Students document the making of 4th-graders’ ‘dream machines’

The Dog Distractor, the Homeless Helper, the Imagine Brush and the Peppermint Snowman are inventions dreamed up by Bloomington fourth-graders and brought to life by students from IU and the Hoosier Hills Career Center. Media School students documented the collaboration.

Fourth-graders across the Monroe County Community School Corporation competed in the MyMachine Challenge, which asked students to invent a “dream machine” and create a prototype. Students in Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design senior lecturer Jon Racek’s Intensive Seminar in Comprehensive Design class refined four of the designs and created more sophisticated prototypes, and Hoosier Hills Career Center students built the machines. Students in senior lecturer Susanne Schwibs’ Advanced Documentary Production Workshop created documentaries about the projects.

The students began filming when each idea was only a plan on paper and followed the machines’ progress throughout the semester.

“This collaboration has been such a good challenge for students because they’re getting great, real-life planning and documentary experience,” Schwibs said.

“After learning about the fourth-graders’ project, we really wanted to go deeper into the process of non-traditional education and how a dream is made,” Fox said.

Students were in charge of coordinating film times, interviews with community members, and video and sound edits. Sophomore Paige Falcon said the project provided her with a diverse set of experiences. She said her group and others were learning and adapting as they went.

“I went into it not knowing much about the documentary filmmaking progress, and when you’re filming a documentary you have to plan so much but also do things on the fly,” Falcon said.

Another aspect of this project that made it exciting for students was the wide range of interview subjects. Fox said her interviews with fourth-graders were the most fun, but also a learning experience. She said she has usually just worked with other college-age students on film projects.

“The biggest thing for us was making this project about the kids, and getting to interview them was so much fun,” Fox said.

The physical, working dream machines were unveiled at the end of April.

“Being filmed and clearly documenting the process has been neat,” Pillar said. “It has really helped the younger students feel really important.”

Source: The Media School