More flags, more fun!
The last two days have seen me back in schools supporting Dysarticulate events. Despite turbulent weather we’ve had a lots of fun and the children have done some great work!
The photo on the right shows children from Chichester waving their flags before going to install them in Priory Park. The flags were collected and will be used again when the Olympic Torch comes to the city on July 17th.
Find out more here: http://www.dysarticulatedschools.org/tag/st-pauls-catholic-primary/
Remembering to breathe
A singing bowl
Today was the long awaited Creativity Conference, which took place at St Thomas’ Cathedral in Old Portsmouth. It was a legacy from the Creative Partnerships programme, which I used to work for, as a Creative Agent and you can look back through previous posts to find out more about that work.
For more coverage of the conference itself and the excellent speakers, please look here: http://www.facebook.com/creacon12 and here: http://creacon12.tumblr.com/
However, it was something that happened during the afternoon that I want to reflect on here, and that was the address given by Kristen Birkland from the Kaospilots.
She talked about creativity and ways of nurturing creativity. She used a creation story to illustrate how and where creativity can be seen and understood, and the commentators and people on twitter quite rightly commented that she ‘mesmerised’ and ‘captivated’ the audience.
Having visited Aarhus and the Kaospilots school myself last year, I was forcibly reminded of my visit there, and it felt to me like suddenly breathing in again after having held my breath for a long time. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that: held your breath without realising it, because you were concentrated or absorbed by something. Not for any length of time, but just a few moments, until you suddenly realise what you’re doing – and you breathe in again and feel that life-giving revitalising air swoop into your lungs.
Spending time with the Kaospilots and with other people who have been there – all dreamers in their different ways, is life-giving to me. Food for the soul. And there were a lot of moments in those keynote speeches, when what was being shared really resonated with me…which brings us to the singing bowl.
I daresay you were wondering why I’ve included it? Maybe by now you were inventing your own reasons and theories as to why? The answer is two-fold:
Firstly because Richard Sant, the Director for Creative Enterprise at the University of Portsmouth had one at the conference today, and he chimed it whenever a session was due to finish. And it struck me what a fabulous illustration it is of the second and more important reason:
About how a singing bowl actually works:
The tone is caused by the bowl vibrating. You can see this fairly clearly in the first section of the video when the large bowl is struck. The way in which the bowl is hit or rubbed makes the bowl oscillate – that is it wobbles in a oval shape, and that is what causes the sound. It is a very clear sound and it carries very effectively across a large space.
Much of what I heard today – and particularly in Kristen’s talk, resonated with me. It caused an answering vibration which I heard, felt and understood. And yet I hadn’t appreciated how much I’d missed it, until I heard it again.
The challenge of any conference, training or retreat is: how are you going to apply what you’ve learnt when you get back? How will you make it stick? I think for me, I need to action some things I’ve been mulling over for a while, including writing my paper on education entitled: ‘The Writer, The Illustrator and General MacNamara’, which I’ll post here when its finished. Another action is to work harder at making time to reflect. Making it a priority to create space for daydreaming, doodling, meditating and reflecting. It’s too, too easy to get caught up in the ‘doing’ part, but always far harder to employ the discipline of stopping, pausing and being still.
Perhaps I’d better invest in a singing bowl while I’m at it…?
Having fun with paper!
Had a great day at Portsmouth High School today running their Dysarticulate event. Around 70 girls from Year 8 & Year 4 worked together throughout the day to make over 860 flags from pages of recycled books, and installing them across the Senior and Junior school sites.
A selection of photos is shown here:
For more images, and to see how it fits into the bigger programme of Dysarticulate events across Hampshire, click here and search for Portsmouth High School:
http://www.dysarticulatedschools.org/portsmouth-high-school-gdst/
Dysarticulate
Despite the fact that Creative Partnerships excellent creative education programme closed down, the legacy of the work lives on through a variety of projects including Dysarticulate.
This is a project linked to the Cultural Olympiad, and is the work of Jon Adams, whom I will have the pleasure of meeting on Monday at Portsmouth High School, when a day of Dysarticulate will be taking place.
To find out more about this fast-growing and engaging piece of public art, take a look here: http://www.dysarticulatedschools.org/
Somerstown Stories – the story so far…
The first drop-in exhibition/workshop event took place on Tuesday last week at the Omega Centre. We didn’t have high numbers, but those who did come along had some interesting stories to tell about their own experiences of Somerstown. I was able to interview someone during the event, and have arranged interviews with others to document their stories. This phase of the project will naturally include gathering (and transcribing) some oral history interviews which is, I believe, where the real treasure will lie.
