The idea is to 'listen' to the graffiti talk around us (on our walls, doors, desks, chairs, floors, T-shirts, schoolbags, etc.), and to record and share interesting finds.
If other interested teachers, students, people spread across the cyberspace respond by posting graffiti photos and related info, this could turn into a nice project of the wall/s/talking in our schools, streets, towns, countries, world. Sketches, squiggles, doodles and other more sophisticated street art around us is the part of public spaces usually walked by, unnoticed by most people.
Collecting graffiti from our walls, desks chairs and sharing them could provide us with a picturesque collection of expressions of wisdom/boredom/enthusiasm/dissatisfaction etc. from different places. This could perhaps be revealing in quite unexpected ways and could provide us with many interesting possibilities for further interpretations, explorations and manipulations.
This project was started by Sašawho then discovered Carla had been thinking along the same lines months earlier. The project is open to anyone interested, and will run for as long as there is interest. Anyone is invited to join in (individuals, teachers, classes, students...) and/or help spread the word.
* Choose ONE graffiti that appeals to you (uploaded by somebody from another country)
* Make a comment and invite the person to join your blog page
* On your blog page, exchange views on the choice of graffiti and on reasons for the choice, and compare cultural situations
* Get to know more about the person's background
* Get ready to meet this person online, synchronously
April 16
My students are enthusiastic about the project and I want to make the most of this zest. One chose Bee's graffiti and asked about her email address. Others would like to meet Sasha and her students, and have been motivated by Sasha's description of Argentina --in one of her postings in our classblog-- so they browsed the web for more information on Slovenia and we brainstormed findings in class. They will now work collaborative on a Google site I opened at http://sites.google.com/site/caeb2009group/ , where they will post their findings, together with some photos and queries on the Slovenian lifestyle, mainly in connection with people their age.
They will also work in pairs in our Multimedia Laboratory to create movies using Animoto, where they will upload different examples of graffiti. There will be a classroom discussion and preparation time prior to the making of the video.
April 18
HERE is the page my CAE students are buiding on Slovenian culture. They love the idea of learning about this country. Here is the recording of the Skype interview CAE students did with Saša in May.
May
Here are two videos produced by CAE students - the first one by Sofi is about Rosario, the town where they all go to school, and the second, shorter one by Diego is about Slovenia. :-)
(Inspired by the blogosphere 5(+) things about you meme)
Go to the project site, choose 1 of the contributing countries from the countries cloud.
(Before checking the contributions from that country) list 5 (or more/fewer) typical things you associate with this country (without checking any resources, just the things you typically think of in connection with that country). Try also to comment/support your points
e.g. In Australia there are many indiginous species of animals, such as coalas and kangoroos. The reason for this is that this continent was isolated from the rest of the world for a long time, so these species evolved without coming in contact with the rest of the world.
Once happy with your list, check the Walls Talking site and see, if you can say anything else about the country from the information you get there (click on the name of the country you have chosen in the countries cloud, read the entries and comments to them and record your observations).
e.g. In Melbourne they seem to many artistical graffiti embellishing their streets. One of them shows a man who's lost his equilibrium, car keys and pride - perhaps the author was trying to point out the problems you can run into, not necessarily because of your fault. Or - perhaps the author was trying to show what alcohol/drug abuse can lead to. In our town there are also...
Post your notes and observations on your blog/website and invite people from that country to comment them and give their opinion on what you recognize as the 5 typical things about their coutry. Hopefully they respond and then it should be interesting to see the difference between their 5 things about them and your 5 things about them. Perhaps they will choose to do this same task also for your country and ask you to give them feedback.
I think it should be pretty funny also if you choose a country you know noting about - this forces you to be creative and make things up. :-) Also it is always interesting to see the difference between how you see yourself and how others see you.
Choose one of the topics below and express your opinion about it in a few sentences in the appropriate comment area of the site.
Walls Talking topics
Graffi - art or vandalism (via Carla) - Saša's class talked about thishere
PC - peace? (do you think that technological advancements we have been facing in the recent years contribute to promotion of peace around us and within us?)
