#AGAlive: Animal Architects with Jonathan Luckhurst

2021

Join visual artist Jonathan Luckhurst and Head of Education & Learning Dara Armsden as they dive into Animal Architects, Luckhursts’ current exhibition on now in the Children’s Gallery. Learn how this fully immersive exhibition was dreamed up and how the designed structures of insects, mammals and birds from around the world inspired the space!

The Children’s Gallery is presented by the Poole Centre of Design.Join visual artist Jonathan Luckhurst and Head of Education & Learning Dara Armsden as they dive into Animal Architects, Luckhursts’ current exhibition on now in the Children’s Gallery. Learn how this fully immersive exhibition was dreamed up and how the designed structures of insects, mammals and birds from around the world inspired  …

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Introduction
Introduction
0:00

Introduction

0:00

Jonathans background
Jonathans background
4:00

Jonathans background

4:00

Influences
Influences
6:52

Influences

6:52

Installations
Installations
10:58

Installations

10:58

Intuition
Intuition
18:52

Intuition

18:52

Design for kids
Design for kids
22:28

Design for kids

22:28

After the installation
After the installation
25:26

After the installation

25:26

How the pandemic shaped the installation
How the pandemic shaped the installation
29:16

How the pandemic shaped the installation

29:16

Autogenerated Transcript from YouTube (if available)

Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript​.

Introduction

0:00

[Music] all right welcome everyone um to the aga live uh

0:06

and um today i have the pleasure of talking with jonathan luckhurst who

0:11

is the artist and designer of our current children’s gallery entitled animal architecture or animal

0:18

architect story uh hi jonathan hey guys hey dara um and so i first met jonathan during a

0:26

printmaking class so we’ve known each other since about 2012 um and jonathan is a local photographer

0:34

and business owner uh of cedar sky botanics and so i i think jonathan will expand on on

0:41

sort of that part of his uh biography in just a second but before we

0:46

dive into uh into that i just want to say a few words about um the exhibition so the exhibition is

0:54

part of the pool center for design the children’s gallery is an interactive

1:00

space that allows families to engage with big ideas and so the purpose of the gallery is to

1:06

really get um to take a deep dive into some of those concepts and really explore them

1:13

this year’s theme was inspired by the building behaviors of animals simple building and repeating

1:20

patterns that ultimately create these really complex structures um and

1:28

this is a collaboration between the aga and jonathan and jonathan really took it uh to the

1:34

next level which is really exciting um and i also just a small shout out

1:40

well maybe a big shout out to some of the people that helped us get to where we are today so a special thank

1:47

you to city lumber designs by bob and house of so

1:52

now before we uh chat with jonathan there is a short video um that we have

1:58

made just just to set the the stage the children’s gallery has been closed

2:04

so you may not have had an opportunity to take a look at it so we’ve created this little video to

2:10

give you a sense of what it feels like to be inside

2:23

[Music]

2:35

[Music]

2:45

[Music]

2:57

[Music]

3:05

[Applause]

3:10

[Music] [Laughter]

3:22

[Music] [Laughter]

3:28

[Music]

3:45

[Music]

3:51

[Music]

Jonathans background

4:02

such a great video all right without further ado jonathan hey guys uh hey everyone

4:11

uh thank you dara thank you sophia thank you to the aga for inviting me here today i’m really

4:17

excited to be here um i guess i’ll start by

4:22

just talking a little bit more about my background and how i arrived at this point to take

4:29

um part in this installation um so my background is actually in photography

4:37

traditional black and white analog photography um i started out many years

4:43

ago actually pursuing more of like um an interest in documentary photography

4:48

i was traveling quite a bit spent a lot of time in india um and throughout the years i’ve

4:54

transitioned a bit quite a bit actually and

5:01

over the last few years i’ve started to incorporate sculptural elements into my photo based

5:08

process but sculpture was never the the final output of what it was that i was

5:13

creating and so i think for me this installation was a natural

5:19

transition point for me um i’m really um interested in the idea of

5:26

pursuing sculpture more and seeing where that goes um through my business see the sky

5:34

botanics i’ve pursued my interest in sustainability

5:40

and local food production in um education so when i started my business

5:47

uh in 2015 it was actually in squamish dc hence the name sea disgaea

5:52

referencing the corridor there but it was started at the time purely with the intention of

