Downside Up

Downside Up Priscilla Pettengell I worked with a semi-transparent squishy kite because I think research should filter light into unseen places and reveal what is not easy to see. When people at my table started painting with indigo dye, a memory rushed in and gave me a beginning I didn’t know I was looking for 😊 Nine-year old me standing at the edge of Te Waikoropupū Springs in the South Island of New Zealand mesmerized by the mysterious clear blue-black water roiling from its heart. My brush strokes came from remembering these pure unknowable waters and represent aspects of research for me — the forming/informing core of ideas; the ripples of thinking around and laterally; inputs and data offering potentials; whooshes of insight lighting the dark; the harder work of making and communicating meaningful outcomes and discoveries. My composition looked a bit like an owl standing on its head. When someone else cut into their squishy kite, I made some feathery cuts in mine. Just a few. I wasn’t brave. When we took them outside, the kites were playful and eager to fly. Being the kite flyer was easier and harder than I thought it might be. I should’ve let my kite go further than I thought was safe. Letting go a little kept it low and prone to crashing. The kites that were let out a lot, flew way higher than I thought they would go. Fear and enthusiasm, nosedives and tangles made for fun-filled collaboration with the wind, the kites and each other. In this relational co-creative play with known/un-known factors and conditions, there was no downside, only up. Thanks Geraldine and the ACE FRSG for the ‘ACE’ invitation and kite research provocations. Thanks Koichi for the deeply thought-provoking presentation and delightful kites. Thanks Xitong for sharing thought-full arts-based education research.