is the art teacher at Helsingin yhteislyseo. Arlene and Anastasia are the makers and creators of Dear You. Thank you, Museum of Impossible Forms for hosting us!

"Differences and Similarities"

With open minds and ears, 7C came to art class full of energy! In this session we made book covers for our joint project with our new friends in China. We decided to use recycled paper not only to be ecological and creative, but also, this way one can extrapolate so much information about the local environment in Finland just from the words and pictures found on the paper.

The first challenge was coming up with a unanimous title for the book!  Everybody was so gracious and diplomatic that it went smoothly, but we did go through quite many processes to get there. First we got into small groups to brainstorm and come up with some ideas. Then every group wrote their favorite idea on the board. They were:

- The wisdom of art
- The book of art
- Dear You
- Art book / Taidekirja / 藝術書
- The story of difference and similarity
- FinChi Konchita

We all voted and 'The story of difference and similarity' won! All was settled, until somebody spoke their mind and asked if we could shorten it. Good thing this person opened up because they made a very good point about why it should be modified. So then we all revoted and that's how the title 'Differences and Similarities' was born!

The range of papers gave them so much to play with color, patterns, and storylines!

I think these woven pieces of art are beautiful and we hope you like them too!

With love,
Arlene, Saara, and the artists at 7C

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Kysymisen taide

Syksyllä alkanut Dear You -projekti jatkui toisella työpajalla. Projekti koostuu neljästä työpajakerrasta, joiden teemana on minä ja ympäristö. Projektin lähtökohtana on ajatus taiteesta prosessina ja dialogina ihmisten välillä. Työpajoissa syntyneet teokset lähetetään ulkomaille ystävyyskouluihin. Me saimme pariksi koulun Kiinasta, jonne ensimmäisen työpajan teokset ovat jo matkalla. Jäämme odottelemaan taideteoksia kiinalaisilta nuorilta.

Tällä kertaa pohdimme yhdessä oppilaiden ja taitelijavierailijamme Arlene Tuckerin kanssa kysymyksiä ja kysymistä. Jotta tietäisimme mitä toiset ajattelevat, on meidän kysyttävä, kerrottava ja kuunneltava. Äänemme on vahva työkalu. Käytetään sitä!

Tutustuimme graafiseen myös suunnitteluun. Mietimme tekstityylejä, kirjainten kokoa, sommittelua ja väriä viestinnän työkaluina. Taideteostemme tekniikkana käytimme erilaisia piirtimiä.

http://hyllinkuvis.blogspot.fi/2017/11/kysymisen-taide.html

Philosophical questions and art

It has been a while since I have been sincerely thought provoked and moved by the many questions the artists in Kontula were asking. Blown away by the artistic and conceptual skills these artists have!

As part of the warm up we got into a good discussion about questions, poster art, and graphic design. Some artists were sharing what their favorite fonts were so we took a moment to imagine the font used in different contexts and how that would have an affect on the message.  One way to see how our art is being perceived is to ask, tell and listen. Our voices are a powerful tool. We should use it!

We also looked at graphic design and artists who use graphics in their artworks such as Ed Ruscha. We considered text styles, letter size, composition, and color as communication tools. 

Then the questions started pouring out! Some artists wanted to make art from their own questions and others chose to use questions from their classmates. In any case, the outcomes were amazing!

Thank you and we hope you have a moment to answer our questions!

With love,
Arlene, Saara, and the artists at 7C

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

The artists from Kontula!

It was a pretty magical day with the artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo! We first started the session by warming up our minds and bodies.  This is something I like to do before I start making art and I was happy that everybody was willing to try and participate.  We all stood up and took turns doing different movements to activate ourselves.  Shake it out to let it out!

Everybody was very excited to hear that we have friends in China that we will be exchanging art with!  As when making new friends, we slowly start by sharing bits and pieces about ourselves.  We saw this as a chance to also learn something new about ourselves.  First we got into small groups to do some investigation.  Our partners would be our mirrors and tell us what they see about us- factual things like how the light flickers against our hair, the color of our eyes, details about our hands, etc.  Sometimes taking a close look at something else can also help with how we approach looking at ourselves.

When we started experimenting with the carbon transfer technique it seemed slow going at first because this method does take time to prepare, but once the marks started to come through, everybody got more motivated to make their self-portrait.  Everybody had such a different approach and idea to making their self-portrait!

The class wrote a letter for Tian Tian and her artists:

We hope you like our artwork!

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.