Disco Rhino Dances All Day – Fossick at Lincoln
This past week we have had the honor of hosting the Fossick Project at Lincoln School. The creators of Fossick, Marta del Grandi and Cecilia Valagussa, worked with our Grade 4 and Grade 5 students to create a smaller version of their visual and audio performance.
The Fossick Project aims to produce artistic performances about the relationship between men and nature to suggest a reflection on environmental issues and raise awareness around urgent causes. Illustrator Cecilia Valagussa and singer-songwriter Marta del Grandi, the workshop facilitators, met in Belgium in 2013, while attending their Master studies at the School of Arts. Their collaboration started in 2016, is based on a mutual inspiration and on a common talent for storytelling. Here are two samples of their work. A Journey Into the World and Swim to Me.
Cecilia applies an analogical approach to create a live animation, by using an overhead projector on which she places different materials like flour, leaves, everyday things, handmade props and uses many techniques such as cutout, drawing, etching. Marta’s voice, unique for its versatility and endless shades, moves effortlessly on the compositions that she writes with samples, synthesizers and acoustic instruments on Ableton Live.
Their workshop focused on storytelling with sounds and images and challenge the students to free their creativity, imagination, and use their knowledge in a practical way. The theme was wildlife conservation and the relationship between men and the earth beneath. The kids were asked to write a story collectively, collect sound samples, write melodies and lyrics, draw characters, their environment and define their interaction. The workshop ended with a little performance. Our students set their focus on endangered animals in Nepal.
Day 1 – Research and Sketching
Day 2 – Songwriting Starts
Day 3 – Adding Movement to Animals and Orchestration to the Song
Day 4 – Finishing Animals and Rehearsing Song Memorized
Day 5 – Performance!
