As part our VISION Erasmus Plus Partnership project, founder members and UCAN Trainers Megan John and Mared Jarman travelled to Luxembourg to deliver Visual Awareness Training at Societa Dante Alighieri and The European School. Much fun was had by all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q5QhKilrMg
The UCAN Team had a very productive time at this years DIGITAL 2016 Conference at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport on the 6th and 7th June. We were promoting our wonderful UCAN GO Indoor Wayfinding Mobile app which along with our technology partners, Calvium, we have co-created. Don’t forget if you are visiting the Wales Millennium Centre or the Torch Theatre get your free app here!
(https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ucan-go/id923938591?mt=8),
So here we are at the final UCAN Create Masterclass! Masterclass 5 was all about audio, storytelling and immersion! This wonderful workshop was run by Rosie Fairchild, Creative Director of Splash and Ripple; ‘architects of extraordinary adventures.’ Using an eclectic mix of tools such as theatre, gaming and digital technology they seek to create beautiful and genuinely moving experiences which put the participants at the centre of the action. Seeing as UCAN Create is all about giving young people the opportunity to create, produce and showcase their own work this Masterclass with Splash and Ripple was perfectly placed to inspire our participants.
First things first, let me tell you a little more about Rosie and Splash and Ripple. They are based at The Pervasive Media Studio at The Watershed in Bristol. This is a brilliant community of artists, creative companies, technologists and academics all exploring experience design and creative technology. They are the creators of amazing work such as ‘Prison Break’ and ‘Ghosts in the Garden’ bringing history and stories to life! To learn more about this exciting company, Splash and Ripple, please visit their website: www.splashandripple.com.
Knowing all this, you can imagine our excitement when we learnt that we were about to experience one of Splash and Ripples previous works which was being resurrected just for us and taking place at Bute Park. Jake, a Ucan Create Masterclass participant, writes about the experience:
“We started this session with a walk in the park. On our walk we used the app ‘Sonic Map’ and we were transported to an iron age world through audio. The audio tracks were triggered by our location in the park, different sound tracks played as you entered different zones on the map. The thing I found most interesting was the use of the phone’s compass. The app used a clever algorithm to manipulate the sound depending on the direction you were facing. For example, if you heard a drum in your left ear, then turned 90 degrees clockwise, the drum would sound like it is behind you. The reason i liked this so much was that i felt it created the illusion of actually being there. The software for this format is available to download, this is very exciting as it enables people who don’t have the facilities and experience with technology to create their own sonic map. This is something i would definitely consider incorporating into my own work.”
So we’d had this incredible experience in the park, having a chance to hear some of the work Rosie had already created. Now it was time for the learning, as with every other Masterclass Rosie spoke about previous projects and work that she’d created. Once again, it was all so fascinating, we could have all sat and listen to her for hours. Rosie spoke and gave us examples of audio from Splash and Ripples previous project “Ghosts in the Garden” based in Sydney Gardens, Holburne Museum Bath. We learnt how thinking about the experience that the audience will take away with them is crucial to the creation of any experience. It shouldn’t all be about the technology or the app being used, it’s what you learn, and what’s going on around you. Also, experience’s such as these enable you to learn and discover what you want, by the choices you make. With “Ghosts in the Garden”, a wooden box was created to hold a device and produce audio, the box represent some form of time travelling device, allowing participants to stand in a location within Sydney Gardens and hear echoes from history. Discovering what happened in that location almost 200 years previously. I’m definitely disappointed i missed out on that experience, it sounded great.
Rosie then took us through the process she uses to come up with ideas and new experiences. She got us to pay attention to our breathing and where we were sat. We then had to think of a memory that made us happy and how we felt within that memory. We wrote them down on post it notes so that we were able to share and compare our emotions in groups.
From there, individually we all had to think of a story, fiction or nonfiction. With these stories we had to choose one as a group. Then using the emotions we had to decide on the answer to the most important question. How did we want the audience to feel at the end? Within our groups and using the story and emotions we then had to create our experience.