I have wanted an electronic graffiti board in my school (small school - 50 kids) for a while. I have a Smart Board. It was my plan for teachers to use it in the curricular areas in their classes, but that doesn't happen so easily. :-)
So I have decided to set it up in a public place in the school as a graffiti board. There will be technical issues - like the board or projector getting out of alignment, bulb-on time, and so on - but there will be students who will be happy to look after that...and manage it effectively.
I think I plan to let the kids use the wall in a free form manner...and see what happens. I don't want to 'curricularize' it. They get enough of that in their schooling! :-) However, if a kid, or kids, want to use it to do a classroom project - then I will honour and encourage that. Our kids are between 14 and 20. As I said, it is a small school. The kids are pretty well-behaved for the most part! LOL We encourage an atmosphere of trust and respect...and we have very little trouble in that way. Soooo, I'll see what happens.
I have a Polycom videoconferencing suite as well...so I was thinking maybe of using that to connect with others...or just to leave it 'live' and see who connects if we tweet out the IP. Oooohh a dangerous proposition! Live on the edge. Or do a webcam feed out. Not sure yet.
Saša: I love this idea. I wonder what the kids will come up with. :-) The webcam feed and videoconferencing options sound so cool!
We have 3 smart boards at our school too, but I'm not sure how long they would last if set up publicly... Your smartboard idea made me think of the possibility of setting up an online graffiti board - Google search led me to Graffiti Playdo - which seems to support collaborative or individual creations and does not require any registration. When done, you simply make a screenshot if you want to save your creation. Another low-tech option could perhaps simply be to furnish some walls in public places with blank jumbo size posters - I'm sure they wouldn't remain blank long (if they remained on those walls)... ;-)Thanks a lot for sharing your idea here, Peter.
Peter's Video Idea
(Peter Skillen)
As part of the Adobe Youth Voices project (in coordination with iEARN), my students produced some videos. One, in particular, deals with graffiti. It is called "Hidden" by a young man named Robin Boston. He also wrote the rap and the music.
Robin has expressed interest in making more videos of this type within the context of this project when he comes back to school in September.
Thoughts appreciated.
Saša: Yaay - I'm very happy to hear about Robin's interest - he's a very creative and talented young man. He's most welcome to come and play :-).
Found Magazine (via peter skills); a website edevoted collecting found stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles-- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. Anything goes.
Banksy is one of the renowned graffiti artists from UK - some of his controversial works are featured on his website http://www.banksy.co.uk/ via Elizabeth Anne (also recommends his book 'Wall and Piece')
An interesting BBC article on graffiti shared by Diane Midness, iearn
Useful Tips:
Rita: You can use a very simple tool available HERE, called Recordpad, then save it as a wav or mp3 file. You can send the file as an attachment as well. Saša: looks interesting for audio explorations, Thanks, Rita!
- automatic notification about comments if authors leave email
- add option for including tags
- aggregate distribuited posts tagged'wallstalking'(Technorati, Google alerts...) add flickr group feed
Joining the project
So... are there any graffiti out there around you that you like, messages that you perhaps find meaningful or simply want to share? Do you have a cellphone with a camera or a camera to take the photo? Want to join in?
Here's how:
1. Take a photo of your graffitti,
2. Record the following graffiti info
Posted by: (your name)
Graffitti message: (write out the message as seen)
Date: (e.g. March 09),
Place: (e.g. street wall)
Town: (e.g.Nova Gorica)
Country: (e.g. Slovenia)
Translation in English (if applicable) and/or comment why you find the message meaningful/worth sharing
3.Upload your photos and related information here or send it to the Walls Talking Flickr group and have a look at what others have contributed here or in the Flickr group. Miha kindly created a simple to use form which publicly aggregates the contributed photos and allows comments and sorting according to countries. The site upload option was added because we wanted everybody to be able to join in, also wall stalkers who are not flickr users. The collected photos by non-flickr users are then added to the Walls Talking flickr group and appear in the wallstalking.org photo stream.
