Comments Off on Sensory Objects awarded AHRC grant for start up enterprise purpleSTARS
purpleSTARS is our new start up enterprise funded for one year by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) it is a follow on fund project. The Sensory Objects Enterprise 2017-2018 grant aims to create opportunities for artists and technologists with and without learning disabilities working as a team with museums. STARS stands for Sensory Technology Art Resource Specialists we choose the colour purple as the colour has started to refer to the Purple Pound, purple has come to represent people with a disability.
Image below shows the Easy Read programme for the first meeting of the purpleSTARS Advisory Group.
PurpleSTARS Advisory Group Session one Sept 1st
Sensory Objects co-researchers from the Tower Project agreed to become our purpleSTARS Advisory Group they will help us form the Sensory Objects Enterprise alongside business advice from EVOLVE Strategic Marketing Consultant Louise Moger.purpleSTARS Advisory Group:
Judith Appiah
Tim Elson
Justin Grimes
Michael Tapps
Sam Walker
Kelly Woods
The picture below shows the purpleSTARS Advisory Group during the first meeting at RIX research and media. The group tested a new self assembly version of the Sensory Labels and discussed the objects and labels they had made for the British Museums Enlightenment Gallery in 2015.
Tim constructs a Sensory Label
Testing Sensory Labels pig sound
Michael tests sensory label
Judith Kelly Justin test the postcards
Advisory group with Sensory Postcards
purpleSTARS Advisory Group also met Becca Doggwiler who is collecting Impact of the Sensory Object project. Becca asked the group to help her design ways of collecting feedback to show the Impact of the project. The picture below shows Becca discussing feedback with the group and an online form they could tell us what they thought of the day.
Becca discussing feedback with the group
Online feedback questionnaire
The picture below shows the purpleSTARS Advisory Group SELFIE after the first session at RIX research & media.
In 2017 Sensory Objects were commissioned to make a box of sensory objects, workshop plans and log book to inspire and discover about art and biomedical science and to gain an Arts Award for Orleans House Gallery
The pictures below shows the ‘From the Outside In’ box the box has images of different parts of the body in cut out blackboard stickers.
Sensory Objects commission was to translate this work into a box of artworks that introduce art and science to children as part of their Key Stage 2 skills at school and to enable them to achieve an Arts Award. In the development/testing stage the artworks have been used in schools workshops including Meadlands School and so far 46 ArtsAwards have been awarded. The box will be launched by Orleans House Gallery in August/ September 2017.
Sensory Objects created a Arts Award log book and a set of workshop plans for facilitators.
ArtsAward Logbook front
LOGBOOK3
Some of the objects such as the perspex head uses a sound sensor.
There is also a heart that pulses to be used in a workshop with 4 metronomes that can be altered to match the children’s heart beats.
Other works in the box include a felt stomach, put your hand inside the stomach and you can feel the Shibori felted interior made by Octagon and Transitions Group.
Felt Stomach
Inside Shibori Felt Stomach
Taking inspiration from Kingston-based photographer Eadweard Muybridge the Octagon and Transitions groups looked at making movements, animation and drawings. The group used double-headed stethoscopes to listen to each other’s heartbeats and drew the sounds they could hear.
Heart stethoscope
Heart Drawings
The box contains a rolled chalk board with the outline of a person that children can draw on organs with chalk, and a plaster cast of vegetable/brain made by members of the Octagon and Transitions group. The picture below also shows a drawing from an ArtsAward Log Book inspired by making brain casts from vegetables.
Brain/Veg Cast
ArtsAward Brain Drawing
The box also contains an imaginary creature called a Pegasaurus that is the starting point of a workshop where pegs are used to mark the spine, paper was rolled to make a spine, the box also contains a flexible medical spine.
Pegasaurus
Peg Jumper
BendySpine
The box contains a perspex hand inspired by the body as a machine, the picture below shows workshop to create a hand from straws, string and a plastic glove.
Hand Machine Perspex
Hand Machine Workshop Item
The images below show sheets that are in the box that introduces all the ‘From the Outside In’ artists.
Introduction to From the Outside In page one and two
Introduction to From the Outside In page three
The images below show the four projects that the Octagon Club and Transitions Art Group worked with the artists.
Image below shows Memory and Movement project sheet,
Comments Off on Madhouse My House? exhibition opening night 2nd Feb 2017
MadHouseFlyer-1
Last night Madhouse My House? opened at Hackney Museum. Co-researchers from Access All Areas presented their research and the ideas that Sensory Objects have developed with them to create a sensory interactive exhibition.
The group explained their ideas for the exhibition and told the story of Mabel Cooper and Harvey Waterman who has just celebrated his 80th birthday remembered what it was like to be in St Lawrence’s Hospital.
The exhibition is just the start of a series of events that will tell the story of the institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities.
We were introduced to artists who will continue the work with perfomances at Shoreditch Town Hall, top left in the photo below and right Ciara Brennan – Associate Director – Access All Areas introduces Professor Jan Walmsley who emphasised that while it is important to raise awareness of the history of people with learning disabilities, the situation continues to be problematic with many people still in private care homes, many continue to be isolated, in their own homes because of cuts in social care and face few opportunities for employment. This was further emphasised by Nick Llewellyn – Artistic Director of Access All Areas who quoted from a newspaper article in the Guardian that warns that there are plans to open up large institutions to WAREHOUSE people who can’t afford home care.
Artist and Co-reseachers from Access All Areas introducing the exhibition
Access All Areas Co-researchers
Images of visitors at the opening night Co-reserachers gave visitors tours of the exhibition.
MadHouseOpeningNight
Reactions on Twitter
Twitter PIC MadHouse OPENING
Twitter Opening
Twitter madhouse bin
TwitterMadHouse Opening
Twitter Terry at the exhibition
Graham demos the No Escape Slippers
Graham Points to No Escape Slippers
Charlene demos Tooth Brusher below and finally the Easy Read Programme for the exhibition including the Madhouse Wiki
Comments Off on Sensory Objects with Access All Areas exhibition at Hackney Museum 2017
Sensory Objects have been collaborating with Access All Areas is an award winning theatre company for adults with learning disabilities based in Hackney, London. We have created an interactive exhibition Madhouse, My House?that will open at Hackney Museum London this Thursday 2nd February 2017 – May 13th 2017 .
Below is an image of the Access All Areas Residents Group who researched and developed the exhibition with Sensory Objects during a visit to Hackney Museum.
Access All Areas Residents Group Researchers on visit to Hackney Muesum
Below is an image of the flyer.
MadHouseFlyer-1
Intro panel to the exhibition
Until the 1980s many people with learning disabilities were forced to live in hospitals for ‘idiots’, ‘imbeciles’ and the ‘feeble minded’. Explore life at St. Lawrence’s using the stories of two ex-patients: Harvey Waterman and Mabel Cooper.
This interactive exhibition was researched and created by members of Access All Areas, a Hackney-based theatre company that works with people with learning disabilities.
The exhibition is called ‘MADHOUSE myhouse?’ it is part of a 3 year digital creative learning programme that accompanies the ‘MADHOUSE re:exit’ production by Access All Areas’ Performance Company. The project explores the history of institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities. From long stay hospitals in 1913 right through to current treatment units.
Below are some pictures of the MadHouse My House Exhibition during installation.
TIMELINE BED History of St Lawrence House from Asylum then Hospital and finally demolition
TIMELINE PERSONAL STORIES of Harvey Waterman and Mabel Cooper
Mabel said the patients were made to wear bedroom slippers so they wouldn’t run away ‘NoEscapeSlippers’
RUFaRO with TOOTHER inspired by research that patients had to share a toothbrush
TOOTHER closeup
PILL BOTTLE WALL Harvey remembered being given big brown pills
Pills close Up
MadHouse Bin makes the sound of the Madhouse when you throw away a Mental Health Label saying Imbecile
Last night our Reading College LLD/D group did a fantastic job showcasing the cow at MERL’s Grand Opening Night. They have been practising over the last few weeks showing visitors how to record their own “MOO”.
Below are pictures of the cow before the guests arrived.
It was a very busy night opening night, the cow was in the MERL studio and we showcased the cow to many people. The Director of MERL Kate Arnold Forster mentioned our cow in her speech and it soon the cow recorded some excellent moo’s from the guests. There were so many people it was hard to hear after people had recorded it. Here is a clip from an earlier vist with guest leaving their moo.
Below are images from the opening night demoing the cow.
Exploring the Cow
showcasing-cow
people-with-cow
experiencing-the-cow
ALL ABOUT MAKING THE COW
Below are images of our Reading College co-researchers and the cow.
a-reading-college-role-play-with-cow
In response to the sensory objects developed during the AHRC Sensory Objects project, working with Reading College LLD/D students at MERL during 2013-14, the need for interactive exhibits and farm animals was highlighted. Earlier prototypes developed resulted in the idea of creating an Interactive Sensory Cow for MERL as part of the major re-hang of the collection. Below is Rumena’s interactive chicken 2014.
Our group’s engagement was heightened when creating animal noises during their visit to MERL. The engagement made the collection more accessible and brought to life farms and that farm animals were central to a museum about farming.
The Sensory Cow has been developed as a workshop tool, it allows people to leave their own cow sounds, or any sound they wish, the sounds are recorded by continually pressing a button under the cows chin. Below is a picture of the record button under the cows chin.
cow record button
Our co-researchers practiced inviting the public to record their own sounds and how to stop and start the sounds.
The pictures below shows Steven and Charlotte recording sounds.
recording-a-moo-2
stephen-pressing-recording-button
The recorded sounds are played back immediately after recording and can be stopped and started by pressing the milk bottle top switch on the cow’s rump.
