The GIANT workshop
By Sam Buxton and Roger Ibars
ECAL (Switzerland) May 2005
From Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th

It was tough to make this happen but we tried to set up conditions in which they would achieve this. On Monday, before introducing the project brief, we asked the students to produce drawings based around a _ scale outline of themselves and draw GIANT elements around their body form on the wall. These could be anything they imagined, structural forms, energy fields etc. The result was a sprawling graffiti of bodies and shapes.
We later introduced the project with stories and images from ancient tales and rituals, the classic film The Wicker Man, pagan rituals, effigies of demon kings, the burning man festival, sculpture by Anthony Gormley, Gullivers travels and greek mythology.
On top of all the Giant references that we brought to the students, we had a real great story!! The last day of the workshop, was Friday the 13th, a day so infamous that became a synonym for ill fortune when King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars in chains, charged with blasphemy. Hundreds of Templars suffered excruciating tortures intended to force 'confessions,' and more than a hundred died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake."
A pagan workshop just started towards its festivity on Friday the 13th!
Also, We showed the one day barn building scene from the film Witness to show how they should collaborate….
It felt like we created excitement but also confusion, this was not so bad.(text by Sam Buxton)

NB: Some interesting sketches from monday morning.
Reblog from Social Robots