ARTISTS TALKING

# 36 [11 October 2009]

Wrapping up continued

I now have a good understanding of working with the people that I did the hand moulding with. This could be valuable to anyone that goes on to design instruments for them. Through the hand moulding I gained a good incite into how they held objects, their dexterity and ways to, and not to, work with them.

The main successes of this project were more to do with the process than the outcome. Through the process and the materials I was able to communicate and form a non verbal dialogue with the participants. The process offered positive one to one interaction. The outcomes were unique to the person who had made them and had a direct link to their body. Many participants remembered the objects from week to week creating continuity and utilising memory. Choice was introduced by participants selecting colours and ownership was emphasised by stenciling people's names on to the objects. One of the participants took an interest in the photographic documentation of the process creating a further link between her, the object and the image of her using the object.

I feel that the process was empowering  for the participants and offered a model of close one to one working that could be developed further. The outcome could be the process itself rather than working towards a specific product.

# 35 [11 October 2009]

Wrapping up

I have got to the stage with this project now were I feel it would be better handed on to someone with a more technical/product design background. The project is part of a wider bespoke instrument design project, which we have several designers and engineers working on and there has also been other research done into more accessible plectrums so what I aim to do in this posting is write a conclusion that picks out the main points and findings of the research, which can then be collated with other research and passed onto someone who can come up with a final product.

Key Observations:
Participants don't always hold instruments in a conventional way (guitars flat on knees, violins in standing positions and bows gripped in the centre, for example). Any design needs to take this in to consideration.

Many of the people in the workshops will hold things as they are handed to them or as they first pick them up so if an item is intended to be held in a certain way some indicator of this needs to be given or work with care staff needs to be undertaken to induct them in how to present the item to the person who will be using it.

If moulding the inside of people's hands use a soft material. Polymorph and Crayola Model Magic (or similar) work best. Consideration needs to be given to the of the size of the piece of material that is begun with and how far you are impacting on the form of the mould as many people will need support to grip.

M's marimba stick would act as an indicator of how he should hold it. The Polymorph was quite heavy so a further casting process may need to take place and an alternative material sort that is more lightweight. Some carving or modification of the form of the grip may need to take place but it is difficult to assess what this would be as I haven't been able to get answers to questions like which one he prefers or how it feels etc. A grip could be tried out of a foam type material that would have some give in it. This could be roughly shaped to his hand to give an indicator of how to hold it.

The grips on the plectrums I made are too large and many of the people we made them with can hold regular plectrums. The plastic I used began to crack along the stress line, where it joined the Polymorph moulding. I feel this could be taken forward by designing a smaller grip made out of a flexible material, maybe a bit like a stress ball. This would work well for many people and they would not necessarily need to be bespoke. This may resolve the issue of people holding them too hard and stopping the sound. The sound the plectrum makes also needs to be tested as part of the design process.

# 34 [11 October 2009]

Testing the Plectrums in a JOS Music Session - 17/09/09

Out of the four people I made bespoke plectrums with only Ma was at the session.

I was unable to test M's marimba grip as he wasn't there.

Ma held the plectrum and used it briefly to play a small guitar. It was apparent from observing the way she used it and the sound it made that, as William had said, the plectrums were too big.

I cut her plectrum down to about half the size and she retried it. This appeared easier to use but still a bit clunky and the sound wasn't nice - it was quite 'plinky' (a musician would probably have a more technical term for this, but hopefully you understand what I mean).

The plastic began to crack at the stress point around where it joined the moulding. A more durable material would need to be sort and it might be worth looking at moulding the whole object as one piece so there is less of a stress point.

Ma can hold a regular plectrum so with her we may be trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

What did work well with Ma was that she seemed to recognise the plectrum from the Wednesday session, when she had made it. She enjoyed being photographed using it and was keen to see all the photos I had taken. This developed an important link between her and the object, this session and the session on Wednesday and her action and the image in the photograph. This gives a focus and medium for communication and interaction between herself and myself. To me this is the most important thing that has come out of this process.

# 33 [16 September 2009]

16/09/09

Moulding plectrum grips with M, J, Ma and A.

The intention is to test these plectrums in this Friday's music session to find out how well they work and what still needs to be developed.

One of the nice things about making the plectrums, which you can't really see from the photographs, was that we worked with the people we were making them with to stencil their names on to them. This emphasised that they were really personal objects and aimed to communicate that we were making something specifically for them, which felt important in a care setting, where many items belong to the centre and are shared.

