Introduction
Exchange of Method talks at the Collective Gallery (1/28/2016) - By Steve Hollingsworth Where Art can inhabit a space outside of the gallery, other things become possible. I’m interested in testing myself in other contexts (which is what Artlink has done) I’m a fine-artist based in a music school, as …
It’s all in the Detail – notes from Steve Hollingsworths presentation as part of the Disability Research Group at Edinburgh University – November 2015 (12/2/2015) - Text in process of being edited 
SENSORIUM (10/12/2015) - At first Ben couldn’t use the sensorium. Steve persevered. Its taken time. Ben learned and this happened. ………https://03-lvl3-pdl.vimeocdn.com/01/4174/4/120873093/341190787.mp4?token=0b443e67ebd0d82326a68&expires=1444687936&filename=Sensorium-HD.mp4&download=1 Sometimes there are moments when you know that the work is going in the right direction and that the artists are … Sensorium.. Excerpt from Light2015 blog (7/16/2015) - Steve Holligsworth recently wrote for light2015 a blog for the international year of light 2015. It’s all about how art and science can work together to make a difference. Read it here…..http://light2015.org.uk/arts-and-science-working-together-to-make-a-difference/#more-1201 Excerpt from the text I was …
Sensorium (6/24/2015) - Artist, Steve Hollingsworth explores the tension between sound, light and time, and its influence by the profoundly different subjectivities he encounters. The Sensorium, exists in basic form, a rough sketch to be used by two people only. Steve will develop …Sensorium – impact of my practice on the individual and care staff (5/22/2015) - Steve Hollingsworth: The impact of art in this context (art as relationships and new perceptible forms-light, sound and performance) is enormous in this area. The art is really in the relationships that form over time between the disabled, their carers, parents and other professionals (as well as new physical and tangible art objects) Opinions change and new narratives happen as a result of the work that occurs, art has a powerful, transformative effect on all it touches, it offers change and catalyses new potentials (Lisa Wylie getting a new job, new stories occur for people that they themselves ‘write’ through …
What has working with people with profound learning disabilities brought to your practice? (5/20/2015) - STEVE HOLLINGSWORTH: Working as artist has enriched, invigorated and expanded the potential of my practice. My ideas were forced to adapt and change in order to communicate with the radically different subjectivities I encounter in my work. It enabled collaborations to occur where new ideas arose through discussion (with other artists) and constantly working through themes and potentials. More than anything it enforces and empowers open thinking, for me it removed self-imposed borders to my perceived practice and empowered me to engage with new areas of practice, specifically sound and performance, it moved me beyond reliance on object as …
Working within the thresholds of perception (2/5/2015) - Dr. Gordon Dutton As a clinician who has spent many years working with children and adults with impaired vision, often associated with developmental and learning disorders, this contributor’s view is that it is important to bring about a sense of pleasure and fulfilment through the medium of artistic expression, for all those whose normal is to have limitations in access to both their surroundings and society. The work of Steve Hollingsworth brings a refreshing new perspective to this ambition. Instead of being hidebound by the negative medical dogma of disease, disorder and disability, the approach he takes is to accept …
Notes from workshop to inspire careworkers (2/2/2015) - The notes below are from a workshop by artist Steve Hollingsworth exploring ways in which staff could be inspired to inform the progression of Nathalies (the person they cared for) project. I blind folded both of them and gave them …Accumulating the detail behind the artwork (1/29/2015) - Steve Hollingsworth works closely with the individual, watching their smallest response as a way of informing his artworks. He enters a world in which colour becomes sound and sound becomes colour, where light becomes an object to be touched, where simple vibration and sound are all consuming, where seemingly routine events become fascinating. These observations have been further informed by continual engagement and conversations with established thinkers and practitioners from diverse backgrounds such as Neurology and Vision Science to Psychology. Have a look at a short film here.
6th International Arcintex 2015 Research Symposium (1/19/2015) - Steve Hollingsworth has been invited to present some of the work and thinking he does with Artlink at the 6th International Arcintex 2015 Research Symposium held at Nottingham Trent University in February. Under the conference title of ‘Narratives in an Internet of Soft Things’ it will entail 3 days of talks and workshops. Steve is running a workshop that will be an interrogation of the sensorium we all inhabit using drawing as a way to question learned perceptions. He will also give a 20 minute talk on the recent Ideas Team developments as part of the lecture program.
Sound work – Steve Hollingsworth (1/8/2015) - Yes! a new departure into re-thinking an interface for Nathalie. She seemed (to us) to get the joystick. We weren’t too sure she could use it. We kept working with her and then suddenly she can do it! Result!
Update on Steves work (11/14/2014) - My overall aim is to refine ideas concerning the developing immersive sensorium (and what is most appropriate for Ben and Nathalie) and also to be ambitious as possible in moving toward a further potential version of the Sensorium. To do this I need to learn more from Ben and Nathalie, this will come from the staff and the results of their weekly missions and from my own developing work and ideas. Everything feeds into the developing work. Its important that the work keeps moving forward, to avoid stagnation. It is also very important to keep working at Cherry Road I …
A bespoke sensorium for Ben (11/12/2014) - This is a prototype device that comprises of an umbrella projection screen, a video projector, small speakers and amplifier, a colour changing LED strip and a specially designed interface. Bens sensory preferences are combinations of Sound and Light (high pitched sound seems to be favoured) The planetarium is a computer based system that Ben has control over through a joystick, this enables Ben to go on a galactic journey through the universe accompanied by either his own amplified sounds or the many others that he has access to (through his hand movements) that are on the computer. The images are …
Immersive workshops (8/5/2014) - In their workshops Steve Hollingsworth and Jim Colqhoun engage people through an immersive aural/visual environment, that serves to highlight the tiniest of sounds, attenuating perception through chorus of spoken, shrieked, whispered and disjointed wordplay. The artists strive to create a zone where perception is subtly shifted and where people are gently eased away from their everyday
Drawings for sensory planetarium – Steve Hollingsworth (6/2/2014) - Steve makes sketches of the ideas emerging from his workshops with people. He has pages and pages of them. The sketches below are the beginnings of his ideas for the Sensorium.
Marks piano by Steve Hollingsworth (2/10/2013) - The idea was to use a piano as a base for allowing Mark to access new aural experiences by encouraging him to use switches. The piano was used due to marks familiarity with it, its indestructibility and also as an instrument that he could play. The switches allow mark access to familiar voices, dogs barking, but can also be programmed with any sounds at all that may have relevance for Mark and also encourage him to keep using the switches to allow him access to new experiences.
The beginning of Marks Piano and the development of the Ideas Team (6/11/2012) - Artist, Steve Hollingsworth work with Mark and the Ideas team consisting of his mother, care workers, psychologist, OT’s and physios. The group agreed to the following aim: to encourage deliberate movements and intentionality and increase his motor skills. This was the first of many group meetings.
An approach (9/29/2011) - This is dependent on who you are working with, what they are interested in and how they respond but it gives you an idea of an approach. This is a section of a recent posting by Steve Hollingsworth, describing how he breaks down a workshop approach……. Bearing in mind the reactions and structure of last weeks workshop we split the workshop into 2 as there were quite a few folk to work with. This seemed to work really well. We drew up a pie chart to split up each half our in 5 minute sections, it’s really important to have …
