Ageing playfully:designing playful workshops for social interaction and happiness of people with dementia

An increasing interest in exploring how digital innovation could support dementia care has been leading research responding to e-health movements, from caregiving and medical perspectives . Not much investigation has included standpoints of the people with dementia though . The Ageing Playfully project , offered a creative space during a series of playful workshops, where by co-designing collages and models, participants with demenia had an opportunity to catalyse imagination and social interaction, and reclaim agency in the context of their own lives. Twelve co-designers with dementia their carers, and an interdisciplinary research team took part in four workshops set up within the context of an existing AgeUK ‘circle of support’. The workshops were led by participant preferences. For instance, themes that were received with great enthusiasm in one session were continued with in the next while the selection of materials was optimised to be inclusive for all. The succession of the workshops engaging in creative tasks, triggered enthusiasm in the participants and also led to increased interaction. Participants as co-designers expressed enjoyment and enthusiasm when given this opportunity to engage playfully with each other in imagining and building models and stories, as well as using the models as musical instruments to play music and sing along. Their carers and support workers noted how the workshop activities seemed to encourage interaction, with even the reticent, less confident members of the group joining in with the model building. Stimulating active, social interactions is an important and timely challenge that requires more design research attention. Using co­design as a tool to engage with people with dementia is a novel approach. People with dementia in the future can be stimulated in imagination, and social interaction through similar co­design workshops. For this reason the project has produced a short video that recounts the workshop journey and the experience of the co-designers with dementia. Also a number of practical recommendations have been developed that can be relevant for carers and researchers working with and involving people with dementia

2018: Art & Mobilities Network Inaugural Symposium Instant Journal (Peter Scott Gallery)

"Mobilities has been gaining momentum through networks, conferences, books, special issues, exhibitions and in the practices of artists, writers and curators. In recognition of this activity we are forming an Art & Mobilities network through which to consolidate, celebrate and develop this work.Inspired by the recent foregrounding of Mobility and the Humanities (Pearce & Merriman, 2018) and drawing on last November's successful Mobile Utopia Exhibition amongst others, the Centre for Mobilities Research (CEMORE) at Lancaster University are pleased to hold a UK Art & Mobilities Network Inaugural Symposium 2018 on the 3rd of July 2018. The aim of the symposium is to bring together people in the UK who are active in the field of mobilities and art in order to discuss the distinctive contribution that art makes to mobilities research and vice versa. We would be delighted if you can join us for this one-day event to help shape the network, particularly in the context of a fast-changing world, not just socio-politically but in terms of the place of art in the academy and vice versa. There are nearly 30 key international artists and researchers gathered on this day both locally and via Skype. We invite all participants in the symposium to bring with them an artwork, artefact, written statement or quote that can be displayed as a ‘pop up’ exhibition. These artefacts will be used during the day to focus discussion around different facets of mobilities and art." (Jen Southern, Kai Syng Tan, Emma Rose, Linda O'Keeffe Editors

Sea breeze

Sea Breeze is a poetic and spectacular site-specific performance inspired by and presented in Morecambe’s iconic Winter Gardens theatre. Sea Breeze draws on extensive research in the building, and the gathered stories and recollections of those who once worked there, from the ticket and ice-cream sellers to the one who locked the doors after the very last show in the seventies, after which the theatre became dark. Research focuses on how a complex creative and participatory based process can be translated and made material in the digital space, how particular technological approaches around projection and architectural mapping can be made available in an open source environment. The artistic project is in receipt of £30K Arts Council Fundin