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Zart Extra Term 3 2010

Giant Smoke Ring Generator:
Art & Science link funded by Arts Victoria

Brunswick Secondary College

During 2009 Brunswick Secondary College received a grant from Arts Victoria to fund a project that worked on the connection between art and science, exploring the theme of artist as experimenter and theories of relational aesthetics using the school’s existing science and art curricula.

A whistle sounds, and a giant ball of smoke puffs from a large hexagonal wooden structure, rising and floating over a sea of heads. As the ball of smoke floats forward, it slowly and magically transforms into a perfectly symmetrical smoke ring, nearly 2 metres in diameter. The ring travels forward down the length of the room, a halo of smoke rotating and swirling. It travels 30 metres, the crowd following its trajectory with gasps of astonishment and delight.

We are at the opening of the Next Wave Festival at the Meat Market Arts Centre in North Melbourne, presenting the Giant Smoke Ring Generator, the product of a collaboration between artist Scott Mitchell and a group of students from Brunswick Secondary College through the Artists In Schools program funded by Arts Victoria.

Scott Mitchell is a visual artist and fine art lecturer with over 10 years of exhibition experience. He works regularly on cross-disciplinary projects and has a strong interest in ‘public space’ and communal projects. Scott worked with a Brunswick SC art teacher, Lara Stanovic, to develop innovative projects which looked at the overlaps between art and science, and explored the role of artist as inventor or explorer. One result was a Year 7 “Fantastic Machines” project, in which one class of students designed and built small models of machines ‘not yet invented’ using basic materials such as cardboard tubes, satay sticks, masking tape and paper.

The other arm of Scott’s work involved lunchtime meetings of the ‘Science-Art Club’. The club was open to any student at the school and ran twice weekly for 13 weeks. A core group of roughly 10 students produced objects that engaged with various scientific phenomena. Emphasis was placed on quick production techniques, creating ad-hoc constructions from simple, everyday materials. Within the Science-Art Club students produced small smoke ring machines constructed from cardboard tubes and rubbish bins. Following this initial activity a plan was developed, guided by the artist, to construct a large smoke ring machine. This larger machine required more complex construction techniques. The smoke ring generator was demonstrated to the wider school community during a lunchtime event.

It was fantastic to see the relaxed and open approach Scott took with our students. Scott’s approach to his art practice focuses on community relations, in which the interactions with participants are considered as much an artistic outcome as the objects produced. This was certainly the case with our students, who felt a great degree of ownership and pride in the generator (itself a beautiful wooden object). Lara and Scott produced special t-shirts for the club members featuring a line drawing of the smoke ring generator.

The project required considerable time and commitment from the members of the Art and Science faculties who were involved in supervision, curriculum development and organisation. However it also brought a refreshingly different approach to art making and thinking about what art can be in a school context. We are planning to continue with the ‘Fantastic Machines’ project at Year 7. For those students who, in combination with Scott, ‘performed’ the smoke ring generator for an audience of 800 people at the launch of the Next Wave Festival, it is an experience they will remember for a very long time.

Karen Ferguson
Head of Learning, Arts and Technology
Brunswick Secondary College

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