Flickr users are invited to post the photo to the Flickr under cc attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license, tag it wallstalking, add the graffitiinfo in the photo description section or tags (see example here), join the Walls Talking Flickr group and send the photo to the group (by clicking the 'send to group' option just above your photo).
Another option for non-flickr users is to send the photo to time70house at photos.flickr.com - this way it will be included in the wallstalking.org photo stream, automatically licensed and tagged. Don't forget to include the above Graffiti info in the body of your message so we can give you proper credit.
Just testing - September 8th 2009 - Barbara Dieu
thank you, Bee - it now works ok this end too!
Please refrain from posting offensive materials.
Everyone is welcome to join in and/or help spread the word - the more the merrier ;-).
Hi, dear Sasha and all,
I'm delighted seeing sooooo many graffiti from so different corners uploaded to our cyberwall ;-)) ! Now my stds who have put up theirs have asked me what the next step will be. Yes! After the uploading of images with their descriptions/recordings, it would be great to go on exploiting this project further, having collected so many enthusiaistic people from so many places. What about making them select one image they might be interested in exploring further on, contact the stds who uploaded it and start working on the implied topic together? Maybe comparing what the graffiti suggests in both communities/countries?
Any different/better options?
Look forward to more ideas.
Rita
Hey Rita,
Yes, there have been a number of contributions from here and there and many from your country, wow! Your group is great!
I like your idea of further exploring the images people like. I started compiling interesting discussion topics emerging from those images on this wiki page (see above Interested Graffiti Related Topics and feel free to add) and thought perhaps we could encourage students to develop those threads in the comment areas for a start - or start their own threads if they prefer to do that - what do you think?
Your group has done a great job so far, opened many discussion possibilities, but my students haven't uploaded their images yet (apart from me and Bili, my last year's students, who is working on improving the page makeup). I hope to get my group to join in at least with comments for a start, because there areso many interesting contributions from others already here. I didn't have classes in computer room this week, I hope perhaps we'll be able to do this next Wednesday. My group are adult students who are employed and attend classes in their free time, many also have families - which means they have practically no free time.
Would developing the comments threads be a sensible step 2 for you? Or did you have something else in your mind?
Saša
Comments (3)
Rita Zeinstejer said
at 2:28 pm on Apr 1, 2009
Hi, dear Sasha and all,
I'm delighted seeing sooooo many graffiti from so different corners uploaded to our cyberwall ;-)) ! Now my stds who have put up theirs have asked me what the next step will be. Yes! After the uploading of images with their descriptions/recordings, it would be great to go on exploiting this project further, having collected so many enthusiaistic people from so many places. What about making them select one image they might be interested in exploring further on, contact the stds who uploaded it and start working on the implied topic together? Maybe comparing what the graffiti suggests in both communities/countries?
Any different/better options?
Look forward to more ideas.
Rita
sasa@... said
at 2:38 pm on Apr 2, 2009
Hey Rita,
Yes, there have been a number of contributions from here and there and many from your country, wow! Your group is great!
I like your idea of further exploring the images people like. I started compiling interesting discussion topics emerging from those images on this wiki page (see above Interested Graffiti Related Topics and feel free to add) and thought perhaps we could encourage students to develop those threads in the comment areas for a start - or start their own threads if they prefer to do that - what do you think?
Your group has done a great job so far, opened many discussion possibilities, but my students haven't uploaded their images yet (apart from me and Bili, my last year's students, who is working on improving the page makeup). I hope to get my group to join in at least with comments for a start, because there areso many interesting contributions from others already here. I didn't have classes in computer room this week, I hope perhaps we'll be able to do this next Wednesday. My group are adult students who are employed and attend classes in their free time, many also have families - which means they have practically no free time.
Would developing the comments threads be a sensible step 2 for you? Or did you have something else in your mind?
Saša
Vida said
at 10:05 pm on Jul 6, 2009
Great videos!
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