Telling Tales

Automatic Writing

2011-02-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

In my last Arts and Learning session, I was working with a visual artist on ghow we might use both our disciplines to engage girls in science in secondary education. I hated science at school so I was thrilled to hear that she'd got an A*. I asked her what she loved about it, but she just couldn't remember and hadn't a clue about how to use her visual skills to teach girls to love it like she had. I told her about automatic writing and asked if she would set aside 5 mins to splurge her thoughts on GCSE science. She said that she wasn't a confident writer, and then she sent me this...

I love science because........

I found it really logical and a formula, 1 + 1 + 2 and therefore easy to understand and grasp, I got hold of it without even realising, I just followed the textbooks and listened in class and it all made sense, and it was fun in the sense it was practical so the formulas when put into practice worked and it was like ohh of course it is like this or works like this because 1 + 1 +2.... I remember the van der graaf, think thats what it was called, a machine that when placed hands upon it made your hair stand on end and it was funny and fun but made sense from what we had learnt, and it was exciting and a little scary which made it more fun, that this huge machine that vibrated and made noises and looked very scientific could be fun and interactive but also make sense that all the theory was then put into practice and it all came together... I remember dissecting a kidney from a frog, maybe, and enjoying it, the hands on and the experimentation and exploring, the fact others found it revolting but to me it all made sense, all the theory and learning leading up to this moment when all the knowledge came together, we were allowed to play, we had to follow some examples on the board and look at certain parts of the thing – maybe it was a heart now I think about it, but I remember having free reign with a scalpel and this meaty object on my table, it felt professional, gloves on, white coats as did experiments, glamourous almost like you imagine all scientists to be, frankenstein or ones in movies, lab coats and the glasses holding test tubes and pouring liquid in and looking at things close up as if youwere discovering the cure for cancer or something really significant like your studies could change the world,the course of the world.... I remember this vacuum space with a window that lifted up and we were told to put things in their that fumed and the fume would rise and disappear and it felt like I had responsibiltiy to be trusted with things and chemicals that if done wrongly could cause significant harm, control, trust, learning about corosive and irritant chemicals and the damage they could cause and then seeing this labels and knowing their meanings throughout my science lessons and knowing I was being trusted with harmful chemicals..... I remember lesson in first year maybe – 10 years old?? and having to pour water into liquid bottles we had collected to see if the label on a bubble bath bottle correlated with how much liquid we could put in, and it did and our teacher was cynical and couldn't believe it thinking companies like marks and spencer would cheat us and not have the right amount of bubblebath in the container and I thought of my teacher having humour and being not a teacher, and the experiment proved something and was significant in that it just made sense- we needed to prove how much we could fit into the bottle so we poured water into the bottle and then tipped it into a measuring jug and checked the amount and it was the same or a little out and proved something – no question about it..... my first memory of science was growing beans on the outside of a glass with blotting paper and wathcing the bean sprout and grow shoots and seeing it, witnessing it and what the teacher saying making sense.... I remember teaching baking to 5 year olds in a school a few years ago and telling them about how states change through baking – a fun activity with meaning, that by adding water it goes to liquid, that the cakes rise because of a reaction to heat, all this formulas and statements made true by the findings and what was visibly happening......understanding the periodic table again felt easy....simple, simple to understand H20 because its 2 hydrogen to 1 oxygen..... acid plus akaline + neutral
later on once checked over the above text for spelling...... the van der graaf was fun because our teacher who had been cynical about the bubble bath and water amount let us create blue sparks from our fingertips by one of us touching the machine and then nearly touching the person next to us and so forth and we created a chain around the room and it felt naughty and something we weren't supposed to be doing, fun and exciting and we could see it happening it felt like magic watching a blue spark be emitted from us and all created by the electricity and static stuff from the machine that hummed and made noises in the middle of the room like it belonged in doctor who or something, its ironic that I cannot remember what the experiment was about or the meaning or what it proved, but it was fun and felt different to text book work, like our teacher had decided one day he had had enough and was to be practical or with a hands on approach.......

This is the magic of automatic writing. It shows the writer what's really inside her head. It wakes her up to what she already knew, but had secreted the details away somewhere. It harnesses the power to persuade, paint pictures and light fires. It's the answer...

