IB MYP Process Journal: The Dream Generator

My thank-yous

Thank you, to my school, for allowing me to splatter paint all over a wall in its premise 14 x 7 feet huge and trusting me to make it into something swashbuckling-ly new.

Thank you, all my classmates, Isha, Naiya Anahita, Aleena, Faraha, Pathik, Poras, Abhijit, Vijay, Sagar, Salomi, Konarch and Harpreet for sharing your dreams all of you, and fueling my purpose in doing this project.

Thank you singers of my favourite songs, food, wind, wild colours and Things I Cannot Name, I don't know why you helped ‌ but you did.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments and appreciation of the DiGi, and thank you, DiGi, my little invisible friend.

Introduction How can we see life through all the mundane everyday things, but as something worthy of looking forward to?

Is it actually safe to dream?

It made me feel terrible to admit I was having a terrible time.

But the word "dreams" has always aroused an abnormal amount of enthusiasm in me. I seemed to be going through an extremely depressive and workless phase back in the month of August, wondering, like I'm sure many teenage-someones like me have done before, what the point of work is.

All I could understand of work was that it could never be done; all I could consistently keep doing was daydream. So, half out of rashness, half to give myself hope, I came up with the idea of The Dream Generator.

The actual idea of doing a mural based on my classmates' dreams was a suggestion from an imaginative friend of mine. First I thanked her, then tossed the idea around in my head until it fully formed itself.

The reason I chose to do it was I hoped that looking at other people's dreams would help me come out of my own knots. Or I wanted to see materialised a feeling I'd only imagined myself having, and the more people there were to prove this feeling existed, the better.

This is what the plan came to be like: to conduct imagination-stimulating workshops with my classmates so they could tell me about their aspirations, find the perfect Wall, investigating mediums I could use with the help of Anil sir (my art teacher) and/or learning to use them, making the rough plan of the painting, and then kick starting it.

And although I've never really painted a Wall before, for a person who loves art and usually takes all kinds of reckless unthinking risks in it, I did not for once mind experimenting with the mediums I had or would get and looked forward to painting away.

The planning and dreaming At first, I doodled and created both manually and digitally (thanks to my simultaneously having learnt a splendid new software in technology class—Macromedia fireworks), a very special round and small creature on spindly legs and peculiar habits, like: singing, drawing, dancing (better then me, I must say) and when extremely happy, bursting out splashes of colour. I called her The Dream Generator or more affectionately, the DiGi. I decided I was going to talk to my art teacher, Anil sir about materials, get to know the dreams of my classmates, and then paint.

The truth was that I didn't know how my wall was to turn out, and stumbled upon the more weighty tasks I had to do as and when they came.

So, when it did happen, my entire personal project, what with the data collection, its synthesis, getting the wall plastered when I learnt it needed to be, applying the premium wall putty (by myself! I'm so proud I did that!), my satisfactorily being inspired, then actually painting it (I still can't get over the fact that it is … you know ::excitedly catching breath:: actually done!) was what I'm glad to call a tremendously long and detailed process.

Getting others to dream I thought about how I would conduct my workshops with my class, and Ideas Obediently Came. I wrote them down until I decided that I had enough of them to show my guide, whom to I excitedly sprang them during one lunch. She liked them, although it took a few more weeks before a time was set and I could hold a workshop after school with my class.

WORKSHOP I consisted of the following activities: Experts Everyone has to make a list of all the things they think they are experts at. Ten minutes.

I did this activity, I think, because it helps to have one's self esteem high and think highly of one's self before being asked to go swinging far into the future (see next activity), or perhaps even to know what they'd like to do with these wonderful expert qualities.

Visualisation We all think we want a certain thing, but it takes time to be sure of it. Think of what you've always wanted to do so far. Can you be sure you'll be doing this – and exactly this when you're older?

1.

2.

3.

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5.

Everybody closes their eyes Everybody thinks about the thing they want (to do when they grow up).

Everybody visualises it and visualises his/ herself doing it.

They draw/ write about it on a sheet.

Once done, everybody gives me his or her sheet.

Reason: realization / clarification of mind/ my being able to relate with them Why this is relevant: This helps me put myself into their shoes (if such a thing is possible). To make this project real, even the most abstract thought or words count.

To infinity This activity is directly connected to the experts one.

1.

Everyone sits in a circle.

2.

On the backs of their expert list, everyone writes their name and passes to the next person. This page has to be folded into two columns.

3.

In the 1st column, the next person has to write a thing this person is possibly an expert at and a possible future profession for that person in the 2nd column, fold the horizontal bit he/she wrote on and

pass it on. This goes on till all the sheets return back to the person they belong to.

4.

They read it out, share it or discuss it with others if they like.

5.

Everybody gives me his or her sheet, and I return a photocopy of it to them the following morning!!!

Reason: It's fun to know what we think of each other, considering we've known our classmates for such a good amount of time, and, besides, it's more about getting more ideas about what we could do.

Note: Harpreet, my class teacher, participated in these activities too, regardless that she's a teacher (you can still have a dream, right?) and we suggested imaginative professions for her as she also suggested some great ones for us!

