Archive – what informs us

an essay from a soon to be published book by Amanda Cachia excerpt from intro to chapter For more than two decades, Artlink has pioneered the use of contemporary arts practice as a form of collaborative research with partner Cherry Road Learning Centre in Midlothian, Scotland.1 Through the Ideas Team, an Artlink project, it paired … Continue reading The story behind the exhibition

For the last year I’ve continued with figurative pieces. They range in size from 6″ to 3ft tall. It will be good to talk and hear what you both are thinking about. Here are a few images of recent work: Untitled, clothing scraps, plaster, plaster gauze, fabric collage, watercolor, 6 ½ x 9 x 4, … Continue reading JENNIFER PAGE COHEN – idea development

Visual evaluation coordinated by Greer Pester & Sally Hackett Sense Field by Steve Hollingsworth & Jim Colquhoun. photos by Anne Elliot Part performance, part workshop, Sense Field featured sound, movement, costume, masks and improvisation to alter our sense of time and space.This performance was informed by the interests and insights of individuals with profound and … Continue reading Visual evaluation from Sense Field as part of Altered States, Human Threads at Tramway

Yesterday’s session with J and D saw D drawing with some new apps on the ipad to make projections that lit up  J who was working with Laura A. He was enjoying a good dance and some time under the leaf…  

In 2016 we were full of ideas. . Look here .

Tommy Perman suggested we look at this.  We have.  We like it.

CYMBOL + SILK RIBBON + WOODEN HOOP = PROPOSITION HOLDING + TAPPING + CONNECTING = ACTION More experimenting with Ben today. Thinking on from Steve’s work that he does with Ben – Ive started making random objects/propositions that have a kind of purpose. Ben seems to understand that he can have an affect what we are doing, … Continue reading Ben i cause & effect – Laura Aldridge

I (Aldridge) have been thinking a lot about what direction to take the work we are doing in. I’ve been thinking a lot about the sensorial and experiential in sculptural practice lately, in relation to my own work, a teaching project I am doing and of course the Sensory workshop. How to do we make … Continue reading RELATIONAL OBJECTS

    I met Ben in the Cherry Road Learning Centre in Bonnyrigg. He seemed to be on the fringe of things, passive, his potential untapped. Week upon week, for an hour or so at a time, Ben took me on a journey. As an artist I absorbed his world. This began with the idea … Continue reading Sensorium – Steve Hollingsworth

Brief for artists Laura Aldridge and Laura spring Collaborative environments This project offers its artists the freedom to imagine their most incredible ideas and the resources to realise them. We would like you to think about day centre environments as theatrical/carnival/fairground spaces. By this we mean that we would like you to think about all … Continue reading ARTISTS BRIEF FOR COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS

  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 … Continue reading Sensorium – impact of my practice on the individual and care staff 

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 … Continue reading THE THRESHOLDS OF PERCEPTION

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 a large sheet of paper to write words down as they listened, so they wrote … Continue reading TO INSPIRE CARE WORKERS

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 … Continue reading A bespoke sensorium for Ben

Kelly visited artlink on a regular basis. During these visits she would meet with different people who would help her to form her ideas. Her interest in personal spaces for people kept being talked about. What sort of space would each person require? How would it benefit them? Was it one space or several? If … Continue reading KELLY DOBSON – idea development

To ensure that we were going in the right direction we asked staff to feedback on their staff training. We asked them how they would apply what they were hearing to their everyday work. By working in this way we ensured that they had to think about the relevance of the training  and how they … Continue reading Feedback on staff training – Conscious Calm 

To ensure that we were going in the right direction we asked staff to feedback on their staff training. We asked them how they would apply what they were hearing to their everyday work. By working in this way we ensured that they had to think about the relevance of the training  and how they … Continue reading Feedback on staff training – observational writing

To further enhance the work being done through the ideas teams and to strengthen the links to care staff, we put on a series of staff seminars. Each seminar was directly linked to Ideas Team work e.g. classes in descriptive writing enhanced staff abilities to write more descriptively in the sound diaries that  they were … Continue reading Staff Seminars

To ensure that we were going in the right direction we asked staff to feedback on their staff training. We asked them how they would apply what they were hearing to their everyday work. By working in this way we ensured that they had to think about the relevance of the training  and how they … Continue reading Feedback on staff training – ways of being

Opera for a small room There are twenty-four antique loudspeakers out of which come songs, sounds, arias, and occasional pop tunes. There are almost two thousand records stacked around the room and eight record players, which turn on and off robotically syncing with the soundtrack. The sound of someone moving and sorting albums is heard. … Continue reading Cardiff & Miller (artists we are inspired by)

“I don’t know enough to say whether a person is in possession of a disability, or a disability is in possession of a person. My point of departure either way in writing these portraits is that the person exists independent of the disability; not that it isn’t bound up with their being, but that the … Continue reading Oliver Sachs