5:58

of uh creating and building sustainable food production systems specifically aquaponic systems

6:07

for schools to educate kids about one form of sustainable food production

6:14

so and now where i’d really like to go with things is and what i’ve been trying to do slowly

6:20

is sort of seeing how i can merge these different elements of art design uh science botany

6:27

sustainability and education so just creating like really multi

6:33

multi-faceted um installations um for me i was i’m really grateful to have

6:39

had this opportunity to to work with eag in this space because for me this was sort of i think a first step towards

6:45

that direction that i went ahead [Music] awesome um so what are

Influences

6:53

what are some of your influences jonathan you’re talking a little bit about um sort of the things that you’re that

7:00

you’re most interested in but influences you yeah um

7:05

well most recently i would say in the last few years i’ve had this obsession with simple forms

7:12

simple patterns and in how sort of like a meaning or a function

7:18

arises through this repetition and you know we see this in nature all the time and

7:24

and uh we can use and we do use this as a as a basic principle to to inform uh

7:30

our own lived-in spaces and this is something that i really wanted to try and convey in this installation animal architects

7:38

um i wanted to subtly hint give give kids a nudge in the direction that

7:44

you know we too we we are animals i think we often forget that and you know how can we how can we remind

7:52

ourselves of that and how can we look to nature um as a means to inspire

7:58

all our own lived-in spaces um relating to that i’ve also had this um

8:03

sort of ongoing and developing interest in that um this idea that uh it seems like we’re

8:09

constantly trying to find this line between respecting our connection to to nature

8:15

and at the same time continually pushing ourselves to explore these new um scientific and technological realms

8:21

and ultimately both of these things are really essential for who we are as humans and yet they’re definitely at

8:28

odds with one another so there’s an irony in that and um i think

8:33

um biomimicry would be something that would be an example of this something i’m

8:39

that i’m um i haven’t looked into too much but it’s something that has caught my attention it’s something that i’d like to look more into

8:45

but as an example um biomimicry and this sort of like feedback loop um

8:53

that um that entails like this whole biomimicry thing it’s um you know we we’ve

9:00

exploited nature and we continue to exploit nature and these create a whole um set of uh problems

9:06

ecological problems and this is followed by us sort of almost like

9:11

turning back to to nature to look for answers and sometimes are often these solutions

9:19

can lead to a whole new set of problems and this sort of feedback loop

9:25

carries on and i recently uh i was researching terrarians recently

9:31

and um i came across i i was really curious about what was the the original how did terrariums

9:39

come around and it was really interesting how they came around um this guy living in london uh in the mid

9:45

1800s dr ward um he was trying to grow a bunch

9:51

of plants and ferns in his home and and they kept dying because there was a uh

9:57

the the levels of of coal smoke and sulfuric acid in the air were so intense that his

10:04

friends were actually dying so he actually had to to come up with a way to to protect his

10:10

plants from from dying so he he designed and had builders um create these

10:18

these airtight um containers around these plants and and that would and that was the

10:24

beginnings of this like um what we now consider to ram a very decorative thing but it’s interesting how it was steeped in this sort of um

10:31

symbol almost of our desire to like really value and like revere and have nature

10:36

around us and at the same time it was like it was a response to a consequence created by our

10:44

very exploitation of nature so there’s like i find that um you know there’s just constant

10:50

examples of that irony around us and i’m really interested in that

10:57

um and how do you how do you think that feeds into the work that you um that you did

Installations

11:04

in the gallery right yeah for sure so

11:09

i think for me um one of the most interesting um installations was the

11:17

um the installation of these uh these circles um and it’s a very basic form

11:25

and it repeats upon itself and through that

11:31

repetition the structure almost starts to like degrade or like become very unpredictable um

11:39

[Music] and yeah there’s to me that’s really interesting um

11:47

if you consider certain structures in nature such as a hexagon or a tetrahedron or

11:54

um these structures are very stable and they

11:59

upon stacking these forms upon one another you actually create a more stable structure

12:05

um so it’s interesting to to consider certain forms that don’t feed into that sort of