There were some great ideas like, a modern day Robin Hood stealing welsh cakes from Cardiff Market to fed the homeless. You’d get to see the story from the POV of the different stall holders, for example the fruit and veg man. You were in charge of deciding on which stall holders Robyn should trust to help him escape, choose the wrong one and there would be consequences. So from that to Mr Pork exploring space, an educational experience for kids to Gangsta’s or even a murder mystery where the user is the detective solving the murder case. They were all amazing ideas i know i would love the chance to test.
The saying ‘last but not least’ definitely applies when it comes to this Masterclass. We all felt incredibly inspired at the end of the session and we are determined as a group to visit the Pervasive Media Studio as soon as possible! I feel a trip coming up! It would be wonderful to see creative companies such as Anagram and Splash and Ripple in their workplace surrounded by the wonderful community that is the Pervasive Media Studio. Sadly we are now almost at the end of the Create Masterclasses … but fear not! Over the next few month we will be working together to workshop ideas for a piece or experience, which will take place at the annual UCAN Festival (26th of July) and possibly at other exciting venues. If you’re intrigued to see what we come up with then watch this space… we’ll see you at the festival!
Anagram – http://weareanagram.co.uk/about/
Our most recent UCAN Create Masterclass was on the 11th of March at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Amy, from award winning creative company Anagram. They have a talent for producing work that seamlessly brings together the physical and digital world. Their strength lies in the creation of interactive experience with a coherent and compelling emotional world. They are interested in connecting the extraordinary one-off tale to universal questions that lie at the heart of what it means to be human. These UCAN Create Masterclasses are all about giving young people the opportunity to learn a new skill, work with some amazing people and create something new and unique.
This particular workshop was again very different to what we’ve already experienced and really exciting to have the opportunity to learn more about the amazing work Anagram make. Amy spoke to us about the work that they’ve created and explained how they go about doing it.
We were thrown straight in to it, we had the opportunity to listen to part of the audio created for one of their previous creations “Door into the Dark”. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to appreciate the full immersive experience, but sat on the floor in a dark room with my eyes closed gave me enough insight to understand and realise what an incredible production it must have been. To sit and listen, imaging myself walking through the dark guided only by a piece of rope and listening to a gentlemen describe his experience of sight loss was emotional and hypnotic. Hearing how they created such an immersive and interactive world, but making it seem so real was amazing. We learnt the importance of the technology being hidden in a head piece so your not holding it in your hand, to using scent to enhance the creation of a realistic world. This definitely made me think how differently you can work and what can be achieved creatively when you spend the time thinking about it.
The next experience was of the production they created at Tower Bridge. Again, another immersive world that got me really thinking, what can now be created with the addition of technology and new ways of working. This production used the idea of surveillance and pushing your participants/audience to the edge of what they’re comfortable with to create a fully immersive experience, to me this sounded like a fascinating production. Once again we heard a piece of audio, then listened and learnt how they built and designed the idea, this was really interesting and just left me wanting to sit and listen the the entire audio from the production. I was hooked.
After getting us all excited and wanting to hear more about what they do it was our turn to come up with some silly ideas using their creative process. This was to demonstrate how simple you can make the creative process in the beginning, you come up with something that you can then develop. We learnt that there are four main things you need to think about:
What’s your Genre?
Where is it located?
What are you doing?
What are you using?
So, we were all given post-it notes to write down the first thing that came to us when we thought of these four things and to stick them on the wall underneath each heading. Then individually, with the choice of everyone’s contributions we went up to the wall and picked one post-it for each heading to create an idea. For example
What’s the genre? Zombies
Where is it located? At the seaside.
What are you doing? Cuddling puppies.
What are you using? Knife and Fork.
We all came up with very silly and ridiculous suggestions, but this equally showed us how playful you can be when trying to be creative and think of new ideas.
The whole experience of the Anagram workshop has definitely got me really thinking of a new way of working. How we can use this structure to create an idea and combine it with the other creative skills we’ve learnt during the Master classes so far. I feel as a group we could now create something truly new, interesting and exciting for the UCAN festival this summer.