Milk Bottletop Switch
working-on-the-cow
The sounds collected can be added and removed via the cow’s own Raspberry Pi mini computer network which can be accessed by any computer or iPad joining the cow’s own network and easy to use interface the Moo Manager. The Moo Manger allows workshop facilitators to add their own sounds depending on their workshop subject and easy to delete unwanted sounds.
networked-interface-to-add-and-remove-recordings
The cow stands on a grass wheeled base, this houses the Raspberry Pi and speakers and a smell machine with a fan that blows out smells. Working with our group we decided to use a pleasant smell that relates to produce of a cow, milk chocolate.
cow-undercarrage
We had a talk from Adam an MA student who lives on a farm, he told us some facts about living on a farm with cows. He also mentioned that we needed to add thick eye lashes to the cow.
new-eyelashes
With our co-researchers we developed workshop materials to be used with the cow. The cow has magnets placed inside it so that various items could be attached to it. We explored items that are produced by the cow, leather and suede patches, milk cartons, milk drinks, beefburgers suggested by the group. The cow has items that attach to it like a type of fridge magnet. We think the cow could be used to facilitate workshops with people of all ages and abilities.
mars-drink
milkbottle-detail
tactile-patch
cow-patch-large
cow-close-up
We explored creating stories about fantasy cows or cows based on Greek mythology, as this was part of Reading College LLD/D Dept set studies this term. The group are studying the myth of the Minotaur towards a performance at the end of term. We explored role playing the Minotaur stories and presenting the cow to the public. Below are some of the imaginative ideas of storytelling based on the cow fantasies, inventions and the myth of the Minotaur.
Comments Off on A sensory interpretative journey by Natasha Barrett
Kia ora (a traditional Māori greeting), my name is Natasha Barrett and I’m Museum Studies PhD student from the University of Leicester (AHRC Midlands 3 Cities funded). My research is about colonial-era photographs (1860s-1914) of Māori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. I have been discovering how these photographs have been understood and used over time by both Māori and non-Māori. This includes within and outside of British museums. I approach photographs as three-dimensional physical objects. They can as my research shows, reflect social connections amongst communities and with institutions around the world holding photographic collections.
A few months ago, as part of my PhD fieldwork, I met up with Dr Kate Allen at the British Museum. Despite our projects seeming quite dissimilar, there were many parallels, which were helpful for my research. For example, groups of people (and individuals) understand the world in very different ways and all are equally valid. The challenge for those of us working in museums is to try and understand this. We then need to create space for alternative ways of explaining objects. Sensory Labels fully and cleverly achieves this.
Kate gave me a tour around the Enlightenment Gallery with a few of the Sensory Labels. Having recently found out I am dyslexic, I was also personally interested to experience interpretation that does not use text. I was immediately struck by the wonder of the experience and sat with the labels on the gallery floor listening, smelling, touching, smiling and laughing. Through the labels I entered into the stories of the creators – the personal associations, meanings and memories that the objects in the gallery held for them. Each Sensory Label is highly unique, beautifully crafted and reflects the creator’s personality. By the end, I felt I had ‘virtually’ met a fascinating group of people who had enriched my experience of the gallery.
nb_with_ryan_burns_sensory label
The author listening to Ryan Burns’ Sensory Label, 2016. Photograph courtesy of Dr Kate Allen.
Ryan Burns Sensory Label laser cut photo
Ryan Burns’ Sensory Label showing his laser cut photograph, 2016. Photograph by Natasha Barrett.
The labels, many of which include miniature versions of the displayed objects, emphasise the sense of touch. Usually in galleries you can only imagine what touching the objects behind glass might be like. Sam Walker’s use of a real shell and Judith Appiah’s carefully crafted Nigerian slipper let you experience the feel of the objects – their texture, shape and smell. Far from being just interpretative devices, Sensory Labels are also fascinating objects in their own right. Not only did they hold my attention but they drew in other people in the gallery, including one of the museum guides. We had a fascinating discussion about snakes in the Hindu religion, as a result of Katy Woollard’s snake themed label. This is, as Kate and I discussed, the power of the Sensory Labels. They create opportunities for conversations and let people share knowledge and diverse perspectives.
Sam Walker’s sensory label shell
Sam Walker’s Sensory Label with shell on/off switch, 2016. Photograph by Natasha Barrett.
Afterwards Kate and I meet with George Oates from Museum in a Box. I had noticed the similarities between the projects and was intrigued to discuss this further. Both use box formats and readily available low-tech electronics systems. These are easy to use and focus on the non-visual senses (e.g. touch and sound). They encourage people to interact or do something with the objects to make something else happen. Might these devices offer an alternative way of interpreting photographs? Far from being just pictures, we interact with photographs using our emotions and senses. Just think about the photographs in your own house, particularly those of your loved ones. What do they mean to you, and how you display and interact with them? They might make us laugh and cry, and beyond just looking, we touch and respond to photographs in a variety of ways. However this is not how photographs are usually interpreted and displayed in museums. Instead photographs are simply used as images to illustrate historical events and show what people looked like (a form of visual evidence).
Although Sensory Labels and Museum in a Box are not currently being used to interpret photographs, I can see great potential for this. For example, the laser cut photographs of the creators on the Sensory Labels suggests the way we tend to touch photographs. Touch is important in Māori culture and this technology creates a way of experiencing photographs through the fingertips. Sound is also significant for Māori and with both systems photographs could be used to activate the sound of Māori elders talking. This would give them the opportunity to talk about their ancestors, cultural treasures (known as taonga) and the places shown in the photographs. Themed packs of photographs could also be put together and used as George noted, as a way of ‘returning’ photographs (and the knowledge they hold) of people, places and cultural objects to their communities.
sensory labels and museum in a box
Museum in a Box (foreground) and Sensory Labels (background), 2016. Photograph by Natasha Barrett.
Experiences in museum still tend to rely on looking at and seeing objects. Opportunities for using our other senses, especially with photographs, are still not common. Also, whilst the voices of ordinary people are now heard in museums, these are still often shaped by institutions. Both Sensory Labels and Museum in a Box give people the freedom to express things in their own way. Using low cost systems, they place the power of object interpretation outside of the museum. However, these systems are flexible and can also used within museums. I look forward to seeing how these projects develop in the future!
Comments Off on Award winning Sensory Labels of the Enlightenment Gallery returns for Half Term at The British Museum
Our Co-researchers from Tower Project ‘Sensory Labels of the Enlightenment Gallery’ was such a hit earlier in the year we were invited back by The British Museum as a half term activity. The museum was packed with visitors, Tower Project did an excellent job engaging old and young with their work and we had a brilliant response from the public. Below are some pictures from the day.
Group around table
Listening to Judiths box
Justin in group
Kelly demos her label
Sam demos Label
smelling Justin’s label
We also showed off our Design for All Foundation Award Trophy and Certificate that were were awarded at a ceremony in Paris in Jan 2015 for our Co-researchers from Tower Project Sensory Labels at The British Museum. It was the first time all the group had seen the Trophy and Certificate. Below are the Tower Project with their Sensory Labels, Trophy and Certificate in The British Museums Great Court.
Tower with Trophy and Cert
The images below show closeups of the Design for All Foundation Award Trophy and Certificate 2015.
Comments Off on Sensory Objects present master class and demo at the Museum and Heritage Show 2015
On Wed 29th April Sensory Objects co-researchers from Tower Project presented a well attended master class and demo during the Museum and Heritage show at Olympia London. UEL had a stand where we displayed some of our Sensory Objects including some made by our co-researchers from Reading College Learners with Learning Difficulties/Disabilities dept at the Museum of English Rural Life including our yellow jiggling and grunting pig.
John with Rachel’s yellow pig
The pig was very effective at catching peoples attention during the show, we also showed the sheep cushion that goes ‘baa’ when stroked.
During the talk co-researchers from the Tower Project Judith Appiah and Tim Elson showed the audience their Sensory Labels for the Enlightenment Museum at The British Museum.
Tim showing his sensory label
Tim and Judith described the workshop process and how they developed sensory information and shared their work with the public at the British Museum. Throughout the day many people came over to the stand to discuss ideas about how to make museums more sensory and inclusive.
Sensory Objects at Museums & Heritage Show
We also took some photos of Tim, Judith and Kate with our recently awarded International Design For All Trophy 2015. We return for another Sensory Labels showcase in the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum on Thursday 28th May 2015.
Comments Off on Sensory Labels Showcase Day in The Enlightenment Gallery at The British Museum 11.02.15
Sensory Objects co-researchers from The Tower Project created a set of 12 labels you could look at touch, listen to and smell based on objects in the Enlightenment Gallery . These Sensory Labels were then enthusiastically and confidently presented to the public by our co-researchers during 2015. Each Sensory Label was created as an alternative piece of interpretation for an object chosen by our co-researchers thinking about sensory information.
This work was awarded the Design For All Foundation Award Trophy in 2015
The picture below shows the 12 Sensory Objects Co-researchers from the Tower Project and supporters during one of the sessions.
Group shot of Sensory Object Researchers
The response was fantastic with many positive reactions expressed to us, collected on feedback forms, recordings, written on twitter. We were invited to present the Sensory Labels during half term.
The picture below shows Sam showing Chalkwell School the Sensory Labels.
Lots of Tweets document the day
During the day colleagues from RIX research created a live wiki page and filmed to make us a video of the event and seminar. The picture below shows Andy and Sam updating the Wiki.
Andy and Sam wiki and shells
The picture below shows a screen grab of Kelly and Adalana’s wiki diary entries for the Showcase you can read more diaries and our co researchers thoughts on our co-researchers wiki
Kelly’s Diary of the showcse day
Adalana diary of Showcase Day
Many of Orson Nava’s great photos captured the day for us, the picture below shows Adalana showing her Sensory Label to a museum visitor, he was smelling a lovely perfume, listening to the sound of crystals and diamonds. Adalana discovered that the diamond she had chosen had been removed from the Enlightenment Collection but her Sensory Label gave people an idea of the missing diamond.
Adalana shows her Sensory Label to visitor
The picture below show the texture of Ashley’s label being felt. Ashley chose a stuffed Golden Pheasent as his object. He had sounds of the bird call which were very effective and loud, his smell was oranges.
Ashley shows Kassie his Sensory Label
The Sensory Labels were enjoyed by all ages, the picture below shows shows Sam demonstrating her Sensory Label of a shell that reminded Sam of her mum living by the sea.
Sam demos sensory labels
Picture below shows feeling the texture of Sam’s Sensory Label, the smell was a smell of seaside.
Sam demos sensory Label
Picture below shows Judith with school group trying her Sensory Label of a leather African slipper. Sounds are triggered by bending a leather slipper she had made with a bend sensor embedded in the sole. The smell of the Sensory Label was leather.
Judith shows school group
The picture below shows listening to Kelly’s Sensory Label telling the story of the statue of Paris. There were sounds of fighting, rain and the smell was aftershave.
