I created an interactive installation called 'Creatures' and delivered it at Vogel Street Party 2017, Whare Flat Folk Festival 2017/8 and Waitati Music Festival 2018.

The Concept - 'Creatures'

Be the author. Be the artist. Be the sculptor. Let's collaborate and make some creatures! Participants were invited to collectively make creatures by:

Example Creature: CC46. Author = Sammi, Artist = Hebe, Sculptor = Nicola

Writing the description of an imaginary creature on the left hand panel of a card.
Handing in their description and receiving someone else's description.
Drawing a creature that someone else has described on the right hand panel of the card.
Handing in their drawing and receiving someone else's drawing.
Sculpting a creature based on other people's description and drawing.

Each creature is the work of three people and each person contributes to three creatures. I also made another version of the cards for younger kids to do all three steps themselves.

The Installation

I set up tables/benches for people to work on and provided pens, pencils, coloured pencils and modelling clay tools. I set up a table manned by myself and some awesome friends of mine, where we: provided the instructions, collected and gave out the cards, and gave out the modelling clay and plinths. I also set up an area to display the creatures.

The Cards and Boxes

I designed the cards and boxes myself and got help from my friends and family to cut them out of paper. There were two panels on the front of the cards: the left hand panel was for describing the creature and the right hand panel was for drawing the creature. On the back of the cards were unique numbers so that each creature could be identified. The boxes had "draw here" on the front and "discard here" on the back.

The Plinths

The plinths were small blocks of wood with a flexible wire sticking out of them to support the creatures.

The Display Stands

I made two stadium style seating display stands with the help of my brother-in-law Matt. These were designed to maximise the view-ability of the creatures after they were completed.

Event report -Vogel Street Party 2017

Creatures first outing was at Vogel St Party 2017, held on the 14th October. I was very grateful to get an awesome indoor space in the ground floor parking lot of the Union Steam Ship building on Water Street. 'Creatures' was a big success at Vogel Street Party. I received a lot of positive feedback from people at the event. Initially it was mostly kids participating in making creatures, but as the day progressed, and more creatures went up on the stand, a lot more adults got involved. I ran the interactive for 5 hours and had approximately 15 people at any given time. I estimate that 200 participants made 200 creatures and there were an additional 300 observers. Check out the time lapse video below that shows the creatures going up on the stands.

I have put all the creatures up on this page:

Creatures from Vogel Street Party 2017

Here are a selection of the creatures that people made at Vogel Street Party 2017:

Event report - Whare Flat Folk Festival (2 January 2018)

'Creatures' was set up in the troop den for the afternoon of the second of January 2018. Lots of kids and some adults spent time making a whole lot of interesting Creatures! 94 in total from an estimated 80-100 participants. Check them out here:

Creatures from Whare Flat Folk Festival 2018

Event report -Waitati Music Festival 2018 (3 March 2018)

'Creatures' was set up in a marquee at Bland Park, Waitati for the festival held 3 March 2018. Lots of people of all ages participated in making Creatures throughout the day. 170 Creatures were made in total from ~200 participants. Check out all the Creatures from Waitati here:

Creatures from Waitati Music Festival 2018

Feedback

Here is a some of the feedback I received about Creatures:
"Yay! Creatures. You're so cool!" - Charlie
"Dear creatures" I love your workshops But please put a [limit] on the number of [colours] the author can describe" -Nico (10)
"The best collective installation experience" -Becs
"love, love, love, you know what? it's awesome" -Rosa (8)
"A THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE afternoon for both Me and my Daughter" -Anon
"This was a joy! - Anon
"an absolutely incredible and fun idea, really brings out the creative side of people :-)" -madchief

Acknowledgements

'Creatures' was funded by Creative Communities Scheme, administered by Dunedin City Council. Additional support was provided by Whare Flat Folk Festival and Waitati Music Festival organisers.