Girl power lights up city streets
Local
An impressive new mural brightening two city streets has ‘come to life’ through innovative technology launched last week that showcases the creative skills of local Catholic school students.
Over the past 18 months a group of seven students from St Aloysius College has been leading work on a ‘branding’ project to make the wider community aware of the core values of the inner city school.
In the middle of the year this culminated with a huge purple and white mural being painted on the walls of the school along Chancery Lane and winding back along Angas Street.
Under the banner of ‘Empowering Bright Futures’ the installation includes images depicting growth, inspiration, friendship and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths).
A part of the mural along Chancery Lane.
To enhance the project the students launched augmented reality videos that provide background and meaning to each image. By uploading the EyeJack program on their mobile phone or portable device people can watch the mural come alive.
St Aloysius’ principal Paddy McEvoy said the EyeJack technology, which is currently used at UniSA’s MOD futuristic museum, provides a powerful and innovative way for SAC to tell its story to the wider community.
“I’m really excited about the augmented reality side of this project as I think that will captivate a totally different audience,” she said.
“It tells the world so much more about who we are than we could have captured in any advertisement or marketing brochure.”
Ms McEvoy said the students, from Years 7 to 12, who worked on the project had gained a raft of skills including design, filming, creating storyboards, collaborating as a team, working with external specialists and learning about new technologies.
Year 12 student Umaima Patni is a member of the project team and said the concept for the mural design had involved input from all students at the school. They were asked to submit photographs which depicted what they felt were the core values of St Aloysius.
Hundreds of submissions were received and from that an exhibition was held in the front foyer gallery of the school.
“One thing that really stood out was friendship. A lot of students showed friendship in their photos…it’s a Reception to Year 12 school and that connection between all year levels is really unique here,” she said.
The project team worked for many months with external agency Riggs Digital to finalise the design.
In July a team of professional painters assisted by some students began the enormous task of painting the mural. The installation took three weeks to complete and the impact was immediate.
“Every time I look at the mural I’m like ‘wow, this is amazing’. It gave me so much to take on, so many skills, so many memories and I can always look back on it,” said Year 10 student Fatima Rasuli who is part of the project team.
Ms McEvoy said the “beautiful artwork” shows the essence of “what makes us tick at SAC”.
“The response to it has been lovely – old scholars, passersby, parents have all sent emails and messages saying ‘we love it’. It’s such a beautiful set of images that speak to people of who we are,” she said.
“Branding SAC was an authentic challenge to present to students and the project team responded so well.
“Placing our trust in the talent and creativity of our students has resulted in a mural that lights up the city streets.”
To view the trailer video for the project, go to the https://youtu.be/ryiDilVzOiQ
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