The Hudson Runs Past....

Weaving in Sounds

October 2016

Hello again! It's about time that I explained a bit more about what I have been doing on the theme of rural/work life past.

Connecting with the Autumn theme I begin sessions by creating a group soundscape of  travel - train and time travel. Tibetan Chimes and other instruments such as tone chimes are useful to set the scene for going back in time. You can also add in appropriate rhythm rhymes and words. Have a google for some poems if you want something to get you started :)

We follow the soundscape by singing our 'We're All Walking' song (courtesy of Emmie Ward) - this time singing that each person is ' walking back in time'. Playing the chime again signifies this. We have continued to use the turn taking activities that I described previously. Activities have included having a bowl of water and a measuring jug - scooping and pouring water  into the bowl, or ladling the water. Everyone gets a turn with the activity after we sing their name. I've also used popcorn instead of the water. Last week I used a short cardboard tube and everyone posted a small round piece of wood through it. (It could have been anything though - e.g. a conker or bead). Whereas the popcorn had been like grains of rural life/time, I said that posting the object through the cardboard tube was an indication of the industrial machinery that was to come. I know - I'm pushing it a bit!!!

I realised last week that soundscapes have started to take over the first half of the session. Following the turn taking activity we have moved into a second soundscape. At the moment this is a knitting/weaving soundscape. I start this section through playing a track by the band Capercaillie called M'loam. I find it creates a gentle contemplative atmosphere. To symbolise spinning wheels we roll and spin everyday objects on the floor - such as empty food containers, lids, cotton reels, wooden objects. You can roll the objects to someone or just randomly roll them, experiment and encourage others to do the same. I found a wool ball winder (from the Craft Workshop's weaving days) and we took turns spinning that around. It is a good visual object and makes a bit of a creak too.

This activity then led into a more active sound making soundscape, where we clicked knitting needles together, tapped wooden sticks and played thumb pianos. Last week my colleague and I found some tapestry forks with metal prongs and some metal loom winders. Together they make a good guiro style sound.

The soundscape led into singing 'Yan Tan Tethera'. It is a song I learned from Aimee Leonard that she developed as part of the Yan Tan Tethera project with the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Listen to Aimee singing it here on Soundcloud. There are more songs and information about the project at the Yan Tan Tethera project link above. Yan Tan Tethera is a sheep counting system traditionally used by shepherds in the north of England. Read more about it on wikipedia. I think it is also used for counting stitches.

I started the activity by singing the low part of Yan Tan Tethera and unwinding the wool from a ball of wool so that gradually everyone was holding onto it around in a circle. I added different voice parts gradually (taking turns with the parts myself) and people joined in with whichever part they wanted. I didn't ask anyone to sing anything in particular and it seemed to happen naturally that people took different parts. It was also really helpful that the support staff present joined in with different parts too.

It would be interesting to experiment with colours and weaving movements and sounds as with the Yan Tan Tethera project. There is no Weaving Workshop anymore, however there are still looms in the Craft Project , which are used occasionally.

I think that is probably enough for now! More about the other songs we have sung in a future post!

Hoxton  and the Geffrye to Bunhill Fields

‘Rosie’s Walk’ encouraging the kids to copy and create doodles to create a similar style to the book :) Native Speaker Teacher in a Vienna Primary School...

Amazing venue for part three of oral history training as part of the #inspiredbythesubway project about @cpsubway .Kingswood house is a hidden gem as is the subway itself. The training has been excellent - to get so much time to discuss and learn from each other over these three days. I'm also looking forward to doing some archive research as part of the subway project. Tomorrow sees more crystal palace culture - when I find out more about the local @funpalaces event, which is just getting started. I can see only fun in such things as the dinos, the hidden subway and more in the park and town. Would be great to develop a kids activity :)

Using #MoMA mobile guide on phone. Great that you can get free audio guide - easy to navigate & runs smoothly - couple of feedback things though - would be good if 'back' button just went back to previous page rather than home page as need to scroll through again to art works and some kind of map navigation tool/map on it would be great....

untitled travels, a set on Flickr.

I'll try and pick out some photos to mention in particular, but don't want to upload unending individual posts at this moment in time and overload you. This album may not mean much to you, but documents my travels so far... Mostly in London, starting and often retuning to Crystal Palace Park - as well as my overground and tram travels .... to the Museum of London and Morden Hall Park respectively.. Bognor Regis gets briefly into the mix as well as quite a lot of nature photos... You can see some themes of interest emerging - trees and duck/goslings!

reading and the lack of it

Worried about my lack of reading, I think i shall take the train a bit earlier to my course - in the aid of getting me reading.... too much time sending emails and organising and not enough getting down to it! I think I may need to take many a train journey in the next few months - not only to research psychgeography - but also to have a good place to read!

A bit of research for delivering learning activities related to the NHM London's exhibition...

Where my final project started in earnest. On this trip to Crystal Palace Park with O, I'd been tweeting (for my previous project) as one of the Crystal Palace sphinxes and O seemed to be intrigued and interested in this. She wanted to go to the park and try and translate the hieroglyphs. We ended up making a video about the out trip and basically O just enjoyed hanging out by the sphinxes. It was as if she was at home there and as if she had a connection with them because I did. We visited again a few weeks later and a similar thing happened. I felt inspired in the connection that O made with the area and in the film she made (by directing me) and definitely got me truly thinking about using media to create some form of trail for engaging people... and audio in the main....

Sunday saw one of the initial first brainstorming meetings for what will be a Crystal Palace Fun Palace @funpalaces - they happening all around, for all ages, the weekend of 4th/5th October 2014. Plenty of time to get involved! Find out more about what it’s all about here:

http://crystalfunpalace.co.uk

http://funpalaces.co.uk

And follow the local fun palace progress on twitter: @cpfunpalace