This week I started a new project.
Reconstructing Ourselves is an artist in residency project combined with a research strand. It has been funded by Arts Council of Wales. We will be working with women undergoing complex breast reconstruction.
Do we limit the expectations of service users from our own ideas of what they are capable of?
What’s the point of theatre? Who is it for? What difference does it make? Are theatre buildings museums in 21st century? Do we need acting? Do most people care? These are some of the questions that have underlined Fiona’s approach to creating theatre over the last 30 years.
Fiona Miller – Director, Tricky Hat Productions
We learn and grow by making mistakes. By listening, observing and trying out things, then reflecting on them, we figure out what works and what doesn’t. Then we use our assumption about why something did or didn’t work and build on that to continue to improve.
‘Failure is not a cataclysmic event. It doesn’t happen overnight. Instead it is a few errors in judgment, repeated, that occur every day.’ Jim Rohn
Living Voices is a national two-year project that is piloting the use of story, poems and song in care home settings across Scotland. It aims to engage and enliven groups of older people through conversation, creative activity and reminiscence.
I sat down today to write about goats, but that will have to wait for another time. Instead I got diverted into the power, and pull, of a blank page. As I sat musing about where to start, or how to frame my piece, I found myself procrastinating. If only procrastination were an Olympic sport, or a skill available for endorsement on LinkedIn, I feel my value in the world would be considerably richer than it currently is, but I digress.
In my daily work, I research new models to support disabled people. I am passionate about the move towards choice and control for people with disabilities.
I consider myself a bit of a magpie; a bit of a scavenger when it comes to research: I’m opportunistic, interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial. My current design research projects are varied; one explores how digital technologies can help people engage with the arts, another is about using design to help the government procure better services, which I recently presented in Helsinki, and another is about the role design plays in innovation. A broad range of projects. All design research. So what’s the relevance of these kinds of projects to social services?
My thoughts so far:
