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.