We are ever-changing
Vikajärvi
Text: Essi Hänninen & Saara Sipilä, University of Lapland
Our project was to implement a workshop in Vikajärvi School for grades 3-6. The goal was to explore participants’ identities through introspection, cooperative art-based activities and personal relations to Vikajärvi. We approached the theme of sustainability portraits through the community and its members’ ability to change and adapt. Participants wrote scripts for their animations in small groups, made paper cut-out puppets out of full-body photographs of themselves and created stop-motion animations accompanied by their self-made sound effects. The assignment was to set the story in their everyday environments, where the puppet portraits would go through some kind of transformation.
INFO BOX
Workshop by: art education master students Essi Hänninen, Iines Mannerkorpi, Charlotta Linna and Saara Sipilä from the University of Lapland with the help of university lecturer Annamari Manninen.
Participants: Vikajärvi School pupils (20) from grades 3-6 and their teacher, Ruut Kärnä.
Time: November 2024
Our project consisted of planning and carrying out a workshop called We are ever-changing – from portrait to animation, which is part of a larger initiative, Sustainability Portraits. We approached the theme of sustainability from the perspective of the participants’ self-image and their connection to the northern community, environment and culture around them.
To enable the exploration of participants’ identities and seek out ways to safely try out ideas of who they could be, we chose animation as the main technique of the workshop—combining photographed portraits with animation as a medium transforms them into active self-images with agency and the ability to change. Participants created cooperatively scripts for the animations in small groups. The aim was to strengthen participants’ self-efficacy and relationships with each other, enhancing resilience and team spirit in the small village school.
The animation workshop aimed to strengthen participants’ self-efficacy and relationships with each other, enhancing resilience and team spirit in the small village school.
The workshop took five days in a span of two weeks. Our role was to guide the participants in both planning and technical aspects. Pupils took full-body photographs of each other for the paper cut-out puppets, which our project group printed out and cut ready for the next workshop day.
On the following days of our workshop, the participants modified their puppets using collage technique from magazine cutouts. The idea for the puppets was to change in one way or another during the animation. In the end, the visual changes in animations were minor, although the puppets were very variable in their actions in the finished product. For the backgrounds, we advised the pupils to be inspired by local places important to them using colored paper, magazine cut-outs and drawings.
All groups were very eager to begin the filming process. We used tablets provided by the University of Lapland. While some pupils required more help than others, there were plenty of adults present to support them when needed.
Participants also recorded their sound effects. We assisted with the usage of recording equipment and later edited the sounds and animations together. The final product was a compilation of all six finished animations and puppet portraits glued on their respective backgrounds to be put up on the classroom walls.
On our final day, we premiered the animations with the entire school. The atmosphere in the showing was excited and most of the pupils who had taken part in the workshop thought that they had learned a new technique of animation: stop motion.
The workshop was successful with clever and well-made animations despite the tight schedule.