Arts and Learning Homework 3

2011-02-14T04:22:00.000-08:00

Reflect on a piece of work you have facilitated, and how it worked in terms of groupwork theory and the work you did with your specialist tutor

What worked, what didn’t work, what would you do differently next time?

Umi Sinha, a writer and writing facilitator, came to talk to us at the second Arts and Learning day in November, and passed on some invaluable exercises which I have used with my students. They reminded me how I use creative writing techniques when I’m working with academics, business people and students, and how I can use them for myself. So when Elizabeth, Jane and I decided to set up The Storyworks as a writing consultancy for schools, one of the first things we did was to meet at Elizabeth’s and find out about each other through the use of metaphor.

Exploring what colour, animal, vehicle we were in automatic writing, we then allowed each other to explain our choices. I was a jasmine plant, potentially fragrant but rather in need of some solid bamboo to hold me up if I was to reach for the sky. My waggy dog was eager to please, loyal and fun, and if put on a lead might pull till I choked. The others described their silent, gregarious, creative, self destructive, resourceful and generous selves through metaphorical old jalopies, contented cats and vibrant colours. We found out more about each other’s strengths and weaknesses and how we might support each other in those 2 hours than I think I’ve ever done with other professional – or any other – partners.

With our business plan, visions and expectations - as well as our flabby and scrawnier bits given form by metaphor - we were able to pool our ideas into a website that gave us a mirror to look into. Did we like what we saw? Our newly tuned sensitivities, like homing devices went in to nip the buds and prune the branches to allow our tree to grow tall and strong.

Since then, we’ve divided the work on our plan fairly, I think, and when commissions come in, we’ll be in a good place to share our skills with our clients. The jasmine has found her bamboo…

Conflict

2011-02-14T04:20:00.000-08:00

We were asked to reflect on conflict, and as I always tell my students that automatic writing is the way to find out what you really think, I used it for this exercise. This is what I found...

I HATE conflict. It reminds me of rows between my parents and I’ll walk a mile around the houses before getting involved. I hear conflict as if the words are smothered under blankets leaving only the rise and fall of emotion. blood rushes to my ears and I can’t concentrate. I don’t think quickly enough to be able to respond; I’m in awe of the quick wit of a proper row.

With children though, I find it a pain. I’m very confidant about how to resolve it, and I’m able to command enough authority to keep the focus on me. I can usually turn it into something creative, and I’ve done it enough times now to grow my confidence. I should welcome it as a creative stimulus, a point at which we jump off the bridge and run with something new.

At home, I try to talk it out. Again, I find it a pain but I know that we’ll always win through. Again, I’m the leader and I wish someone older and wiser than me would sort it out – just once! I’m training my 15 yr old.

A Bit of de Bono

2010-11-15T03:44:00.000-08:00

Ken Robinson recommends this in 'Out of Our Minds'.

Six Thinking Hats® is a simple, effective parallel thinking process that helps people be more productive, focused, and mindfully involved. And once learned, the tools can be applied immediately!

You and your team members can learn how to separate thinking into six clear functions and roles. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic "thinking hat." By mentally wearing and switching "hats," you can easily focus or redirect thoughts, the conversation, or the meeting.

The White Hat calls for information known or needed. "The facts, just the facts."

The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. Under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit.

The Black Hat is judgment - the devil's advocate or why something may not work. Spot the difficulties and dangers; where things might go wrong. Probably the most powerful and useful of the Hats but a problem if overused.
The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates.
The Green Hat focuses on creativity; the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas. It's an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions.
The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process. It's the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats® guidelines are observed.

As you know, the difference between mediocre and highly effective teams lies not so much in their collective mental equipment, but in how well they use their abilities to think and how well they work together.

Six Thinking Hats® helps actualize the full thinking potential of teams. And when used as a meeting management tool, the Six Hats method provides the disciplined process for individuals to be focused and to the point.

But possibly most important, it requires each individual to look at all sides of an issue.

