MERL Workshop 12 May 2014

Today’s workshop was primarily a reflective session, looking back on what has been accomplished in the previous workshops. At the beginning of the workshop, before the group arrived, the tables were filled with buckets, boots and baskets to show some of the work that had been created to date:

Buckets, Boots and Baskets

Buckets, Boots and Baskets – some of the finished works, and some works-in-progress

Some of the objects are not yet completed, and part of today’s session was used to help in choosing how to complete these works-in-progress. We’ll continue next Monday with these too. As you can see, the herbs that the group planted in the boots some months ago have grown significantly, and were carefully tended to by Robyn (not all are present here).

The workshop session was divided into two activities (divised by Gosia): a review and a photography session. For the review activity, each co-researcher was initially provided with a small collection of images that related to their work (things they liked, or have worked on, and included many images of themselves in the workshop sessions), so that they could begin by looking back at some of the things they had done in past workshops:

Each co-researcher had a collection of images to remind them of their previous workshops

Each co-researcher had a collection of images to remind them of their previous workshops

The co-researchers started out by selecting some of the their favourite pictures and videos from the project blog and from the wiki that they had co-constucted:

Looking at the blog

Looking at the blog

We wanted them to choose pictures or videos (or just sounds) that were meaningful in some way. This was quite difficult to do, and we worked one-to-one with the co-researchers. Selecting images and videos that are appealing is straightforward, but giving a reason why is often very difficult or not possible. However, it is perhaps more important that they were engaged in the task and looking at what they had done, regardless of the outcome.

The second part of the workshop was a photography session in which the co-researchers created photographs of themselves (taken by one of the other group members or support staff), a picture of themselves with the object that they had co-designed, some video of themselves with their object and also something in the museum which related to their object. The images and video can be uploaded to their personal wiki page (Klikin) in a later workshop.

Luke demonstrated his ‘hole-in-one’ bucket (missing the flag in this image):

Luke's 'hole-in-one' bucket

Luke’s ‘hole-in-one’ bucket (missing the flag)

Skye demonstrated her animal farm bucket. It plays farm animal sounds randomly, and when completed it will also respond to the grass being pressed, where it will play a recording of ‘old macdonald’.

Skye with her animal farm

Skye with her animal farm

Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket responds by grunting when the ears are being squeezed – the next addition is to add the pig’s nose (which has been difficult to create!) so that it will also respond to the nose being pressed.

Rachel's pig in a bucket

Rachel’s pig in a bucket

Sian took pictures of her mooing boot (the ‘Moot’) at different locations within MERL and then gave a demonstration of how it works:

Sian's mooing boot (the 'Moot')

Sian’s mooing boot (the ‘Moot’)

Some of the sensory object works-in-progress were not available to demonstrate, so the other co-researchers’ took photographs of some of the other artworks they had created at the workshops, placing them in locations around MERL, and also took pictures of thing they liked at MERL. The following is a selection of some of them (there were hundreds of images, totalling over 1GB, so we can only select a few):

Skye with her animal

Skye with her animal

Photograph by Rachel

Photograph by Rachel

 

Rachel's pig-in-a-bucket somewhere in MERL

Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket somewhere in MERL

Guillermo as a farm worker

Guillermo as a farm worker

 

Guillermo placing some of the objects in MERL for photographing

Guillermo placing some of the objects in MERL for photographing

Luke examines the flowers outside of MERL

Luke examines the flowers outside of MERL

 

Rachael with her yellow pig

Rachael with her yellow pig

Towards the end of the workshop, we had a music session starting with Old Macdonald. We played a video which had the soundtrack of Old Macdonald plus Makaton signs which many of the group could understand:

Old macdonald with Makaton signs

Old macdonald with Makaton signs

Sensory Objects in Progress Seminar Tuesday 10th June

We are going to have talks and demonstrations about the project on Tuesday 10th of June  the Seminar is part of Universities Week Below is a flyer in easy read version and with more text about the Seminar. Please send an email to k.allen@reading.ac.uk if you would like to attend the seminar its free but places are limited.

