April 3, 2017
by Hannah Rea, Social Media Intern
On Friday and Saturday last week, staff from the Glenn Black Lab ran a table at the 22nd Lotus Blossoms World Bazaar. One of many booths in the gym of Binford Elementary School, the GBL’s table featured ‘rock art,’ which asked students to imagine the paper was the wall of their family’s cave. Staff then asked them what was important to them, such as a pet or family member, that they would want to have on their cave wall for archaeologists to discover thousands of years later.
The activity helped students understand how messages were conveyed before systems of written language existed. It also described the difference between petroglyphs –which are etched into rock– and pictographs –which are painted.
There were many different pictures shared by the students; here are some of our favorites:
A face
Two dragons
A Celtic knot
A squid
And, of course, we joined in the fun:
Other booths included several typewriters from the Writers’ Guild, on which people could type their own haikus or construct them from fragments of other sources; seeds from the Bloomington Community Orchard that students could plant in cups of dirt; several gourd instruments, medieval calligraphy and many, many more.
The fair was open to the community on Saturday for Family Day.