12:13

result also with the um the central

12:19

sculpture it’s almost like these it was actually inspired i was flipping

12:26

this botany book and um when dara first approached me about this installation she asked about the idea of

12:32

creating a treehouse and i thought okay yeah i could do something and i had a concept for that but then um

12:38

was flipping through his body book and um i came across this illustration of this really interesting plant

12:44

um that was sort of sending out these pods and it’s sort of this interesting like light bulb moment like

12:50

i don’t know why it just like this uh switch came on in me and i was like actually i want to create like something like more like uh

12:57

the central organic biomorphic structure with these pods coming off of it um the same time this uh that piece

13:04

also has like almost like a mechanical quality to it i would say um so

13:11

at least that was attempting um i don’t know if i was successful but i was attempting to sort of like hint to that sort of like interplay

13:18

between like um biology nature um and our own

13:24

manufactured or designed lit in spaces

13:30

for me those i would say those are the two most um oh and then there’s also the uh the

13:35

table that i created this is an example of actually sophia are you able to bring that up

13:41

just some of these maybe bring up that slide of the table yeah but anyways it’s a very

13:48

simple form that i came up with um and um

13:54

it’s just it’s a simple form repeated oh there it is yeah uh repeated many times

14:01

upon itself so this was this was an example of

14:06

this thought process i was explaining earlier um and unfortunately this photo doesn’t show it but there’s actually a lot of

14:12

dimension to this piece there’s if you look at it from different sides you see something totally

14:17

different which i found really interesting so i like that that whole process of like taking something really simple and

14:24

and seeing what comes up um a lot of unexpected results can come up i actually when i had this

14:30

um peace in mind i actually had a different vision of how it would look

14:36

ultimately but it wasn’t until i had these pieces in front of my workshop and i was playing around with this form came up and that’s

14:41

another interesting if we take take the same form and we repeat it or alter a variable or

14:48

the way in which it’s arranged something totally different comes out of it a different structure and then our own experience and like

14:54

perception of this thing also changes um

14:59

yeah so um and you know i also wanted to say like

15:05

um i uh was very grateful to bob fedena from

15:10

designs by bob as well as to beverly from house of soul further their input into these uh some of these

15:17

pieces um without them i definitely couldn’t have taken uh this install to where i wanted

15:22

to take it so bob for example he’s a great guy he he owns this uh he has a cnc company and

15:28

he uh he’s able to basically take i came with to him with

15:34

my illustrations and he was able to provide some really valuable input for me um

15:42

i want to talk about the the arms on this uh central sculpture because i i went to bob and i said okay bob i want like individual arms and i want

15:48

them i don’t know how those are going to come together until i’m in the space and i need a way to sort of like move them

15:55

and he he came up this really great articulating design that allowed me to

16:01

position each individual arm as i wanted to upon being in the space so

16:09

and then beverly did a really great job of constructing these hanging bags i wanted

16:16

to create some sort of um hanging structure that would contain

16:21

elements that would be used in the installation so thank you guys both very much for

16:26

that oh you’ve got me i’m not sure which direction i want to take our conversation

16:32

there’s so many um interesting things that i want to ask you about um but let’s maybe we can talk um

16:41

a little bit more about how like what the construction of the sculptures

16:46

was like and then i’m gonna come back and ask you about something else okay great yeah so um as

16:52

i was just i guess i’ll get into that a bit more so um

16:59

in the case of um all the pieces with the exception of the

17:04

weaving wall and the bags um again bob fideno was a very valuable um

17:12

resource for me i went to bob and i said bob i need i have these illustrations

17:18

is what i want to create i created these illustrations and concepts for him

17:23

um and demand you know gave the dimensions and this and that and then he

17:28

was able to he’s like i said he’s got a um he specializes in cnc lasers so he was able to

17:35

to use cnc laser technology to create a lot of these very intricate

17:40

cuts i myself um you know i have a background in carpentry by no means i’m a

17:46

am i a really high-end woodworker um so to me i was really

17:54

grateful for this um to be able to take advantage of this really interesting technology and um

18:01

you know bob was able to to again create these really intricate sort of structures based on my