More listening to Kellys box
The two pictures below shows visitors with Ryan and his Sensory Label about two Chinese plates that reminded him of his nan. The box smell was roses and the sounds were smashing plates and Chinese opera.
Ryan demos sensory labels
Listening to Ryans Sesnory Label
Pictures below show Tim demonstrating his Sensory Label based on a miniature Egyptian Mummy. Tim’s label has sounds of Egyptian music, camels and the safety instructions given by air stewards at the start of a flight. Tim had drawn a plane for his label as it reminded him of going to visit Egypt on a plane. Tim’s box smell was Egyptian perfume.
Tim showing his sensory label
Listening Tim’s Sensory Label
The picture below shows Michael showing his Sensory Label based on a large bowl that he researched an found out it was a wine cooler. Michel imagined eating Chicken and Chips in this giant bowl. His label smell was Vinegar and the sounds were of eating, slurping, frying and cereal being poured into a bowl.
Michael demos his sensory label
The picture below shows a visitor smelling the smell of beer and cheese and onion crisps, as Justin described it the “smell of success” in his Sensory Label. The picture below also shows the Warwick Vase, Justin’s chosen object, which reminded him of the FA cup and his love of Liverpool Football team. The sound for his label was a montage of football commentaries about Liverpool.
Justin’s Sensory Label
The picture below shows Justin’s Sensory Label proving a hit with a visitor.
Justins box a Hit
The picture below shows a visitor listening to another football fan, Julie chose a Heron from the collection because it reminded her of the Tottenham Hotspur Football cockerel logo. The sound track included the sound of a Blue Heron fishing in a lake, Julie making a tweet sound and singing with the Tottenham Hotspur team song. Julie’s Sensory Label smell was fish! which was a bit of a surprise for many.
Julie and her Sensory Label
The picture below shows a visitor smelling the sea in Adjoa’s Sensory Label. Adjoa chose a coral because she likes the sea. The sounds Adjoa chose were the sea and Handel’s Water Music.
Smelling Adojas Label
The pictures below show Katy’s sensory label, Katy’s object was a snake. Katy wanted her label to have a snake being charmed out of it’s basket, the sound is snake charming music and she wanted the smell of grass. The label has a light sensor embedded so when you open the lid the light triggers the snake to move slowly up. The light levels in the Enlightenment Gallery proved just too low for the sensor to work so we used a torch, which proved to create great engagement for the visitor.
Katy and her Sensory Label
Katy and Mark charm the snake
A charming the snake
Katy’s snake being charmed with light from a torch
The picture below shows the phone sound box containing all 12 co-researcher sounds, the smell is Cadbury’s Chocolate the smell chosen to celebrate Sir Hans Sloane and his addition of milk to Drinking Chocolate.
The collected sounds phone box
Matt and Andy try phone box
Listening to sounds on phone
The picture below shows Julie and Michael discussing their labels with Jane Samuels at the time the The British Museums Access and Equality Manager.
Comments Off on The Aura of a Sensory Object by Matthew Goodsell
The Aura of a Sensory Object
In the writing of Walter Benjamin, we find the concept of the ‘aura’, a special distancing or abstraction certain objects have. He describes it as ”the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be”, going on to explain ”If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch.” It is a remoteness, an eery foreignness. Benjamin was, of course, dealing with the photograph; pictures may also have a punctic effect, to use Barthes‘ term, wounding the viewer in a way he cannot quite articulate. That which is special to some appears ordinary to others, and thus to some have an aura.
It is this disconnect in perception that interests us. For a person with learning difficulties, an object may have a value or significance others cannot fathom. The person cannot say why the object is significant, and this causes a difference in perception we might call a type of aura. The person to whom the object is significant may see the tree, yet can only tell others of the shadow. It is through these objects, whose significance may be hidden from us, that we are left to reconstruct the discourse of learning disability history. Inasmuch as it is, in part, shrouded from us because it cannot be articulated as it usually would be, it is an auric discourse. We who observe from without are distanced from it, yet are fascinated to explore this mysterious terrain.
In effect these objects have a contingent: an extra specialness or relevance that the owner cannot articulate. This may explain their fixation. This is not a fetishisation in the usual sense, where an object or detail is fixated upon for unconscious reasons which go beyond articulation and can only be explored through psychoanalysis; the persons inability to explain his or her attraction is due to other factors, yet the result is exactly the same. In both cases, the reasons behind the attraction cannot be rendered in the symbolic.
You can read more of Matts writing on his blog HERE. The picture below shows Matt experiencing Sam’s Sensory Label during the Sensory Objects Showcase at The British Museum.
Comments Off on Tower Project at the RIX centre Session Sixteen 04.02.15
The picture below shows the Easy Read programme for session sixteen.
Tower Project Session SIXTEEN
The picture below shows our co-researchers adding smells to their Sensory Labels.
Group at work putting smells in Sensory Labels
Then they practiced showing the Sensory Labels to the public, Luke the RIX new intern from Pennsylvania agreed to be our audience as he knew little about the project. He soon found out about everyones object and label! The picture below show Kelly show Luke her Sensory Label based on the statue of Paris in the Enlightenment Gallery.
Kelly demos her Sensory Label
The picture below shows Ryan demoing his Sensory Label.
Ryan demos label
The picture below shows Michael showing Lukc his Sensory Label.
Michaels sensory label
The picture below shows Justin demonstrating his Sensory Label
Justin and Sensory Label
The picture below shows Judith trying the Phone box that contains all the sound tracks of the Tower Group
Judith with here sensory label trying the joint sound box
Comments Off on Tower Project Showcase Event at The British Museum on Wednesday 11th February in The Enlightenment Gallery 11am – 3pm
Members of the Sensory Objects research projectinvite you to try out their newly developed interactive Sensory Labels of selected objects in the Enlightenment Gallery at The British Museum on Wednesday 11th February in The Enlightenment Gallery 11am – 3pm.
These Sensory Labels have been co-developed by people with learning difficulties and disabilities from the Tower Project London, working as co-researchers; they form part of an interdisciplinary team from The University of Reading and RIX Research and Media at the University of East London.
The Sensory Objects project creates multisensory interactive artworks that respond to museum collections and generate alternative ideas for museum interpretation. The image below is a poster containing this text, advertising the event.
POSTER TOWER PROJECT SHOWCASE EVENT
The image below is the easy read programme for the Showcase Event Day.
Comments Off on Sensory Objects Co-researchers at the first ‘Sandpit Workshop’ of the Living Archive for Learning Disability History Project
The Sandpit day was organised to combine showcasing of work with and by people with Learning Disabilities with interactive demonstrations and activities designed to get discussion and debate going about what a Living Archive of Learning Disability History should be like. Find out more about the research project here
Sam sounds from her Sensory Label
Feeling Tims Sensory Label image of plane
Sensory Objects Co-researchers from the Tower Project were invited to host a Sensory Objects room. Judith, Sam and Tim represented the Tower project demonstrating sensory objects from the 3 years of the Sensory Objects project, including their newly developed Sensory Labels. Katy’s Sensory Label was also shown. Our Co-researchers also demoed littlebits used in workshops to understand triggers.
Tim explains littlebits
Sniffing Katy’s snake in grass box
Sam and her box
Sensory Objects Sandpit with Harry
From the Sandpit day we learnt about the importance of creating an archive of Learning Disability History. Of importance to the Sensory Objects project was the desire by people in discussion that the physical quality of the Living Archive needs to be preserved. People were keen that the archive took various forms so that it would be accessible for everyone, from a digital archive to some kind of physical sensory archive.
Comments Off on Sensory Objects present at ENGAGE 2014 Conference
The Sensory Objects project was represented by co-researchers Judith Appiah and Tim Elson supported by Beverley Agard from the Tower Project, who co-presented with Nic and Kate at ENGAGE 2014 conference in Bristol. The picture below shows Judith and Tim preparing for the presentation with Beverley on the train to Bristol.
Preparatory Work on Train
We arrived just at the Bristol Marriot Royal Hotel just in time for lunch where we met up with Nic. The picture below shows all at lunch.
Lunch at conference
Our presentation was at 2pm we presented work from the three years of the project then had a hands-on workshop. The picture below shows Tim and Judith presenting.
Tim and Judith Present
We showed some of the work from MERL, Sian’s mooing boot and Rumena’s Chicken. Judith explained about her chosen object, a pair of leather slippers, African treasure and how she has made her sensory label. As we were presenting our audience were tweeting so some of the the images below show the tweeted response from the audience.
How Judith developed her sensory label
Judith invited people to try her sensory label.
Judith sensory label
Judith Pic
Next Tim spoke about the development of his Sensory Label. He showed a slide of the miniature sarcophagus in the Enlightenment Gallery and explained using his wiki his research of the object and how he had drawn an aeroplane because it reminded him of flying to Eygpt.
Tweet of Tims presentation
Tweet of Tims plane
Tim invited the audience to try out his sensory label the picture below shows the audience tweet.
Tweet of Tim’s Box
We told the audience about some of the other ideas for Sensory Labels including Justin’s ideas for the Warwick Vase reminding him of the FA cup and that he wants the smell of his box to be the smell of Cheese and Onion crisps and Beer as he thinks of this as the smell of success! This made people laugh and a response on Twitter, where some people liked the idea of the smell one did not. The picture below shows the discussion.
Cheese and Onion Crisps and Beer
Then we moved on to the hands on workshop part of the presentation we invited the audience to tryout some of the tools we have used in our workshops to help understand triggers, controlling sounds with sensors. We demonstrated Squishy Circuits, littleBits, sound boxes and littleBits go Large.
LittleBits go LARGE demo
The picture below shows a tweet during the demos of little bits go LARGE.
Tweet Enjoying handson workshop
Tim and Judith sat at a table each and demonstrated how little bits and little bits go LARGE work while Nic explained more about the research ideas behind the workshop. The pictures below show everyone during the hands on workshop.
Workshop with bits
TIm during littleBits workhsop
TIm demos littleBits
Judith and Nic demo little Bits go LARGE
After the workshop we went listen to a presentation by Mohit Bakaya a commissioning editor for BBC Radio 4. He spoke about the need to widen the types of people presenting programmes to widen the audience who listen to Radio 4. We wondered if he would commission Sensory Object to make a programme?
