This April saw the second annual three day workshop for the first year graduate students at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) which runs the program in coordination with the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts (OCAC).
17 students participated this year for the three, three hour sessions. In keeping with the theme of three we broke them into three teams. The challenge was to make a play oriented "thing" that a kid could make most anywhere in the world.
The sessions led through a stage of awareness building and materials gathering, into a drawing and designing session with discussion of the materials they scrounged from within the building and within a five city block radius. Next came forming and fabrication with the ensuing tests and failures (also known as elimination sucesses). Finally each team presented to the class and demonstrated what they made while describing how the creation is a useful play thing and can be made of found materials by kids.
and here is some video to prove it: The Cart, The Swing and The Tetherball