WORKSHOP II, which was held many weeks later, consisted of two more activities.

In the first activity, everyone was asked to list down all their major/ favourite achievements in life.

Visualisation Part II Then, as I laid out paint, brushes and felt tips in the middle of the floor, everyone around the room was asked to imagine and draw a sort of representation of how they would be living their life many years from now, doing whatever they wanted. As soon as someone was done, the rest o the class stopped for a bit and the person that finished spoke and explained their painting to them.

It was in fact what you could call an extension of the earlier visualisation activity, only with much better results.

Some of my classmates did not want to talk about their drawings, however, so I asked them to write about them behind instead. Later, I asked everyone to do the same.

I noticed a few definite changes in the way my classmates behaved by the second workshop, and was fiercely glad: because they seemed to be enjoying themselves by now, and expressing themselves much more freely. Maybe it was just amateurish not to expect it (ha, ha).

Though after the workshops, I found that I was suddenly left with loads of unprecedented information I'd never counted on before. Over and over for many days I hoped for elusive inspiration to enfold its wings around me and show me the most perfect way to use them. I was daydreaming again.

It can be said that much of daydreaming is probably what helped in the end, and I have no proof to show for it except for a couple of badly preserved doodles and scribbled thoughts in the backs of many notebooks, a lot which, needless to say, embarrassingly go without making much sense.

As for mediums, they went what one might call "just as planned", I asked Anil sir about them and all the kinds of things I'd need to learn about and for the wall.

I independently concluded that oil paints were the best option, since I was too stubborn to think I was incapable of learning how to use oil paints rather than acrylics (which he claimed were easier to use!). I liked oil paints much better, I thought, because of their smoothness and much World Acclaim. Besides, if I don't properly learn oil painting now, when will I learn it‌?

As for the wall the wall I'd chosen: it turned out that this wall's structure was actually granular (I'd never even stood close to it before) and that meant it needed plastering before I attacked it with a paintbrush. Getting manual workers to do it would mean it'd take

some more time as well as paying an amount of money I couldn't exactly pay out of my pocket.

Worriedly, I confronted my guide with my apprehensions, only to receive her automatic answer: "Try selling some of your paintings then."

What a perfectly brilliant idea! Exactly why hadn't I thought of it myself?

The Quest for a smooth surface As for the painting, I had a basic idea planned out in my head, which, I drew the basic outline for in pencil then started painting rather fast to see how it'd turn out.

It was only after I began painting that some very obvious things became clear to the distrait me: there were cracks in the unjustly expensive plaster, and some parts of it very rough. But I don't remember minding.

With the help of my guide Harpreet we came to the painful conclusion that I'd then have to apply the chalk-white as-thick-as-a-toothpaste substance called putty on it for covering them up, then have to scrub it with sandpaper to get the smoothest out of it.

I could've got manual workers to do it for me, but this time, however, to save myself from more loans from the school and for the sole cause of having something to do with the energy I'd cultivated to paint, I decided I'd putty the wall and everything that followed by learning it myself, which, as the picture shows, I did do. For more pictures, see The PG (Picture Gallery) in appendix.

Applying putty was, as it turned out to be, as was bound to be, fun.

It was painful hard work, but gave the most superb smell to my wall.

I'd work until late evenings with a little light bulb hanging from a nearby tree, but just before going home and collapsing in a tizzy (sad, isn't it?), I'd stand there breathing in the wall's fresh great scent and dreaming about painting.

Next, I had to sandpaper the wall, and though that made my arms ache, I would stand there singing to myself till my throat hurt too.

Lastly, being the good girl I was and having listened to Anil sir's advice out-and-out, I bought a bucket of acrylic emulsion paint and watched it surge out of the bucket in one big sparkling white wave and hug the great wall 9 feet high x 14 feet wide (it was about noontime Sunday).

The Quest For a Smooth Surface entirely took a course of a month and a half and because it did, I hope the outcome is quite guessable enough ‌ that I began developing disapproval for my previous designs and wanted to start something new and a little bit more complicated all over again.

The inspiration and final painting Then, as I had realised that the dreams of my classmates varied from highly detailed and ambitious to practically fantasy-like, I found it a weighty task in still making all of them equally "there". Besides being just a painting, The Dream Generator was a hope-giving machine that reminded people of what they could be.

For inspiration on the painting I had looked up loads of quotes on dreams ("If you don't have a dream, how are you going to make a dream come true?" By Oscar Hammerstein and –haha- "It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work." Thomas Robert Gaines). I also did a lot of dreaming myself.

The initial plans in pencil, scribbled down notes, doodles, are all still there, but when time came, I shamefully admit that I rather shamelessly threw myself on the wall instead of making a final plan first.

Do I regret it now, after the painting is done?

Well‌ the painting developed in its own right. I don't think I had a problem with that, yet every time I have a newer and better idea about something, I wish I'd thought of it before, thus listed them all down before. So even the list I had made was not enough.