Seminar Invite Tuesday 10th June Easy Read

Seminar Invite Tuesday 10th June Easy Read

 

Seminar Flyer

Seminar Flyer Tuesday 10th

Reading College LLD/D Students Multi Media Advocacy Workshop 14.02.14

Andy and Ajay from the Rix Centre led a Multi Media Advocacy Session with our Co-Researchers at Reading College. They did some further work with students on their wikis, the idea was to see how we might be able to join up some of the work we have done about MERL with multi sensory workshops with the work that is part of the student curriculum on independent living, transition and developing participation in the community. We thought that we could draw from the existing array of photos that students have from MERL and see how we can talk and work on themes such as WORK, TRANSPORT, WHERE YOU LIVE and HOUSING, COOKING, DOMESTIC SKILLS etc. – using the MERL experience and sensory approaches as the starting point. The video below shows Sian with Andy’s help demonstrating to the group how to make pages for her wiki about Travel. Ajay took some video clips of Sian and Andy.

Our aim is to use the students’ wikis as a place where they can put together their thoughts and ideas. They may also use the Internet and Google Image search to connect the old with the new, bringing their insights and sensory understandings into their reflection about their own lives and their future goals and wishes.

Co-Researchers at Reading College

Co-Researchers at Reading College

The picture below shows Andy and Sian working together on the interactive white board to create Sian’s wiki. The idea was to explore transport Sian had seen in MERL a tractor then discuss how Sian travels, she found a picture of a taxi and showed us her bus pass.

Sian and Andy talk TRANSPORT

Sian and Andy talk TRANSPORT

Then all the Co-Researchers created pages about Transport using i Pads.

Group using ipad

Racheal, Rachel, Guillermo and Skye using i pad to talk TRANSPORT

Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Seven 25.11.13

We held a session at Reading College using Talking Mats which is a way of finding out what our Co-researchers had experienced using their sense to discover MERL. The session was led by Gosia from the Rix Centre. The mat has images of the five senses and objects from the MERL collection. We asked our Co-researchers which sense they would most like to use to experience an object in the MERL collection.The pictures below shows the talking mat, it has images of the senses and objects from MERL, we asked the Co-researchers which sense they would most like to use to experience an object in the MERL collection.

Gosia with Sian and talking mats

Gosia with Sian and talking mats

 

Guillermo with Talking Mats 2

Guillermo with Talking Mats 2

Skye talking mats results

Skye talking mats results

The talking mats sessions were videoed and will help us work towards developing our sensory objects. While each person did Talking Mats with Gosia, we added more info to their individual wikis, we used iPads to do this. The picture below shoes Guillermo using an iPad

Guillermo using ipad to upload his webpage

Guillermo using ipad to upload his webpage

 

Later we asked the group to make Old Mac Donald’s Farm from foil and drawing.

Group making old macdonald

Group making old Macdonalds farm

The picture below shows Rachael and Guillermo drawing their farms.

Rachel1and guillermo

Rachel1and Guillermo

Sian’s picture of Old MacDonald’s head, farm house and tractor

Sian Old Macdonald face house and tractor

Sian Old Macdonald face house and tractor

Rachel drew some reindeer for her farm.

Rachel2drawing farm

Rachel2drawing farm

The picture below shows Rumenas farm she created some snails for her farm.

Rumenas farm

Rumenas farm

The picture below shows Luke and his drawing of a farm Luke mixed in some words about golf and made a golf club with the silver foil. I asked Luke if he had ever played crazy golf I wondered if we could link golf with farming as Luke is so keen on golf.

Lukes Farm

Lukes Farm

The picture below shows Guillermo with his farm

Guillermo's Farm

Guillermo’s Farm

Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Five 08.11.13 & 11.11.13

Our fifth workshop at Reading College was spread over two days the morning of Friday 8th and Monday 11th. On the Friday Gosia came and showed our Co-Researchers how to create their individual webpages unlike the group webpage which you can see here the individual webpages are private for each person to reflect on their experiences during the project. On Monday 11th Ajay and John came from the RIX to continue to add to the blogs. In the afternoon we created some collages and drawings.

