03/02/2010 by James.

Things are busy again at the moment, with artists selected for the new Kingston-Upon-Thames 5×5x5=creativity cluster, and a professional development day happening with them and the schools on Friday.

I’m also in the process of setting up the Stonehenge Young People’s Panel with English Heritage, and have got an Art & Identity project next week with a secondary school in Highworth, so will add info and images from those as things develop.

Meanwhile, I’ve been grabbing calm moments to get out and see what’s happening. The light is changing now, I can feel Spring in the air and the bulbs are pushing slowly up out of the frozen soil.

I was up on a hill near us the other day, getting my dose of clear cool air and wide open space above the Vale of Pewsey.

The ground was frozen solid, and in the woods that cling to the side of the hill, the cold had frozen the most beautiful patterns into puddles and footprints in the once wet, sloppy mud, now frozen so hard that wet chalk grew stems of ice crystals and the imprints of raindrops that had fallen a day or two before, had been captured like miniature spiky, volcanic landscapes.

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26/01/2010 by James.

I was up in Lancaster last week, running my last 3 days of the creative outdoor learning project with the Nursery children (2 to 3 yr olds).The aim of the sessions was to give the pre-school staff a taste of creative ways that children can be supported to explore their local outdoor environment.

In the longer term, this kind of creative approach can enable staff and artist to work together, to begin to identify and follow individual childrens’ learning pathways, and better provide for their needs. In this case I was only working with the group for 3 days, so it was to be used of a starting point, for further creative and child-initiated work.

I concentrated on devising sessions that linked inside and out, and made the most of natural and recycled open-ended materials.

I’m keen to avoid re-inforcing the idea in schools and pre-schools of using one way of working indoors and one out, of the door being a barrier to taking drawing outside, or bringing mud and leaves in. Otherwise I think there’s a danger that  outdoor-learning or environmental art projects can lead to the perception of ‘nature’ as being something that you keep in a kind of bubble and visit occasionally, whilst your everyday life carries on as usual.

Over the three days I offered different materials and different ways of exploring places and materials to the children, with each day loosely labeled as Mark-making/Sensory Exploration, Small Scale Construction/Clay Work, and Large-Scale Construction/Role Play.

As usual the children didn’t necessarily use the resources in ways that fitted the labels or our expectations, and that was fine. The grouping and labeling of resources was a starting point, and the ability to work across different areas enables children at different stages of development, or with different interests, to experiment, make connections and learn.

The photos added here are from the last day, when different options were combined and laid out in the forest area, and mark-making and construction blurred into role play.

The first day involved getting very messy with a bucket of liquid clay, chalk, mud and graphite sticks as we explored mark-making in the forest area. The second involved collecting ‘treasures’ from the local area chosen by the children, and then exploring them with clay. So I didn’t get chance to take any photos from the first two sessions due to being pretty much covered in mud and clay.

So to sum up, great fun, very messy, and as usual very inspiring, to be exploring materials and environments alongside the senses and imaginations of young children.

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13/01/2010 by James.

  Not an original title for a post but hey… its everywhere at the moment, you can’t avoid it, and it certainly adds an element of excitement to early January. Things look fresh, shapes and patterns stand out like never before, and our embedded-ness within nature is in-escapable. The snow stops us from getting to places, covers up our cars and gardens, and takes over our lives… at least for a short while.

Personally I find it quite refreshing to see how weather can change the way we relate to the world around us. I know it can be hard, frustrating and even dangerous, but it also gives us permission to play, and to stop and stare at beautiful everyday things. It alters our perception of the world around us by literally changing the shape of things, the way that they look and feel. Wonder becomes a part of our lives as water freezes into clear sparkling blocks, and soft white clumps fall from the sky.

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07/01/2010 by James.

As with most people, at this time of year, I have had time to look back over 2009 and my achievements in my practice as an artist, and start to think about where I want to go from here.

It looks like 2010 is going to be really busy in terms of my participatory and consultancy work which is great - some really interesting and challenging pieces of work and opportunities to learn alongside children, teachers and other artists.

