FLUTTER down to ViVID this year
If you find yourself in Circular Quay between the 26 May and 17 June 2023, make the time to wander across to ‘Gateway’ in Alfred Street.
There, you’ll be greeted with a roost of mechanical butterflies, their wings catching the light and reflecting back hundreds of different vibrant shades in the ‘FLUTTER’ exhibition.
The exhibition was created by Skunk Control, a Melbourne-based design group who create visually engaging works and immersive experiences, sparking wonder in their audiences and providing opportunities to make new discoveries. Sitting somewhere at the intersection of technology, design and art, Skunk Control uses their training in engineering, science and education to make their works interactive and impactful.
Why is FLUTTER so special for our Trinity community? If you look closely at some of the butterflies, you might notice the artistic flair of some of our students from the Junior and Preparatory Schools.
During a collaboration between the Junior School’s Green Patch and Visual Arts, Skunk Control helped students to create their very own giant arthropod.
Throughout the experience, students learnt about the theories of light and different ways of producing colour. To do this, they got up close and personal to understand the microstructures that allow the delicate wings of butterflies to reflect and absorb light to create some of the most intricate artworks found in the insect world.
It required a steady hand to add colourful filters to the cut-out wings and a keen eye to construct butterfly bodies by matching correct parts. Skunk Control then took the wings back to Melbourne where they were laminated to keep the filters in place.
In the Preparatory School, participating in Skunk Control’s collaborative workshop formed part of the unit of inquiry, ‘How the World Works’, where Year 4 have been inquiring through the International Baccalaureate Primary Year Programme (PYP) Concepts of Form, Function and Causation into the central idea: Harnessing energy advances society. Through this inquiry they have been exploring light, heat and electrical energy, as well as light, movement, and contact and non-contact forces.
The long history of ViVID has given students a great catalogue to look back on and explore for inspiration to understand how science and art are used together to evoke different emotions and create unique experiences for viewers. Some students have even made it to ViVID to see their own butterflies in their new home!
If you can’t make it to ViVID this year, you can catch some of the butterflies in the Green Patch as part of the Junior School’s Festival of the Arts in August.
