CREATIVE TASK SHEETS This is a collection of creative task-sheets created for the Rumpus Room Young Activist group & anyone else who wishes to do them! The more the merrier! They are part of the ‘Adapt & Act’ digital magazine and the series of online workshops we are running throughout May. If you complete any of the tasks we would love to see what you have created. We shall put some of the artwork created in the magazine, even if you are unable to join the workshops! If you don’t wish to share, that’s okay too. We hope that they bring some entertainment and fulfillment during these strange times. The tasks are created for ages 12-25, but sure all ages could enjoy them. All the tasks are guides, iif you want to change things up you can. Please email the document, or scan/take a photo of the work you have made (if you would to share it) to rumpusroomteam@gmail.com Please email before the 12th June if you would like it to potentially feature in the magazine! There are six task-sheets in total, you can do as many you like, or just one.
Created by Rosemarie Geary & Lucy Grainge Design by Lucy Grainge Thank you for all your support Nadia & Rachel
Rumpus Room is an artist-led organisation dedicated to collaborative practice with children, young people and families in order to challenge how we learn, play and make art. Rumpus Room proposes to investigate and open up new modes of collaborative working that are inclusive and accessible, and encourage risk and experimentation, placing children, young people and families at the centre of collaboration with artists whilst supporting a mutual exchange of experiences working across practices. Rumpus Room Studio HQ is in Govanhill in Glasgow, Scotland. Find us on instagram: @rumpusroom_
Task sheet 1.1
Mark Making
Take any size piece of paper, 2 different tools for mark making (i.e pen and pencil or 2 different coloured pens) and something to time yourself with.
1. 30 secs / closing your eyes draw the motion of water, don’t stop making marks, you can pause but try & keep it as continuous as can you can, think about the route it takes, running down a waterfall or a stream. think about the pressure changing with your pen, sometimes the flow is gentle, sometimes it’s gushing really fast. maybe a mini whirl pool forms.
Some of these marks may just look like lots of scribbles! They are more about the action you make, and how you feel, than what is on the papper, but you may also get a pleasant surprise.
2. 30 secs / closing your eyes on top of that drawing take a different colour or tool and draw the motion of wind. if this is hard to visualize, think about a leaf blowing in the wind. it does swirls and flips, mark its its journey on the page.
3. 30 secs / closing your eyes draw a storm with marks, try and channel the energy of a storm with your marks. maybe you make lots of noise with your pencil. maybe you can rub out some of the marks you’ve made to make them fainter, or create less dense areas.
repeat twice (or more) second time open your eyes
Extra activity Add words around your marks, to describe them or maybe write your thoughts down around them.
Task sheet 1.2 2 mins Do a line drawing without taking your pen off the page of an object in the room you are in. Do this for 3 objects. Then try objects in another room.
Mark Making
Find a plant or a tree you can look at each day. Redraw it for 5 mins each day for a week - notice how things change - do the leaves bend or change colour, do they have any visitors - how does it differ depending what time of the day you oberserve, make any notes around it, and the differences you see.
Create a series of textures and rubbings from around you house. ie. place a piece of paper over a cheese grater or a pineapple, and rub with a crayon or a pencil to reveal the textures.
30 secs Draw a self portrait. Without looking at paper. Repeat x2 (second time using non-dominant hand)
Draw the area around the shape of an object, instead of the object itself. Shade in parts and consider the light and dark areas.
Task sheet 2 Notes on a pandemic. Have you found yourself noticing things you usually don’t? A particular bird song? Something growing ? A strange noise? Shadows from objects you wouldn’t usually notice?
Pandemic poems. List all of the things you can think of that have grown in the past month. Your hair, anxiety levels, daises, sense of communities, societies knowledge of pandemics, tik tok followers - get it all out. Turn them into haikus. Send us your photos, video clips or recordings with one or two lines explaining what is! (we’ll try and put them altogether)
‘‘Haiku” is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku is a 3 line poem where the first and last lines have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme. this one is inspired by Split Bananna! @splitbananaaa
Headline for the future Write a news headline for the future You could chop up and combine old newspaper headlines also then add in your own words. Year 2050 Year 2100 Year 3000
Task sheet 3
Make a Protest Poster Posters are a very powerful tool for communicating a message quickly. We want you to make your own protest poster about the climate. Think about what words you would like to have on it (if any), and will there be an image? What will you make your poster out of? Do you want to shock/scare/make people laugh/feel reflective? Maybe a different emotion you would like them to feel? How will it grab attention?
Make sure you send us your finished posters, we’d love to see!
Put your poster in your window for all to see or keep it safe for your next Climate march! You can find out about your nearest Climate Strike in Scotland here: climatestrike.scot
Task sheet 4 .1
Protest Art
Photo: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
This is an image of the Flow Country, northern Scotland. This is Europe’s largest blanket bog. The bog, also known as peatland, stores a huge amount of carbon. The Flow Country’s peat bogs alone store about 400 million tonnes of carbon – if the bog is damaged it will release this carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. It’s really important to keep this carbon in the ground to fight global warming. At the moment the area’s economic development agency, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) want to build a rocket launchpad next to it. Scientists and local people say this would be very destructive to the bog which has taken 10.000 years to form! It’s been estimated that the carbon stored in Scotland’s peatlands represents 100 years’ worth of the country’s emissions from burning fossil fuels: it would be disastrous if it was released. As well as that this area is home to plant and animal life that can live in very few other places in the world. It is so important that this place is protected, for all of our futures!