Listening to Mohit Bakaya from Radio 4
Listening at the Conference
We found the conference a really valuable experience, we learnt a lot and found the audience in our presentation were really ‘engaged’ asking lots of interesting questions and were keen to find out more about the Sensory Objects project, discuss new ideas and opportunities. The picture below shows Tim, Judith and Bev about to leave the conference hotel.
Comments Off on Tower Project at the RIX centre Session Fourteen 26.11.14
The picture below shows the easy read programme for session fourteen.
Tower Project FOURTEEN
First we looked at Tower Project Wikis. Our co-researchers have been busy researching information about their object in the Enlightenment Gallery at The British Musuem. The picture below shows the group looking at their Wiki.
Group look at wiki research pages
Each co-researcher had prepared something to say about their object ready to record for the soundtrack of their sensory label.
Tims wiki text to record
The picture below shows recording each co-researcher.
Recording info about objects
The picture below shows Nic demonstrating the latest version of the sensory label. This one had an engraved image of Sam on it.
Nic shows latest version of sensory labels
The picture below shows Sam feeling her engraved wood drawing with her eyes closed.
The picture below shows everyone looking at the smell container inside the label box.
Group discussing boxes
The picture below shows Sam with the seaweed Noelle brought in from Brighten. Everyone smelt the seaweed it smelt very strong!
Sam with Seaweed
Some of the group still needed to decide how their sounds would be triggered. The picture below shows Adalana trying out different switches to trigger her sound. We are also looking for some more sounds for Adalana as the Music Box sound we have sounded too much like an Ice Cream Van!
Adalana Sensory Postcard
Kelly and Judith are shown in the picture below researching triggers with littleBits.
Comments Off on Tower Project at the RIX centre Session Thirteen 12.11.14
Below is the easy read programme for session thirteen.
TOWER PROJECT 13
We had a catch up meeting. We heard about the Tower Project creating and being on a float of the Lord Mayors Show, the picture below shows the group looking at BBC video footage of the event.
Group watch video of the Lord Mayors Show
Then we discussed our our co-presentation at the Diversity in Heritage Meeting where Judith and Tim co-presented our research with Nic and Kate. The picture below shows the group looking at a Mercury Bulb on display in the Cinema Museum.
Talking about Cinema Museum
Then we looked at the co-researchers Wikis they had been very busy researching their chosen objects at the Enlightenment Gallery and adding to their Wiki in the Research Section. The pictures below shows some images of the Wiki research pages, Michael researched about the bowl he chose which he found it very difficult to find any information about. He imagined eating chicken and chips in the bowl. Julies research explained that she chose a stuffed Heron from the collection as it reminded her of the symbol for Tottenham Hotspur! The picture below shows Julies football shirt.
Michaels bowl
Why Julie chose a Heron
Then we discussed developing the sensory labels further feeling the wood panels in the picture below.
feeling surface of sensory labels
Tim demoed his box the sound was triggered by tilting the box or by a touch sensor.
Tim demos his box
We discussed how everyone would like to trigger sounds. The picture below show Adjoa exploring how to trigger sound.
Hearing sound from the box
Adjoa tests box
We also tried out some other smells
More smells to test
Nic and Kassie worked with Tim, Michael, Sam and Katy to research various types of triggers the pictures below show Tim and Michael at work and a close up of a set of triggers Nic had made to help discover and chose how things should trigger.
Comments Off on Sensory Objects Present at the Diversity in Heritage Group Meeting 30.10.14
We presented our Sensory Objects research at the Diversity in Heritage Group Meeting held at the Cinema Museum, London, the picture below shows the agenda of the meeting.
Agenda for Heritage and Diversity Meeting
We co-presented our research with Judith and Tim representing the Tower Project with their support worker Bev, Kate and Nic also presented and Kassie filmed and helped with the hands on workshop part of the session. The picture below shows Tim and Judith preparing for the meeting with Bev and Kassie.
Judith and Tim prepare
The pictures below show members of the Diversity in Heritage Meeting and Poppy who was leading the meeting.
Poppy and members of the H&D group
Members of the Heritage and Diversity Group
Before the meeting we were given a tour of the Cinema Museum the picture below shows members of the meeting during the tour.
Tour Cinema Museum
During Guided Tour of the Cinema Museum
The picture below shows members of the sensory objects team presenting our research.
Presentation by Sensory Objects
The video below has some edited highlights from our presentation
Comments Off on Tower Project at the Rix Centre Five 03.09.14
Tower Project Session Five
We met at the Rix Centre after a break over August. Our Co-researchers did some independent research visiting the London Transport Museum trying out our Sensory Activities book.
Discussing Transport Museum Visit
We started our session with hearing about the visit looking at the updates on the wiki webpage updated by our co-researchers. Our Co-researchers really enjoyed their visit, they noted down some general access issues, to do with ramps and size of lifts etc. We discussed the need to focus on the sensory nature of our project. The group had picked out things that they enjoyed, such as having ago with a ticket machine that actually produced an old bus ticket, some mentioned music playing by some of the exhibits, and a handle to crank to help understand how wheels work on a bus.
We discussed the sensory activities book focussing on the Sensory Expeditions cartoon page. We had 2 new names of the book suggested by our co-researchers ‘Recipe Book or Index. Some people found the image of the camera misleading as it looked like a radio, the big nose on the smell cartoon was mistaken as Pinocchio, they asked why the cartoon had no eyes? Someone asked why there was a mouse in the picture?
SensoryExpeditionVer2
After lunch we didn’t follow our planned programme, we introduced the sound boxes
SoundBoxesIntro
and started to learn about electronics and triggering information with Squishy Circuits, we asked the group to create a trigger for a light and a buzzer by creating a circuit and breaking the circuit.
Working with Squishys
We also started to think about how we could add some sensory information to the enlightenment gallery. Everyone was given a postcard that could record a sound. We asked our co-researchers to think about what sounds, stories, tactile materials, images or even smells we could use to enhance our experiences of the chosen object from the Enlightenment Gallery, the idea is to develop some kind of sensory label rather than a text label.
Working Sound Cards
The picture below shows posit notes with ideas from the co-researchers for sensory post cards.
Comments Off on Sensory Objects Research Presented at the Inclusive Museum Conference
Kate and Nic gave a hands on presentation of the Sensory Objects project to the Inclusive Museums Conference at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles. We sent a big box containing Sensory Objects developed by our Co-researchers from Reading College at MERL and also the Access to Heritage Group in Liverpool. We showed slides and videos of our current group from the Tower Project at the British Museum to explain our project conference attendees. We met people from all over the world who were interested in our project. The pictures below show some of them trying out the objects you can see Phillip and Johns scrapbooks of Sudley House Liverpool, Sians mooing boot and Rachel’s Pink grunting Pig and Nic explaining our ideas of using Squishy Circuits, littleBits and our research with littleBits go LARGE.
Inclusive Museums Presentation Sensory Objects
Sensory Objects Presenation Nic at the Inclusive Museum Conference
During the conference there were many talks and discussions often all happening at once. One of the most inspiring talks, I thought, was by Nina Simon, she wrote a book that helped give shape to our sensory objects project The Participatory Museum. Below are some images she used during her talk about Santa Cruz Museum where she is working at now. Her talk showed her ideas and experiences of making the museum a place where everyone can feel welcome and take part. She mentioned Pop Up Museums and also the idea of the museum acting as a place for people to have conversations, bringing unlikely people together, she described it as ‘bridging’ the two people bottom left of the picture are a lady who knits and a graffiti artist who meet during a workshop at the museum and really got on.
Presentation Nina Simon
During the talk Nina mentioned some of the problems of making the museum more participatory, that some people in the community accuse her of dumbing down the museum, she illustrated the problem by showing this cartoon below. You can’t please everyone, in the cartoon a character called MAH that Nina said represented her is telling Michelangelo that his painting of the Sistine Chapel is “a bit passive and that he must engage the visitor, leave room for the visitors to colour in your work with crayons or paint ball! you know…. dumb down your work!” Nina mentioned that by widening the audience to the museum you will also alienate people who enjoyed it as it was, but attendance and participation in the Santa Cruz Museum continues to rise and generate income because of her ideas of inclusion.
Nina Simon Cartoon
The video below shows Nina giving a talk which has similar content to the presentation at the Inclusive Museums Conference.
Comments Off on Tower Project at The British Museum Session THREE 23.07.14
Tower Project Sensory Object co-researchers visit The British Museum focussing on the the Enlightenment Gallery, we were joined by visitors to the Rix Centre from Austria.
TowerProject at The British Museum
Below is our programme plan for the day.
Tower Project session 3 The British Museum
Sam began our day with showing me a drawing she had made about the Sensory Objects project.
Samantha and her Sensory Project Pic
We were welcomed to the museum by their Access and Equality manager Jane Samuels.
Jane welcomes Group
Jane gave us an image of Sir Hans Sloane and asked our group to see if they could spot the painting as they entered Room 2.
Jane said that when we found the painting we would find Hilary Williams who would give us a talk about Sir Hans Sloane, his collection and the Enlightenment Gallery see picture below.
Group Listening to Hilary
Hilary asked our co-researchers how old is the Earth? See picture below.
Based on the Bible people used to think it was 400 years old but when people discovered fossils they realised it was millions of years old.
Hilary asks how old is the earth
Hilary explained that the Enlightenment Gallery contained collections of natural things like shells, animals, mineral rocks and fossils and things made by humans such as tools and artworks.
After lunch our co-researchers were asked to choose an object in the Enlightenment Gallery that they liked and would like more information about. We asked them to consider what sensory information their object had and if they would like more. How would if feel if you could touch it? smell if you could sniff it etc Below are some of their choices, Justin chose a replica of silver cup.
Justin with Cup
Adalana the replica of the Pitt Diamond.
Adalana and diamond
Close up of replica Pitt Diamond that Adalana chose.
Adelanas diamond
Emen chose a carved foot in a sandel.
Emen draws sandle
Katy chose a snake, rat and mongoose.
Katy Snake Rat
Tim chose a miniature Egyptian mummy sarcophagus.
Tims objects collected
Ryan chose Chinese Plates.
Ryans choice
Julie chose a stuffed heron which she made some notes about.