Employees like the way the Six Hats method neutralizes employee rank in a meeting where several levels of employees are present. It also puts people who are quiet and reserved on an equal playing field with those who are more talkative and might monopolize a meeting.

from http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php

Umi's writing techniques

2010-11-14T04:22:00.000-08:00

Umi Sinha, a writer and writing facilitator, came to talk to us at the second Arts and Learning day yesterday, and passed on some invaluable exercises which I shall use with my students. The chicken's in the oven, so I'll be brief....

Warm up exercises:
Walk around the room with pad and pen, finishing off any number of one liners starting with 'I see'. Here are a few of mine:
I see tangy lime walls without any juice
I see pin boards empty of ideas
I see horizontal lines, beachless pebbles, harsh lights and sharp-faced buildings
I see empty streets, a lone cyclist with nowhere to go
I see empty spaces waiting for life

This was designed to connect us to our visual senses and then Umi asked us to turn one of those lines into a metaphor by changing the 'I see' into 'I am'. Because I was in a bad mood, I chose 'I am an empty space waiting for life'...

We then used the diamond shape to try collaborative story telling as another warm up;
I worked with Jane and we took a line each in two stories so that we each had a go at the beginning and the end of a nine word story.

Leaves (Jane)

fall softly (Gilly)

in the woods.(Jane)

Another day (Gilly)

closes (Jane)

Panic (Gilly)

takes over. (Jane)

Quickly, they realise (Gilly)

time has (Jane)

stopped (Gilly)

We studied texts by Dickens ('Great Expectations'), Geoff Dyer ('But Beautiful') and Jean Rhys' 'Voyage in the Dark' to look at use of senses in describing place and emotion. Lovely stuff!

Umi showed us a great writing technique that I'll try with my students at UCH. The poet, Roger Stevens, had taught it on one of his writing courses and told her to pass it on. I do love the generosity of the creative mind.

Write down the following:

an emotion
a sport
something you enjoy at work/school
something you enjoy at home
a bad habit
a good habit

Now write down an animal you would associate with each of them.

Now write a line for each, starting with 'There's a (your animal) in me that....'

Et voila; you have a poem that explores the very essence of you.

Here's mine;

There's a dog in me that wags her tail at the sound of the key in the door

There's a chimp in me that leaps onto your hip and buries her neck into yours

There's a lion in me that watches you play, occasionally stretching out a paw to warn you how loud I can roar

There's a cat in me that curls up on the deep red sofa as soon as the sun slips behind the yard arm

There's a tiger in me that pounces on anyone who steps out of line

There's a meercat in me, eagerly spotting the next opportunity to give away my love

We talked about working with teenagers at the end of the session. Umi asked us to try out this exercise to see how to get deep safely. She asked us to write down a time when we felt grief. We all selected the death of a family member. My original line was 'I felt grief when I read 'She is Gone' at my mother's funeral and looked out at my father and brother and knew that, to them, she really had.' Turning it into a definition kept the power but distanced it from the personal so, 'Grief is looking at at my father and brother as I read 'She is Gone' at my mother's funeral and knowing that for them, she had.'

Out of Our Minds

2010-11-10T07:26:00.001-08:00

I wonder if Ken Robinson ever did automatic writing - with or without the Aggiss stimulus.

Creative processes draw from all areas of human consciousness. They are not strictly logical nor are they wholly emotional. The reason why creativity often proceeds by intuitive leaps is precisely that it draws from areas of mind and consciousness that are not wholly regulated by rational thought. In the creative state, we can access these different areas of our minds. This is why ideas often come to mind without our thinking about them.

Robinson, K. (2001) Out of Our Minds. Learning to be Creative. p154, Oxford: Capstone

Odd is Good

2010-11-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

Another Arts and Learning day is just around the corner, and it can't come soon enough. I've even had to resort to my own creative techniques in class, and my students are beginning to look at me from under furrowed brows.

Actually that's not really fair; Professor Liz Aggiss was so scary, so Gothicly odd in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZNXk1JZems that I think they saw me as cuddly, if a little batty in comparison. I'd shown them Motion Control, part of Aggiss' Dance for Camera series, as I had with all those taking part in my 'Write Rhythm' research project (see http://thewriterhythm.blogspot.com/) to see if such weirdness might stimulate the kind of writing they didn't know they had in them. As I recorded their thoughts after five minutes of automatic scribbling, I admit I was rather pleased. Looking down at their pages, most of them told me that they saw something they didn't recognise as their own.