Gosia explains the individual website

Gosia explains the individual website on Friday morning

We continued to work on the website on Monday, the picture below shows Rachel drawing what she wants to say for her webpage picture of her holding a parsnip by a display about ploughing. Rachel drew a parsnip, tractor and a ploughed field, she drew an eye to say she had used the sense of sight. The image bottom left shows drawings and text by Rachel describing our lunch at MERL.

Rachel draws text she wanted under her chosen picture

Rachel draws text she wanted under her chosen picture

The picture below shows both Rachel’s, Guillermo and Sian collaging. We asked our Co-Researchers to create collages that would tell a story based on our buckets, boots and baskets. We reminded the group about the nursery rhyme The old woman who lived in a shoe, we asked them what sort of story could be invented could someone live in a boot or a bucket, could sounds come from them, how could the basket, bucket and boot be transformed, give a sensory experience of MERL?

Collaging

Collaging

Luke made his collage and made sounds of the animals he made a very good chicken sound “BrkBrk” and started to sing Old MacDonald had a farm, Ajay recorded him singing and making animal sounds.

Luke collage

Luke’s collage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skye also made some animal sounds but she also started singing the song Naughty Boy – La La La ft. Sam Smith.The rest of the group chose music too and it made us realise how important music was to our group, it has made us consider how we can incorporate music into our workshops more. The picture below shows Guillermo dancing and Rachel singing along to the Spice Girls.

Guillermo and Rachel listen to music

Guillermo and Rachel listen to music

Guillermo drew a story where 3 pigs, Cathy and Guillermo’s family live in a bucket!

Guillermo Pic

Guillermo’s pic 3 pigs in a bucket and family

Speke Hall Workshop, October 8th 2012

This workshop concentrated on collecting, making and recording sounds from Speke Hall. Some of the sounds may go inside the boxes made in the last workshop. You can hear some of the sounds on the box webpage here

There was an initial briefing in the education room at Speke, where a video of Sheila (a Speke Hall volunteer) was played. She described the sounds that you could hear in the house at the present time, and also some of the sounds that you would expect to hear when the house was it was used as a family residence. Following the introduction, the Co Researchers looked at some of the equipment for making sounds (such as the miniature barrel organ) and then either collected sounds from around the hall, or made sounds themselves used materials supplied.

The image below shows Elle making the miniature barrel organ play its sound. After the picture was taken she discovered that holding it on a flat, hard surface (the table) makes it sound much louder.

Elle plays music by turning the handle on the miniature barrel organ

Elle plays music by turning the handle on the miniature barrel organ

Paul does the same with mini barrel organ:

Paul playing the barrel organ

Paul playing the barrel organThe picture below show Elle making the clip clop sound of horses hooves with coconut shells, Tracy recorded the sound.

The picture below show Elle making the clip clop sound of horses hooves with coconut shells, Tracy recorded the sound.

Elle makes sound of horses hooves

Elle makes sound of horses hooves

The picture below shows Paul and Angela they found that if they squeezed the cellophane gentley it would sound like a fire crackling.

Paul and Angela fire sound

Paul and Angela fire sound

Paul and Angela popped bubble wrap this worked even better than cellophane as the sound of a crackling fire.

The picture below shows Paul with a whisk in a metal jug. The group tried to make a sound scene of the kitchen.

Paul makes kitchen sounds

Paul makes kitchen sounds

The picture below shows Angela using some wooden paddles that would form butter into a block, by rubbing them past each other they made a rasping sound we did not try them with butter between them.

Angela with butter pats 2

Angela explores the sound that butter pats make

 

Sounds Collected Around the Hall

Sounds were collected from around the hall, either by directly recording the available sounds (e.g. clocks ticking) or making the sounds happen by some form of interaction. In the two images below, Christopher records the sounds made by billiard balls moving along the baize surface, and when the balls collide.

