Week 6 Bromley meet up

Bromley meet up.

For the last session at the moment with the school we visited the other pop-up in Bromley by Bow

The group travelled across London and really enjoyed the whole experience, they arrived looking quite excited.
I had brought a few of the groups activities but we set up the speaker and lentils and they all seemed really connected to it, it was very hard to get them to not play with it!!!
The other groups seemed intrigued by it as well and after Treehouse had finished everyone had a go and i felt mean turning if off at the end. Again people had started to look for other things to put on the speaker to see what would happen.
One member wasn't impressed that i hadn't set up the microphone and kaosspad!!

It was a great sharing and everyone seemed to enjoy the pop-up space.

I had a little time to chat to the group and the staff and was really surprised at the impact of the sessions, people were asking me if i was coming back next Tuesday which was amazing as at first people were not always aware of what had happened the week before it really helped me to see how the sensory stimulus had been really important and the wildness and playfulness that we had explored together was really valued.

The previous day i had run a session in the pop-up space with 30 year 2 children exploring musical instrument making and story making and it had been great to take the children out of the school environment and into an unknown space that was a bit wild and very playful and run a session. I think the very nature of the pop-up was that it was a place were anything could happen and this made it a very interesting place.

I think the open approach to this Bromley pop-up was very brave but also had created something unique.
Something that would not have existed and something which will leave lasting memories and have an impact on everyone who used it.
In schools and institutions it is very difficult to create playful spaces, it can be very difficult for the staff to feel playful in some places as rooms have multi function, there is a set timetable and outcomes are checked and recorded constantly.
As i said in a previous entry i am used to turning up somewhere working for 6 weeks and disappearing, i don't have to deal with long term discipline, i have outcomes but they are very different to curriculum's, and i am left to my own devices to achieve the outcome.
The pop-up at Bromley was a way for everyone to have that disconnection, it was a great way to create playfulness and wildness. I can appreciate that is was a difficult project to lead and develop, as its hard for people to design something with that much freedom, it is hard to get the initial concept accross. But i think it succeeded in creating a new space, a creative space, one that won't always be there, a transient space that can be a place to hold peoples ideas, to build new communities and new experiences.
And i feel that because of the very nature of the pop-up that the end celebration was what it was all about. It wasn't there a few weeks ago, when it appeared it had no rules or limits, it could be used in many ways, its transience made it playful, and by being there it asked the question 'how can you use me?' which then opens up doorways and possibilities.
So at the end it was great hearing about the different things that had happened from creative sessions with the school to watching films in it by covering it in black out material. And by the end it had a value to lots of people and it was a place of possibilities.
And by being this it was unique.

I think it is a great model for other work in that by creating a new space with possibilities and playfulness a community can start to fill it with their ideas, some which will work and some which will not, and as it it transient the ideas wont be set in stone they can be wild and daring and then at the end people can reveal what they have been up to and then it can disappear, but it will leave behind the concept of playfulness and possibilities. Its not what you do its that you had the chance to do it with a playful mind.
To think outside the box it helps to be able to be outside the box!!!

Treehouse week 5 returning to past stimulus

Returning to past stimulus

As a freelance artist i am used to turning up at a school and doing a project for 6 weeks and then disappearing. I can bring exciting things to interact with each week and this is great. But it is important to see how much of the positive reaction the group show is to do with the things i bring or just that i am 'fresh meat' as some schools have kindly phrased it in the past!!
So i brought back things from the different weeks to see if the interaction would be sustained and to check if the group would be able to be self sustaining in the interactions and play.

So this week i brought the speaker and the keyboard back, the microphone and sfx, the magnets, the hula hoops and i did bring one new thing as i couldn't stop myself.

I brought in a Launchpad which is a device with 64 led lit squares on it and you can place a piece of music or a sound effect in each square. People can press individual squares or a can trigger an entire row.
We began by picking sounds from a library and then placing them on the squares people could then get the concept and start playing with composing using the Launchpad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuV7L4bRkuo this video shows a more advanced player but the concept is the same.

The group again waited patiently for their turn to choose sounds and then to play with them. I have a very large sample library so we a wide mixture of sounds were chosen dubstep basslines, arabic and indian percussion, japanese flutes and trancey synths.
Each person found ways to find their own sounds and reacted differently to their sounds. Some with light hearted surprise and fun, others with a strong sensory connection.
One member was really into the bass and again this made him really present and made it much easier to connect and share his experience.
I had specifically brought this activity for one member who was not there for the session and was really happy that everyone else seemed to engage with it so well. again it can be quite conceptual that the sound is in this square but everyone seemed to get it.

While people were playing i then setup the speaker, the mic, the magnets and then just let people explore and play.
The group seemed to connect with everything, especially the speaker and lentils!! And we could then watch, play and have fun.
People were again mixing the activities which was great.

