from a paper planet...

For years now,  I've been working with paper as a sort of tympanum for sound-making and as a material for imaginary landforms--under titles variously using the idea of the footpath.  I've always wanted to properly document the state of the paper at the end of a performance, all covered in sand, pine needles, filings, pebbles, glass, or dust...variously folded, wrinkled, stained or torn.  This week my friend Matty Sidle helped me 'cheat' a bit by setting up the performance situation (without an actual performance!) and, with natural and artificial lighting, shoot some video and stills.  Here's the first...with many more to follow.

window panes for signaling to a child

children singing like bats

On a field trip to the Oregon World Forestry Center last week, two of my students (ages 7 and 8) called me over to listen to them singing into an echolocation simulator.  From nearby speakers, bat recordings played....

Muir Woods 'fantasy apparition'

is this optic flower a symptom of friendships on the footpath below?
it's tempting to project.

in any case, the 'gem' from a weekend in the Bay Area....

from an exhibition of children listening....

On a field trip to the Oregon World Forestry Center with my students last week, I was thrilled to find an exhibit in a side room dedicated to children's works from the Reggio Emilia school system in Italy.  Much of the show was documentation of young children's work with sound and listening as well as their designs for sound sculptures.  I was reminded to pick up 'The Hundred Languages of Children' again and to keep reading and thinking about how to transpose Reggio practices to the context of what we're doing at Springwater School.