‘ Gyotaku’ translated from the Japanese as ‘ fish
printing’ is one of the popular
workshops that learners enjoy as they dirty themselves doing fish prints and
later recording their experiences in a form of poetry known as ‘Haiku’. Mbuqe
Junior Secondary School is among the schools that came to this year’s Scifest
workshop held at ‘Water World’ at SAIAB. The workshop, facilitated by Vanessa Rouhani, allows
participants to learn about the traditional Japanese art of fish printing.
Pupils attending are
accompanied by their teachers and are given a chance to make fish
prints, which they seemed to enjoy very much. One of the learners said, “I want
my fish to colour-block,” associating this with one of the latest fashion
trends.
Mr Khabayi, a Natural
Science teacher, said Scifest Africa provides educators with an opportunity to
expose leaners to skills and careers and this encourages them to learn new things.
“Where we come from we do not have labs - there are no resources, therefore
festivals like Scifest come in handy because learners do not only see these
things but get a chance to take part in them,” he said. Naledi Ngcangca said,
“I was so excited to see fish and not only see it but paint it and touch it
with my hands, even though it was dead.” Another pupil, Ndive Klaas, said, “I
enjoyed being here because we were given a chance to draw, and this is cool.”
Commenting on this,
Vanessa Rouhani, Water World co-ordinator said this year’s workshops went just
as well as previous years; “The schools who visited from uMtata and Kimberly
were very keen, they said they enjoyed this and it was nice to do something
different, calm and peaceful.” Some of the learners said that Vanessa’s
presentation before they started painting was useful as it gave them an idea of
what they were to do.
When leaners finish
their fish prints they are given a chance to record their experiences in a
Japanese form of poetry known as Haiku. Haiku dates back to the 1400s.
Traditional haiku focused on nature and the place of humans in nature, but in
modern haiku any subject matter is considered suitable, whether related to
nature, an urban setting, or even a technological context. A distinctive
feature of haiku is its controlled form. Haiku can be combined with paintings,
photographs and other art media. Kathleen Anne Bethune, in trying to capture
her experience, wrote this poem;
“Where
do we find this
A
fish covered in bright paint
Soon
becoming art
Fish
so small, naked waiting and vulnerable, for me to capture
Small
fish waiting on absorbent paper
Paint
brushing picture…”
Penny Haworth, one of
the workshop facilitators, says this was the first time the haiku component of
the workshop has been offered during Scifest; previously workshops have been
offered during the National School Festival and Word Fest during National Arts
Festival; “What I really enjoyed is the participants’ reaction; when they had
completed their fish prints they were provided with an opportunity to
consolidate their experience and thoughts and actually write a poem about it,”
she said. There were about 22 haiku poems written by the different participants
during Scifest. In one voice they all agree that the experience was amazing and
that they would like to come back next year.
‘ Gyotaku’ translated from the Japanese as ‘ fish
printing’ is one of the popular
workshops that learners enjoy as they dirty themselves doing fish prints and
later recording their experiences in a form of poetry known as ‘Haiku’. Mbuqe
Junior Secondary School is among the schools that came to this year’s Scifest
workshop held at ‘Water World’ at SAIAB. The workshop, facilitated by Vanessa Rouhani, allows
participants to learn about the traditional Japanese art of fish printing. 
The dolphin dissection
marked one of the most interesting exhibitions at this year’s Scifest.
According to the Scifest ticket office all the tickets were sold out. The
demonstration took place at SAIAB - an official Scifest venue called ‘Water
World’. People came in numbers to witness this rare event. Dr Stephanie Plön, a
marine mammal scientist based at Bay world in Port Elizabeth, performed the
dissection. Plön says scientists usually use stranded animals which they
dissect for research; “Sometimes we dissect the animals at the beach because
they are too big,” she said. She added that it was fortunate that they found
this small dolphin just before Scifest because on average they only get about
20 stranded animals per year along the entire Eastern Cape coast. 