This was followed in the evening by an archive film screening of Portsmouth, hosted by Portsmouth Film Society http://www.portsmouthfilmsociety.org.uk/ using footage that is in the care of the Wessex Film Archive http://www3.hants.gov.uk/wfsa.htm
Meanwhile the Somerstown Stories website, also includes details about the great work that took place at Somers Park Primary School in the Autumn term last year, when the teachers and children were engaged in their part of the project: http://www.somerstown-stories.org.uk/?page_id=100
Overall the project is now in its wider community phase, and local people are getting the chance to go on the same journey of exploration. As I start to gather oral history accounts from local people, these along with the photographs and maps will be catalogued and collated into the Somerstown Archive which will be held and managed by the Local History Centre: http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/learning/15605.html
This means that the conversations that are being started now can continue after the project has finished, and the material will be available for other people to access and add to.
Part of this second phase series of events includes a creative workshop being led by two local artists: Jane Kilford http://www.janekilford.com/ and Julie Graves http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=5843 who are also planning to do some preliminary work with the children at Somers Park, inviting them and their families to bring an object from the past into school to share with others and to use as a prompt for telling their own story of Somerstown.
Meanwhile, Julie has enabled me to make a link with the University of Portsmouth’s School of Architecture http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/academic/architecture/. Her husband Francis is an architect and senior lecturer and his current cohort of students are engaged in a project whose theme is the redesign of Somerstown and some of the key buildings within it, including the churches of St Luke’s and St Peter’s. This is a beautiful overlap for me, and so I was able to attend the students mid-term review on Thursday of last week and see and hear first-hand their ideas and visions for the area. It was fascinating to see an area I’m so familiar with through someone else’s eyes. Francis has kindly invited me back to speak to the group about the Somerstown Stories project and share some of the resources I’ve found and what I’ve learnt so far. I was impressed with the breadth and depth they are required to consider and include in their planning and I’m looking forward to teaching and learning more about Somerstown with them.
CLICK!
At long last I’ve managed to set up a slideshow of some of the many photos of Somerstown that I’ve been collecting for the Somerstown Stories project.
Take a look and tell me what you think: http://www.somerstown-stories.org.uk/?page_id=25
Any comments or further info about any of the picture would be gratefully received 
Somerstown Stories – Full Steam Ahead!
After a hectic rush up to Christmas getting the brochure to print (it looks very shiny, thanks to Keli at http://www.digitallyenriched.co.uk/), the wider community phase of the project is about to start – with a vengeance!
A range of activities and events will be taking place over the next few weeks, starting on Tuesday 17th January at Somers Park Primary School with a free local history course – but this time for the grown-ups! It’s a fantastic course which will include a trip to the D-Day Museum, a look at archive maps & photos, wartime cooking and lots more. A second class is taking place at Omega Centre on Thursday mornings, and both are being run by the Omega Centre team.
Alongside this we’re rather delighted to be able to partner up with Angel Radio http://www.angelradio.co.uk/ as part of their Pass It
On project http://www.pass-it-on.org.uk/ Angel Radio is an on air and online radio station made by older people, for older people. It’s a nostalgia station with, in their own words “snap, crackle but no pop!” We’re planning to do regular slots during the course of the project, at each of workshop venues, gathering the stories of people who visit.
One of the main aims of Angel Radio’s Pass It On scheme is to pass on skills from one generation to another – and that works both ways! Older people have been learning recording and editing techniques and how to use the last equipment including FlashMics. Younger people in turn can learn from the stories and skills of people from a different generation.
If you have a story to share about Somerstown, we’d love to hear it! Or maybe you’ve got some old film footage or photos we could look at? We’d be delighted to see you at any one of the four drop-in workshops that are taking place across Somerstown:
Tues 24th & Weds 25th January at Omega Centre, Omega Street, 10am-12 noon
Thurs 23rd & Fri 24th February at Wilmcote House Community Room, 10am-2pm
Thurs 1st March at St Peter’s Church Hall, 10am-12 noon
Weds 14th March at Southsea Community Centre, 11am-1pm
Chris T. Ingle
As part of our church preparations for Christmas, I volunteered to write a story about the Christingle and what it means. At bedtime tonight I was trying to encourage my children to finish their bedtime jobs – tooth-brushing etc and began a countdown.
At first it was in English and then I decided to countdown in ‘alien’ creating a string of nonsense words, which they found utterly hilarious!
Needless to say it didn’t speed up the bedtime routine at all, but it was rather good fun!
That then inspired me to think about the Christingle story and 3 hours later here is the result. I don’t normally post a piece of work in its entirety, but on this occasion I will, and if you like the story then please share it with someone else, and hopefully it will help them find a bit of peace this Christmas.
Chris T. Ingle will be performed at Sunday Sanctuary, Wilmcote House Community Room in Portsmouth on Sunday 4th December. Visitors are always welcome.