It took some time for information from the week-long classes at Reggio to sink in.   It took a while longer for it to impact on the Ideas Team.  When it did, it took the following forms:- 1.  Public exhibition and posting of documentation of activity (workshops, ideas, diaries, diaries and seminars) 2.  spreading knowledge … Continue reading Impact of reggio on ways of thinking within Ideas Teams

Reggio Emilia Introduction In march 2013, through Creative Scotland PEP funding,  I attended a week-long course at reggio Emilia in Italy. I was interested in understanding just how some of the learning strategies could be adapted to meet the needs of adults with profound learning disabilities. Notes I entered this week, feeling unsure as to … Continue reading Notes from reggio emillia – relevance

  Introduction In march 2013, through Creative Scotland PEP funding,  I attended a week-long course at reggio Emilia in Italy. I was interested in understanding just how some of the learning strategies could be adapted to meet the needs of adults with profound learning disabilities. Notes about Documentation Everything is documented. Each part of the … Continue reading Reggio 4

  Introduction In march 2013, through Creative Scotland PEP funding,  I attended a week-long course at reggio Emilia in Italy. I was interested in understanding just how some of the learning strategies could be adapted to meet the needs of adults with profound learning disabilities. Learning Documentation becomes a tool for reflection and rethinking. Adults … Continue reading Reggio 3

Notes on Research – reggio style Education is about research. It would be of interest to shift focus from day care to education, looking at the way people with profound learning disabilities learn. Supporting people to explore their own particular interests on their terms. Allowing them to take it in their own particular direction. Regardless … Continue reading Notes from Reggio Emilia 2

As ways of working within the Ideas Team began to take effect, it became apparent that if we were to work with the individual in the longer term then we also had to work with the care staff around them. It led to a shift in emphasis, away from individual ideas team meetings to a … Continue reading Changing ideas

In March of this year we organised a day long presentation in which artists talked of their practice and its crossover into their work with Artlink. These presentations were an exploration of the possibility of future collaboration as much as they were a presentation of current ways of working. Presentations from Laura Aldridge, Steve Hollingsworth … Continue reading Ideas Team presentation

Yellow Tubes by Jesus Rafael Soto at LACMA, we had to have a go!

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.

A look at The Reggio Approach The Reggio Approach derives its name from its place of origin, Reggio Emilia, a city located in Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy. Shortly after the Second World War, Loris Malaguzzi, a young teacher and the founder of this unique system, joined forces with the parents of this region to … Continue reading the next step?

Its been some time since we have posted anything online. So here is something to get the ball rolling……………………………………… http://lookintomyowl.com/olafur-eliasson-mca-chicago.html

Just wanted to share some images of the day centre we have been transforming………

Following on from all the additions Steve and I have been making at the day centre, ive been working on a series of poster works for the walls at the centre. I’ve been thinking about how each individual at the centre have informed and inspired the changes – but ive also been thinking, that these … Continue reading in·di·vid·u·al

Laura and I were working today on changing a former smoking room at the care centre we’re working in, into a much more useable sensory space. All the walls are glass and it gets a great deal of light, Laura ordered some red gel and we placed this on glass on all the walls. When … Continue reading The Red Room

Steve and I have been working hard to get the wheeled walls I mentioned in a previous post into being. We were bending metal on this machine from another dimension it took some serious elbow grease, but we got it done in the end. Here is a sneak peak of the wheeled walls bare in … Continue reading WHATS IN A NAME……..

I came across this book whilst shopping in the sales over the christmas holidays – its a really great book full of patterns and instructions for making you own soft sculptures. It got me thinking about the sensory library Steve Hollingsworth has been talking about for the Day Center we are woking in. They have … Continue reading DIY! (and with others)

I’I’ve started making a series of cushions to activate the communal area in the day center I have been working in. The cushions, quite simply are COSMIC! as in, they are like the cosmos! infinite! each cushion has several different combinations, to be changed throughout the day, soft furnishings need never be dull! This is … Continue reading Cosmic Cushions

Continuing with my thoughts for the day center we are working in, I like the idea of a building being more than just a building. Transforming it with interesting forms, colour and shape – here are some images ive been finding, it lead me to a term called ‘supergraphics’ – popular in the 80’s apparently, … Continue reading MAKE IT GOOD AND MAKE IT BIG!

