Imaginary City Project I

session # 3 - 12 weeks

The first four weeks of the project were devoted to research, discussion, and group formation. We began the project by describing our route to Upstairs: what did we notice on the way to class? Later, we shared something that we know about cities and something that we didn’t know, which prompted a discussion that lead us to ask questions like: What makes a city a city? What kinds of things are and aren’t in cities? What is it like to inhabit a city?
Everyone in the class lived in New York but we felt like the city was still a mystery in many ways. Where does the food come from? Where does the trash go? Why are there laws? How is New York different from other cities?

In the class pictured we morphed into various animals and plants.

Warming Up

Class began with a fun warm-up to activate our bodies. These warm-ups come primarily from dance and the theater.

What we know and don't
know about cities:
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What we know:

and don't know :

Not in the city - video still

Blue Drawings

After looking at images of many different cities, both actual and imagined we sat down together to make drawings inspired by what we had seen and talked about. We collected the drawings which were presented the next week to each of the three classes and discussed them in turn, pointing out features that interested us and puzzling over what the drawings might represent.

The Sun and the Moon

Sun and Moon drawing conversation transcript:

Gavin: Can we talk about this drawing?

Julia: This? Is everybody cool with that?

Everyone: Yes

Julia: That’s yours [Sabrina] do you want to say something about it?

Gavin: Well my question was … why if its morning and the sun is out, is the moon out too?

Sabrina: Because the sun comes up and the moon wants to be warm for a little while so they are together

Ashleigh: I think it’s because…

Gavin: How about the other part of the world… when it’s nighttime I think that there’s no moon because the moon is facing the other side

Ashleigh And I think that…

Sabrina: The sun is always out, it just gets little

Ashleigh: I think that the moon wants to come out more because he’s jealous of the sun. Well because in school we learned about this legend of the Native Americans. There’s this boy and he was called He Who Walks Over the Sky and he turns into the sun so his father is very proud of him but then the other boy, his brother, got very jealous so he turned into the moon. So I think like in the story the moon is jealous of the sun.

Julia: So you see a story in this … she sees a story in this

Sabrina: So did the brother turn into the moon or do people who are jealous turn into the moon?

Ashleigh: There’s no other people who are jealous

Joana: No, did you understand what she said? She asked did the brother turn into the moon or do people who are jealous turn into moons?

Ashleigh: Oh, the two, only the two boys turned into the sun and the moon.

Sabrina: Is it his brother or the people of the moons?

Ashleigh: Oh the brother.

Sabrina: Oh maybe they are brothers

Ashleigh: They are brothers

Sabrina: I know! But maybe they are brothers that sometimes come to live together

Joana: Sometimes we have the moon and the sun in the sky

Julia: At the same time

Joana: At the same time… we see them both there

Julia: It sounds like they turn into the moon because of both brothers jealousy a little bit

Sabrina: They want to visit

Julia: Each other?

Sabrina: Yeah

Julia: Ahhh

Ashleigh: The boy called He Who Walks Over the Sky he’s the son… I think he was very nice to his brother but the other brother was very jealous because of his father so he turned into the moon and I think that he wants to stay out more because he is very jealous and he wants to impress his father more

Julia: Hmm

Sabrina: That’s not nice

Julia: No it's not…

Gavin: That’s... not nice

Dragonville ?? Art City
ytiC drawkcaB Chicken Wing City
Sleep City

In small groupings we co-created and projected imaginary cities and described how the inhabitants of these cities walk, talk, and behave. In turn, the whole class spent time inhabiting each of these cities together.

India presents her city Dragonville (to the right) which has a particularly elaborate set of rules. She is reading from the cities' Rule Book.

imaginary city: collective drawings

Building Begins - week 5

F
L

O

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One Saturday morning the toilet broke and water flooded the city. Luckily, Sabrina and Gavin rose to the occasion and built a surprisingly beautiful dam in no time using imaginative strategies to deal with an authentic problem facing the city.

Temporary City- week 9

Because we share our classroom with many other people the city had to be assembled, disassembled, and reassembled for each class during the building period. This process allowed for multiple connections between elements and gave the organization of the city a productive dynamism but also made it difficult for the children to identify with the city as a complex whole. Once all the buildings of all three classes where connected and seen as a city (photo below), Ashleigh wrote a manifesto!

MAKECITY MANIFESTO

I I I I I I I I I I I J A I L I I I I I I I I I I I I

The city's jail was initiated as an enactment by one student and in no time everyone was involved - even some parents! This was a particularly interesting event for us as the primary aim of this class was to empower the kids to direct the trajectory of their education through their decisions about how the city ought to be constructed [and, in consequence, how the day to day activities of the class ought to be organized]. The jail was a moment along this trajectory that changed, through performance, the real dynamics of the classroom and expressed the degree of power achieved by the children in the Saturday morning class. As teachers we were excited to see the kids able to explore their capacity to self-direct and navigate authority in a playful environment.