So I’m starting to think about what I want to focus on in more individual work, my own personal research through doing and making; what did I start in this last year that I’d like to build on, and what have I neglected that I could kick-start in the coming months?

I’m determined to spend more time outdoors and a little less on the computer, I want to explore the role of drawing and what it means to me, and I want to continue to make work which explores the value of time spent interacting with my physical, sensory environment - the landscape that I live and work in and the other ‘beings’ with whom I share it.

My work with children through initiatives such as 5×5x5=creativity, continuously reminds me of the need to support each individual to follow their own path, and to trust in their innate creativity. At times I look back to my own childhood and start to unpick where present interests came from and which ones I have left behind. Some of those that I didn’t carry on were so important to me so why did I just drop them?

Often in these moments of reflection, I get to the time in my life when I started my Fine Art degree and I see why I dropped those discarded interests, or ways of interpreting and exploring the world. My experience at college was a really valuable one, but the way that it was taught was not person-centred, or student led, it was much more a kind of channelling or grooming for a place in the art world. I think arts education has a lot to learn from the 5×5x5 model.

One thing that I am returning to more and more is drawing. One of my earliest memories is drawing birds from Tony Soper’s Bird Table Book. Drawing was something I did all the time, right through my life, until college, when it became something we did on Wednesdays, or a way of planning a piece of sculpture, or a drawing held tightly in a sketchbook.

What I want to return to is drawing as a means of exploring and making sense of the world, drawing for play, drawing for pleasure, without such a fixed end product in mind.

Wonder, the piece that I showed in the recent Salisbury Arts Centre Drawing Open, was not created as a drawing, but was exhibited as one. This has led me to start looking at different examples of drawing recently and asking other people what they think drawing is. Does anybody know?

The Tracey online journal - an electronic open access journal dedicated to the presentation of drawing and the discussion of drawing practice - inspired me by its inclusion of photographs of ‘found drawings’, so when I planned to be in the studio yesterday and couldn’t get there because of snow, I went out with Moshi (our dog) and looked around me at the marks and shapes highlighted by the fresh white snow that was resting on every surface.

Are these my photos my drawings? Are my collages drawings? Is the way that I gather together information, experiences, materials and people a drawing together that is my own way of drawing?

I’m not sure at the moment, I’m just going to allow myself to play with drawing, and to see what happens - to pick back up a piece of my creative ‘toolbox’ that I felt I had lost along the way.

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14/12/2009 by James.

A beautiful cold day yesterday up in the Pewsey Downs NNR. Lovely to get back up above everything and breathe in the wide open spaces.

Taken into the low bright sun, I like the way that the phone photos distort, blur and change the colour slightly, taking on a more painterly, dreamlike feel, with the tonal quality of an old faded postcard.

There’s more info on Adams Grave longbarrow on Walkers Hill and the surrounding area on the Natural England website - http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/nnr/1006120.aspx

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14/12/2009 by James.

An opportunity for artists to join the new 5×5x5 cluster in Kingston… 

London Paid (£40k-50k pro rata) Part time Artform: combined arts, dance, music, theatre, visual arts   Contact: Penny Hay penny@5×5x5creativity.org.uk

Description

5×5x5=creativity in Kingston: call for artists (12 days work Feb - June 2010)

5×5x5=creativity is an action research organisation dedicated to supporting children and young people in their exploration and expression of creative ideas. Starting in February 2010, we are looking for five artists to work with five educational settings in Kingston in collaboration with five cultural centres. The project aims to demonstrate ways in which creativity can be fostered in all children and fire their interest in learning, will explore ways in which boys can be involved in, motivated by and succeed in their learning environments, influence educational practice by establishing creativity as an essential foundation of learning, produce research to demonstrate the value of creative enquiry, relationships and environments in helping children develop as confident, creative thinkers, and share the research findings as widely as possible, creating a legacy for the future and to provide integrated training and mentoring for participating teachers, artists and schools, including opportunities to collaborate.

Artists will be invited to apply for the project through Arts Council England and London Schools Arts Service. Artists will be paid for the equivalent of 12 days @ £200 per day. Artists will be responsible for their own national insurance and tax. All artists will need to be police checked.

