Magical Magnetic Storyboards
Over the past few months, our team of artists and collaborators have been working on a slightly edited project with Lodestar Charter School in Oakland to develop a set of mini-exhibits that can be used in schools, libraries and small museums. Due to the impact of covid-19, which has stopped us from testing in person with students at Lodestar, we’ve been thinking about how these project ideas can be adapted for kids and adults to tinker at home.
One example is a project developed by guest artist Thailan When who has been working to create a DIY version of her artistic creations using found images, simple tools/techniques and a lot of imagination. This expansive storytelling kit can be used on a refrigerator or whiteboard to make a one-of-a-kind museum style installation. In this step-by-step video she explains the idea of the project and gives helpful prompts about how to use the tool!
The micro-exhibit makes use of a couple fun tools like a lamination machine, clear thermal laminating pouches and stackable magnetic pushpins that you can use to create a image collage with depth. And of course. you’ll need to find a bunch of compelling images from old coffee table books or your favorite used magazines. Try to mix everyday objects with fantastical materials for unique collages.
When we get back to testing this creation with students at Lodestar Charter School there are a lot of prompts and provocations that we’d like to try. Some examples are asking them to pick out random images that tell a story, share narratives in a exquisite corpse style game, explain scientific or history lessons or create mood boards for real or imagined ventures. There’s really no limit to how you can use this fun and flexible tool! We’ll be posting a more detailed instructable for the project in the next few weeks but until then it would be awesome to see people trying out the activity and sharing their creations. Let us know if you make a magical magnetic storyboard at your kitchen table/refrigerator tinkering station and share the results of your experiments.
Prototyping time and R&D with Lodestar Charter School students for this project was made possible through the generous support of Cognizant “Making the Future” grant