Julie draws a heron
Sam and Noelle talk about shell collection and how it reminded her of her mum who lived by the sea.
Sam and Noelle
Michael chose a big bowl
Michael and his bowl
Judith chose objects from Africa
Judiths notes
Judith’s choice
Some of the group tried out the British Museum handling table, they enjoyed using the magnifying glass to view the objects.
Sam tries the handling table
Katy at handling table holding a flint.
Katy at Handling table
Our co-researchers collected thoughts and stories about the chosen object (see pictures below), ready to talk about their chosen object when we meet at the Rix Centre next week.
Comments Off on Tower Project London Session TWO 16.07.14
In our second session with our Co-researchers from the Tower Project we asked them to bring in an object that was special for them and they would be able to talk about why they brought it. Below is the easy read outline plan of the day.
Week 2 Tower Project Session
The theme of the day was to create a Pop Up Museum form objects everyone had been asked to bring in. Everyone had brought something they could talk about we made a video of each person with their object.
We wanted to think about objects people own that are special for them and how they transform when they become part of a museum collection.
Co-researchers with objects Emem photographs them
First we described the object we had brought in, what it meant to each person, and where we kept it, what it made us think of when we saw it. The picture below shows Justin with his trophy for Disco Dancing he won it when he was 3 years old. Next Katy with her musical globe of the Lion King bought for her by her sister who had seen the stage play and Marc a visitor from Austria who is with us for 3 weeks on a study placement he had bought some wafer biscuits that are typically Austrian as a gift for everyone at the Rix Centre.
Talking about the objects
Once we had videoed everyone talking about their object we took instant photos of the objects and created a label with images and some text. The picture below shows all the Co-researchers with the labels they had made.
Everyone at the Pop up Museum
Next we decided to make categories for our Pop Up Museum, we chose 7 which is the same number they have in the Enlightenment Museum. Our section names for the Pop Up Museum were 1 Toys and Games, 2 Food and Drink, 3 Family Histories, 4 Places, 5 Awards, 6 Events and 7 Curios. The image below shows the group at work displaying their objects in different sections, Noelle helps Michael display his football.
Noelle helps organise the Pop Up Museum Michael’s Football is displayed
Popup museum in the making
Exhibits in the Pop Up Museum, we had some glass display cases which we tried out each object inside some were too big, so we used the base. Putting the objects under glass made changed the object. The images below show exhibits in our museum in the first picture you can see Adalana she chose to display her white cane, Kell showed her Grandmothers wedding ring and Julie a Champagne glass she was given on her 30th birthday.
Adalana, Kelly and Julie pop up exhibits
The picture below shows items brought in by Tower Project support workers Debbie displayed old money, Minos a mosaic that reminded him of Greece and Farhat (sorry need to find out how to spell name) a watch that he was given for his 25th birthday the 3rd of his collection.
Support workers Pop up Exhibits
The picture below shows Samatha’s journal where she writes about all the work she does, next is Tim’s soldier at the Trooping of the Colour he has a big collection of them he spoke how putting the figure under the glass dome changed its scale and finally Emen’s medal he won for running, he has lots of medals for sport.
Popup museum Sam Tim and Emem
Below shows Ryans bus he used to travel on a Route Master, Adjoa’s teddy given to her by a friend at the airport, a collection of all our wrist watches from some of the group and the Austrian food, chocolate, biscuits and pumpkin oil.
The Tower Project Pop Up Museum
We photographed the Pop Up Museum see pictures below
We took lots of photos
Austrian food and drink exhibits with sensory information on the labels
Austrian treats exhibit Pop up museum
It was a really interesting day, hearing about everyones object and then seeing them displayed. We talked a bit about how our museum might have connections to the Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum we are visiting next. See a picture of our discussion below we remembered Andy’s talk about Museums and Collections last week, where the fork came from, what is was used for originally, who bought it and how it ended up as an exhibit. We asked our co-researchers what was our research question was? They said how to make museums more accessible. We will explore adding sensory information to tell stories about objects from our Co-researchers perspective. Our group suggested using video, touch sounds, braille to help make museums more enjoyable to visit.
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Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop 19.05.14
During our session we continued to test and finish our sensory objects.The video below shows Rachel testing her Pink Pig in a Bucket.
Robyn helped our Co-researchers create different smoothie recipes and we all taste tested them, some of them used herbs planted and grown in boots by our Co-researchers. At our event Buckets, Baskets and Boots on June 9th at MERL our Co-researchers will be making the following smoothies for visitors to try:
Smoothie making
SUMMER SENSATION
Strawberries
Apple juice
Yoghurt
Crushed ice
(strawberry garnish on rim of glass)
ICED APPLE AND MINT TEA
Fresh apple juice
Iced tea
Fresh mint from our wellie garden
Crushed ice
(sprig of mint to garnish)
ICED ORANGE
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Crushed ice
(orange slice garnish on rim of glass)
ORANGE COCKTAIL
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Soda water
Crushed ice
(orange slice garnish on rim of glass)
After a lovely farmers lunch provided by Robyn eaten outside in the sun we tried out another sensory object called Hoofy Horse, this was inspired by Rachels picture with the invisible horse in MERLS collection.
Rachel as horse with invisible horse
We had made the sound of horses hooves using coconut shells so we decided to use some pressure sensors to make a clip clop sound, testing of this is shown in the video below.
We also looked at some images of our Co-researchers meeting a rabbit during one of their lessons at Reading College they are planning to visit a pet shop to learn all about domestic pets. The picture below shows the rabbit with Skye and Guillermo.
Today’s workshop was primarily a reflective session, looking back on what has been accomplished in the previous workshops. At the beginning of the workshop, before the group arrived, the tables were filled with buckets, boots and baskets to show some of the work that had been created to date:
Buckets, Boots and Baskets – some of the finished works, and some works-in-progress
Some of the objects are not yet completed, and part of today’s session was used to help in choosing how to complete these works-in-progress. We’ll continue next Monday with these too. As you can see, the herbs that the group planted in the boots some months ago have grown significantly, and were carefully tended to by Robyn (not all are present here).
The workshop session was divided into two activities (divised by Gosia): a review and a photography session. For the review activity, each co-researcher was initially provided with a small collection of images that related to their work (things they liked, or have worked on, and included many images of themselves in the workshop sessions), so that they could begin by looking back at some of the things they had done in past workshops:
Each co-researcher had a collection of images to remind them of their previous workshops
The co-researchers started out by selecting some of the their favourite pictures and videos from the project blog and from the wiki that they had co-constucted:
Looking at the blog
We wanted them to choose pictures or videos (or just sounds) that were meaningful in some way. This was quite difficult to do, and we worked one-to-one with the co-researchers. Selecting images and videos that are appealing is straightforward, but giving a reason why is often very difficult or not possible. However, it is perhaps more important that they were engaged in the task and looking at what they had done, regardless of the outcome.
The second part of the workshop was a photography session in which the co-researchers created photographs of themselves (taken by one of the other group members or support staff), a picture of themselves with the object that they had co-designed, some video of themselves with their object and also something in the museum which related to their object. The images and video can be uploaded to their personal wiki page (Klikin) in a later workshop.
Luke demonstrated his ‘hole-in-one’ bucket (missing the flag in this image):
Luke’s ‘hole-in-one’ bucket (missing the flag)
Skye demonstrated her animal farm bucket. It plays farm animal sounds randomly, and when completed it will also respond to the grass being pressed, where it will play a recording of ‘old macdonald’.
Skye with her animal farm
Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket responds by grunting when the ears are being squeezed – the next addition is to add the pig’s nose (which has been difficult to create!) so that it will also respond to the nose being pressed.
Rachel’s pig in a bucket
Sian took pictures of her mooing boot (the ‘Moot’) at different locations within MERL and then gave a demonstration of how it works:
Sian’s mooing boot (the ‘Moot’)
Some of the sensory object works-in-progress were not available to demonstrate, so the other co-researchers’ took photographs of some of the other artworks they had created at the workshops, placing them in locations around MERL, and also took pictures of thing they liked at MERL. The following is a selection of some of them (there were hundreds of images, totalling over 1GB, so we can only select a few):
Skye with her animal
Photograph by Rachel
Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket somewhere in MERL
Guillermo as a farm worker
Guillermo placing some of the objects in MERL for photographing
Luke examines the flowers outside of MERL
Rachael with her yellow pig
Towards the end of the workshop, we had a music session starting with Old Macdonald. We played a video which had the soundtrack of Old Macdonald plus Makaton signs which many of the group could understand:
Comments Off on Sensory Objects in Progress Seminar Tuesday 10th June
We are going to have talks and demonstrations about the project on Tuesday 10th of June the Seminar is part of Universities Week Below is a flyer in easy read version and with more text about the Seminar. Please send an email to k.allen@reading.ac.uk if you would like to attend the seminar its free but places are limited.
Comments Off on Buckets, Baskets and Boots Monday June 9th 2014
We are working towards two events in June part of Universities Week on Monday 9th our Co-researchers from Reading College LLD/D dept will present our research in the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL). Below is the poster for the event, hope you can come!
Reading Mencap Coffee Club came to MERL to help us with our research.
We focussed on the sense of smells to begin, Kassie organised 6 bags with smells inside and asked the group to find something in the museum that linked to the smells in the bags. Kassie had placed some of the wellie boots filled with herbs in around the museum.
Smells in bags Reading Mencap
These are the places the group thought the smells belonged
The group photographed where they thought the smells belonged. Next we demonstrated some of the sensory objects developed by our Co-Researchers at Reading College.
Sroking for sounds
Sians boot was very popular mooing when stroked, although Caroline found it disturbing, she preferred the sheep fleece cushion that went baa when stroked. We are working with Reading Mencap as local advisors for our project we were keen to hear their thoughts and opinions about the project so far. The next activity was to focus on taste, lead by Robyn the group made their own smoothies and juice, they really enjoyed this, learnt about how healthy and easy it was and delicious too.
Smoothies and Juice
After Robyns delicious lunch at which we spread our bread with butter that we had made from shaking cream in a jar with a marble in it we showed the group some of the electronics kits we have used with our Co-Researchers from Reading College. We wanted to see if they found our littleBits go LARGE kit easier to use. Kevin had a go with both and found them both easy, Charlie and Miranda made some excellent sounds with the Synth Kit.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Eleven 27.01.14
We met up for the first time this year at MERL we started our workshop by reviewing the objects we made last term, and what needed still to be done ready for our exhibition on June 9th 2014.
