Thursday 21 May 2015

Week Six



A big pile of soil, some glitter, some photos, various gems, various textual gems that we have shared and some coloured feathers all put together on a world map. … What on Earth?



This week we said goodbye in the nicest possible way to our first group's devised character Eddie who came into being in week five as an excellent example of a 'life well lived'. We saw him off with a fond wave after asking each other what we would like to ask him and composing our answers on his behalf.

We dealt with the Big Questions like 'What do you find funny?' (his answer? 'Me'.) as well as 'What advice would you give people?' (his answer, 'Live openly and fully'). Our creation helped us to understand preconceptions of the Other and of ourselves and how we can challenge these and we love him for it.
Thanks Eddie.

The rest of our extremely creative day was spent with our fingers in the dirt looking for evidence of the work we had made together over the course of this project. We heard special phrases from each of our participants again as we unearthed snippets of stories, conversations and phrases; my personal favourites including, 'Underlying dandelion', and 'Mary Poppins took all the children off to meet the stars'.


One of the most poignant moments in this project for me overall however was one participant's reaction to the jasmine tea flower we unveiled in week one where she observed, 'The moisture feeds the flower – it is like a sea urchin'. This was not only poetic but the support assistant she had arrived with shared with us that in over a year she had never heard such words from her. There were happy tears all round. Wonderful.

Interactions such as these have made for an intensely emotional journey for both Liz and I and we hope that each of the incredible people we have shared it with feel the same. We thank everyone for taking part, being so open as to try new things every week (as well as helping us to eat all that cake!) and for sharing themselves with us.

We have all – literally - planted seeds today (in case you wondered why the soil) and I sincerely hope our orchids grow strong and remind each of us of the times we have spent together.


Thank you all.

Thursday 14 May 2015

Week Five



We can’t believe we are on week five already. We have met some amazing people and been privileged to hear some of their incredible stories. We’ve been around the world many times in these sessions which have naturally had a theme of Wanderlust.
Today was no exception; today we created a map of a Life Well Lived and transposed it onto a stranger’s face! From studying the lines, creases and contours of a face we mapped a journey with troughs, peaks and plateaus. We marveled at how tiny pieces of visual information could change our perception entirely. 



In the afternoon we camped under the stars, toasted marshmallows over a fire (well, a tealight), created our very own constellations and whispered stories under starlit canvas ‘til lights out. Isn’t it strange how cocoa tastes better when you’re camping?


We heard about the monkey who used a little girl’s hairbrush and all fell for an unlikely story about mice and grain. There was an impromptu round of old school camping songs before we all packed up our sleeping bags and zipped the tent shut. Luckily we didn’t have time to eat the pot noodle I brought to share.

Thursday 7 May 2015

Week Four




This week we asked our groups to make further explorations of storytelling and to share 'significant journeys' with us without words. We used our bodies to exchange emotions and then - sitting on our hands - we conveyed everything from moments of 'letting go' to real tears in order to transport other group members on our personal journeys.


We also made a physical map of the emotions in the room, allowing participants to create an expression of themselves from whichever media to hand they chose.





Exploring our performative selves through language, texture and expression we threw away inhibitions and donned everything from mermaid dresses to feather boas in the process!



We spoke of our relationship to each chosen material, all the while imagined what expecting a strawberry and getting a lemon might taste and feel like in the moment of sensory explosion.


These new forays into sharing showed us the depth of trust the groups are developing and has moved us nearer to creating a score of the last month's work as well as laying the groundwork for a more performative last couple of weeks.


We are inching closer to looking at notions of mapping and of self such as 'What does a persons' face tell us of their life?' and 'How can the stories we tell about ourselves change who we are now whether in our own view or in that of the Other?'......