Lemonpop Summer Workshops : Customise Ur Life Through Creative Arts at The Zone

Ghostdavandal Originals presents 

Lemonpop Summer Workshops : Customise Ur Life Through Creative Arts

Date: 4th August & 6th August 2014

The Zone, Bracknell Forest

This year we introduced and launched our Lemonpop Summer Workshops : Customise Ur Life Through Creative Arts at The Zone in Great Hollands Square, Bracknell in conjunction with Flip The Script and Bracknell Forest Youth Services.  Our mini adventure began when we arrived at Great Hollands Square and were welcomed by Garrick and Debbie who run the Youth Centre, which is situated in a shopping complex that seems to be the hub of the community. Our first assignment was on a bright sunny and hot day, so the conditions were perfect for a street art slash customisation workshop.
The centre has 5 display boards situated on a wall that faces the car park to the whole shopping centre, so it was evident on arrival that a youth club resides here. We were there for a two day workshop, engaging with the young people that attend The Zone youth club, to learn transformational life skills through Customisation and StreetArt by planning and painting the outside boards of the youth club to inspire the community.

Day One began with introductions and getting to know the young people, we kicked off the day with activities aimed at exploring Streetart and gaining an understanding on how much the young people understood about customisation and Streetart. Some had experience in using sprays and some that had never used sprays were curious but most were aware of what graffiti is and the implications and consequences of practising it in public places.  This exploration stage allows young people to identify their interest as a source of inspiration and as a resource of ideas. This stage encourages young people to recognise their interests and focus on them by expanding their meanings and symbolising it through visual representation. This stage is all about knowing yourself and finding yourself by listing ideas about yourself and simplifying them to be developed into designs and patterns. 

Once the young people began exercising their options, they immediately loosened up and began firing ideas away. Their ideas that came from their personal interests and within their peer groups, which ranged from popular computer games to favourite pastimes such as scooter and skate activities, even ideas around popular music groups and fashion icons.  The most interesting ideas came from their association to The Zone, ie what their favourite activities are at the club and what it means to them as a young people. Some had a theme and wanted to express their feelings or show what they are doing as part of the community. In one instance a young person was raising money and awareness for the club by getting all her hair cut off in aid of charity, so we dedicated a board to her! What a way to raise awareness!

The young people were split into equal groups that matched the number of boards and were required to create
designs that represented their group or the youth club. Before allocating boards to groups, they had to come up with initial designs that they proposed to paint, either to receive approval from staff on their design or to get assistance in designing.  Once the young people had created their designs and had them approved, they were allocated a board which they had to prep up before commencing with any painting. The boards had never been treated since they had been painted a couple years before so needed to sanded down first. After sanding the boards down, we masked the wall area that we didn't want paint on with newspaper and masking tape then applied background colours using spray cans.  This was the young peoples first opportunity to use spray paints and learn methods of how to apply it in a controlled manner. The young people seemed to enjoy this stage as they created some colourful boards that already looked amazing and seemed complete but also showed their enthusiasm to the activity. 

Day two at The Zone started off a lot quicker and this time we had our super awesome assistant Rajan Mahoon to make sure that we were fully prepared for the day and that operations ran smoothly according to the session plan. The day kicked off with a recap of the previous days activities and a discussion over the learnings, improvements and on how to move forward. This interested some of the young people and after evaluating their work decided to go back a couple steps and redesigned their proposed images. Using the processes, techniques and methods they learnt on the previous day, the young people continued with their allocated boards and soon began creating their very colourful designs onto the boards. This process required some concentration from the young people to complete their images and have enough time to evaluate and make changes. Young people were reminded to evaluate and critic their work as they painted their images as a way to stay on track and this was done by constantly taking steps back to review their images and to make necessary changes as they went along with the activity.

After a series of decision making and adjustments through step by step help from staff and our team (including our assistant Rajan, who had never spray painted before but seemed to enjoy experience), the boards began to resemble familiar images and look quite colourful, their images were already starting to look more like the finished product. By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted from participating in the activities, some young people had finished their boards and some where applying final touches to their artwork and some where admiring their work including what their friends had produced. During the activities the young people were so consumed in painting that they didn't have chance to admire and critic each other's work so afterwards we all critic-ed each other's boards and had an opportunity to discuss each other's creations, what they could have improved and how to apply what they learnt in the last couple of days.  
After evaluation and discussing what they had learnt in the last couple days, the young people reflected on the planning process as the initial stage in customisation,the young people also  understood that preparation is important in having the right conditions, materials and methods to execute or create their ideas and that these are part and parts of a process guaranteed to produce favourable results that are personal to them and if the stages are followed through could produce some original pieces of work that they are proud of producing.

Special thanks to Garrick and Debbie from The Zone Youth Centre in Great Hollands Square, Bracknell, to Dee Albert from Flip The Script and Liz Hassock from Bracknell Forrest Council and to the Ghostdavandal Originals Team, Rajan Mahoon, Aman Mahoon and Marvin Hagglar.