Group Busy at Work
Nic had added a sensor to Lukes bucket the idea was based on Lukes interest in golf, the bucket has a golf hole in the top when the ball or egg is dropped in it triggers a sound. The image below shows the group testing it. Sometimes the sound worked but sometimes it did not Nic trieded to find out why.
Testing the hole in one bucket
Then Our Co-Researchers were then asked to help design a logo for the Sensory Objects project here are some of their ideas.
Logos
Robyn prepared a delicious lunch including baked apples that the group stuffed with sultanas, apricots, nuts and seeds which were cooked in the microwave. The picture below shows Sian with some of the apples.
Sian with baked apples
After lunch the group worked with Ajay to make some sensory posters for our exhibition. Ajay recorded the group speaking about each sense and starting to choose pictures to use on the posters. Then we asked the group to start planting herbs in wellie boots so by June we would be able to add some smells to the museum, we planted thyme, rosemary, mint and chives.
The picture below shows Rachel planting her boot with mint.
Rachel 2 planting boot
The picture below shows the group showing their boots planted Rumenas boot is in the centre.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Ten 16.12.13
We have been asking our Co-Researchers to experience MERL, The Museum of English Rural Life, using their 5 senses. We aim to share these sensory experiences with the public by adding sensory information through artwork made during workshops this term. We have been making and collecting sounds, often inspired by the groups love of the song Old MacDonald, we have thought about smells we could add to the museum using herbs and spices and the smell of rubber boots, we have explored textures of the museums collections including the feel of wood, metal, straw and eaten a series of amazing farmers lunches. We have experimented with how we could make visually interesting objects to touch, that could trigger sounds and smells. In the morning of this workshop we thought about where we could add sensory objects to make a visit to MERL more enjoyable. Sian took some images where she would like to add a sensory object, she photographed a tractor and where there were photos of cows. Last week Sian worked with wellington boots one had a picture of Old MacDonald on it with cow fur Sian would like the sound of cows mooing, but the moo sounds made by the group.The other boot was covered with grass with her painting of a tractor on it that would make the sound of a tractor engine.
Sians photo where she would like a sensory object
Sian with Old MacDonald Boot that will “moo”
Sians photo where she would like a sensory object
Rachel was keen to have a basket everyone was allowed to touch in the museum display.
Rachel wants to a basket we are allowed to touch
Later in the morning Nic demonstrated a potato battery to the group, so we could try out trigger different sounds. After this we started to become a bit Christmassy. Our Co-Researchers gave us some brilliant Christmas cards they had made. We asked everyone to decorate some seasonal biscuits and cakes which we added as a centre piece with the Co-Researcher cards to decorate our Christmas Farmers Lunch. The picture below shows the group decorating biscuits.
Decorating biscuits ready for christmas lunch with handmade cards from our Co-Researchers
The picture below shows our Christmas Farmers lunch, we had crackers too.
Christmas Farmers Lunch
After lunch our group worked more on their Sensory Objects, there are several pigs being made.
Group hard at work
In the picture below Rachel is painting a yellow pig she also made a pig hiding in a bucket.
Rachel paints pig yellow
Rachels other pig hiding in a bucket
Rachel 2 added a rabbit to her bucket
Rachels rabbit in a bucket
The picture below shows Skye drawing with her cow on the table.
Skye drawing a cat her cow is in the background
Luke is very keen on golf so we imagined a duck left Old MacDonalds farm to visit a golf course the duck was right by the blue flag when there was a “hole in one” Luke loves to say this we recorded him saying “a hole in one” Luke made a golf ball from air drying clay which he dropped through the hole. We wondered if Luke would like it if the ball triggered the sound of his voice saying a whole in one, Luke also made the sound of a duck. Luke was the Co Researcher who first mentioned Old MacDonald and was keen on duck and chicken noises. The piece below shows a golf inspire sensory object we are calling “a hole in one”
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Nine 09.12.13
In workshop nine we first first reviewed the activities from the previous workshop, and on the tables we arranged the artefacts that the co-researchers had created: paintings and drawings on canvas to be attached in some way to either a bucket, boot or basket, the papier mache covered balloons which will be continued today, and will be made into a farm animal (or possibly even a speech bubble) and a brief review of how sounds could possible be added to their artwork to make them more active and interesting.
Table laid out with artwork from the previous workshop as a reminder of what we will be doing in the activities of the day.
The morning session started with a taste of orange, nuts and dried fruit provided by Robyn:
Robyn provides a sensory stimulus to start the morning session
Kate then talked briefly about the aims of the workshop (continuing with the farm animal, and thinking about ways in which it might be interesting to make it more active by adding sounds and/or light or video) whilst Nic and Toni showed an example of how a sound could be integrated in a bucket using a surface speaker:
Luke listens to a sound in a bucket, and really gets stuck into the task.
Another co-researcher recalls that in the workshop last week we had a bucket that would play a sound when you placed you hand inside or near to it. However, in this case it was not connected to the microcontroller so we applied a ‘Wizard of Oz’ technique instead (i.e. we faked it).
Guillermo was quick to recall that placing his hand inside the bucket (in last week’s session) would activate a sound.
Artwork in Progress!
Here are some photos of the artwork produced in this week’s workshop. As you can see, there are many different designs. The first shows a rather snazzy boot designed by Sian, and covered in fake cow hide, together with an acrylic painting. She has quite a clear idea of how she would like it to trigger a sound – by placing a foot inside the boot and pressing down. She will produce the sound herself during the next workshop, and this will be integrated during one of the subsequent workshops:
Sian’s welly, in the style of a cow
Below is a picture of Sian showing off her wonderful welly:
A snazzy design by Sian, which will eventually incorporate a mooing sound activated by placing a foot inside the boot!
The next two photographs show Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket concept, which is coming along very well as you can see. The bucket is covered with bedding straw to give it a really rural look and texture.
Rachel wanted to make use of the bucket to house the pig she is creating.
The pig just fits inside the bucket, with the nose protruding. Rachel has also selected a potential activation method for the sound she wants the pig to make – using a squeeze sensor in the nose. Was this a result of her exploration of audio triggers using the littleBits kit?
Rachel’s pig-in-a-bucket (not yet finished). It will be enhanced with a sound triggered by squeezing its nose (and possibly either some form of light or movement), but this has yet to be decided.
Rachael (the other Rachael) has also decided to construct a pig, and is also coming along very well:
Rachael applies layers of newspaper to the balloons in the construction of her pig.
Mena is creating a chicken from her papier mache, and has painted it with some bright colours. The tail has been ingeniously constructed from straw and pipecleaners, the head will be modelled from a wooden spoon, and the comb from pieces of card, painted red:
A brightly coloured chicken, with straw and pipecleaners for the tail and a wooden spoon for the head.
Luke has decorated a basket with artificial leaves and a painting he created last week of a ducks head. The contents of the basket have yet to be determined … everyone loves the duck:
Luke’s duck head attached to a basket.
Guillermo is painting his papier mache in a bright red. Will this be pig? His artwork is always very interesting, so we wait in anticipation:
Guillermo paint his papier mache in bright red.
Skye has also made progress with her papier mache and has constructed the beginnings of a cow, using the artificial cow hide:
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Eight 02.12.13
Our Co-Researchers became farm animals, we asked them to find places in the museum they would like to see or hear animals. The pictures below show Guillermo, Skye and Rachel getting ready and the whole group in the museum. There are lots of machines in the museum, there are some photos of animals and lots about horses. We couldn’t find many places where cats and dogs might be except in some old black and white photos on the side of the victorian picture display, we found a chicken in the toy farm displayed in the museum. Rumena was a sheep she found some sheep shearing tools and a picture, we are discussing making a sheep that visitors would be able to record their own ‘Baa’ and hear everyones Baas if the stroke the sheeps head. Rachel and Skye had seen a film about chickens at the weekend called Free Birds, Rachel was very good at acting like a chicken. Skye became a cat and later a pig, while Guillermo was very good at being a dog.
The image below shows Rachel with the invisible horse as a horse, this is where we would like to hear the sound of horses. We have been exploring some press sensors that could trigger sounds we wondered if we could place the press sensors under horse shoes so if a visitor stood on them it would trigger the should of a horse and cart.
Rachel as horse with invisible horse
The picture below shows Sian as a cow Sian enjoys mooing and Luke as a duck, Luke had written about the sounds ducks make on his suit. We let the group have decorating suits as we were doing lots of messy things during our workshop but everyone enjoyed wearing them while becoming an animal.
Sian and Luke
We also prepared some paper mache balloons ready for next week, the group work hard and were very focussed on covering their balloons, we hope to turn them into either eggs, heads, animal bodies or speech bubbles? We will find out next week.
Balloon Paper mache
Luke balloon
Sian balloon
Next we turned our drawings of Old MacDonalds Farm into paintings on canvas so we could add them to our boots, baskets or buckets. The pictures below show Rumenas drawing and painting of a hen, Sian drawing Old MacDonald with a painting of a green and yellow tractor, Rachel drawing a chicken and Lukes painting of a duck.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Seven 25.11.13
We held a session at Reading College using Talking Mats which is a way of finding out what our Co-researchers had experienced using their sense to discover MERL. The session was led by Gosia from the Rix Centre. The mat has images of the five senses and objects from the MERL collection. We asked our Co-researchers which sense they would most like to use to experience an object in the MERL collection.The pictures below shows the talking mat, it has images of the senses and objects from MERL, we asked the Co-researchers which sense they would most like to use to experience an object in the MERL collection.
Gosia with Sian and talking mats
Guillermo with Talking Mats 2
Skye talking mats results
The talking mats sessions were videoed and will help us work towards developing our sensory objects. While each person did Talking Mats with Gosia, we added more info to their individual wikis, we used iPads to do this. The picture below shoes Guillermo using an iPad
Guillermo using ipad to upload his webpage
Later we asked the group to make Old Mac Donald’s Farm from foil and drawing.
Group making old Macdonalds farm
The picture below shows Rachael and Guillermo drawing their farms.
