Petri (fied)

Here's an idea I've been developing... along the idea of the Landscape in a Box.
My wife is an Art educator, and works with groups from Early Years up to Adults, in several local Primary and Secondary schools in Norfolk.
We have a local 'scrap store' which is based in Reepham, Norfolk.
It is called SCRAP BOX, and is in an industrial unit which you would drive past if you didn't know it was there...
It's a veritable treasure trove for crafty and creative types. From their website:

Mini-Scrapbox has a wide variety of resources :

• Paper, Folders, Coloured Card, Tubing, Calendars, Wallpaper etc
• Fabrics: large selection, various sizes, patterns, textures and colours.
• Zips, Reels of Cotton and Wool, Foam, Wood, Plastic
• Paint brushes and rollers
• We can get one of a thing or 1,000, and regularly obtain fresh resources to stimulate experimentation

Play is:
sticking, cutting, drawing, designing, folding… in fact whatever you want play to be.

Play is important to everyone:
• Young people learn through it.
• Older people share their play experiences with younger people.

Mini-scrapbox provides:
Material resources at low cost enabling play to happen;
1) affordably
2) experimentally, participating with others
3) indoors and outdoors


A recent purchase was a lot of petri dishes. This is how my wife used them: filled with small objects for close observational drawing, and of course to protect the contents.
My idea was to grow a culture... but of course a culture in geographical terms, like a miniature representation of cultural globalisation, or the culture of a country, or a learning culture for a school.
How would you use a petri dish for creative geography ?
I've already since seen being used stacked to show contour patterns, for example...

Image: Alan Parkinson

Comments