Mallya Aditi International School visited the Mathru School for the Deaf and Differently Abled to collaborate. Together, they painted murals and crafted sculptures. The Jaaga Foundation facilitated this as a way to exchange and learn about the multiple ways of living that coexist. A team of students documented and compiled the entire process.
DAY 1:
The day began with introductions, followed by exploring the campus and time spent enjoying the playground. Afterward, the group moved to the project room, where the concept of sculpture was introduced. The core learning process was then documented as the students from Mathru taught how to sign their names. The next activity involved gathering objects like rocks and flowers to create impressions in clay, experimenting with textures, shapes, and colors. The students then learned how to make hand molds of sign language gestures, dipping their hands in silicone to initiate molding. After a short break, a prototype was ready, which would serve as the base for making the molds the following day.
DAY 2:
The day began with a short ten-minute meditation to connect with the surroundings. This emphasized how long 10 minutes of silence could feel and fostered empathy with the students involved in the project. Following this, the team entered the project room to paint MDF alphabet. Work then progressed to creating the mounds, making silicone molds for the sculptures, and preparing sandstone ash. The documentation team conducted interviews, allowing students from both Aditi and Mathrj to share their thoughts and emotions. Photography work continued, focusing on natural light to capture the environment of the school. There were challenges in communication with the deaf students during the interviews, but those were eventually overcome. Overall, it was a productive and fulfilling day.
Painting the walls in a colorful gradient provided the backdrop, followed by the creation of tangram murals using cardboard stencils. Experimentation with light, shadows, and angles in photography took 15-25 minutes to grasp the importance of lighting in the art form. It was a labor-intensive but rewarding day, with significant progress achieved.
DAY 3:
The day began with a 10-minute meditation session, fostering empathy for the students involved and offering a moment of gratitude for life's blessings. Work then continued on creating silicone molds and preparing sandstone ash for sculpting. The sculpting team made significant progress, with the principal and administrators visiting to participate by creating sculptures of their own hands and observing the productive efforts. They also contributed to sculptures used for a stop-motion animation of "OurShaala."
The mural team made impressive strides by taping the guidelines for the tangram images and painting between them to illustrate the themes of morning, day, and night. Meanwhile, the documentation team worked on a video capturing the collective efforts at the school. Additionally, artsy QR codes were created using AI, and basic sign language phrases were recorded to be included on the school’s website. The team also produced several time-lapses to better showcase the hard work being done.
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