Rachel1and Guillermo
Sian’s picture of Old MacDonald’s head, farm house and tractor
Sian Old Macdonald face house and tractor
Rachel drew some reindeer for her farm.
Rachel2drawing farm
The picture below shows Rumenas farm she created some snails for her farm.
Rumenas farm
The picture below shows Luke and his drawing of a farm Luke mixed in some words about golf and made a golf club with the silver foil. I asked Luke if he had ever played crazy golf I wondered if we could link golf with farming as Luke is so keen on golf.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Four 04.11.13
We focused this workshop on the sense of TOUCH in the morning, we had seven bags each with a collection of materials inside. We asked the Co-Researchers to feel inside the bags first and try to describe how the materials felt, some of the words the group used were rough, smooth, soft, hard, cold and warm. The picture below shows the group touching objects in the bags then using some pictures to discuss the types of materials and how they felt touch.
Seven bags with materials inside
After our Co-Researchers had described how the materials felt we asked them to place them in order of preference, the objects nearest the smiley face were their favourites the ones near the sad face our Co-Researchers least favourite material to touch. Luke chose his favourite as the milk bottle as it reminded him of breakfast, the softer materials such as the fleece and wool blanket were very popular as were the root vegetables, but the piece of sweetcorn was too cold and slimy to touch, the metal hard and cold. The picture below shows the lineup of the groups choices.
Favourite and least favourite materials to touch
Then our Co-Researchers were asked to choose one of the objects in the bags that they really liked to touch, could they find something in the museum that they associated with the object? This was quite a difficult task, the picture below shows Rachel who chose a Parsnip, Sian chose a plastic milk bottle, Guillermo chose some pop corn and Rumena who chose an egg, they are photographed holding the object next to what what they found to connect it in the MERL collection.
Materials we like to touch and things that link to them in MERL
We also asked the group to link one of the objects in the bags to a sound from the sound boxes. Rachel could remember where the sounds were on the dial! The image below shows Sian with an egg pressing the sound box to make the sound of hens, Luke he chose a potato and played the sound of a steam engine and Skye also chose the egg but continually pressed the button on the sound box so the clucking sound of the hen started to sound like barking and she pointed to the picture of the dog on the image sheet, we thought this was good observation of an accidental invention.
Adding sounds to objects
Robyn made us a great lunch again with salad, pizza, popcorn, sweet corn, bread that we sliced on the table and carrot cake. This time Robyn decided to keep the food on plates that could be passed around by the group rather than plating it up first the group were able to pass the food around to everyone.
Lunch2
After lunch we asked the Co-Researchers to try the littleBits electronics kit that we had used in the last workshop. We asked the group to make LED’s light up using different sensors. The image below shows the Rachel altering the pulsing of the LEDs with a small screwdriver and Skye trying out the pressure sensors from the littleBits electronics kit. Rumena and Rachel are becoming experts with the littleBits kit!
Skye uses pressure sensor
We also used a sound sensor, connected to the sound box, the picture below shows Sian and Guillermo clapping to activate the sound sensor.
Guillermo claps to activate a sound sensor linked to the sound box
Sian claps testing a sound sensor linked to the sound box
We practised using littleBits triggering the sounds from the sound box and LED’s with different sensors, then we opened some parcels, inside were various types of containers linked to farming, there were Buckets, Baskets and Boots.
Unpacking bootsbasketsbuckets
These objects were inspired by the museum and the idea of a container to collect sensory information in. We wanted to experiment with objects other than plain boxes that we used last year at Speke Hall. We explained to the group that we chose these objects because they linked to the MERL collection, farming and they were all objects that could contain things. We asked the Co-Researchers what you could put in a bucket? Luke said water and Skye said eggs, she also mentioned that you could collect eggs in baskets too. Rachel had seen baskets in the museum and she linked the parsnip she chose earlier because she liked how it felt, to collecting vegetables in baskets.
Rachel links baskets to collecting vegetables such as a parsnip
Sian and Guillermo gave a practical demonstration of what goes inside a Wellie boot as they both decided to wear them. The picture below show them wearing the boots and caring the buckets and baskets.
Sian and Guillermo bootsbucketsbaskets
Luke, Guillermo, Skye, Sain and Rachel (Rumena not in pic)
Then we thought we’d try out the baskets and buckets, we asked the group to choose one of the containers and we went outside into the MERL garden to see what we could collect to put inside our buckets or baskets. The picture below shows the group outside collecting lots of autumn leaves, stones, apples etc.
inside the buckets and baskets
The picture above shows some of the objects our Co-Researchers collected in their buckets and baskets from the MERL garden, the leaves were beautiful, their reflection in the shiny buckets were great and to capture them we finished off our workshop by creating some textured rubbings from the leaves we collected see the picture below.
Leaf texture rubbings
During the last part of the workshop we introduced the idea to the group that we had made art from what we had found, outside enjoying how the materials looked in the buckets, how stones sounded when dropped in the bucket and also how interesting the leaves looked when we rubbed crayons over them to see the pattern and texture of the leaf. We also mentioned that these buckets, baskets and boots could have the potential to be containers for sensory information in the museum, we will continue to explore them in the next MERL workshop.
This was a really busy workshop our Co-Researchers impressed us with how focused and engaged they were all day.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop Three 21.10.13
Our Co-Researchers from Reading College met at MERL for their 3rd workshop. MERL had just held its Apple Day celebration on Sat and we were given some apples to taste, they were very delicious. The picture below shows us tasting various types of English Apples. We were joined by John from the Rix Centre standing on the left, the brown bags contain the different varieties of apples.
Group taste apples from MERL Apple day
We continued to work with the sound boxes. We gave each Co-Researcher a soundbox and asked them to choose one favourite sound that they would like to hear in MERL, we asked them to lead us to an object in the collection that was linked to the sound. Luke and Guillermo choose the horse and cart sound the picture below shows Luke standing by a cart that matched his sound. Luke really enjoyed turning a fly wheel near this exhibit.
Luke finds cart to match horse sound
The picture below shows Guillermo photographing both Rachels they have their soundboxes round their necks Rachel on the left choose the sound of chickens (and Rumena did too) this sound was quite hard to match but we found some roosters on a milk bottle and some bouncy eggs from the shop. Rachel on the right choose the sound of sheep and found this picture of sheep being sheared.
Guillermo photos Rachel and Rachel
Sian choose the sound of the steam engine the picture below shows her playing her sound infront of the engine.
Sian choose the sound of the Steam Engine
Sian also took lots of instant photos, Guillermo did too. After we listened to the sounds with the objects in the MERL collection the group rated the photos withe smilies which are documented below.
Choosing smiley pics
Guillermo choosing his favourite photos
The image below shows Rachel discussing lunch using images of the food we ate and how it is produced on the farm.
Rachel discussing lunch
After a delicious farmers lunch prepared by Robyn helped by Hannah, which included carrots, salad, bread, ham, cheese and home made apple cake with custard…YUM.. we started the second half of the workshop. Nic introduced the group to a special kind of playdough called Squishy Circuits. First we discussed how the dough was made from flour the same basic material as the bread and cake we had eaten for our lunch. We discussed that flour comes from wheat and is milled to make flour. Nic showed us the Squishy Circuit Dough there were two colours, the salt dough which acts as a conductor was green and the sugar dough which is an insulator was orange. Nic explained that if you kept the two lumps of the green dough separate then added a battery with wires going in to each lump of green dough you could create a circuit which would allow an LED to light up. He said the the LED lights have a long leg and a short leg which need to stretch into the separate lumps of green conductive dough. If the LED did not work try turning it the other way round. Everyone had a go and making the lights turn on and off and modelling with the dough.
Rumena created a Squishy Circuit wtih lots of LEDS
The picture belwo show Rachel and Guilllermo with Cathy making Squishy Circuits.
Rachel and Guillermo created Squish Circuits
After a quick break outside where we had a go at an Apple and Spoon race inspired by MERL apple day the group continued to explore ways to create circuits and learn about how they could trigger or switch something such as a sound, a light or a vibration on or off. Nic showed the group how to use littleBits and we added some content using our sound boxes. The group experimented with turning sounds on and off by various triggers, such as a pressure switch, slider, pulse switch, light sensor.
Sky explores Littlebits
Luke and Cathy explore littleBits
LittleBits Skye and Luke
Sian, Rachel and Guillermo try Littlebits
The picture below shows Guillermo following an illustration of how to connect the littlBits. Each bit joins by magnets and the kit is colour coded to make it easier to use. Our Co-Researchers soon got the hang of how to connect them. We hope it might give our Co-Researchers some ideas about triggering sensory information in different ways in the museum collection at MERL. We will be doing further experiments in future workshops.
Comments Off on Reading College LLD/D Students MERL Workshop One 07.10.13
We had our first sensory workshop with our new project Co-Researchers from Reading College. Students from the LLD/D (Learners with Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities) department visited MERL Museum of English Rural Life for the workshop session. From left to right they are Sian, Guillermo, Rachel, Rachel, Skye, Luke and Rumena (who is not appearing in photos or videos, but is very active in the group and taking a lot of the photos you see here).
Reading College Group Shot
The group walked to MERL from Reading College with their teacher Cathy and support workers Matt, Natasha and Lin. When they arrived they were served some orange segments by Robyn (who is providing food during the workshops) and who thought this would give them energy like football players at half time after their walk to the museum. See picture below.
Oranges on arrival
The picture below shows images of an EYE we use to SEE with, a HAND we use to TOUCH with, a TONGUE we use to TASTE with, a NOSE we use to SMELL with and an EAR we use to HEAR with. We used these images talk about our senses and which parts of the body we use to experience the five senses.
Senses Graphics
During our workshop we used all our senses to explore MERL, find out about its collection and its relation to us. We took photos, listened to and made sounds and had a farmers lunch. The picture below shows our Co-Researchers being introduced to instant cameras and sound boxes. Isabel, a curator at MERL who later took us on a tour of the museum, is standing on the right.
Group introduced to Sound Boxes and Instant Cameras
They soon got the hang of the camera that produced instant photos and the sound box that played 6 sounds by twisting the knob and pressing the button. We asked the group to play the sounds if they saw something in the museum that related to the sound. We asked them to take a photo of the object that made the sound. Between them they made lots of sounds and took lots of photos. Sian and Rumena took a lot of the photos while Skye, Guillermo, Luke, Rachel and Rachel matched sounds to the exhibits. The picture below shows Sian watching her photo develop she really enjoyed watching the picture appear while Skye explored the soundbox.