I'm sure I'll come back from Saturday's session armed with a bunch of new techniques to use, but for now, I might just Google 'odd dance' and see what happens.

Eureka!

2010-10-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm onto something... Not only were the students' essays much better this week, but their reflections seem to show that they put it down to the ripping exercise (see previous post). And it's only week 4!

"I thought the whole process worked really well. It showed me that you can create a character and tv programme idea out of the simplest things. The task where we had to create characters by jotting down on a newspaper picture simple things such as the person's name and their likes and dislikes really helped as a basis to create your own character and from this, a programme idea. I think my team worked well together to give the individual characters a personality as well as putting them all together into a watchable TV programme."

"We were a group with diverse interests but after about five minutes we found a common ground in our love of music. Although we liked different artists, it felt like it was a subject we could get really in to. When we were sent off to research, I found we worked better because we did the research as a team and not individual task. We got a lot more done and felt more positive about the task."

"From observing the four pictures, everyone on the team began throwing ideas. Some of the ideas were established formats like “Have I Got News For You”, “Mr and Mrs” and “Noel’s House Party”. It was really difficult because our ideas were extremely scattered and time was against us. Eventually, we all began sewing our ideas together. I enjoyed working with the team. Everyone had ideas to discuss so it was nice to hear their opinions. I learnt that working with others benefits confidence and enthusiasm if each member is given the opportunity."

Rip it up and start again

2010-10-26T02:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still musing on whether my 'paper doll' inspired exercise was a catalyst for a show of brilliance, or whether it fell flat on its face.

To start, it was all going so well; I'd introduced them to the idea of power with responsibility and the ethics of storytelling. I'd even used the word 'ideology' by 9.20am, but when I asked the group to build a collage of words and images from their papers that resonated with who they were, they looked utterly blank. And a bit worried. I had imagined an inspired group of young people slicing through their copies of The Mail, surfacing from a sea of images of Cheryl Cole and X-Factorless faces, and ripped up headlines creating new ones about my newly aware flock. Not quite; one older student muttered that he hadn't even read his Guardian yet. Error #1; students who have spent their last pennies on a newspaper just because I told them to are very unlikely to tear it apart for the sake of some dodgy creative writing exercise exploring their sense of self.

Sulkily, I allowed them to write down the words instead of ripping the guts out of the opinion pages, but as their words built their pictures, so their interests spilled onto the page. Teaming up into groups of four, I asked them to see what they could find in common and to allow the seeds of a programme to emerge.

By the end of the morning class, we had four strong programme ideas siphoned from their combined words and pictures. The flamboyant Gok-wannabe had used the efficiency and good sense of his team members to create a magazine show on the history of glamour that had enough roots to grow into a good idea. The Guardian readers had pooled their disenfranchised old Labour grump into a satirical sitcom featuring characters called Nick, Dave and George who live on a housing estate in Tower Hamlets. The music fans had created a series for Radio 1 exploring musical genres from.. er Dizzie Rascal to Mica. Ok, so they've still got some way to go. Only one group's ideas refused to materialise, but with the members' confession that they really didn't know who they were as a group - or even as individuals - even their formlessness gave the class something to learn from.

The afternoon group is a little more lethargic at the best of times, and paper ripping was clearly not something that they were up for. So after they had written their careful lists of words, I ordered them to rip up the biggest picture they could find in their papers. Tentatively at first, and then with a gusto unseen before in this class, award winning pictures of flood victims lay on desks alongside the Rooneys and the X-Factors before being named, characterised and classified by political colour, education and survival skills - or anything else I came up with at the time. After they had passed the images to their right, writing each idea on the back and then giving it up, the programme ideas began to emerge. Cheryl Cole and the director of an international charity were soon pitching against each other in panel game show, a Panorama on home-schooling sneaked in from left field and a sequel to 'I'm a Celebrity' called 'Get Me Out of Here!' was showing signs of something rather watchable. Did they get the giving up of control that the exercise is supposed to probe at? Probably not. Did it matter? Probably not.

