as the residency settles into it’s rythym my thinking continues to be a banging buzzing booming confusion. i just had to write that so i can begin to ease the need to think it.
after catching up with grayson perry’s all man i again see the importance of talking about what is on your mind.
since thursday i’ve been juggling many thoughts i’ve wanted to record them.
in this moment they have all flown the coop.
let’s see how many will return to be recorded.
firstly some words about the post on friday. i had images from what i experienced on thursday and in the packed day to day schedule wanted to make a post based on the available time i had. i knew if i didn’t make a post the moment would be lost and the uncatchable catch up scenario would be started.
i again was at the museum on saturday(yesterday). the day started with extra intrigue as an organisation who helps people with sight loss was staging a duck race as part of their fund raiser.
a mooc is a massive open online course and this week i’ve begun the backstage of the 21st century museum course on future learn dot com. i see this course as an additional research resource within my residency at the silk mill. i’ve been joining in with the dicussions and i’ve really enjoyed the first week. it’s run by the museums studies department at the university of leicester.
using the museum of liverpool as a working case study, the course is considering the aspects of what might go into make a museum of the 21st century.
democratic, accessible are two of the strong aspects that have come out. the museum as a social space has also been shown to be important. the museum of liverpool demonstrates how architecture can influence visitor experience as well as representing what happens in the city.
watching the videos of the museum in action, the thing that struck me was how many varied opportunities the museum has made for visitors to use their hands to interact with objects in the museum.
currently derby silk mill museum opens to the public for two sessions a week. at these the maker bar is available as a drop in resource for visitors to make something be it the set activity or their own take on it. i made sure this week to be at both the sessions so i could establish a baseline observation.
i kept the activity simple. (keeping it simple is important to me because at the beginning of a relationship the simplicity allows for connection to be made. as our relationship progresses we can together explore how the idea can become more complex and interesting.)
one of the aspects of the residency is juggling connecting to the collection within the curatorial theme of the month. with this in mind i wanted to make paper planes for the activity this week. i observed it was popular and for the most part within the ability range of those participating. i saw a lot of decorating of the planes once they had been test flown. i also saw lots of children smiling and running around the museum flying paper planes. (i now have an idea of baseline material resources for the maker bar.)
i learnt that i needed to have aspects of my practice with me. i learnt this on thursday as steve (fellow steam powered maker) brought along parts of his experiments and an activity to engage visitors. i enjoyed his company and we had some great conversations and a few giggles too. on saturday in the lulls of active participants i was able to play with some of my own experiments. i had a piece of wood beginning to control a white circle on my laptop by the close of play.
i’m settling into the residency. slowly negotiating with myself the order in which i do things. earlier in the week i touched upon how i learn. i explored this further through taking the online vark questionaire. this is a resource that gives an indication for your learning style strengths. answering the questions has helped me to further understand myself and my learning style preferences. i feel it important to understand myself so i can start to understand and help others.
in reading about learning styles and the vark questionaire i also read an article about preschool children. i learnt that a question begun with what gives them the space to answer. a question being why will be quite closed for a child. i’m going to attempt to ask more questions starting what ….. (this is quite difficult to do.)
i want to reflect a bit now upon the making task i set this week.
what?
a making task inspired by the eagle engine (including worlds first air mail), making paper planes and flying them in the museum.
so what ?
happened was i saw people approaching the maker bar showing on their faces that they didn’t comprehend what the bar was about. greeting them with a smile and chatting with them they chose to engage in the activity they wanted to do. for the majority it was to make the plane. there were some who simply wanted to draw and in some instances encouraged them when needing inspiration.
with the adults present in almost all cases we got into conversation. on thursday ian from adelaide showed us some wing modifications and i shared this addition with subsequent participants.
now what ?
there is a collection of made paper planes and some communication material i created by hand to help the activity become familiar and friendly. i don’t know where these will go. the objects are based on the monthly theme and i need to investigate wether it is possible to create a dynamic monthly exhibition from the pieces of the activity that remains at the end of saturday each week. a space that begins the month empty and through the month is populated from the activities. at the end of the month the exhibit is documented and made available via digital online means. the monthly activity documentation becoming part of the digital collection.
steve and i chatted a lot about the briefs we can select from. i need to consider the negotiation of seeing the steam engine running before the end of the residency as this is what will help me to be inspired to access the brief connected to this machine. i note the model railway will be running at the end of the month.
my banging buzzing confusion has now calmed down through the writing down of stuff. at a personal level it’s been a demanding week. i’ve responded by eating more and talking at my partner more as i work to make sense of what has been happening. in other words i’m actively working on my hierarchy of needs as laid out by maslow
the weekend has been punctuated by heavy downpours. as the rain eases one of my favourite tunes to look at the window with is by elo…