    With the advent of the diode laser, coherence is finally available at a hobbyist price. Search eBay for “laser module” and you will find lasers from $5.00 and up. There are basically two kinds of laser displays: screen effects, where the laser shines on a screen (which is what we are doing here), … Continue reading Lunch Box laser light show – for the HOLIDAYS

We are going to start to post the beginnings of some new ideas. The development of the Ideas Team within a traditional day centre structure. This is not about technology alone, although it is part of it. What’s very important with a project of this nature is that it reflects the interests and needs of … Continue reading Ideas Team

Enactive Musical Instruments from Sile O’Modhrain & Georg Essl at Media Lab Europe I particularly like this project because the interface is so simple but even from this demo video you can see how effective it could be: a box with a cheap microphone stuck on the bottom, and some pebbles. Would be easy enough … Continue reading Pebble Box

A bit if LIGHT relief

http://www.eyewriter.org/ Members of Free Art and Technology (FAT), OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group communities have teamed-up with a legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist, named TEMPTONE. Tempt1 was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, a disease which has left him almost completely physically paralyzed… except for his eyes. This international team … Continue reading Useful technology?

Beautiful work

A website to play with, try out. Some of the stuff appears to be easy to do. So, if you want you can set up your own wee sensory games. Perhaps using them with some of the people you work with. Imagine clapping your hands and a cardboard box starts to jiggle!!! http://www.pienetwork.org/

Copied directly from website http://hirshhorn.si.edu/visualmusic/organs.html Light Shows The psychedelic light shows of the 1960s and early 1970s blended the cool carefree attitude of the pop arena with the seriousness and mysteries of high art. Comprising elements from painting, film, color-organ performances, coffeehouse jazz concerts, electronic-music events, rock music, performance art, Happenings, Actions, underground Beat poetry … Continue reading Hirshorn Light Shows

Take time to look at this film as the work would really be of benefit to people with high support needs. If I was to pick out one piece I think it would be the swimming pool with projections and lights. Would it be possible to take a changing room and turn it into one … Continue reading MOCA Senior curator Alma Ruiz leads us through Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space; the first museum exhibition to situate pioneering Latin American artists among the international canon of those working with light and space.

We’re about to start using one of these in our sensory workshops to encourage people to create their own sounds and create a changing visual field as well that corresponds to the sounds made……….

This is brilliant……..a new kind of interface for making music. As used by Bjork. Each object on a table with a back projection has an assigned sound, as they are moved around the table by a user changes the relationship between objects resulting in new sounds……….(apparently there is a way to do a DIY version………..)

The Emotion Organ (2007) is a synaesthetic simulacrum machine where players can explore the sensational interplay of feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling and motion. It is also a time machine – a re-engineered pump organ from 1895 that combines both old and emerging technology and builds upon a trajectory of several centuries-worth of ideas about synaesthetic … Continue reading T H E E M O T I O N O R G A N amanda steggell

I put this on the blog because Howie creates sound environments.  Light, touch, sound –  sensory overload.   

The artist Steve Hollingsworth talked of a sensory site he had come across.  Its all a bit expensive but some of the ideas are good.  Go to Experia Sensory Innovations.  It would be good to see something new out there whch bears no resemblance to a Snoozlun or Snoozlum room.  Anyone got any ideas?  Want to tell us about them?

Perfect for creating sensory environments.  Helpful if you know anything about hacking.  The camera can be used with Scratch and with Glowdoodle as well as countless other things I have not come across. http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Hack-the-Microsoft-Kinect-Overview Specifications In early November 2010, Microsoft introduced the Kinect. In essence it is a hands-free motion detection device for gaming systems. … Continue reading How to Hack the Microsoft Kinnect

click on the image   Sound project PDF   Pretty interesting and very nice to look at!!!!!

Learning disability care slammed People with learning disabilities risk becoming institutionalised A health trust has been heavily criticised for “institutional abuse” of people with learning disabilities. The Healthcare Commission, which carried out the review at Sutton and Merton Primary Care Trust (PCT), said care was “simply not acceptable”. It is the second report in six … Continue reading Learning Disability Care Slammed

http://www.vaiavanti.com/

I have posted this info on Longplayer because I liked the idea of an ongoing piece of music that is part of a community.  A sound which last for many years and slowly develops.  I suppose its a bit like what we do here at Artlink.  We keep going, slowly evolving, changing projects and ways … Continue reading Longplayer

Paleo-Future reader Mark Plus sent me a very interesting piece from the June 1981 issue of Future Life magazine. The author, F.M. Esfandiary, insisted that the Right/Left political and social dynamic was outdated. The new direction was Up. Mr. Esfandiary would later change his name to FM2030 because he was convinced that he would live … Continue reading How wrong can you be ?!