So here we are, halfway through the UCAN Create Masterclasses! They’re going so quickly!
Our third masterclass (which was in February) transported the project to a whole new level. Ucan Create is all about creating, producing and showcasing your own work. It gives young people the opportunity to learn a new skill, work with some amazing people and create something new and unique. Each masterclass has been as inspiring as the last and it’s impossible not to be excited and enthused in the company of our incredible masterclass practitioners. Its safe to say that the wonderful Odette Toilette did not disappoint! Lizzie Ostrom is a lifelong scent fan, who in 2010 (under the name Odette Toilette) began hosting events for people to play with their sense of smell, from sniffable history tours to recreations of ancient aromatic rituals, Japanese incense ceremonies and scent speakeasies uncovering illicit perfumes. To find out more go to www.odettetoilette.com.
This masterclass was an introduction to the world of scents and how we can use them in our creative projects, including theatre and music productions. From scent-based storytelling, to turning a sound into a smell, or a scent back into song lyrics, we got to play with lots of different ideas that could be used in our work.
The masterclass started with a series of scent driven exercises designed to evoke and provoke the imagination. We began working as individuals and were each given a piece of cork soaked in a strong citrus smell.
One by one we were asked to share our own personal views and thoughts about the smell, we all had such mixed opinions. Some strong emotional connections, be it love or hatred, some had precise memories and some people didn’t react at all other than recognising the smell itself. It was extremely interesting to see how people react differently to scent. Next we were given a small sponge ball soaked in a powerful scent. In partners we were asked to think of a space, world or location that this smell may inhabit. We were asked to imagine the air, is it thick? What’s the temperature? Colour exterior? It was amazing how we could all create vivid and complex worlds all from this one sense and one scent. It was an interesting place to begin a narrative, basing it on scent alone and noticing how smells can tell their own story, without words. Finally we were given a small plastic pot filled with scent and put into groups to imagine a happening. It was a dark, herby and evocative scent which caused much debate amongst the groups. We all had to agree on what was happening, what event was taking place with this scent. Again our imaginations went wild and people were conjuring all sorts of images and ideas. The common thread between the groups was that this was a dark place with strange and wonderful things happening. The scent turned out to be a commercial perfume! Based on death and decay, all the smells of crypts and rooms! Definitely dark and pungent places! We soon learnt that scent is a very personal thing which works entirely on our own memories and thoughts. This can be very powerful when it comes to performance.
With theatre and performance in mind Lizzie (Odette) ran a very interesting exercises based on characterisation. We were all given a scent, on a piece of card this time and asked to create a character. The aim was to use the scent as inspiration and a focus to form and develop our characters. Who are they? What do they do? How old are they? What’s their temperament…? The list goes on! Once we had all created our characters we were asked to enter an improvisation circle as our characters. Small scenes evolved from these weird and wonderful characters, which were all based and had derived from this one smell. It was amazing to see how each character was so varied and how individuals respond so differently to scents.
Our final exercise was truly unique! We were using one sense to provoke and inspire and then translate it into another sensory experience. Confused? Don’t worry I was too, let me explain… For a final time we were given a piece of card laced with scent. Chemical and industrial, dirty and yet clean and oh so familiar. We were asked to imagine what sound it makes. That’s right, what sounds does this smell create for you? Sounds crazy I know but surprisingly it wasn’t as hard as it seems. Of course these things are completely subjective so your own instinct is all that matters. We were given a variety of
percussion instruments and asked to choose something that worked for us. Whichever instrument recreated your personal sound. We experimented with rhythm, levels, pitch, speed etc… To finish, the entire group played as an orchestra, recreating the sound of this scent. What a bizarre but strangely wonderful experience to smell this industrial smell whilst listening to the sounds and rhythms of people’s own representation of it.
I have to say that this was one of the most unique and inspiring Masterclasses I have ever experienced. It will be very exciting to see how we can use scent in different ways to inspire and create some new and interesting work. We are also intrigued to see how we can weave all of these styles and art forms together to create an epic immersive experience! Personally this isn’t a masterclass that I will forget in a hurry!
