Garbage Is Magic
A class about community, improv, garbage, and making incredible things.
“Garbage Is Magic” is, on a “big picture” level, about learning to work within constraints as a way to foster creativity. How much can you do with not much? On a smaller picture level, it’s about repurposing materials (and/or using free or inexpensive materials) as part of one’s artistic practice. On a “this is what goes in the course catalog” level, it’s a course about working with others to create artistic interventions that foster sociability.
Where did this idea come from?
In my “Designing Online Courses” class, we learned about The Marshmallow Challenge as a way to teach groups to work together, and rapidly prototype ideas until they found a solution. I had some thoughts on this exercise.
Improv teaches a lot of the same skills the Marshmallow Challenge is meant to - the importance of play, rolling with changes, and staying open to suggestions - saying "yes, and" to your partner(s). Teaching students to approach any task with this attitude would allow them to iterate through loads of ideas in short amounts of time.
The requirement to build things out of unusual materials (like marshmallows and spaghetti) fit in with ideas I began to develop in my Dramatic Arts thesis (reusing old/cheap/obsolete technology), as well as the way I just generally like to build things. I have made a lot of theater props out of what some people might consider garbage.
After a short bit of thinking (by the end of that class session) my plans for Garbage Is Magic began to take shape.
A slide projector prop I made out of cardboard, a flower pot, and parchment paper. A small (borrowed) pico projector was hidden inside so the audience could see the images the actors were discussing.
An example activity:
Recycled Materials Puppet Show
Students have 45 minutes to make puppets out of cardboard, and improvise a puppet show based on the roll of “Story Cubes” (dice with images on them to spark story ideas).
Key ideas
- Play with a purpose strengthens the sense of community in each group (and by extension, the whole class).
- Students will see that approaching a difficult task with the right attitude makes that task not feel difficult.
- Because they’re restricted to cardboard and a pen, students should see what they can accomplish by working with constraints, and that minimalism can sometimes be a powerful tool.
Instructor presence permeates the entire experience.
It’s not easy to have a recognizable voice, so congrats to you. It feels approachable, and students will know that you are invested in them and their success.
Instructor Feedback
The entire course is written in my conversational voice as a means of holding students' attention, as well as helping those who are nervous about improv to feel more at ease. My intention is to create a sandbox where students are free to experiment without fearing failure - in fact, failure is a welcome part of the process.
The graphics for each module reflect my written voice, and extend the sense of play visually.
This course is so much fun. I’ve never seen Canvas (or garbage) look this good.
Instructor Feedback
See for yourself:
The header for the final project module.
A lesson in which we discuss our experiences throughout the class.
The graphic that accompanies the final reflection paper.
Where should I go next?
What does the future hold?
Image credits
The (unmodified) robot image that signifies my continued exploration and eventual takeover of the instructional design universe is from the Space Flat Galaxy Radio Icon Set by Chanut is Industries and is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Unported License.
All images from the Garbage Is Magic Canvas site were created by me, using Canva.