Christopher recording sound of the billiard balls

Christopher recording the sound of the billiard balls

 

Christopher recording the sounds made by the billiard balls

Christopher records the sounds made by the billiard balls

The picture below shows Elle with volunteer costume tour guide Fiona. They collected the sound of the cue and balls knocking together. Sometimes it was difficult to know whether Elle wanted to hold the sound recorder or take part in the activity that made the sound.

Elle and Fiona billiards

Elle and Fiona billiards sound of cue on ball

The sound made by the ‘secret lock’ and the creaking of the cupboard door in one of the bedrooms was captured by Elle:

The lock behind the 'secret' panel is revealed! Click ... cluck

The lock behind the ‘secret’ panel is revealed! Click … cluck

The sounds of the creaking floorboards was also capture on the top floor of the house:

Elle examines a fossil on the limestone floor for it’s texture. Co Researchers are encouraged to explore all sensory forms, even if not strictly part of the exercise:

Elle examines the fossil of a belemnite for its texture

Elle examines the fossil of a belemnite for its texture

The picture below shows Elle ringing a bell in the kitchen to collect the sound.

Elle rings bell

Elle rings bell in kitchen at Speke Hall

The picture below shows Elle using the sound recorder to record the sound of rustling fabric of Fiona and Veras costumes.

Elle collects sounds of the costumes

Elle collects sounds of the costumes

Dancing to the barrel organ from sensoryobjects on Vimeo.

Paul makes sounds in the kitchen from sensoryobjects on Vimeo.

Elle feeling and listening to book from sensoryobjects on Vimeo.

Elle in Kitchen from sensoryobjects on Vimeo.

sounds from the corridor carpet from sensoryobjects on Vimeo.

 

Multimedia Advocacy Workshop at Liverpool Mencap

We had a workshop to introduce use of the Klik in ‘easy build’ website as a tool for Multimedia Advocacy to the Project participants and researchers and their supporters. It was at Liverpool Mencap’s Offices. Andy and Ajay from the Rix Centre showed the group how the Wiki Websites work and everyone had a go at making a website.


Here is a couple of video clips of what people thought of the workshop…

DSCN0305 from andy minnion on Vimeo.

DSCN0303 from andy minnion on Vimeo.

The ‘easy-build’ website worked well as a frame for conversations, self-advocacy and thinking about what we wanted to say to the public. We came up with a plan for a wiki that could feed our thoughts into the Speke Hall workshop series.

We planned 6 sections for our Wiki website to capture the Sensory Object research that we are doing.

ABOUT US – where we introduce all of us researchers and our supporters

SPEKE HALL – where we show the pictures, sound and video clips that we take at Speke Hall. We add our comments and share our thoughts.

WORKSHOPS – about each of the project workshops, we share our pictures and clips, talk about what we liked and our ideas.

MAKING THINGS – here we share the various creative things we have done, especially our work with artists and our work with exhibitions and collections

MUSEUMS – a section where we talk about our experiences of museums, collections and heritage sites. We use pictures and clips to talk about what works for us and what doesn’t!

MESSAGES – here we will let people know what we have to say about museums, heritage sites and how Sensory Objects can make them better. We will sum up what we learn on the project and give advice from our experience… we will tell it how it is!

We have ANOTHER PLAN – to make a wiki at each workshop session as part of organising our pictures and clips, thinking over our impressions and working up our comments.

Multimedia advocacy work for Workshop 2

Here is a link to the Klik in Website showing Patrick’s photos and video clips from his first Speke Hall visit.

www.klikin.eu/sensoryobjects1

This easy-build website features the photos and videos taken by and with Patrick at Workshop 2

His images and clips have been uploaded to an ‘easy-build’ website. This is so that Patrick can look at his photos with his supporter, Gerry and they can add comments as titles and captions to whichever pictures they choose.

This is a first go at using easy-build ‘wiki’ websites to help our co-researchers like Patrick and Gerry to contribute their thoughts to the project these in a way we can build on from workshop to workshop.