"The emotions of Mother Nature are ever changing. When angry, she takes it out with wild and stormy winds. She takes it out with wild and stormy winds. She has gentle winds, too. They vary from season to season: in Spring, there is the peaceful wind; in Summer, the fragant wind; in Autumn, the golden wind; in Winter, the hauling wind. What Mother Nature plays is unavoidable to human beings. Mankind should let Mother Nature show her emotions."
Zhang WenzhiWORKSHOP:
To build the kite is not the goal of the workshop but to compose and raise the poem and explore the medium to send the message. The poem is written on a kite or kites after a process of research that helps to find and express to the 'other world’ that dreams are alive. The creative writing is based on the topic chosen.
Sending messages and poems into the wind: 'Our Voices Rising':
Poems flown together to produce an orchestrated effort to send messages to the community and beyond.
The kites will have aeolian instruments (pigeon whistles) to partake of the air and one of the kites or balloon will have a video camera attached to take the point of view of the poem facing the audience. The kites will be of different sizes.
How to write the poem:
Participants are asked what their dreams are, what they missed and how they would like things to be.
Then once a sentence is written down we begin a process of describing the details around so as to bring life to it. We do not list things but verbal tools are provided. The research varies depending on age and purpose. Found and source materials are often combined. Then we write the poem and it is later transferred to the kite. The tail of the kite is part of the poem and we learn how to place a poem within its reading margins.
Topics:
Depending on the group the approach may vary. The project can be used to bring awareness to the community, classroom or institution on issues such as environment, indigenous rights and community life.
E.g. of a poem written on the issue of deforestation:
Far away from there
I need a tree to grow this height
Making the kites:
Depending on age and project at hand there are different models. Some only take 20 minutes to make. Others are ready-made or in the case of gigantic kites, many people become involved in the process.
How to fly the kites:
Pigeon whistles, flutes and 'singing' bows are attached to each kite to create an orchestrated sound. There is a ceremony to raise the poems with musicians. Depending on the size of the project a balloon with a camera attached can be used to take pictures from the ‘poem’s point of view’.
The kites/poems are exhibited before being flown for everyone to read. The exhibition also displays documented data of the different stages children have been engaged in.
There is a side project run by each participating group:
- to contact their local media to make them aware of the project and invite them to the “fly date”.
- to submit a time-line of events for this project.
- to keep records of the event and to produce a film.