18:07

illustrations um once i had these pieces in front of me

18:13

um assembly either took place in my workshop or here directly in the space

18:19

um as i was saying earlier with certain pieces such as this table

18:25

i didn’t know exactly know what was going to arise until i had the pieces in front of me and it’s just like it’s very more intuitive

18:31

thing you know and that’s how i often work with photography as it’s i have a concept in mind but it’s not until like

18:37

you’re in this process that you that you know what is actually going to come out of it and obviously like your

18:44

um one step will always uh be to inform the next step so it’s you know um yeah yeah

Intuition

18:52

yeah and we talked about that a little bit about like we weren’t sure how what the outcome was going to be

18:57

until until all of the pieces were kind of in the space yeah um can you talk a little bit more more

19:05

about um that how that feeds and like not feeds into but um

19:13

how that is an integral part of your of your creative process

19:18

just this sort of this you mean the idea of one step in forming a next or yeah yeah like so

19:26

like how do you um how do you utilize that intuition i

19:32

guess is it something that you just sort of

19:38

allow it to unfold or do you really i think so i mean just by the very

19:43

nature of intuition it’s just that you can’t really explain it or pinpoint it per se it’s it’s just a very

19:48

like um that’s what it is it’s just very intuitive and it’s um um

19:56

i do that being said i mean you i do have in a strong interest in my background i

20:01

actually have a degree in cell biology and genetics so i do have this like very like deep-rooted interest in science and

20:09

which is a very like rational thing you know it’s not um it’s not

20:15

i guess you could say it’s not really intuitive um it’s very cut and dry you

20:21

know so um i have this this where i see myself going is is is um in

20:29

this direction of working intuitively but based on very like scientific

20:34

rules or something at least where i’d like to go um there’s one artist that i’ve really

20:40

been looking at lately his name is conrad chalkross he’s a british sculptor his work is incredible i’d really recommend anyone

20:48

who hasn’t heard of him to check him out but he’s um he’s got a really strong interest in

20:54

science too but um more in the mathematics side of things

20:59

um but he’s he’s creating these beautiful like very poetic sculptures um that are

21:06

based on very like strict and rigid mathematical rules and formulas so i see myself sort

21:12

of heading in a similar direction but instead of working with mathematics maybe working with

21:17

or not maybe but working with biology and botany um but there’s also crossover because

21:23

there is mathematics based um mathematics is also a part of biology this is part of like everyday nature

21:29

like if we look at um um natural form there is there are very like mathematical rules that apply to like to

21:37

to um to biology as well yeah um

21:45

it’s interesting like i see a lot of similarities in some ways to to the creative process

21:52

and to scientific sort of like thinking um but i i see what you mean when you

21:58

say that it’s also like there’s a lot of rules that um that need to be considered um

22:07

and i guess there are rules too in the creative process i suppose in some ways

22:15

we break them right um you would be one of them what’s that gravity would be one of

22:21

those rules right absolutely um

22:26

so i want to talk a little bit about um the challenge of designing a space for kids

Design for kids

22:33

um and and sort of some of your your thinking about uh about that so um

22:41

so one of the parameters of of the children’s gallery is that it has to kind of

22:46

um hit a wide range of of kids so there has something for

22:52

three-year-olds and something for 12 year olds and and it sort of increased that family

22:58

engagement across um you know a generation or so

23:04

um how did you like what were your thoughts as you were moving through this process

23:09

and thinking about that um well this was my first time creating

23:15

um something um that was to be geared specifically for children

23:21

so um that was that was a challenge in in some ways

23:26

um but i think uh ultimately um

23:32

in some ways it wasn’t in the sense that um i mean i think creative process in general is just can be very playful

23:40

and exploratory and um when you bring that into what it is that

23:46

you’re creating it it’s naturally going not necessarily i mean it depends on

23:52

what uh what it is you’re creating what kind of message you’re trying to get across but um um if you consider

23:59

if you consider what i just said and then um loaded with the the fact that this is for a kid space i think it just

24:05

naturally arises so um just sort of like um

24:11

creating a space that is like uh you want it to be engaging you want it to be um you want

24:18

kids to see it and you want them to like immediately sort of be drawn into it i remember i did this one

24:24

it was part of this um event called amazing agriculture a few years ago and it was put on at northlands