Using the images and information on this page and the next one, complete one or more of these tasks: a) Draw or paint a plant or animal which lives in the bog b) Use the setting of the Flow County or one of the plants or animals that lives there as inspiration for a short story c) Write a letter to the area or the Highlands and Islands Enterprise d) Write a poem incorporating one of the names of the images
Task sheet 4.2
Protest Art
Below are some plants and animals that live in the peatlands.
Sphagnum moss creates peatlands. They die but don’t fully decay because of the watery conditions in the bog. They become the next layers of peat. Like lots of plants the moss uses carbon dioxide to make food. When they die the carbon dioxide they hold is stored in the peat. So more moss, less greenhouse gases. Sphagnum moss
Great sundew (photo: Sam Udale-Smith)
Common barn owl. (photo: Ben Andrew)
At this website you will find information and photographs from the area. https://www.theflowcountry.org.uk/flow-facts/
Task sheet 5.1 This ritual centers on the recording of the now extinct Kauai O’o bird of Hawaii. This ritual is not about making yourself feel bad, sad or guilty, it’s about letting yourself feel the way you feel about climate change and species extinction. Channel those feelings into creating something that other people can relate to. Before you start make sure you have the recording below ready to play and that you’ve skipped any ads so you won’t be disturbed.
Rituals
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nDRY0CmcYNU
Step 1: If you can try and find a space and time for half an hour where you won’t be disturbed, inside or outside. Find a way to feel present. Notice what’s around you, how your body feels in the space. What can you hear, what can you smell? What are you touching? Step 2: You can be sitting up or lying down, by yourself or with someone, whatever feels right to you. Be ready to listen deeply, to notice where you feel the sounds in your body, how they make you feel. If you have a speaker experiment with placing it at different parts of your body. You’re listening to a sound that has disappeared from the world outside, think about that. Play the recording. (link above)
Rituals a series of actions or type of behaviour regularly and invariably followed by someone
Task sheet 5. 2 Step 3: When you are ready, make notes. Write whatever comes to mind. Anything at all, just keep writing as fast as you can. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar. If you can’t think of anything, that’s ok, listen again until you do. If you are seeing images rather than thinking words that’s ok too, draw them! STEP 4: Repeat the ritual over two or more days until you feel you have enough notes to work with. Pick out lines and sentences that you like and work with them until you have a poem or a piece of writing.
Optional recordings: If you want to try different sounds here are links to articles containing the recorded sound of extinct or endangered animals:
https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/03/12/ bird-songs-disappearing-mass-audubon https://www.mic.com/articles/144643/ascientist-recorded-the-bone-chillingsound-of-all-the-world-s-creatures-goingextinct
*The inspiration for this worksheet comes from CAConrad. Learn more about their amazing, unique Work and approach to poetry here: https://player.fm/series/between-the-coversconversations-with-writers-in-fictionnonfiction-poetry/caconrad-resurrectextinct-vibration Read their guidelines for creating your own ritual here: https://somaticpoetryexercises. blogspot.com/2018/08/somatic-poetryrituals-basics-in-3-parts.html
https://www.washington.edu/ news/2012/07/31/critically-endangeredwhales-sing-like-birds-new-recordingshint-at-rebound-with-audio/
Task sheet 6.1
Detoxify
Cryptococcus neoformans fungi Discovered in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor five years after the explosion. The fungus feeds on radiation there that is fatal to our bodies. It converts Radiation to other types of energy that aren’t harmful to us. An incredible example of how nature is fighting back!
Detoxify: remove toxic substances from, become free of harmful substances.
Read more here: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1238320/chernobyl-news-radiation-nasa-chernobyl-nuclear-reactor-fun
Using the image above as inspiration complete one or more of these tasks: • • • •
research and write paint/draw/sketch write a poem or a story respond in anyway you like!
Think like a plant, detoxify :-)
Task sheet 6.2 Snake Plant/Mother in law’s tongue Removes dangerous toxins like formaldehyde and nitrogen oxides from the air. If you lived in a sealed room (no air getting in) with six to eight of these plants, they would release enough oxygen for you to breathe. They would keep you alive!
Read more here: https://www.rollingnature.com/blogs/ news/snake-plant-everything-you-need-to-know
Using the image above as inspiration complete one or more of these tasks: • • • •
research and write paint/draw/sketch write a poem or a story respond in anyway you like!
Think like a plant, detoxify :-)
Some inspirational people and climate acitivists that inspire us & you should check out Adapt
Workers Art Collective
Adapt is a climate club and creative organisation, using design, humour and contemporary culture to communicate climate issues in a new way.
Collective of leftist artists & writers producing work as part of grassroots movements, primarily on unceded Wurundjeri country.
https://www.adapt-climate.world/ insta: @adapt_____/
insta: @workersartcollective/
Young Friends of the Earth ‘We’re campaigning for a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the Earth’s resources. ‘
https://www.foeeurope.org/yfoee https://foe.scot/ Insta: @yfoes/ Rhythms of Resistance A network of action samba bands, playing for all kinds of socio-political and ecological causes
https://www.rhythms-of-resistance.org/
Queer Youth Art Collective New youth group for queer creatives aged 18-25 in central London.
insta: @queeryouthartcollective GAS Print Collective Printing collective that inhabits Glasgow Autonomous Space (GAS). GAS is an autonomous social centre that provides space for groups working to fight capitalism and other forms of oppression insta: @gas.print
Corita Kent Corita Kent was an American artist, activist, educator, and former Catholic nun. Corita Kent’s joyful, subversive and – to some – controversial screen prints revolutionised typographic design, challenged the Roman Catholic Church and offered a bold new perspective on misogyny, racism and war.
https://corita.org/ We hope you enjoyed some of the activites, let us know which ones you did & remember to send us pictures! Take care. Lucy & Rosemarie