GradAcad day 18: Spring Project, Party Prep, Wrap Party and Secret Walls. 18th July.

Today started off with a session with Darius from the Spring Project, it was quite a fun but poignant session. We started off by doing a few exercises which would engage our mind and body.. because we were all feeling a little bit sleepy, this helped us wake up and feel more focussed for the session! We then learnt all about "The Unbendable Arm", this is an exercise where you hold your arm out and through focussing on different things your partner can either easily bend your arm or not... It's an amazing way to discover the power of unifying the mind and body.

http://www.bodymindandmodem.com/CoolKi/Unbend.html

Another interesting activity was where we had to pair up and draw together, but one line at a time. The first two turns we drew things which one of us decided that we would draw, the third time we agreed on something to draw and we drew it together, and the fourth, fifth and sixth times we didn't tell each other what we were trying to draw and we drew what we wanted to draw. It was interesting to see the drawings from all the different groups to see how they worked together and the quality of the drawings they produced.

http://www.springproject.co.uk/

This afternoon we all got our party planning hats on and prepared for tonight's Wrap Party/Secret Walls challenge. We had a large gallery to decorate and personalise, so photo collages were created and printed, quotes were copied down, the stairwell was covered in our faces, a massive yellow pencil pinata went up and so many other things! We worked together to create a great party space for a hugely successful party!

GradAcad round 1

GradAcad round 2

The main event of the night was a Secret Walls battle (a bit like a rap battle/dance off but with graffiti style art). Four different teams entered the battle, the battle was the first of the "Pro Series" so all of the teams were from professional backgrounds, the first team was from Jelly, the second team was from LBI, the third team was a mash up of pro illustrators, and the fourth team was GRAD ACAD! The battle is made out of two rounds, the first round all four people draw, but on the final round only two teams get to draw.. so Grad Acad made it through the first round and so did the Mash Up team.. and Grad Acad went on to be runners up of the battle (both teams created amazing pieces of work!)

http://www.thesecretwalls.com/

#GradAcad

www.dandad.org/talent/graduate-academy