24:31

and i was invited to to create an aquaponics installation for for greatness for great five kids um so

24:39

i created this thing and it’s you know it’s got fish and it’s got lights and it’s got plants and and um without fail every time a new

24:46

class came in to to see this uh this aquaponics system

24:51

they immediately ran towards it and they were really just captivated by this thing they didn’t know what it was so

24:58

um i think um if you when you’re creating space for kids um

25:04

i think it’s important to remember that they’re just by nature they’re very curious and they want to engage with things

25:10

they want a hands-on experience um so i think for me that was definitely at

25:16

the forefront of my thinking it’s like how can i create a space that is immediately going to just draw them in yeah and

25:24

um and this is sort of related to it so um after the after the installation like

After the installation

25:31

how do you envision kids interacting with the space um well dara as you know you me

25:39

and danny and some of the others were talking about how [Music] kids are probably going to want to climb

25:45

things um and while i would love for them to just climb all over everything in here um i

25:53

was obviously certain like um safety precautions to be um

25:59

put into place and for me this is a central sculpture here is one that i uh i can envision that i

26:06

would want kids to climb all over but the same time it’s just something that can’t really happen um but um

26:14

yeah i think um sorry what was what was your uh oh yeah so my question

26:19

was just like how do you envision kids like interacting in the face right so obviously very hands-on if you look

26:26

you know this um this sculpture in the back this piece with the circles it’s just grown into this like amorphous

26:33

sort of blobby growth which i just love and it’s just it’s fulfilling for me to

26:40

see it just take on this like nondescript like weird sort of quality so um

26:48

i actually wish i had more of these more of these circles to add to the piece i would love

26:54

actually one idea one idea i have for a future is to to create i want to take this further and just create this like

27:00

epic installation sort of playing of this idea of like repeating form you can see this here’s a

27:06

shot of how it was um installed by me i wanted to sort of you know

27:11

create this like weird sort of tendrical um thing

27:18

um that maybe reminded people of it could be anything really i didn’t

27:23

want to like have it remind anyone of anything in particular just something playful something obviously

27:29

referencing nature um yeah so um this is something

27:34

um that i’ve been excited to see just sort of uh um grow

27:40

literal no pun intended you know um yeah um and then the weaving piece um

27:48

that was uh that was created on site um sorry you’d asked me to create uh you

27:54

were really interested in the idea of a weaving wall so i didn’t know how that was going to look until i got into space but that was really fun that

28:01

um first time that i worked with like a fabric and again uh i have a strong interest in geometry and

28:07

proportion and design so i created this almost like very geometric sort of thing that actually loops back

28:13

in on itself so each part of the weaving sort of connected to another point in the weaving

28:19

in almost this very cyclical fashion um so that was fun um obviously weaving

28:25

well just by very nature of the the installation weaving i mean obviously kids are going to hopefully

28:30

like weave into it but it’s been interesting to see how they’ve um i don’t know if you guys can see in the back but

28:36

this meeting has sort of like stretched itself into other components

28:47

yeah i’m glad that you missed that because it’s uh it’s always interesting to see how kids are going like how the public is going

28:54

to interact with the space because even um when we have a particular vision of what

29:01

um the kids are gonna do sometimes um we just can’t anticipate every outcome i

29:08

guess so it’s it’s pretty marvelous to see it unfolding in in this way so

How the pandemic shaped the installation

29:16

um we we began the installation of this exhibition in may and we were delayed

29:21

because of the coven pandemic right so would you mind just talking a little

29:27

bit about how um how the pandemic shaped

29:32

um the gallery and and the installation process

29:37

um yeah well obviously there’s been you know this being a very interactive

29:43

space um hands-on um pandemic those two things don’t jive too well so

29:49

um so we talked many times about how you know

29:54

in the early um before the lockdown um [Music]

29:59

we talked about how can we or a necessity would be how can we um

30:06

protect these pieces so that they can hold up to constant cleaning that’s just sort of a

30:12

reality of our uh current and hopefully um and temporary time

30:18

um that we’re living in um so you know just something as simple as

30:23

um uh uh protecting or coating these some of these pieces with

30:30

um like a um i can’t remember what i used um you know

30:35

a stain that would withstand um touching cleaning um so that was

30:44

an obvious an important consideration um yeah

30:51

um obviously it’s frustrating for everyone involved to to to see um the space not being maybe