We let people choose from three colours giving them more choice about the thing they were making, again something that many people with profound and multiple disabilities may not be given the opportunity to do. Some people, however, seemed to struggle to understand the choice we were presenting or were too shy to voice an opinion.

People seemed to understand the association between the resulting form of the Polymorph and the shape of their hand, making a connection between themselves and the object.

It was really helpful having Karen to assist me with the workshop, doing the stencilling with people whilst I was getting the Polymorph ready and photographing the session. I found last week working on my own that I introduced the activity and then had to spend at least 5 minutes in the kitchen  sorting out the Polymorph, which meant some of momentum was lost, so this resolved some of those issues.

# 32 [16 September 2009]

16/09/09

Testing how M holds the grips made last week as part of the development of a bespoke two pronged marimba stick with grip.

The main aim was to find out if he would hold the grip with his hand in the same position so that it fitted into the mouldings he made last week.

# 31 [11 September 2009]

Prototypes for plectrums

The plectrums are made of styrene, egg shaped, the size and thickness of credit cards and have a Polymorph grip on the end

This is a practice one that I moulded to the shape of the interior space of my hand. If this is considered suitable by other people involved in the instrument design project then I am going to make more of these next week with people, who take part in the inclusive music workshops, which will be unique to their hands.

To make them more personal there is a choice of colours and I'm going to write people's names on them.

I still haven't worked out how to dye Polymorph. Powdered fabric dye doesn't work. I read on another blog that you could spray paint it and one of the staff in the 4D Model Shop suggested try wax dyes.

# 30 [9 September 2009]

Workshop Notes 09/09/09

(continued)

# 29 [9 September 2009]

Workshop Notes 09/09/09

The workshop plan was the same as last week , which was to work with M to mould prototypes for grips for a two pronged marimba stick.

The images are of the three moulds that M made. They hadn't hardened by the end of the session, but next week I will give them back to him to see how he holds them and are if any of them are successful as potential grips.

# 28 [2 September 2009]

Part way project review

Priority areas to take forward
M's grip for a two pronged marimba stick using polymorph.

Plectrums with individualised grips. List of people to work with required.

Evaluating the project
Design a before and after evaluation to be used to asses each participant to show the difference the end product makes to their participation in the music workshops and any wider benefits.

Explore some of the links William sent me to look at how to evaluate the process as well as the end product.

Materials - Key observations
Clay is too hard for most of the participants to manipulate by gripping it.

Homemade play dough can be a good consistency for participants to easily manipulate and different colours make it visually enticing. It is, therefore, a brilliant, tactile material for workshops but it is difficult to preserve and I haven't found a way of producing an accurate two part mould of it so it isn't suitable for this project.

Polymorph produces a final product straight from the mould made by participants gripping it cutting out the casting process. It is reasonably easy to manipulate but some participants may not have the strength to do this and it has to be moulded reasonably quickly so, again, this may make it unsuitable for some participants. This will be a good material for M's marimba grip and many of the plectrum grips.

Air drying play dough could be a solution for participants who don't have the strength to manipulate the Polymorph.

# 27 [2 September 2009]

Workshop 02/09/09

continued

Notes
M didn't attend the centre today so I was unable to work with him therefore this will be postponed until next week.

William and myself worked with V. It takes time for her to relax and open her hand and then this still doesn't happen fully - Her thumb remains on the same side of the object as her fingers. The polymorph is too stiff for her to manipulate independently and the  Polymorph wrapped around a stick is quite large for her to hold. Polymorph is only malleable for a short period of time and due to the time it takes to work with V it probably isn't the most suitable material.

V produced a good imprint in the air drying play dough and she was able to hold it unaided. This may be a more suitable material for any future moulds. It would need casting, unlike the Polymorph that would produce the final product without this stage, but it would also be more easily preserved than the homemade play dough that I have used in previous sessions. We would need to explore how this could be used as part of an instrument and within the sessions, especially if she needed someone to work with her prior to or at the beginning of the the session to support her to hold the object. Would this be beneficial to her?

The main idea that came out of working with V today was William's suggestion to make an instrument that can be played by V with the support of two care workers at either side and that it is possible for multiple people to play at once. This is also being developed at Scope with one of their service users.

Development for next week
Work with M using workshop plan intended for this week.

Find old phone cards to function as plectrums and work with people to make Polymorph grips for them by sinking phone card into a ball of Polymorph and working with them to grip it and form it into the shape of the inside space of their hands. Need to discuss with William who it would be best to work with.