You can record your voice into the Launchpad, and then play it back through the kaoss pad and then you could connect that to the speaker. We didn't have time to set it up but you could combine alot of the activities into one complex system where you could input your voice or choose sounds, manipulate them visually and physically using the kaosspad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39n4wow8fWE (very silly video but shows kaosspad ability) and then have that sound go into a large speaker with something on it, or even create a platform with a big sub bass speaker in it so you are standing on the vibration.

People did play with the magnets for a while and i began taking out the hula hoops but ran out of time.

The session was great as it showed that people had really got the concepts of the different things i had brought in and also felt comfortable to play with them and to want to share them with other people.

Also over the weeks people had been able to stay focused for longer periods, it felt like that the group had really enjoyed the sessions, and that i had found things which really triggered their creativity and playfulness and by doing this we could play together more and share experiences more. And that the group were able to deal with different sensory experinces each week, without too much leading and direction they could play with them and not be overwhelmed as they controlled the experience.

Treehouse week 4 Sound and Vibrations

Sound, vision and vibration

This week we explored sound, vibration & sound linked with visuals.

I brought in 3 new things and also the microphone and fx from a previous week and the polystyrene blocks.

We first explored a programme called izotope iris which is a spectral synthesizer.
You can choose a sound from a large bank, consisting of music notes and sound effects, and then this is shown visually on the screen.
You can then select which part of the sound you want to hear.
I brought a large touchscreen so that the group could draw with their fingers and a mini keyboard that played the selected sounds.
Everyone seemed to get the concept and they all patiently took turns choosing sounds and then manipulating them by drawing on the screen. It is quite a difficult concept but everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Some people really like picking the sound effects and really listened to them and seemed to visualize the sounds and had a strong connection with just the unaffected sounds. Others really enjoyed drawing shapes and seeing how that changed the sound, they all liked how strange and wondrous the sounds could become. We played with this for 20 minutes and then i left it with a staff member to operate the file system and people continued to explore it for the whole session. I was great that everyone seemed to understand that what they drew was changing the sound.
I then set up a keyboard which was connected to a large speaker. The speaker was place on the table next to the keyboard so when you played a note you could see and feel the speaker cone vibrating.
We first just looked and felt the cone. This immediately had an affect on everyone, the connection of sound and vibration was really strong and vivid.
We then explored putting things on the speaker to see how what happened. We put red lentils on it and they buzzed around differently depending on the frequency of the keybaord note, higher frequency made them move quickly but without them jumping, and lower frequencies made them jump and leap in the air.
One member of the group quickly found out that the lentils jump higher if you turned the speaker up really loud.
Everyone seemed to get different things from this experiment, some loved the sensation of the speaker, and really enjoyed placing their hand inside the vibrating lentils, some liked to see how the different notes did different things and some loved the noise, the bass and the wildness of firing lentils all over their classroom.
I really enjoyed how something as simple as a keyboard could become more fascinating by physically showing what was happening to the air when a sound is made.
We then mixed up cornflour and water and placed it on clingfilm on top of the speaker. This made the cornflour leap around in a very strange way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zoTKXXNQIU and as the intensity increased it began to take a life of its own.
Some people were intrigued by it and others just wanted to touch it and feels it move. A few members were really focused and present with the mixture of senses, having things to touch seemed very important to them and the stimulus really brought them into the session. And by having strong sensory stimulus it became easier to interact with them and to share their experience. They didn't feel so distant in their existence, it became much easier to connect and share and also they had control over the intensity of the experience. They chose how loud, when to play, when to touch etc.
We then started to explore what other things did in the speaker, one member started collecting things from round the classroom to see what would happen when the jumped. This could have been explored for alot  longer with more materials, and also with more sounds, even using a microphone so people could have seen the effect their voice had on the speaker. This would have been great to boost vocalising and self advocacy for quieter members.
So we had explored computer synthesis with a visual/tactile interface, and physical sound making and made it into a tactile visual activity i then thought it would be good to see what a simple instrument would be like to play.
I have a deep love for instruments and i like to play all kinds of them as they all have different characters and different physical interactions. I brought in 2 cellos for the group to explore. Cellos are usually kept away from non musicians as they are in the classical family where usually you have to play them properly and play other peoples music (usually dead peoples music!!).
But they are wonderful instruments as you wrap your entire body around it and then as you bow them they really resonate and you can really feel that through your body.
The group were very excited by them, and they all quite patiently waited to have a turn. Bowing is quite difficult but everyone seemed to get it very quickly maybe because of the physical feedback. Some people were intrigued with just playing a note and feeling it, others were almost play acting being a classical cellist and were very dramatic and fluid in their playing style, others wanted to play more notes and extend their technique but they all seemed to really connect with them.
At the end of the session there were people playing with the spectral synth, people playing the cellos and also using the microphone.
I had brought the polystyrene cubes back from the week before and as soon as they became visible one member became very feverish in her construction of cubic constructions, they were different from the week before more regular shaped but again the focus was really strong and the enjoyment and satisfaction at the end of building was very apparent.
The week was a great success in lots of ways, i think i really showed how mixing senses is really important for young people, the group had played with the synth before on its own but by adding the physical feedback it became more intriguing and easier to sustain and play with. It also showed that even with very new technology about that an 'old' physical instrument is still valid, and can sustain playfulness and focus.
I embrace technology alot but i think that its easy to forget that instruments are technology from the past, someone thought up and created the cello and refined it, and it can offer alot of stimulus that an ipad cant, and that physical stimulus is vitally important for young people especially with autism as it is a way to bring them into the room, it is a way to vie with their inner world and offers moments when you can share in the present and this connection is gratifying for both parties.
The microphone and sfx was also here for the session and it always has an attraction, people are comforted by their voice and again by amplifying it and having physical control over it it makes people very present and also allows them a space to be playful with their voice. It is much more acceptable to be silly and playful over a microphone and people will watch and respond to it as a performance. Mics are amazing and deeply under used by schools. They can have profound effects on people and can really help balance a group that can be dominated by louder personalities.