30:58

utilized to its maximum um um but at the same time just be

31:03

grateful for the fact that you know families still are allowed to access the space and you know the fact that you

31:08

have to book an appointment and you can come in in one family at a time you know that’s just you know it is what it is um and um

31:15

[Music] yeah well and i guess like one of the and i guess we can mention that you know

Whats next

31:22

part of the exhibition was set aside uh for now so there are components that

31:28

we’ve taken out of the gallery yeah that’s right for a little while

31:33

there was another uh component to the installation um we’re gonna be um we’re calling this

31:39

something along the lines of like a termite now so um i had um

31:45

i worked with bob i gave him my drawings and he created these really cool um sort of like um forums that um

31:54

and they had uh you know concept behind these forums was to have them like added onto

31:59

with like something clay or like processing or something and then um so yeah just um again

32:06

just um hands-on interactive quality so i don’t know maybe maybe in a

32:12

few months we’ll be able to bring those up yeah i would love to

32:17

as soon as i figure out as soon as we figure out how to sanitize plastic yes

32:26

um okay uh so i want to talk a little bit i’m going to go back kind of circle back

32:32

and say like circle back and ask you like how how is this work um how is this work

Past work

32:40

informed by your past work or yeah how is this work being informed by

32:45

your past work and sort of where maybe you can give us a little bit more in terms of where you see yourself going

32:51

mm-hmm um yeah so few would you mind bringing up those other images um so as i was saying

33:00

earlier i’ve i’ve had this real fascination with um form um

33:07

repeating form um this is some older photographic work that i created um

33:15

and it’s interesting when you create something you you don’t at the time necessarily

33:22

know like why you’re making it necessarily like sometimes you but um in this instance i didn’t know necessarily

33:28

why i was doing this and and for me um that’s sort of the way i’ve always

33:35

operated i guess i i’m i was coming from this like more like intuitive like emotional based

33:40

place first and then it’s not until much later that i often find like

33:46

the words to to describe like what it is that that i was actually trying to do um obviously i want to create work that

33:54

not only um has some sort of like emotional um impact or component to it but also i

34:01

want to hopefully like my um any ways is to to at least create

34:07

work that’s um engages people’s minds a little bit um as much as possible um

34:15

so for me looking back on this um this older work of mine can you flip this one

34:21

so i was working with sculpture and form and and and just playing around um

34:27

looking back i see there was like there’s this element of like repetition in form that i was like really obsessed

34:33

with um bringing together of like like

34:40

this organic kind of quality but also of this sort of like futuristic sort of um

34:48

utilitarian sort of quality

34:53

but again the output had always been photo based so so again it’s really

35:01

exciting for me to i don’t know if i would have thought about the idea of actually going

35:08

out into the world and creating physical sculpture if it hadn’t been for this opportunity so again i’m

35:13

just really grateful because it’s really just kind of shifted my thinking around where i want

35:19

to go and i’ve actually just applied for a grant and i’ll be applying for some more grants to

35:25

to work purely in sculpture and to to see where that goes and and again working with uh cnc technology

35:31

it’s a really interesting technology um i really think about that a little bit i

35:37

don’t know so it’s literally a it’s a form of technology where you can

35:43

you can enter in um these sort of variables or or whatever design into a computer

35:51

program and that um is actually these these forms are then

35:56

able to be cut by laser cnc laser it’s it’s all based on computer um so it’s just

36:02

it’s been around for a while but it just it’s opened up a whole bunch of possibilities around architecture

36:09

design um artists use it um for uh various parts of their process

36:16

and i see myself continuing to use it and working with people like bob or working with engineers or something to

36:23

um [Music] to create really epic like sculptural work and i i don’t know what it looks

36:28

like yet but um i think for me at the moment anyways i’m really interested again in this like

36:34

this idea pattern and form and and and how can i look to um

36:40

to what we just see in our everyday um you know in nature or in our constructed

36:46

environments too um um but uh how can i use this as a means to sort of

36:52

like inspire like inform something that i want to create um can you go to the i think