It's important that these young people who think that they haven't got a programme idea between them find out each week that they have. But if the exercise did give them a glimpse of what they are made of, it was a bit like pulling teeth at times. And I think they're beginning to see me as a bit weird... I'll wait to see what they write in their reflective essays on it due in tomorrow, but my feeling is that it's back to good old deconstruction next week.

Plato, Marx and the Paper Doll

2010-10-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting in a research skills module yesterday afternoon and we were talking about ideology, as you do. The construction of truth was being picked over and even as Plato and Marx were being flagged up as gurus of the day on the subject, the little paper doll we made on Saturday in Arts and Learning flashed into my mind. Suddenly, I had my Monday lecture; if we usually deconstruct programmes in order to study genre, audience, purpose etc, I could pop a little creative exercise in there about construction before I set them their homework.

The collaborative doll exercise in which we each tore/cut/scrunched a shape of a paper doll before passing it on to decorate, name and attribute it with loves and hates, has stayed with me. I've pondered on what it gave me much more than the installation made up of the contents of our bags, the dodgy drawing of self, inlaid with values, skills and knowledge, and even the shockingly bad ergonomics of Sussex University's seminar rooms. Yes, of course it's about giving up control, ownership and being a really crap artist, but it's also about teamwork and constructing something from nothing that makes you think about important stuff - like control, ownership and... er ideology.

If I'm to prod my students into thinking about who constructs their truth, then maybe I could ask them to tear up their newspapers in a bid to construct their own first, not to make dolls, but to make themselves - in their own image (or words and images, hopefully). The logistics of passing it on and linking it to the dynamics of a TV production team is escaping me at the moment, but that's when winging it seems to work best for me... I shall report back.

Creative Techniques and News Stories

2010-10-19T03:21:00.000-07:00

We started the session by looking at today's news stories and how we could develop them into programme ideas, and had already got stuck on Angela Merkel's speech on multi-cultural Germany. The majority of students, 18-25, mostly white, mostly born and bred British, just couldn't see how it could be relevant to them or what themes we could pull out from it.

So I tried the exercise. The students lined up and dutifully organised themselves, first by height, and all without question. Silently, the dominant ones rose to the challenge while the natural followers did what they were told, before presenting their new student body for my assessment. They seemed pleased with themselves and happy to do whatever I suggested.

I moved on. This time, they would organise themselves by eye colour. Even before they looked into the first person's eye, they were squirming. This was about how they told stories about themselves and their peers, I reminded them, asking them to notice what judgements they were making, to observe any feeling they might have about the process until they were done. With a sigh of relief, they turned to me for approval. Instead, I pushed them further, asking them to organise themselves this last time by the warmth of their hands. TOUCH each other??? Tentative fingers reached out to touch tips, the occasional bloke shaking another's hand firmly, girls quickly taking the lead. Finally they were ready, a little sheepish this time, and presented their line to me. I sent them to their desks and asked them to write for five minutes without taking their pen off their paper.

Afterwards I asked if anyone would like to share what they had written. Silence. Eventually one of the more confident blokes offered; 'It felt a bit awkward'. Another joined him 'It was a bit too intimate for me'. I asked if anyone else had written the same kind of thing, and a few nodded. I asked if anyone had not written about feeling awkward in their journals. No-one. The smile spread around the room as they realised that they had all shared in the same experience.

We had our story. From reflections on British reserve to musings on age and confidence, we began to build an idea of who we are as a nation. In 20 minutes, we had moved from blank faces to heated discussion about mono-culturalism v multi-culturalism, the difference between Notherners and Southerners, we had phone-ins on confidence and documentaries on the impact of different cultures. From nothing, we had created our riches for the day.

Arts and Learning

2010-10-17T02:35:00.000-07:00

It's almost 30 years to the day since I set off to Paris as a 17 year old, head filled with romantic notions of reading Zola in the Tuileries after dropping my small charges off at school and heading down to the Sorbonne to see what the local talent was like. With a place to study French and European Studies at Sussex University already secured, it was what girls who go to schools like I went to were supposed to do. I had no idea at the time that it would take me 30 years to get back to Sussex.

