Maakfabriek
Cruz del Arenal
Eigenlijk zijn we onderweg naar Salinas, een dorp waar ze het socialisme helemaal opnieuw hebben uitgevonden. Maar onderweg stoppen we even bij een paredor (een Raststätte (geen nederlands woord voor want Nederland is te klein voor Raststättes)).
Het is een vaag gehucht met een buitenaards landschap waar we eerst eens even lekker in verdwalen. We zien een kudde vicuña’s, de wilde versie van de lama! (wat moeten die hier eten??)
In een half in de grond gebouwde hut afgedekt met pampagras is de paredor. Er blijkt net een delegatie politici langs te zijn geweest, inclusief de man die voor het presidentschap gaat, dus de uitbater is door dolle! En we worden meteen getrakteerd op een Roemeense (??) gefermenteerde drank die goed opwarmt. De uitbaters blijken een bijzondere familie met twee dochters, één geboren in Roemenië en één in Spanje. We vertellen ze over de Maakfabriek en ze vragen ons waarom doe je hem hier niet?? Ernaast blijkt een schooltje te staan met twaalf indianenkindertjes, uit slechts 3 families.
En dat doen we dan maar!!! Geweldig!!
En hier het resultaat: Het verhaal gaat over de indiaan Catuña die een kerk wil bouwen in Quito. Maar de Padre wil dat de kerk binnen 6 maanden af is. Om dat mogelijk te maken moet Cantuña de hulp van de duivel inschakelen en dat wil hij absoluut niet. Hij tekent huilend een contract dat hij zijn hart zal afstaan als de duivel met zijn helpertjes de kerk binnen 1 nacht af heeft. Stiekem laat hij een steen weg en als de duivel komt om het hart te halen zegt Cantuña dat de kerk niet af is omdat er een steen mist. Boos gaat de duivel weg en tevreden komt de Padre om de kerk te bewonderen en alle mensen van Quito komen om het te vieren. De kerk met het gat staan vandaag de dag nog steeds in Quito!
Ate en Julus in de Kidsweek!
Yeah!!! Ate en Julus staan deze week in de Kidsweek, een krant voor kinderen die op heel veel scholen gelezen wordt. Het is een heel leuk artikel geworden, fantastisch gedaan door Bouwien Jansen die de kinderen op afstand (via FaceTime) heeft geïnterviewd. Papa en mama hebben tijdens het interview stiekem meegeluisterd 🙂 Het was ontzettend leuk om Ate en Julus te horen vertellen over hun belevenissen en ervaringen! Klik hier voor een pdf van het artikel.
MakeFactory Casa de la Cultura, Poblado
Our last MakeFactory workshop in Medellin was in the Casa de la Cultura in Poblado. But it will not be the last workshop in Medellin: our friends from Casa Teatro El Poblado will continue to share our concept in the other Casas de la Cultura!
This time the children created a story with Mine-crafters, a live television and some beautiful figures! Due to the enthusiasm of the kids in creating their cardboard pieces we couldn’t make it to record sound as well, so this time it’s a silent movie.
And below the final result!
The story line: Tiger watches too much television, so he gets square eyes and magically enters into the TV. There he is haunted and attacked by Mine-crafters. But fortunately the butterflies are able to scare the Mine-crafters away. But they keep returning. Then Girl appears by car to help Tiger. But the car runs out of fuel and they are both captured by the Mine-crafters. A magic astronaut brings fuel for the car so the car can drive again. He goes to the place where the Mine-crafters keep Tiger and Girl, rescues them, and fights off the kidnappers. Girl also escapes from the TV world and she and Tiger become friends. Now they can watch TV together, but they learned they shouldn’t watch too long!
MakeFactory Casa de la Cultura, Ávila
At the Casa de la Cultura in Ávila (Medellin) we had a very fun MakeFactory! Below some pictures and of course the final result.
International cooperation to create a huge cake:
Discussing what story to make with all the figures:
And the final result:
MakeFactory Manrique, Medellin
We did a very special MakeFactory workshop at “Espacio Especial” in the Gaitán neighborhood in Manrique, Medellin. A family that lives here provides an open house for the local children of the less privileged families and organizes all kinds of activities for them. Through Casa Teatro El Poblado we were asked to do a workshop here. How great it was, and what a special family! We started around 18:00, so it turned out to be the first MakeFactory in the dark. Since the neighborhood is built on the slopes of the mountains, the houses are connected to the main streets by stairs. Because of the limited space, the children also worked on the stairs. Below some pictures (big thanks to Juan Pablo!), and of course the final result!
And the final result:
Barrio Triste Guia de Audio
Here you can see, listen and download the results of the MakeFactory workshops at Poder Joven. Poder Joven is a shelter for kids in Barrio Triste, a neighborhood in the center of Medellin, Colombia. In a series of four workshops the children created a map of their neighborhood, accompanied by a guided audio tour. You can download the complete audio tour here, or listen to the individual tracks below. Enjoy!
01 – Nombres
02 – Ruta
03 – Poder Joven
04 – Barrio Triste
05 – Ruta
06 – Tomar limonada
07 – Caballero
08 – Ruta
09 – Ruta
10 – Barrio Triste
11 – Iglesia
12 – Ruta
13 – Ruta
14 – La Escultura
15 – Ruta
16 – Ruta
17 – Policia
18 – Ruta
19 – Pelicula
20 – Ruta
21 – Calle con joyas
22 – Futbol
23 – Ruta
24 – Ruta
25 – Motores
26 – Arbol de pomas
27 – Ruta
28 – Ruta
29 – Escarabajos
30 – Ruta
31 – Biblioteca
32 – Fin
33 – Bonus track
Thanks to Fundación Caminos for their help and support
MakeFactory day one at Poder Joven in Medellin
Today we had the first day of a series of MakeFactory workshops at Poder Joven, a shelter in Barrio Triste in Medellin. During these workshops the children will create an interactive map of the neighborhood accompanied by a downloadable audio tour. On this day we went outside with the kids to identify and investigate remarkable, weird, funny or otherwise interesting spots in their neighborhood. And fun it was! Among one of the treasures was a tree the children knew about with very beautiful bugs. Local knowledge, never published before 😉
MakeFactory at Sol Art, Ha Noi
At Sol Art cultural center we did two MakeFactory workshops. The first was with children between 10 and 15 years old.
The result from the first group at Sol Art (and scroll down for the second group’s result):
Oh, it was so much fun watching the outcome at the end of the day!
Two days later we did another MakeFactory, at a different location from Sol Art, with younger kids. This time, they were from 5 till 10 years old.
And the result from the second group at Sol Art, with children from 5-10 years old:
MakeFactory no. 2 at Nam Thành Công school, Ha Noi
Series 2 at Nam Thành Công elementary school.
This time we chose the story of Thach Sanh. A poor but good boy was an orphan but got taken in by a rich lady with a son, Ly Thong. The family took care of Thach Sanh for years and the two boys became good friends. In the village lived a giant snake who demanded a sacrifice every year in the form of a young person. One day it was Ly Thongs turn to be sacrificed, but he demanded Thach Sanh to go in his place. Thach Sanh did this but he killed the snake and returned to his friend with the snake’s head. Ly was scared that Thach Sanh would tell about his cowerdness and locked him in a cave. Ly took the snake head and brought it to the king as if he had killed it himself. The king rewarded him richly. In the meantime Thach Sahn found a princess that was also locked in the same cave after being kidnapped by an eagle. They both escaped from the cave and Thach Sanh was rewarded with a musical instrument by the princesses father who was a god of the sea. Ly fed the princess something to bewitch her voice so she couldn’t speak and tell about his lies. And locked up Thach Sanh again! Now Thach Sanh played music on his instrument to not feel lonely. The melody reached the princess and it broke the spell of her dumbness. She told everything to the king. Tach Sahn was released and the King wanted to punnish Ly but Thach Sahn told the King to let him go.
And the result:
MakeFactory portraits
De second workshop in the serie at the High school in Ha Noi was about portrets. First we showed examples of how attributes or clothing can express an imago or a profession. Then the kids made a portret from head to feet of themselves, showing what they would want to be. After the creating everyone explained about their work which was a very interesting group talk!
Any idea what this kid would like to be????
MakeFactory at Nam Thành Công high school in Ha Noi
MakeFactory at elementary school Hanoi. For this workshop we had only 2 1/2 hours. So we decided to work with a given story. It is an old Vietnamese tale about Gióng (say: zong). The story: one day a sad but good woman that can’t have babies, steps into a giant footprint and magically becomes pregnant. She gives birth to her son Gióng. But when Gióng turns three he is still not able to talk, walk or smile. In the mean time the King is recruiting soldiers from the villages to fight for the country. When a messenger arrives at Gióngs village, he magically starts to speak and asks to be armed. The messenger reports the miracle to the king and the villagers all start to feed Gióng. In just a few days he grows into a giant! The king has an armor and horse specially made for him and Gióng rides of and defeats the enemy.
Kids at work under Uncle Ho’s supervision:
Putting down the story line for the voice-over recording:
And the result! Yippee! :
MakeFactory about composition?
The assignment in this MakeFactory workshop was to make a ‘tableau vivant’. An acted scene that has suddenly stood still. The students would make pictures of it from different points of view to explore how the composition changes. Some of the kids probably didn’t speak as good English as they said they did…. Only the toilet group understood the plan 🙂 However, some interesting results came out! Recognize the surprise if your plan doesn’t come out the way you intended, is what a teacher once told me.
MakeFactory Bargamento’s Garden
MakeFactory with neighborhood kids from Mintal, Davao, Philippines. The story: Two researchers hike into the mountains with a treasure map. Somehow some local crooks have heard of their treasure hunt and they are trying to get the map off their hands. But the researchers have a magic umbrella which chases the thieves away. When the researchers arrive at the hidden treasure they find human bones instead of gold. They decide to bring the bones. Back in their laboratory they use the found bones to create a humanoid robot!
MakeFactory at Field of Dreams – Philippines
And finally here is the result of MakeFactory at Field of Dreams boys orphanage. We concluded later that the story, entirely made up by the boys, is a kind of an orphanage story. Also interesting is that it started of as a heroic ninja story but resulted in a complicated family situation and an old lady turns out to be the main character! The ninja’s eventually play no significant role at all. The story: A dragon enters a village and seems to plan the kidnapping of a young woman. Ninja’s attack the dragon in an attempt to save the girl. Then an old lady appears and demands them to stop attacking. We see in a flashback her story: when the old lady was young and pregnant with twins, she accidentally stepped on a dragon egg. The dragon cursed her by turning one of the baby’s into a dragon. The only way to break the curse is for the twin brother and sister to reunite.
MakeFactory at Bargamento’s Garden
Right after the workshop at Field of Dreams, we made a stop motion with the kids from the neighborhood where we lived in, Mintal. They were all kids living below poverty level. Some kids had attended a children’s conference just the day before and were very proud and happy that they were able to attend another interesting event the day after.
Such great Artwork ! Picasso could take an example!
The kids came up with a very adventurous story about gold diggers and robbers and a experimental laboratory!