36:57

there’s two more in there yeah this again this was like a very this was um i actually went back to

37:02

i was part of a residency a few years ago and one of the resident artists was a uh he’s a good friend of mine now rating

37:09

varma and he lives in kolkata india so he’s a sculptor he’s a very successful sculptor and

37:16

he invited me to go and live with him and his wife for a month in 2017. this isn’t such an

37:22

amazing experience um had access to his shop and and everything and he’s got a team of like

37:27

welders and things and um it that that was a very it was

37:32

like i guess you could consider it like a live work residency um where i was able to to work with like

37:38

very industrial materials he had like i was in his workshop was in this um really

37:44

um in a really industrial part of calcutta so he was the only artist in the area and

37:49

he was surrounded by these like shops manufacturing like industrial components and

37:55

um so i was like how can i i was really interested at the time like how can i use like these

38:01

uh various industrial forms or scrap materials and what can i do with

38:06

them um and as you can see if you go to the next one too so if you it’s just like this was industrial felt

38:12

that was used and um to create like supports for industrial like weights or whatever it’s a very

38:18

strong material so i don’t know it’s just playing around with this like idea of using industrial

38:23

found materials and creating like this sort of repetition and pattern and just seeing what comes out of it again photo based

38:33

um these weren’t like physical sculptures that i kept they were just sort of like in the moment

38:38

um um results of me just playing around with these materials so

38:44

yeah i i really like the idea of taking this further and oh and this is a design of uh that i

38:50

came up with for ceda sky botanics this is um again just playing around with like repetition

38:56

uh form and and but it has this very like utilitarian quality to it you know it’s a it’s a

39:02

micro green tower it’s meant to grow microgreens um you know so um yeah i’m just really

39:08

interested to to again continue to to sort of merge all these elements of like design art you know as you saw

39:15

on the previous side there’s plants there’s food production um there’s um

39:21

that element of education that i’m really interested in you know so um you know i think um no matter what i

39:29

create i think each each thing will be different um in the sense that maybe it won’t combine

39:36

all of these things maybe it will but um yeah

39:41

awesome um can you talk a little bit about this educational component like what are you hoping to

Education

39:49

how what direction are you taking that in we’ve talked a little bit about it but i want you to share it with everyone yeah sure um so i’ll start with um

39:56

describing my inspiration for bringing education into my

40:02

uh food systems that i was doing for school so um for me i was coming coming at it from this um

40:07

from the perspective that you know we’re living in this like especially with events around like kovid

40:13

and climate change there’s like a lot of conversation nowadays around um

40:18

uh creating uh resilient communities um uh the food chain supply um

40:26

and i think obviously if we’re going to if we’re going to move in a direction that is positive and if we’re going to

40:31

actually build resilient communities we obviously we need to to engage with children i mean they’re

40:37

the future um children just by nature they’re very open and they’re curious and and we can you know you can tap into

40:44

that you can reach them you can you can educate children um

40:50

um by in ways that don’t involve them just

40:55

looking at a textbook and you know um you want to engage like

41:00

kids on many different levels you know so when you can when you can create an educational

41:06

experience that is immersive i mean obviously there everyone learns better that way you know um it’s just

41:12

lighting up different many different parts of your brain and um you know it creates a more memorable

41:18

experience so um and you know that’s the beautiful thing i think about sculpture is it

41:25

um it it it is a very immersive thing and it allows you to like interact

41:32

with the environment and the space it’s not just like a two-dimensional thing you know which is why i’m sort of

41:39

not not to say that i won’t ever make a photograph again but just um you know there’s there’s definitely

41:44

limitations to a two-dimensional object you know like a photograph and um

41:50

um especially now and we live in this like hyper digital age where you know we’re just inundated with

41:56

imagery all the time so um we’re distracted constantly so like

42:01

it’s even more important to create if you’re trying to get a point across or if you’re trying to engage kids or people in general

42:07

and educate then you need to like grab them visually um even more that’s even

42:14

becomes even more important so um and it just keeps can become very layered you know

42:20

um you know you you see something you you walk up to it you oh what’s this about you know there’s

42:26

many there’s a lot of layers to you walk around it you see different things you know so through that through that layering