This isn't the place for the story of what happened in the years between, but yesterday morning at the crack of dawn, after the kind of night only students are supposed to have, I found my way to Fulton 208, fumbled around in a large handbag and stared at a blank page in a jelly bean notebook.

Arts and Learning is a 4 day course designed by Creative Partnerships which aims to train people like me to do what we do in the classrooms of Britain's primary and secondary schools, community groups and business boardrooms - to name a few. It'll give me some more points towards my Masters in Arts and Cultural Research, but most importantly, give me the skills to extract what I've been doing over the past 30 years and turn it into something that might do a bit of good. And earn me some cash.

Like most of the other courses I've done to inch my way towards my Masters in the past year, it's more about reflecting on what you've got than putting any new skills in, but that's a skill in itself, and without it, my 15 books, zillion articles and years in TV and Radio will not see me into my dotage.

Lesson 1 was similar to the lessons my students at the University of Brighton learn; don't drink too much the night before a lecture. Lesson 2 is to let six hours of creative techniques percolate gently before using them in my class tomorrow. Will my rag tag bunch of 18-25 yr olds begin to write more creatively, freely, rhythmically after I've learned to play with them? I'll let you know.

What's The Big Idea?

2010-06-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Big Idea — Capture Ideas

“Don’t let ideas escape. Write them down. Every day lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren’t nailed to paper… Carry a notebook or some small cards with you. When you get an idea, write it down… People with fertile, creative minds know a good idea may sprout any time, any place. Don’t let ideas escape; else you destroy the fruits of your thinking.”

~ David J. Schwartz from The Magic of Thinking

Today was the finale of a year long post graduate course in teaching and learning, and perhaps one of the most important things I shall take away is educationalist, Eve Bearne's belief that there's a 'knower' in us all. All too obvious, you may think but you should see the terror in the eyes of some of the business leaders who come to my workshops when I ask them to do some automatic writing. What might come out on to the page - even when it's unseen by anyone other than themselves - is really really scary, and they've spent years putting strategies in place to avoid doing just that.

When they do it, of course it's not scary at all. They see the fertile, creative mind from which a good idea can sprout at any time, just as Schwartz says. The trick is to give yourself permission. A friend of mine calls her automatic writing time her 'marketing time' because of the volume of great ideas that appear on her screen at the end of her session.

So What?

2010-05-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

“Man’s ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy—that he live in accordance with his own nature.”

~ Seneca from Letters from a Stoic
I do love those Philosophers' Notes that pop into my inbox every day, and as I thought about the next pearl of writer's wisdom to give you, this one seemed rather appropriate.

It's that time of year when the students send in their final 'reflective' essay, summing up what they have learned in the module I teach them on writing for the media. One of the first tips I give them is the 'so what?' rule, the question they should ask themselves at the end of every statement to check if it's worth saying at all. And at the end of the module, I ask them to check out the same question, but this time about what I've spent the last 14 weeks teaching them.

When they answer, in whatever form, that they have realised what they're here to do, or if that's too Universal, perhaps what made the penny drop, I know I've done my bit. Finding out who you are by looking at the words on the page is one of the most exciting moments in a young person's life, and giving him or her the tools to do so is surely one of the most rewarding.

Picture This

2010-05-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

I tell stories every day. I use them to explain what I mean, what I want to be and what I do. Stories may be full of words but they only work if they paint pictures. People don't really want to read; they don't really want words - they want pictures. They want stories.

When I ask business people to tell me what they do, there are usually very few pictures knocking around in the words they use. Academics are even worse. Ask them about the research studies they've spent the last five years of their lives on and they'll give you more words than your brain can cope with, but almost nothing to see.

So tip for the day: if you're struggling with how to put your business idea on the page right now, give it a personality. Is it a Brian or a James? Quentin or Dave? What car would it be? If it were a sound, a book cover, a musical instrument, what would it be? Play with your words until your idea has a character, a name and a star sign. Until you can see it. Now you can tell your story and people will listen.

www.gillysmith.com