Animals under the microscope, arts-based exploration of the more-than-human, community exhibition

Animals under the microscope, arts-based exploration of the more-than-human, community exhibition

Key words:

Creative play, biodiversity, place/Country responsive play, non-human play, discovery play, biodiversity, conservation

Centre:

Rainbow Valley Early Learning

Description:

Every year Rainbow Valley Early Learning Centre holds an exhibition at the gallery space in the local botanical gardens. The inspiration for one recent exhibition was the question “how do we re-see what we see everyday?”. The children were supported to collect natural materials such as leaves, sticks, snakeskin etc from the outdoor environment, and look closely at these under digital microscopes back in the art studio at the centre. The children ‘re-saw’ nature through looking closely, taking photos with the microscope camera, drawing what they saw, blowing up images, shrinking images and so on. The children then used these blown up images to create collages in the shape of various animals. The children then expressed a desire to place their collage animals out in the environment. Thus, the animal collages were blown up to life size, printed on UV resistant PVC, and displayed at the exhibition, and then brought back to display at the centre.