workshops in MMU

During Unit X we have been attending workshops with Kirsteen Aubrey that help us to understand different ways we can design and run our own workshops. These have included group activities and solo tasks, which really demonstrate how different people are better or worse at different things. They also help us with thinking about timings within workshops; some people need longer than others for certain tasks. As a lot of the placements take place in care homes and centres for people with learning difficulties we have been taught to consider that some people may have disabilities that mean it’s more difficult for them to do things than ourselves.

Examples of the activities we did in the workshops; working both individually and as part of a team

second week at Start

This week I feel I’ve been a bit more involved on my placement at Start in Salford. I’m starting to get to know the members a bit more, which is helping me to learn how I can help them better. The morning class of visual arts was similar to last week, just talking to the members, helping where I can with their work and offering encouragement. The afternoon class of Photography was fun. We took the small class down to Salford Quays, where we visited the Lowry Art centre. The architecture is brilliant there, with many curved lines and interesting colours which is perfect for taking some fantastic photos. As well as taking my own photos, I also posed in a few of the members’ shots, and again encouraged and suggested to people how they could take some good photos. I think my own confidence is growing as I work with people at the centre, I’m really enjoying the feeling of being an active and helpful part of the community too.

beginning at Start

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This week was the beginning of my placement with Start in Salford. Ben, the head of the charity organisation, took mine and the other students working on placement here’s skills and art disciplines into consideration and placed us in different classes in the centre. As I have worked a lot this year with digital print making I am very competent with using Illustrator and Photoshop, so I have been put in a photography workshop and can help with any needs they have with computers and digital manipulation etc. I also love drawing and painting, so am happy to have been put with the Core Project, a workshop that works with people with long and enduring mental health issues, in the Visual arts group.

In the induction session Ben showed us round the entire centre, which is in a converted church and is a very welcoming and friendly place. I met the staff I’ll be working with for the next six weeks, they seem lovely.

My first day was interesting. In the visual arts class I acted almost as another member! It was a very quiet class of about six members, so there was little to do apart from help people set up their work spaces, and really just give them encouragement, which helps build up confidence and self esteem. Most people in the class are doing their entry level qualification in visual arts, so at the moment are getting work done for their portfolios. It is a twenty week project that began in January, so everyone is well into their work, already working on their preferred methods of working, and looking at artists that can relate to their own work.

In the afternoon was the photography class. It was a much smaller class, so I worked one to one with a bloke on Photoshop, helping him to manipulate his photography from a previous class. This helped me to hone my teaching skills, I enjoyed helping him to produce work he was proud of!

unit X - weeks 1 and 2

Visiting Stockport studios was the kick off of Unit X, College One. I was introduced to the staff we’ll be working with as well as viewing the space I could be working in. The first two weeks were made up of lectures and workshops from the MMU staff working on the project and also from the organisations we could potentially work with for the duration of Unit X.

Lynn, my personal tutor, gave a talk and held a workshop to give us ideas on how to run our own workshops in our chosen placements. We worked with materials like plastic and paper to create group pieces of artwork. It made me consider how learning new skills can be faster or slower depending on who I am teaching, and how I can adapt certain methods of teaching for different skill levels.

First we visited Venture Arts, an centre in Manchester that holds classes and workshops for people of all ages with learning difficulties. It was good to meet the staff and some of the members, and hear about the projects they work on. I was surprised by the level of professionalism in the members’ work, most of it was brilliant!

We also had talks from the Zion Arts centre, The Ideas Foundation and a couple of schools. I enjoyed hearing what projects the organisations were working on. But the organisations that caught my eye the most were Arts for Health and Start in Salford. The arts for health option were offering placements to those who wanted to work with people in care homes with dementia and Start had opportunities to work with people suffering from mental health issues. I think these two organisations most interested me as they use art as a method of therapy almost. Art is often seen as a “doss” subject, overlooked by people as something used for fun and not given much merit, but here Art is important in opening people’s minds, building confidence and freedom that translates into other aspects of their lives, and often  (as with Start) about getting people qualifications. Start also feels quite close to my heart as I come from a family with some mental health issues like long term depression and bipolar disorder.

I think my skill set will help with working with my chosen placement at Start in Salford. I feel I’m a good listener and am able to adapt to working with various types of people. I feel this will allow me to help with teaching all sorts of personalities and ages.

Evaluation

At the beginning of Unit X I was a little overwhelmed by the incredibly open brief and how we were expected to work almost completely independently. I was also slightly mystified by the group blog that we were to keep. However, as the weeks passed I started enjoying the blogging experience a lot more, instead of just keeping notes in a personal journal, it was nice to share ideas and inspirations within the group.
One of the things I enjoyed most about Unit X was the fact we were in Hotspur House rather than the TIP studio. I feel like it opened up my way of working. Hotspur is such an inspiring building in itself, with the history and the fact that working artists use the studios as well as just us students. What else was very lovely about the unit was that as well as just other textiles students working in the space, we were surrounded with some of the other disciplines within the School of Art, allowing us to absorb other people’s work that was going on around us.
Through the course of the last 8 weeks, I have found that the way I used to work has changed. Instead of being very literal and image based in my work, I’ve actually done very little drawing or photography, which is what I have mainly concentrated on in previous projects. This time I have worked with words and thoughts more intensely. I have also spoken to many people throughout this project, collecting opinions and thoughts on my subjects and work. This is an activity that I’ve never really done before. My work this time has been much less processed based; I think the fact that set workshops and classes haven’t been timetabled has had something to do with this. In previous projects I feel that I was trying to make the subject of my work fit in with either knitting or 3D construction for example, rather than letting the work develop in a more organic way like it has in Unit X. Because of this, I have enjoyed the project a lot, I like working more freely and openly.
I think the most successful aspect of the unit has been my idea development. Being part of the Imagining It sub group has been exciting and I’ve stayed much more focused as I was part of a group of people that work very similarly to me. I think that previously I’ve been a little distracted when working alongside people who are more fashion or product based, so it’s been really enlightening to work with the other Imagining It students.
Although I have improved throughout my previous projects, I feel I didn’t start off Unit X as strongly as I could have done, I was still a little slow in the beginning with my research and development work.
I hope that my final show next week will reflect the effort I have put in through Unit X and really portray how interesting, exciting and fun the project has been!

Book sampling

Some of my experimentation with booking making. I played around with folding and various textures and weights of paper.

Georgia Russell

Some amazing work that artist Georgia Russell has produced using old books:

http://silentstoryteller.typepad.com/blog/2010/08/georgia-russell.html

Books

I’d alkso like to present the text/words in a book. By putting only on word on each page this gives the word more impact. En-mass, single words can often be ignored so I hope that by decontextualising each word or phrase will give it more importance.