As for the final painting, it's funny, because one moment I decided that I must make my wall as 3d as possible (see appendix for complete list of things I planned to stick on it), and the next I wanted to begin painting right away.

On one Sunday I drew the basic design onto the wall using charcoal sticks. This, as it turned out, was a mismatch and matchmis of the elements of my earlier plan of the wall, with the globe in the centre instead of the lower left, and Konfused Konarch as the main focus of the left side of the globe. Though more elements still needed their space in the wall somewhere, I liked my newer design and decided to let it develop further while on he wall itself.

And it seemed that the only thing that truly inspired me toward my goal was Being With The Wall.

For example, when I started painting, it was first by taking some black and white on my fingers and mixing them on top of the wall's surface as I went along making swirls in it and painted the entire road.

This effect, although messy, was actually quite a lot of fun, made me laugh at myself and got me in higher spirits about being able to tackle the constraint of time that had built up.

Soon, I found myself coming to school a good two hours before class started day and staying for another two after school got over in the evenings, which, if averaged, calculates to 68 hours of time, but I will not necessarily call 68 hours of painting work. My time at the wall was divided between thinking, planning the next part, visualising the wall's colour scheme, or just overly tiredly sitting down or swinging on the nearby swings when too overwhelmed to look at it anymore.

There were times when I was painting when I'd suddenly remember that I'd need to know where Alaska was, or what batman's car looks like (Anahita wants one, and I still need to repaint that). I quite enjoyed working in detail, and did as much of it as I could.

One of the worst things about painting out in the open had been the endless nuts that kept falling on my head and in the paint thanks to the squirrels that lived in the trees all around, that's all.

Reflection on the process Now that it's done, the wall strikes one as an overly bright splarge of colour on the 7 x 15 feet surface of it's. It looks nice and colourful in the sun, but I can't say I'm too satisfied with it.

Each time I look at it all I want to do is to change something or the other, or neaten up an area, or add Yet Another Detail (Y.E.D.).

Sometimes I curse myself for not having thought of all the endless ideas I keep getting now before. Yet I know it's true that it would require me to be super girl with a time machine to produce ideas as well as use them every single time she has one.

People come up to me to express their liking of it, and I reluctantly accept, biting the insides of my cheeks to keep to myself how much I'd like to cut them short because I don't find it amazing at all that I can paint, or use colours well, because I always knew I could. All it told me was how much fun it is to oil paint and paint with my own hands.

The one thing I really do wish I had done was to use herbal colours like the ones my uncle makes for Aura Herbal Wear, his work and passion. The thing about not having used herbal colours is honestly that, in my panic to finish my painting on time, it slipped out of my mind completely. But I must, must, must and will, will, will remember to use them every single time I seek to paint a wall after this (which will happen more often from now, I assure you), as I am someone who would do anything to save the environment.

But the other things it did was to give everyone a new environment in school, a colourful one, which I hope I'm safe in saying adds to the atmosphere in school. It surely gave my classmates something to look at and smile, and for the younger students to look at and relate to.

If with none of the other dreams, than at least with Konfused Konarch or reach-for-the-stars Vijay. That being the case, it's all right I guess, and the Digi really has fulfilled its purpose.

Justification of the AOI's Homor Faber. Murals are, and have always stood out as something of a nature that will bring about any message, if well depicted, to a large number of people. The idea of having a mural to occupy the space of a wall that people will see everyday suggests adding an essence of the artist's own nature to it. Artists, with their exclusive weapon, the paintbrush, create murals to let it be known what they think and by it's having a larger-than-life appearance, murals influence people's thoughts when they come around, just like any other building or tree.

The idea behind my mural was to put myself into my classmates' shoes and feel a small portion of what they feel. And in return for what they share with me, to paint depicting what they want to do. The reason for doing a mural in my case was selfish, but then, I'm allowed to be selfish since this is a personal project. Nobody gets any real benefit from what I do. Or so I thought.

Making this mural was my attempt to make sure that people always know and remember that they have all got dreams that they bury deep down sometimes just to avoid interference with in their daily lives. And they sometimes try and forget they had dreams like that when they seem too elusive or out of reach. But then, I might be the only person I know like that: thus, to my knowledge, I was being selfish!!

In the light of the Area of Interaction Approaches to Learning, I have used the skills of convergent and divergent thinking when it came to incorporating dreams of many people in certain segments of the mural, in making sure people could make sense of the things I drew (that part did worry me a lot), I also used this Area of Interaction in my doing things like finding inspiration from the most abstract of places.

Also, I learnt how to paint with my fingers of my own accord since I didn't have a flat paintbrush on the first day. This just shows that when we panic, we do anything to survive. It's just lucky that the finger painting worked.

The Area of Interaction of Health and Social Education can also be considered a part of the DiGi's purpose, because of it's purpose is to help people believing in themselves, for them to feel happier and stop feeling depressed and believe in a future beyond work, interpersonal relations, because they must stop teasing somebody who seems stupid for having high ambitions, and this is how it includes respect and responsibility for others and for our own selves. We sometimes give ourselves respect by doing the things we are best at.

Whew!