Writing & Sound Workshops

Tired but glad to have seen the amazing Mid and North Devon countryside on the way there and back, we've just finished another set of sound and writing and storytelling by sound workshops for a Science of Sound Week at a school in Woolsery near Bideford. The workshops went well, although the age group which mine was aimed at didn't seem to get the hang of it as well as the last class with whom we hosted the workshop. However, for the soundscapes part, some participants did come up with some very poetic suggestions - sounds that reminded them of time travel, museum exhibits coming alive at night time, roundabouts moving by themselves at midnight, zombies emerging from the grounds of a haunted house, the stars twinkling, going cosmic in worlds dancing, and other striking visual images called up by the sounds. The maximum number of words collected was 85 - and mighty pleased with themselves that participant was! very justifiably. Deor's workshop was something of a triumph, as while tailored for younger pupils, it was not intended for those who could not yet read nor write! so when some six year olds came in, he had to think on his feet! But we found ways to help them along, and out of the groups creating sound tableaux, 'when dinosaurs roamed the earth' was an absolute winner! I had had no idea what they were going to try and recreate the sounds of, but guessed from the large creature noises followed by the chopping and cracking of bones as they ate small mammals! Also brilliant were the group that chose 'inside a volcano' - the rushing lava and explosions were just great. The other thing that probably impressed me most was the distinction between normal footsteps and the sound of footfalls on stairs!
   Both these workshops run risks - the noise based one that of descending into cacophony, if everyone starts making their own noise without regard to others, and/or gets sound confused too much with movement and so thinks that acting or movement will do just as well. The sound words one, always risks the participants using films, serials, videos and readymade imaginings instead of using their own inner eyes. But we each think that these risks are worth running, because - as well as managing to keep in check both the 'not listening to others becoming too obsessed with one's own noise' and the 'giving readymade visuals as examples without using one's own brains' phenomena - when participants do come up with incredibly clever and convincing sound tableaux or beautiful and unusual poem-sentences or descriptive fragments/quirky word suggestions, it's very rewarding, and you can see it expanding their conceptual base when it comes to new ways of looking at sound, whether for communication, paying attention to the world around them, or for literary, accuracy of terms and making better definitions to identify the world around them and the ideas which it evokes and inspires. So another successful day's work - and the trees on the way, all gold among the still deep greens, and blue washed sky with grey smear flying saucer clouds and a delicious bronzy gold antique old masters long low slanting light of sun, reminded me of nothing so much as our colours workshops...

Thanks to the Head teacher for finding us such an excellent speaker for the sounds, our workshop assistant and most of all to Yolande of Bideford College for booking us yet again.   

Science of Sound Week & a New Show

At last the weather has got warmer, and what better week to be travelling down to Middlesex to do our 'Temptation & Redemption Show' for Lent? The show went well, the hall packed, and many kind comments left in the comments book, and a couple of good friends turned up, but all just the day after a long journey - with a very winding diversion! so taking much longer than it should - and parting with a fellow member of the Collective, as they were off to Nepal for three months to do environmental community projects such as eco-gardens... We had swapped news, filled in masses of detail to one another about our respective artforms and arts scenes in respective counties...and then said goodbye. The day after was spent networking at a social gathering, and then it was back to the West Country and off to N.Devon for some Sound and Writing and Storytelling by Noise Workshops for Science of Sound Week! Which went brilliantly. The children seemed completely engaged and enjoyed the one on noises immensely - without it devolving into a mass of farmyard impressions as might have been feared! My own workshop on Words for Sound went really well, too - we played them sounds, noises and soundscapes, and they really got the hang of it. Two came up with wonderful scenes as settings for the sounds, good enough for film or poetry. One managed to describe what it was about the music that evoked a feeling of x, y or z - which was by far the most advanced point I wanted the workshop to make, and not something I thought we'd cover with the age group in question. And at the end, two boys came up and said they'd listed 184 and 153 words for sound respectively - now that, I think, really is a result! The teachers were pleased, their classroom teacher wanted to use the material for further teaching, the head was there for part of it and was charming, and Yolande as ever made us feel we knew where everything was in no time. Instow School is a school with limited space, but because everyone is piled up together, it means they really have to get on! And so there was the most amazingly friendly air of co-operation and goodwill between teachers, children, catering and admin staff, and the most relaxed head teacher, we'd ever encountered! And who needs more space when you're set on the side of a hill with a ruined windmill to explore just above, and magnificent views of estuary, sea and coastline all around? What a fantastic place. The staff room was laden with chocolates and biscuits as a thank you to all who came in to work during Science of Sound Week, so that made for a homely welcome too. We had tea with Yolande afterwards, and discussed the rest of the Week's events, the ever-present ongoing funding situations which were all too similar, and generally caught up.

Afterwards we had to go up the hill and see the ruined windmill on its wonderful vantage point (on only about the fourth or fifth day one could wear a jacket out of doors instead of a fleece!). It was a lovely atmospheric cylinder of stone, with tiny 'windows' and no roof, commanding a fine panorama of coastal seascapes. And then it was on to another part of the estuary, to have dinner with some newer members of the Collective - a delightful evening, and especially as Andi has been booked to make mosiacs on the beach during Appledore Visual Arts Festival, and Mandy had very kindly made me a gonfalon for the shows! I took pictures of her wool dyeing and spinning wheel for the website, and we talked until at last it was time to go. A very full five days it had been too.

Big thanks to Andi and Mandy, to Yolande for having us again and booking us to work in such nice places with such lovely people! To all the workshop participants who did so well, and the teachers of Instow Community School, especially Mark Gough the head teacher for hosting us.