Summers are usually relaxing for me. However I am busy teaching 8-10yo kids this whole summer! Lead by Wyan Yeung, I work with a team of artists including Allan Au, Amy Lien, and Stickyline, to develop a curriculum to help children explore their creative potentials. Comprised of knowledge in architecture, design thinking, and sound art, the workshop invites the kids to innovate and create by leaving behind the boarders between disciplines.
My involvement in this is mainly on the first and second day. In the first morning I confront the children about the definition of music by showing them contemporary compositions by Cage, Ligeti, Lansky and etc. Then, the kids, with or without musical training, are encouraged to compose using a ‘sound object’. They’ll pick a piece of kitchenware (the sound object), and is asked to find as many sounds as they can using that single piece of object, then ‘organise’ and ‘arrange’ those sounds to make a piece. I show them these examples at the beginning of this hour-long workshop.
Here is our playlist.
Table Music (1987) by Thierry de Mey
4'33'' (1952) by John Cage
Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronome (1962) by György Ligeti
Table's clear (1992) by Paul Lansky
Music for Piece of Wood by Steve Reich
We then go out for sound walks. They are given a map of the neighbourhood, and asked to write down what sound they hear along the way.
Apart from all the lecturing of coz we play the human step sequencer game!
This goes on for 8 weeks! Although it was exhausted, it is equally fulfilling. Collaborating with people from other fields is always fun. And kids always give you surprises!
Love this team~ ( I am at the very very back 😂)
