Wow, this seems like I am catching up with a lot of stuff. I am working my way back to post some work from May and June. I seem to have done a load of stuff since then!

NI11 is the national indicator to ensure engagement in the arts. I was shocked to find out that reading a book is not a cultural activity, but reading a book within a book club is. Kareoke is also a cultural activity. By that rationale, being in a band must be? It seems they have it in for the solo artist!

At the beginning of June I helped design and capture the Jam Packed session for KCC. They are one of four local authorities in the South to take on NI11 (engagement of the arts) as one it’s priorities.

As part of the session which was titled ‘Jam Packed’ a game of ‘Jamopoly’ was run and teams of Kent based arts organisations brainstormed initiatives and events to attract more visitors and engagement in the arts. The theme took it’s cues from the Monopoly board and that made it’s way into the Scribing.

On the 21st May, I was fortunate enough to be invited by the RSA to cover a really interesting lecture by Robert Shiller, the renowned economist. His dicussion with Daniel Finkelstein from The Times  was about Shiller’s new book ‘Animal Spirits’. It was a really good discussion. I was there with an A3 pad taking notes and from those notes I created the Visual Synthesis above. The finished Visual Article is published in the current issue of the RSA Journal (Summer 2009) Here’s some details.

A few weeks ago I Scribed the Find Your Talent Conference at the Quarterhouse in Folkestone. Approximately 120 young people from the Shepway area congregated to take part in the conference and explore ways of engaging in different cultural activities.

This first section of Scribing is taken straight, as it was drawn. I haven’t coloured or manipulated the image. I used to be quite pure about keeping things in their original state. I now think that to organise the information in the best possible way, make it look attractive and come alive is the best for the audience. Especially when the majority of the time it will be used as an aide memoir, a reflective document.  Graphic Facilitation is another discipline which requires a different way of working. The feedback loops are sharper and quicker.

The conference focused on the meaning of ‘talent’ and through a number of different activities, the conference, explored different questions around the theme of talent. My work during the conference was based in both plenary and  break-out sessions, where the individual activities were taking place. As a practice, I took visual notes in a sketchbook while I floated around the activities and then collected the synthesis onto the large walls back in the plenary room. This way of working seems to be quite effective.

The Keynote Speaker for the conference was Deborah Szebeko, director and founder of ‘thinkpublic’ a public service and communication design company. Deborah presented a bit about her background and how she came to think about setting up the company and then led a discussion with the young people about creativity.

Aim Higher is a national programme that exists to encourage young people to stay in education.It is intended to provide information and resources to help young people think about University as a serious option for their futures.

I have just completed the third, of three, one day workshops with three Kent based schools. The events were designed and run by Year One Consulting, who I partner with regularly. The events were fun and engaging and the young people explored their experiences before university at event one, at university at event two and after university at the final event.  The third event required the students design and run their own restaurant in a simulation. This was to set up learning and responses regarding the world of work. They also heard from  a Leiutenenat Commander in the Royal Navy. This was followed by a Q&A session. I captured the proceedings and as always, was surprised by the creativity of the young people.

Of course, when I Scribe I seem to find the opportunity for a ‘Dad Joke’ or two (Dad jokes are the type of joke that provokes groaning from all that witness them) Here is a good example. When presenting one of the teams read out that their restaurant would provide a ‘live Italian’ instead of a ‘live Italian band’ Hilarity ensued! I apologise for the poor Italian accent.

On Thursday 26th I attended Creative Capital at The Hospital Club in London for a session titled ‘Innovation or Bust’. Creative Capital has been running for a few years now and it hosts discussions of ‘hot button’  topics of the day from media to business, and design and how they impact society. There were four speakers for the evening who all presented their thoughts about innovation in the current economic climate: Ian Worley from Flow Interactive, Anders Gottlieb from Naked, Miss Grabowski from Steak Zombies, and James from Ideo

Thanks to Kofi Aidoo for the picture of me Scribing.

Please click here for a high resolution PDF download.

I was lucky enough to be invited to Scribe for the Kent County Youth Theatre Festival at the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate on Sunday the 22nd of March. Young people from county-wide theatre groups were exposed to a broad range of theatre-based workshops and activities delivered by professionals. As a Scribe, I positioned myself and boards in the atrium of the Academy and I spent my time between the various workshops capturing the proceedings in my sketchbook and then transfering my lap capture to the boards to make a visual synthesis of the day.

The portion of the Scribing below captures the essence of the workshop phase of the day. The young people took part in workshops on Physical Theatre, Musical Theatre, Masks, Make-Up and Film. I was greatly impressed with it all. My favourite workshop was delivered by the Strangeface Mask Company. I was transfixed as the young volunteers from the audience donned masks and changed their whole physicalities. Their awkwardness of being in front of a group was transformed behind these amazing masks. It was interesting to “read” the conflicting languages being delivered between the mask’s expression and the young person’s gait. The dichotomy produced quite unexpected results.

I also captured the youth theatre leaders discussion. The leaders aired their views and shared best practice and discussed a whole range of topics, it was a real pleasure to capture this conversation. It flowed really nicely and was facilitated well by the KCC arts team.

Here’s the link to an article about Scribing and how it has been used at the Design Council. Thanks to Jess at the Design Council for writing the article. It was an enjoyable process talking to you on the phone and getting some of these thoughts down on ‘paper’.

Click for link to article.

I have just spent an excellent three days on a really inspiring workshop hosted by Future Creative. Future Creative are a dynamic social enterprise organisation and act as a creative agency throughout Kent to broker partnerships between creative practitioners and schools. A part of its mission is to engage with young people and help them ‘optimise their future’. This is something I have been interested in for a while and I am sure that a visual thinking practice has very strong links with education. If young people are aware of visual thinking tools and techniques then surely their communication literacy will be improved for the future?

I and eighteen other creative practitioners explored the landscape of Creative Learning. I gained fresh insights into my practice, myself and had fun exploring the possibilities for using my visual thinking practice and skills within a creative learning environment.Very inspirational stuff.