Sian & Skye with Camera and Sound Box
The picture below shows Guillermo he got on well with using the sound box.
Guillermo using the soundbox
The picture below shows the group finding out about a wooden fork, the prongs were grown as separate branches, described by Isabel during our tour of the museum.
Isabel explains on our tour of MERL
The picture below shows Sian waiting for image to appear, she took lots of instant pictures during the tour of the museum, she liked the wheels on display.
Sian photos
The picture below shows an instant picture taken by Rumena or Sian of Luke trying out some of the costumes MERL have of what farmers used to wear.
Luke in farmers Hat
The next two pictures below show both Rachels becoming part of an old Victorian photo.
Rachel photographed as a victorian girl
Rachel in Victorian Photo
After the tour we had a farmers lunch prepared by Robyn, during lunch we discussed how different foods are produced.
Eating Farmers Lunch
Robyn made a cake with cream and berries see picture below.
Robyn made a cake
After lunch we reviewed the sounds made by the sound boxes from the morning. The group used images to match the sounds they had heard.
Guillermo matching sounds to Pictures
Then the group chose which were their favourite instant pictures using smiley stickers. The picture below shows Cathy giving Skye some stickers Rachel looking at the photos and Guillermo about to attach a sticker.
Choosing Photos by putting smiley stickers on them
The picture below shows the instant pics with 4 smileys or less chosen by the group.
Instant pics with 4 smileys or less
There was one very strange pic see below we are not quite sure how this head appears in the horses harness?
Odd pic
Next we watched some old silent farming films one about cheese making, one about ploughing and one about sheep sheering. The picture below shows the group testing out sounds they could make for the films, Rachel at the back with a horn, Rachel in the front making a whirring sound with a fan and also created a machine sound using a bicycle pump, Guillermo had a go with coconut shells to make a horse clip clop sound then he made a sloshing sound with water in a jug to sound like milk being churned to make cheese, Skye turning a handle to make a mechanical sound and Luke with a hammer to make the sound of metal on metal.
Comments Off on Pilot Workshop at MERL Museum of English Rural Life Reading
Today we held our first pilot workshop at MERL Museum of English Rural Life, in Reading. We were joined by Co-Researchers from Mencap Reading, many thanks to Miranda, Stacy, Charley, Caroline, support worker Alle and Stuart from MERL who gave us the tour. Also thanks to Kassie our project UROP student thats Undergraduate Research Opportunity Placement who devised and organised the workshop and Nic and Craig who made the sound box kit we used during the day.
The picture below was taken by Miranda using an instant camera it shows us all in the education room at MERL
Group shot by Miranda
The picture below is a group shot taken by Charley with the instant camera
Group with taken by Charley
We used two instant cameras, we asked the group to photo anything in the museum that matched sounds on special sound boxes that Nic and Craig had constructed. The picture below shows Stacy using one of the sound boxes. She turned a knob to choose sounds such as steam engine, sheep, hammering on an anvil and horses and milk bottles, then played them by pressing the button.
Stacy and sound box
Kassie with Stacy and Caroline listen to sounds from the sound boxes.
Using sound boxes
The picture below shows the group listening to Stuart from MERL giving a tour of the museum.
Stuart gives tour of MERL
The picture below shows the group finding out about metal work, Stuart showed us a draw of creatures made by blacksmiths from metal. We played the sound of an anvil being hit by a hammer and took so instant pictures.
All pointing in draw on tour
The picture below shows all the instant photos the group shot.
all the instant photos the group shot
Kassie prepared us a farmers lunch, she bought produce that came from farms and related to some of the equipment we had seen in the MERL collection. Our lunch included cheese, milk,apples, butter, bread, crisps, ham, tomatoes, chutneys it was delicious and gave us the chance to discuss where and how the food was produced. Caroline mentioned that they had visited a farm recently and watched milk being churned. The picture below shows us eating lunch.
Eating Lunch
After lunch we made our own sounds to accompany a silent films about farming the group were very creative using all sorts of things to make sounds and creating sounds with their voices.
Comments Off on Advisory Group Meeting 6th Nov 2012
We held the first meeting of the Interactive Sensory Objects Advisory Group at MERL Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading. This is a group assembled to reflect and advise on how our project is running. The group gave the chance to share our activities with people from outside the project who suggested where we can improve our research.
The picture below shows the Advisory Group this photo was organised by Stephen.
Stephen Hogg with June and Gerry came from Liverpool to represent the Access to Heritage Forum
The picture below shows Stephen and Gerry with Marcus Weisen looking at Stephens Box where he had collected sensory material about Speke Hall. Stephen demonstrated his box and spoke about it to the people at the meeting so they had a good idea of what we have been doing in the workshops.
Comments Off on Access to Heritage Forum Workshop One 2012
We had the first interactive sensory workshop today with the Access to Heritage Forum at the Museum of Liverpool.
The day went really well it was great to meet everyone and discuss how we will work together on the research project as participative researchers and how the group may document vists and workshops with various cameras we tried out in the workshop.
Some of the group had worked on the Sensory Trail at Speke hall, we talked about the objects and workshops from then. We started by wondering what interactive sensory objects could be. We looked at some everyday objects exploring how we use them and what was the effect of using them.
The objects included a fan, a feather boa, some gloves with rubbery bits on them, a hat made from bubble wrap, bicycle horns, violet sweets, a bright green polishing mit, a bar of soap, brushes, a jar of lemon zest. The group explored each object and what associations they made from the various tastes smells and sounds. We thought about how all these objects are in some way interactive, physical…then nick demonstrated an object that used electronics to make interactions. We thought about the differences and similarities of the objects. Nic demonstrated a Bend sensor which made a smiley face smile.
Then the group tested some cameras to discover how easy they were to use and what aids could be made to make documenting the research and become more accessible.
The group gave us an insight into the problems they experience using cameras we wrote their thougts on colour stars on the cameras.
K liked the sound of the Polaroid camera this was felt to be important for those with visual impairment it made it clear when and how many pictures had been taken.
D felt it was important that the Polaroid gave an instant physical result.
P L found the camera too bulky and hard to hold.
The Nikon cool pics camera was liked by the group the camera has a touch screen you can swipe through the images in a similar way to an iPad.
P had a lot of comments about it he liked it because it has one button for video and one for stills P also liked the strap as he was worried about dropping some of the equipment.
A liked the Sony cyber shot because it only had 2 buttons.
Most of the group liked using the iPad to take photos although some found it difficult to which button to press.
They all enjoyed viewing images on the ipad, it’s big screen and scrolling through the images.
The group found the Sony video camera had too many buttons?
A found the Kodak Flip camera easy to use with its big button but she and E found it hard to review the footage.
We discussed ways we could attach the Drift helmet camera to L’s wheelchair, she enjoyed having the camera held at her eye level by the clamp, and being able to see the screen but it was a bit small.
Images taken by the Drift wheel chair mounted camera
We discussed recording the sound of the poloroid so it could be used as sound on an iPad. We also discussed using a mini printer to have instant digital pics. Nick will make a holder for P to be able to hold the camera with one hand.
Some Additional Thoughts
A summary of the demonstration of sensors at the first Liverpool Museum workshop. Thoughts collectively by Nic and Faustina.
We used only a limited number of sensors to demonstrate some of the things that can be done to bring about changes in sound and visual displays. The intention in this workshop was just to introduce the idea of sensors to participants, and let them ‘play’ with these unfamiliar objects, and see what they do, as it is unlikely they will have come across anything like this before.
Bend sensor
This was limited to making a smiley face smile (or not) by flexing a strip of plastic. Bend it into a ‘U’ shape and the face smiles, but when straight it is neutral. But some participants used the sensor in unexpected ways:
shaking it, by holding one end
tapping on the table, by holding one end
using it with one hand and bending it against the body
twisting it lengthways
flexing it in both directions
Perhaps we could extend the range of possibilities of the sensor by allowing for these different ways of using it? One thing that was missing from this sensor was texture – it is currently plain plastic, and smooth to the touch.
Touch sensor
Although the touch sensor was easy to use (didn’t require any explanation other than ‘touch here’) … most people touched it multiple times, or tapped it, and often didn’t notice the change in sound. Part of this might have been because of the volume of background noise (making the sound difficult to hear) and perhaps also because the sounds were changes in instrument.
One or two people ‘stroked’ the touch sensor, which I thought would be a nice modification for the next session. Rather than just touch on/off, a surface which responds to touching, stroking – different forms of stroking behaviour?
Blowing
Not many people tried this as they were distracted by other things (taking pictures). The few who did try this out did not notice the effect of blowing. This might have been because the screen was hard to see, or perhaps also because of the action required, and the resulting animation. I don’t know. It needs a more obvious cue .. perhaps a ‘thing’ to blow into?
A few additional bits … (Nic’s observations)
These are the notes I made when we were collecting the feedback from the participants. Some of the observations will overlap with those above.
Polaroid
People generally liked the sounds made when pressing the button (although it was in a position that made it difficult to use), as it helped to know when you had taken a picture. Having the picture appear right away, and a physical object to handle was liked by most people, though the weight of the camera was a worry – concern about dropping it.
iPad
Generally liked, though a bit big and also concern about dropping it. Liked the big screen, and found the buttons okay, but some people found the capture button difficult to locate.
Sony
Awkward to use and too small. Buttons difficult to use, particularly when using just one hand. On a more positive note, liked the fact it only had two buttons.
Nikon
Easy to use, and easy to watch the videos and find the photos that had been taken, though I didn’t get a good idea of why this was favoured. Liked being able to take pictures by touching screen. (Need more information here.)
Kodak
Simple to take pictures, but other functions were not. Difficult to figure out how to turn on. Hard to find pictures and review videos. Buttons too small.
purpleSTARS is our new start up enterprise funded for one year by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) it is a follow on fund project. The Sensory Objects Enterprise 2017-2018 grant aims to create opportunities for artists and technologists with and without learning disabilities working as a team with museums. STARS stands for Sensory Technology Art Resource Specialists we choose the colour purple as the colour has started to refer to the Purple Pound, purple has come to represent people with a disability.
