Tuesday 6 August 2013

Ghostdavandal Originals @The Spot, Sandhurst

Ghostdavandal Originals @The Spot
Date: 6th- 8th August 2013
Location: Sandhurst



Ghostdavandal Originals facilitated a youth group of 25-30 Young People @TheSpot in Sandhurst from Tuesday 6th August to Thursday 8th August on behalf of Flip The Script and Bracknell Youth Service.

The workshops were aimed at introducing young people into the creative world of Customisation and Street-art. Understanding the different technics and methodical ways of customising or making something different by adjusting or improving  its originals attributes.  This meant understanding what customisation is by knowing when, how and where to apply it.  


 The 3 days were packed with activities that encouraged YP to identify their personal interests, develop visual ideas through exploration and experimentation, and implementing their designs using professional, creative and technical advice provided throughout the workshops.  YPs were encouraged to Plan, Design and Implement through group interaction and participation, where input information was necessary and reflected their personal understanding of the subject.



Day One: Customisation Workshop
Each day kicked off with group games, which were led by staff @The Spot namely Ruari, Shakira and Sophie. After an Introduction into Customisation led by GDV's very own Marvin Hagglar and Aman Mahoon, YP were required to list personal interests, illustrate and interpret ideas as designs onto a T-Shirt template.  YP were required to consider colours, layouts and appropriate technics to transfer their visual ideas onto plain T-Shirts provided, using materials such as paints and brushes, swatches, paint pens, accessories, stencils and spray cans to transfer their ideas.
Most of the group preferred to stencil their T-shirts, with some using a combination of mediums, producing some interesting designs that reflected their understanding of the processes in customisation...i.e. Planning Design Development Implementation. The final outcome was an array of colourful T-shirts designs produced by YP for YP that they were proud to show off, as each T-shirt design reflected who they were individually within a group. Most of them enjoyed the activity, that they persisted on repeating the activity each day.







Day Two: Street Art Workshop

Began with an Introduction into Street Art, explaining its origins, use in history and in the contemporary. YP showed great depth of understanding and were split into groups, briefed on the activities during the workshop which included Mural designing and painting using Spray Cans. So after a brief explanation of Spray Can use and misuse, COSHH, YP were required to list group interests, similar to the exercise before (to define personal interests) and the groups understood that they were required to design and paint a mural later during the day. 
The groups participated in discussion, Planning and designing their ideas and engaged in creating an image that they decided represented their interests as a group. Each group had to consider how the design was to be transferred on to the mural, which colours to use and how to layout the design.  Once again the YP responded well and displayed interest in designing and especially in implementing their designs using Spray Cans, resulting in imaginative and colourful murals that they were proud to produce and are situated right beside the entrance to The Spot, hopefully reminding them of their experience.




Day Three: Street Art Workshop / Music Workshop

After a brief summary on the key themes addressed in previous sessions, the group was provided with an opportunity to continue with activities of choice, namely T-shirt customisation and canvas painting stood out the most and proved to be the most popular activity throughout the workshops as most YP brought in a personal item to customise each day.  YP were also required to create an image that they thought represented their individual, personal look to be combined into an image that would used to design a large mural that visually reflected the group and to be painted by Ghostdavandal's very own Marvin Hagglar.  YP waited with anticipation as they could only view the image after their music workshop.



After completing customisation/street art activities, YP were briefed how to reflect on their learning through music as an expression of themselves and the YP chose Rap Music as way to reflect this.  YP developed lyrics for a chorus using a list that they created, discussing and deciding the best way to illustrate what they had learned and created an inspiring song about customising yourself to become who you are and who you want to be and that you can be anything you want in this world.....now that's what I call Flippin' The Script!!












After the Music workshop, which they had an opportunity to write their own verses, choruses and had a chance to use the vocal booth or experiment with an instrument and after the track had been layered by Ruari (...the man behind the beat!) and group evaluations, where members were required to evaluate the sessions, how useful they were to them and what they can do by themselves.  YP where finally allowed to view the mural of themselves within a group and were also asked to identify themselves within the mural, which was quite amusing and was a highlight of the three days. At the end of the day, the YP summarised all the activities and reflected on what they had learnt individually and as a group, what a way to end the sessions!!
Special thanks to Maggie, Rauri (...the frog!), Shakira and Sophie  @The Spot and to ALL who attended for an amazing week!


M.H





No comments:

Post a Comment