Schedule
Selected applicants will be interviewed on Thursday 28 January 2010 at King Athelstan Primary School
First meeting with settings will be on 5 February 2010 at King Athelstan Primary School
Placements will run from February – June 2010.  Artists will work in settings for the equivalent of 10 days and will be involved in professional development and reflection for the equivalent of 2 days.  All participants will have access to and the support of a mentor.

Applications
Send a CV, images of work and a statement of your interest in this project to:

Penny Hay, Director of Research
5×5x5=creativity
PO Box 3236
Chippenham  SN15 9DE
penny@5×5x5creativity.org

Closing date: 31 December 2009

For a full description please download from our website: www.5×5x5creativity.org.uk

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09/12/2009 by James.

I went in to the studio today to have a bit of a blitz… to clear out old images on the walls and generally de-clutter. I wanted to clear the space and clear my mind and to focus on what’s really important in my work.

But that’s just the point, when I start to think about it I know what’s important to me in terms of my focus and my values, but its not all that easy to work out if/how that comes across to others.

I can know that my participatory work supports people to explore themselves and their environment creatively, because I’m there with them, I get the feedback and I can get involved in the evaluation. And I know that this work feeds me, that I learn about how people can use art to learn in creative and ‘joined-up’ ways.

BUT… when I make more individual work, how do I or any other artist for that matter, know what effect it has on anyone else, unless you are actually there with them?

I had an interesting conversation with one of my 5×5x5=creativity colleagues yesterday, about the relationship of participatory and individual practice. In some ways it worries me that my work on projects such as 5×5x5 is focused on the importance of the creative process, and yet the next day I might be in my studio making a wall-based piece for exhibition, that I will leave and walk away and never really know if it is having any positive impact.

And yet, I reassured myself today that its okay, because, as I wrote in my sketchbook…

the artwork acts as an indicator of the level of personal/environmental awareness, whilst the process of exploring that leads to and informs the creation of the artwork supports the development of such an integrated awareness of self & environment.

The artefact is the evidence of the process and of its effects on the perception of the individual (me).

The creation of the artwork also further supports a sensory exploration of the world in a more focused way, and (if made in the right way) can act as a conduit for the flow of life energy, through the senses, through the individual and into the artwork.

So, as I came to realise after clearing the clutter, and (s)crawling across a rolled out sheet of paper to get my ideas ‘out-there’, how the different areas of my practice link up and relate to each other…

I am researching culturally influenced perception  (its impact on our learning, our behaviour and the ecosystems on which we depend), and its relationship to more direct, individual, sensory engagement. My resulting work supports the development of greater understanding of the relationship between the two, and the gap between them.

I am breaking down the perceptual barriers to direct engagement with ‘the one’ and ‘the now’… my research and my explorations inform my own understanding, which in turn supports my work’s ability to engage with its audience.

In other words I don’t need to make someone feel anything or think anything specific. I just need to provide the audience of my work, whether object based or participatory, access to a place where they can engage with the stuff of the world, and the issues that I am interested in, and allow them to gain from that experience in whatever way they need to at that point in time, as part of their own learning journey.

…Phew!

(by the way, the scruffy dog at the top is Moshi, who often accompanies me on my adventures, and was patient enough to wait in my studio, so I thought I’d include her too.)

Since writing this post I came across the following article on twitter (via @dryearth) which looks at the experience of the artwork by the artist/ audience, and the context within which the work is created/experienced -

Situated Cognition, Dynamic Systems, and Art: On Artistic Creativity and Aesthetic Experience - Ingar Brinck

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03/12/2009 by James.

I was back in the studio yesterday and it felt great - I didn’t have my camera with me so not such great quality photos…

I want to do more map-based pieces on native wildlife and previously native species which may be re-introduced. I’m fascinated by the idea of re-wilding areas of our country, and the red kite, sea eagle, beaver and crane introductions that have been happening or are in the pipeline now.

I’m also itching to get back into some more 3-D pieces, maybe which combine found objects/materials and fragments of man-made clothing or other ‘detritus’, so watch this space….