The Music Toys developed by Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab for Toy Symphony are very sophisticated instruments designed simply to be played by any person with the desire to make music, with the specific needs and capabilities of young people in mind. There is no skill prerequisite-only the willingness to … Continue reading Tod Machover

SixthSense Pranav Mistry ‘SixthSense’ is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information. By using a camera and a tiny projector mounted in a pendant like wearable device, ‘SixthSense’ sees what you see and visually augments any … Continue reading SixthSense as posted by bobertd

This is documentation of a 2 hour live performance and interactive installation with original sound track that took place in Los Angeles in 2006, by Australian artist Jemima Wyman. more about this artist click here:jemimawyman.wordpress.com

  I like Mark Leckey’s work. He is an artist based in London. He has a performance coming up to conincide with his exhibition at The Sepentine Gallery – its called BigBoxStatueAction (2003-2011), and it consists of Leckey placing one of his soundsystems ‘in conversation’ with a modernist sculpture. I think he wants a response … Continue reading

So, a good friend showed me this video: http://youtu.be/3yaZyyIp1f0 – its crazy in love singer beyonce dancing her socks off at the biilboard music awards this year with her new song “GIRLS RULE THE WORLD” – the visuals are incredible, and I want to know, is beyonce just amazing at time keeping, or is the … Continue reading HOW’D THEY DO THAT?

Anything this artist does could be used within the design of spaces or costumes…..anything!!!!

click on the link below and have a look at the film.  Can you inagine just how interestiong this would be for some people http://www.creativeapplications.net/environment/sticky-light-smart-laser-environment/

http://www.creativeapplications.net/openframeworks/interactive-puppet-prototype-w-kinect-openframeworks/

Could anyone please respond to this question.  A 40 year old woman with profound learning disabilities who likes music, vibration, lights.  Particularly keen on quick movements.  How would you work with her?  What would you do? The best answer will be rewarded with a box of chocolates.

Excerpt from Utopia – a magasine which describes what could be (and in some cases what is) 04 Words like knives A person for hire who articulates what you need to express. Feeling misunderstood? Not getting through? Fed up of hanging on the phone? Your call is fifth in the queue, thank you for your … Continue reading Got something to say, but dont know quite how to say it?

The first round of Utopia magazine distribution is about to start in early May.  We have joined forces with the Variant Magazine to share distribution.  As part of the distribution we have included a letter in the Variant Magazine ……… Taking another tack Ive worked with Artlink in the area of learning disability and the … Continue reading Utopia Magazine

I know a woman who sits in her wheel chair everyday in a day centre, everyday in her home, in fact, every day in the same place.  She is dependent on her support workers to do everything for her, she cant speak, communication is difficult but her eyes tell you everything you need to know.  … Continue reading Changing Spaces – some questions which need an answer

Something you should always do when you work with people….regardless of ability http://www.tomwoolner.com/getting_flash.html

Artists in Context: Connected and Consequential Friday, June 10 – “Stories From the Field” Saturday, June 11 – Case Studies and Skill Building Workshops Sunday, June 12 – Reporting Back and Next Steps Northeastern University Eagan Center Artists in Context is launching a new two-year program that both enhances its public programming in Boston and … Continue reading Artlink presentation at……..

Strange sounds and other worlds The tuesday workshop sensory sessions: Our workshops have taken place in Penicuik town hall for several years, with an hour’s session in the morning and afternoon. We work with up to about 6 people with varying levels of disability, some can walk about the space and some are wheel-chair users. … Continue reading Notes on sensory workshops -Jim & Steve

Birds….. tired of the same old nest?  look no further than this new range of designer accommodation for the cowboy, or cook in you.  Satellite, pistol and oven ready, these new pads will get the neighbours talking. Work made by artists Francesca Nobilucci and Jonathan Owen in conjunction with John Chant Centre, Penicuik and Cherry … Continue reading Bird boxes for the future

Hospitals in the Sky! (1958) This “hospital in the sky,” as imagined by Arthur Radebaugh in the May 11, 1958 edition of his comic Closer Than We Think, operates under the assumption that the “weightlessness, irradiation and low temperatures of outer space” would allow for more effective treatment of patients. The American Rocket Society has reported … Continue reading Hospitals in the Sky

SOUND PROJECT involved an artist, an informatics specialist from Edinburgh University and a man with a liking for music. The man in question had a learning disability, a sight impairment and physical disability, which meant he was reliant on others choosing what he listened to. He listened to Radio Forth a lot. So we invited … Continue reading The Ideas Team – Sound

‘There appears, particularly within the field of dance and learning disability, an overall need to sanitise difference, to hide it away or make it sentimental. For most people working within this area, a sophisticated aesthetic approach has not developed over time. Many seek to create images of people with learning disabilities that allow us to … Continue reading Oh Brave new world – ideas forming

This film was made around 2004/5, artist Matias Ring worked with R.  The intention  was to make a disc, which would allow R 360degrees of freedom.  It was the work that informed the start of The Ideas Team. Click here to view footage of the work in progress.  The disc was used by people in … Continue reading The disc – an early project that informed the creation of Ideas Team