drawing to sound workshop

I've run drawing to sound workshops before. You can find a sample of one of the prepared soundscape collages here: http://bit.ly/HelenBirchsoundcollage 

The previous soundscape was tweaked for this particular session. 

Some of the more alarming, shocking, surprising or less harmonious sound samples were removed.

This session was delivered for HerArt which was set up to provide arts and crafts activities, workshops and courses in the Greater Manchester community. 

'The impact of all of the creative ideas, play and possibilities generated through HerArt helps reduce isolation, increase skills and improve wellbeing.'

The session was divided in to sections:

1. an introduction to mark making possibilities with the drawing kit to hand - mostly pencil, coloured crayon, pastels, felt tip pens ie dry media. 

Lots of play, experimentation and possibilities...nothing pictoral. 

Whether you think you can draw or not - all can participate in this session.

2. The sound collage was played.

Selection of colour, materials, shapes, rhythms, mark making, use of paper space etc was dependent only on participants' sense of what they could hear - how they felt the sounds might look when interpreted visually.

These are some of the results....

3. Everyone displayed their mark making. Lots of discussion ensued:

Positives - how fast the time went...how liberating the exercise was....how playfulness was relaxing, that anyone could join in

Negatives - how others might judge these experiments...
"What are these supposed to be?" etc

4. Participants chose ways to remedy the problem of what these mark making sheets were 'meant to be' by making them in to 

design sheets...

experimental collages...

borders...

or reconfigured images...