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01/12/2009 by James.

I was in Kingston yesterday for 5×5x5=creativity, talking with a group of heads, teachers, and early years practitioners about creative learning and the inclusion of boys.

Its a tricky path to follow, providing for the needs of boys, without putting them into a box, and reinforcing any stereotypical ways of seeing and working with them. I know I didn’t enjoy my time at a traditional boys school and didn’t respond to the emphasis on outdoor sports and the controlling  almost dictatorial approach followed by some of the teachers. But there is research to suggest that a lot of boys do learn best through a more active full-bodied approach, and greater access to the outdoors.

My take on things is that if statistically more boys are seen to be ‘failing’ or not achieving what’s expected of them, then we’re doing something wrong, and that we’re probably doing something wrong for all children, not just the boys, but maybe (statistically speaking) the girls are more able to cope with a tradition of top-down, crowd-control, teaching methods.

Are we planning experiences for boys that build on their interests and value their strengths as active learners and problem solvers, or are we simply expecting them to be compliant, passive recipients of new skills and knowledge?

Confident, capable and creative: supporting boys achievements - DCSF

Now to me you could swap the ‘boys’ to ‘children’ and it would be even more pertinent - the reason children ‘fail’ is because our education system fails them.

I’m not a teacher, I am an artist and a creative learning consultant. I have loads of respect for teachers and learn from them each time I work with them. I am excited by the way in which I can work in partnership with educators and children, we can learn from each other, and by allowing the child to take the lead, they can show us how to work with them, where to work with them, and what they need to succeed.

But the difficulty is how to support teachers to put into practice this kind of creative, child-initiated approach when they are given so many hoops to jump through and class sizes that seriously inhibit opportunities for 1 to 1 contact with and observation of, individual children.

If each and every child was given the opportunity to learn in a way which is relevant to their needs and interests, through valuing and working with their own innate creativity, and if every child was encouraged to explore their local environment through their bodies and imaginations, then how can anyone fail - and why would we even need to teach or learn in specific ways according to gender?

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25/11/2009 by James.

Its been a while since I got chance to get back on here and share what I’ve been up to.

First of all I went to the Brecon Beacons for a few days of space, air, and mountain views, a beautiful area just along the M4 and up a bit, gorgeous!

It was great to be amongst the last of the Autumn colour, to be out walking and watching Red Kites, and come to a log fire. Here’s a photograph I took of the reflections on the canal near where we were staying, this reflected view for me gives the woods a much deeper, darker, mysterious, almost primeval quality, like a fairytale wood of dreams and stories.

Since then I’ve been busy with the Stonehenge Young People’s Consultation Project again for English Heritage, and have set up a blog for the participants. As soon as that is made public I’ll be sure to put the details up on here.

So far I’ve worked Years 5, 7, and 10, looking at designing the interior of the new education space,  creating a booklet for Geography students on the changing visitor experience past and future, and developing ideas for new face-to-face tours and workshops for Travel and Tourism students.

So its been a case of taking time to explore the monument and its surrounding landscape as it is now and then using discussion, drawing, writing and other creative ways to help everyone share their ideas for the future visitor centre. Here’s a couple of before and after shots of the changes planned for the area immediately around the monument.

This last week I was staying and working up in Lancaster alongside children and staff at the University’s Pre-School Centre. We were using different media to encourage the children to explore and learn from their interaction with the outdoors, whilst supporting the staff to develop their own skills in facilitating child-initiated learning.

We used mark-making materials, clay, natural objects, and a variety of recycled objects to explore shape, pattern, space, height, letter, numbers, and whatever else the children were interested in.

And finally, for today at least, I’m off to Kingston on Monday to run a professional development session with the new 5×5x5=creativity research cluster there. Its aimed at Pre and Primary School educators and will focus on Creativity and Inclusion, concentrating on supporting boys to learn creatively, especially in the outdoors.

So its busy at the moment, which is great, and its all connected and all so relevant to my practice, which is even better!

All I need now is a little time to get back in the studio and make some new artwork…

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