Week 3 Treehouse

Week Three Treehouse

Construction and Simple stimulation-

We started off doing small construction. People draw and write but i wanted to bring in something different so that people could make 3d shapes and not be trapped in materials/patterns they know.

We used 100 1-4cm polystyrene cubes and wooden food skewers to make 3d structures. I gave no reason apart from to see what we could make, i made a square and a triangle to show the concept.

The group all seemed to focus on this alot, some where sorting the cubes and putting all the same size on one skewer, others made very robust squares, others built very complex 3d shapes and also didnt mind if we connected them together, we ended up with 3 really complex designs. We then hung them from the ceiling so we could move them and look at the forms in 3 dimensions. The group didnt seem bothered by hanging and looking at the shapes the actual contruction process was what really engaged them.

This week i wanted to try to explore the sensations of the swing. A few of the young people love the swings outside and use this (i feel) as a calming self/stim. I couldnt build a swing in the session so took in lots of hula hoops (not the crisps) and we hung them from string so they would rotate, we also had multiple hula hoops that hung down like cylinders that you get inside. The hoops spin really fluidly and are quite mesmerising, and the group really focused on them especially one of the young people who uses the swing alot, he was very vocal about the hoops saying 'spin' aot without prompting.

Other people played with getting inside the hoops and one young person just held the spinning hoop for ages, looking really focused and happy.

We then started to change the room with masking tape and chipshop paper so that we could conect the hoops, build around them and just explore construction.

One member of the group really didnt like us changing his classroom but was reassured that it would be gone in 20 minutes (he took the most pleasure in removing all the construction later which was great).

The rest of the group all seemed really focused and played with the idea of construction and tape. It created a very playful atmosphere and people were goofing around alot having loads of fun and being very expressive. One of the young people who choses not to speak then started to tape up other peoples mouths and drew smiles onto the taped mouths which was quite a profound moment, she had been a little pointed with one of the other young people throughout the session but through this play there relationship transformed and they were in it together.

One of the young people who had been holding the spinning hula hoop then wrapped his hoop in masking tape and then gaffa until it was an amazingly rich full object he took 15 minutes to do this and seemed to make all the choices himself. 

We then took down all the created space and finished noone seemed upset by the destruction at the end.

Creating these sorts of spaces is always a good fun thing to do but i think because the staff dont have any preconception about what it should be it helps them to let go and have fun as well (not that they arent fun)

drawing and writing and even movement can seem scary or can seem to have a set or proper outcome whereas 3d construction can be chaotic and wild without being scary.

The hula hoops did really seem to have the mesmerising effect of something like a swing, it was very simple but amazingly pleasing to watch and to hold and to be inside of. 
With larger hoops we could make giant devices that you could all get inside it would be interseting to use magnets to make it move or to utilise magnets with this as you can get things to move magically then.
And it would be great to be able to make the masking tape and paper activity with something else so it could be reused, maybe velcro could be similar.

Week 2 Treehouse

Week 2 Treehouse

Projections images and spaces.

We started the session with a simple webcam programme Kinovea that is used for sports training.
It can delay the output of a webcam by up to 30seconds.
I attached 2 webcams and delayed them by 1 second and 2 seconds. So when you moved the cameras echoed your movements. We played with this effect, only a few people really got the concept at first, i meant to project the image on a bigger screen so we could play with bigger phyiscal movement but i decided to move on as focus was drifting.I think because we started with faces and hands that it put some people off as not everyone likes to see their face on a screen especially in a group situation.
The other effect you can create with this is if you create visual feedback by pointing the camera at the projected imaged. With the delay you get a strange infinite echo of your movements. But this was hard to set up in the space.