42:33

comes engagement and and that’s really important for for education

42:40

yeah inspiring inspiring well and i do like i mean i

Conclusion

42:47

loved what you said about um education being like an opportunity

42:53

to light up kids brains in multiple different ways and i think educators were always having to

42:59

to be creative in terms of thinking about what that looks like or feels like uh kids and i think you know the

43:06

children’s gallery is is set out to to be that space to to explore those things to

43:13

light up those aspects of the brain to um to uh you know sort of give kids

43:21

um opportunities to to engage with multiple um modalities

43:27

yeah it’s been interesting looking at um you know coming through the aga over the years

43:33

myself and just seeing the space itself and different um iterations of what’s come

43:39

up here um and just yeah again this like this evolving nature of the installations is really

43:44

interesting and um yeah and yeah important i love how you guys do that how you create that space

43:50

you know it’s cool yeah well thank you and it’s uh it’s great to have

43:56

your work in here doing the you know doing that job right now and

44:01

we’re excited because it’s gonna be up for a while and

44:08

and slowly i mean i i hope at some point it gets to the point where we can open it all the way but right now it’s

44:15

not bad funny yeah i i noticed that our time is coming to a close jonathan so i just

44:20

one of the the final question i want to ask you is is there anything that you’d like to mention that i

44:26

haven’t asked you about i’ve been fine this question the hardest question um

44:33

i think um i think um i can’t honestly i can’t think of anything but i think um

44:39

if there were questions i think that might push me in the direction of something i

44:44

hadn’t thought of so if there are questions um happy to answer them yeah i don’t see

44:51

any questions in the chat so if you email me

44:58

yeah so why don’t you just please tell us how we can get in touch with you okay so yeah um i’m online

45:06

jonathan luckers dot ca um you can also find me through my

45:12

business uh see the sky botanics dot com and again that’s see this guy disguise in the corridor on

45:18

the on the coaster c is an ocean um i can’t say too much about this right

45:23

now but i also am creating an offshoot business i have a business partner we’re creating an offshoot of cedar sky

45:30

um i’m really excited about that should be launched in the next hopefully and then we’re going to launch the next uh

45:37

two to three months hopefully um but it’s um really excited about that it’s we’re creating like three very distinct

45:44

um products to allow people to to grow their own food or plants just in

45:50

general in their homes so um you can find more information about that through

45:55

um probably i guess my instagram let’s see the sky i’ll be linking through to that so

46:06

okay okay well thank you thank you dara and thanks to the ap

46:11

again yeah absolutely so thank you thank you for your time and and this discussion it was it was lovely

46:17

to spend uh this uh time with you um and i also want to thank everyone for

46:24

tuning in um and i hope i i hope that we’ve really intrigued you

46:30

uh to to come and visit the gallery and so the way that you can visit the

46:36

the children’s gallery um animal architects right now is that you can um pre-book time so we give you about an

46:43

hour in the space really you can stay as long as you want that’s just a guideline that we’re using

46:48

right now um so if you want to uh if you want to book time and space

46:54

then maybe sophia you can put the link in the chat just so that people have it

46:59

um and uh yeah we just linked up so we’re doing uh bookings on thursday friday saturday

47:06

and sunday right now uh and all of the covid protocols are in place so everything is

47:12

is safe and and will be uh ready for you to engage with uh

47:19

and i would be remiss if i didn’t mention um our halloween event that’s coming up on the 31st it’s

47:25

our first in-person event uh since covet so since the pandemic started so

47:32

again i hope that everyone will be able to come and hang out with us uh our theme

47:39

is the case of the vanishing artist um so we’re gonna look at we’re gonna look a little bit

47:45

more closely at tom thompson’s disappearance uh and have themed activities around

47:50

that uh so that’s on saturday october 31st

47:56

from 12 to about 4 30 or gallery hours at 5. so i hope

48:02

everyone will be able to come if you want to come to that event you have to book tickets online and you can do that just uh on our

48:09

website so again thank you jonathan so much for spending your morning with us

48:15

it was lovely to connect and to talk a little bit more about the things that we have been chatting

48:23

about and yeah thank you again no problem

48:29

thanks everyone thanks for tuning in

48:35

you

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