On Thursday the class participated in an Artists’ Toolkits workshop at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, led by ESW Curator for Learning Debjani Banerjee and artist Naomi Garriock. We participated in a range of activities in our Basho groups, such as: responding to suggestions drawn from the ESW Prompt Library, which included a blindfolded walk and making rubbings from leaves; constructing communicative sculptural objects from elements and materials designed and provided by Max Alexander of Play Radical; and a group blind painting exercise designed by Garriock. Alongside our direct participation in these activities, we also had to work together to communicate the instructions and finish the tasks within the allotted time. The workshop concluded with a brief discussion on the events of the day.
I really enjoyed the session at ESW as it gave us some hands-on experience of what it is like to participate in and run an artistic learning workshop. It was interesting to see the range of responses to the prompts and tools provided, and how the actions of the individual participants contributed to the experience of the overall group. I think that this session will provide a good reference point for us when we begin to design our own workshop for the Contemporary Art and Open Learning Fair in November, which will also be held at ESW.
Neil Mulholland’s photographs and video from the workshop can be found here. My own photographs appear below.
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