We then played with an ohp and permanent pens. They are quite old school but i love the hands on feel of ohp, you can draw and then bend, flap and distort your image. A few people tried this out, i then used small mirrors to catch the projected image and bend it onto the ceiling or somewhere else.
People seemed very intrigued with this, they like the control and the quality of the distorted image, it was difficult to see where to hold the mirror but with a more focused beam this could be alot more accesible and playful.
(I would like to make some ohp images to use with the projector, maybe geodesic patterns and overlapping circle shapes that we could spin and turn on the projector to make interesting effects. I think people maybe more into manipulating images rather than drawing, but i dont know the group so well.)

We then constructed a large 4 foot cube altogether and put on it a white cover.
I had looping animations that the group could click and choose and we projected them with a digital projector onto the cube, we turn the ohp onto the far side too.
Suprisingly the group were really into getting into the cube, some people find those sort of spaces too intense but the group really took to it. There was a real sense of that it was their space, there were just me and 3 others inside, and they were really animated and happy, they stayed in for 10 minutes alteast.
We then played with the microphone and the delays again. And we projected one of the young peoples image onto the cube while they sang. They really seemed to enjoy this.
We also had a very large visitor from another classroom who had to come into the class and get into the cube!! This was a great sign!!
Some people find small spaces with projection in overwhelming as the senses are full of movement, but the group seemed to really enjoy all the images especially as they made them or they were in control of them.

week 1 treehouse

Week 1 at treehouse

I took in lots of magnets that i had attached to wooden blocks.
Some where attracting and some repelling.
The group played with the blocks seeing if they could move other blocks without moving them, and just finding out what different blocks did.
I then had a sheet of clear perspex that we could put metallic objects ontop of and manipulate with magnets underneath the perpex.
We moved paper clips and also wrapped a ball in wire and made that move around. There was quite a queue to do this!!
I made a large tripod and hung a magnet to form a pendulum, we then played with the magnets to see how the pendulum moved when it was attracted and repulsed by different magnets.
We set up 2 pendulums one on string one on a stick (the stick one moved more strangely as the magnet could almost hover when repulsed).
These tripods were left up for the whole session and people dropped in and out of playing with them, quite often without supervision.
The group seemed to really enjoy the magnets, they seemed intrigued by the different way the magnets worked, things like attracting metallic objects are always magical and this group where no different, people would often return to a magnet and cover it in paperclips or return to the pendulums and observe the pendulums random motion. Even just feeling the pull of 2 magnets as a pleasing senosry stimulation.
(using coloured blocks and different sizes would give people lots of chances to use speech to descibe whats going on and to share the experience with other people, we could use magnets to make things spin to make things flip we could have explored magnets for weeks!!)

We then explored electronic music equipment.
a drum machine- with pre made drum beats on each pad, so multiple pads could be pressed, velocity of hitting the pads gave different volume. This was really popular with 2 boys, both seemed to like the bassy sounds and the rhythms and both understood the velocity idea very quickly.
Kaossilator- a touch control synthesizer, sounds are made by rubbing a finger on the pad, sounds are changed by rolling a dial. This is an instrument that people seem to enjoy by themselves and they can come and go with it, it is very exploratorary and has a wide range of sounds the young people could explore for a while then drift then return. It is very open ended and playful.
Microphone and kaosspad- the kaoss pad has alot of effects in it and the effects are changed by using a touch screen. This was a very strong item, the group really loved the repeats and delays that the pad made, one of the young people went through each sfx and worked out how it worked, others were into just hearing their voices, the delay made it really playful, The pad also has a pitch shifter so you can make your voice high and low and this made everyone laugh and drew people into saying alot and engaging for along time.
Microkorg keyboard- This is a fully functional synth with lots of controls, the group engaged with it for a while liking the electronic sounds but it didnt seem to sustain play as much as the mic.
(microphones are an amazing resource, something which i have used for 15 years in sessions, as a tool for self advocacy, they are great for helping people to express themselves, to be loud in a group, to be waited for and to be listenend to, they are great for turn taking and I have worked with 2 voluntary mutes in the past who have become vocal and singers just by having a microphone in sessions and by being asked questions and offered the chance to sing)

These items where brought back in week 2 and one of the young people really engaged with the mic and a delay using his voice alot and really entering into the moment of the session. He was really present and transfixed by the power of his voice and the delayng effect that multiplied his voice.

The group were really focused and had alot of fun playing with everything, they found ways to express themselves with the music and seemed to really engage with the wonder and weirdness of magnets.

Tom Cook working at Treehouse School for children with autism

This is a blogpost for Tom Cook to share what he has been doing at Treehouse school for Autistic children as part of the Children's Museum Pop-Up2.