MH

Lemonpop Workshops : @ Portsea Venture, Portsmouth

Ghostdavandal Originals presents Lemonpop Workshops : Customise Ur Life 

Portsea Venture, Portsmouth

21st August & 22nd August 2014 

2014 was an amazing year for our team. We had a fantastic summer as we launched our "Summer Programme" and delivered creative workshops to youths in clubs and societies across the country.  Amongst Youth offending programmes, Cultural awareness, community festivals and simple custom made fun we engaged with a lot of enthusiastic young people full of energy and as inquisitive as ever..our highlight of the summer has to be the workshops delivered in Portsmouth at Portsea Venture.

We were invited to Portsea Venture in Portsmouth to deliver customisation workshops with the staff and young people that attend the children's centre. Portsea Venture is one of Portsmouth City Council's six free, exciting adventure playgrounds and is a world of opportunity for children.  We found this place extraordinary as young people can whizz along zip lines, cool off in splash pools, get messy in sand-pits, show their artistic talents with arts and crafts, build dens, climb trees, dress-up and much more...Really cool!! I wish I had a place like this when I was growing up as it creates an experience for the young people that includes all and shares experiences amongst the group that attends! Hats off to the staff that run the centre!

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Clare and the staff team, not forgetting the young people who attend the centre...who seemed quite eager to participate in whatever activities we had prepared for them...but made us feel so relaxed and welcome. We were there for two whole days and on the first day, which began with introductions to Customisation, street art and using materials (COSHH), we familiarised ourselves with the centre and with the young people who were buzzing in and around the centre. Day One was focused on Tshirt and Clothing customisation and each young person was required to customise a tshirt. This was to be done using personal ideas considering who they are, what their interests are and as a way to understand who they are within the group (taking ownership and responsibility).

The day got off to a brilliant start with the young people engaging and participating in the processes, for example at Stage 1 the young people had to create a list of favourites ie colours, toys, games, films etc..then Stage 2 was to use symbols, icons, lines( scribbles, doodles...whatever) etc to represent their favourites. At this stage it is evident that they were fully consumed and engaged in the activity as some of the work produced by the young people reflects their interests, with some creating amazing pieces of work that would impress anyone with artistic skills.  The concentration on the young people's faces was worth it, to see them questioning themselves and engaging in such an activity, the staff were impressed ( so were we) with the way the young people behaved and listened to instructions and that they even showed some flare!!(...actually sitting down and being quiet throughout the activities). Stage 3 involved the young people in painting their tshirts, applying the designs they created onto tshirts using a range of processes. This is usually a messy process (...usually spilling painting everywhere and on each other) but the young people dealt with it well by following the instructions that were given to them. 

The young people created really bright and colourful Tshirt designs that reflect the diverse interests within the group and also identifying some similar interests shared within the group. It was inspiring to see them wear their designs proudly and showing them off to each other, once they were dry of course. Day One was a success with everyone looking forward to Day Twos activities!

Day Two was all about Canvas and Mural painting (..also great to see some of the young people turn up wearing their new personally designed tshirts!!) and it began similarly to the previous day, with an introduction into Street Art and Customisation and a strong reminder of using hazardous substances. As part of our service to deliver creative workshops, our aim is to raise awareness of the materials, equipment and processes that are involved and making sure that young people develop an understanding of this to be able to make informed decisions.  Once the talking was over (phew....) we resumed to the stages as before with Stage One being focused on Planning, researching about personal or group interests, creating lists and simple sketches. Young people were encouraged to investigate, explore and research into their ideas before proceeding to the next stage. Stage Two is all about Preparation, experimenting further with materials, developing initial sketches and preparing surfaces. Stage Three is the stage most people (not just the young ones...) fear as this is the stage that paint is applied to a blank canvas which can scare most of us but on realising that the processes have prepared you for this part makes it slightly less challenging. The young people were clearly comfortable with the task and where fully engaged with their canvas boards with some continuing their ideas and some wanting a fresh start. The boards that were produced were even more colourful than the tshirts, as this time round it seems they understood what they were required to do and also enjoyed creating their own personal canvas boards from their own ideas....and what a result. 

We had an amazing time working with this 'energetic' group and look forward to returning in the summer, in fact we cannot wait! We would like to thank all the young people who attended for being awesome participants on both days, listening to instructions, offering help and for being themselves, also would like to thank everyone at Portsea Venture for the card they made for us, we will frame it and hang it up! Thank you! 

Special thanks to all the staff at Portsea Venture, Michelle, Cal, Liz, Alice ( ...you guys rock and commend what you do, thanks for the hospitality!), Clare Hussein (@maibikita... and of course Miss Bikita for organising us to come down) and to the Ghostdavandal Originals Team, namely Aman Mahoon (...for the tiresome driving) and Marvin H Mudzongo..Thanks!

Customise Ur Life

Be Original

MH

Ghostdavandal Originals @Southill Park

Ghostdavandal Originals @Southill Park (1119)
Date: 13th June 2014
Location: Southill Park, Bracknell

Ghostdavandal Originals Team were at it again on Friday the 13th in Bracknell. We were invited to the 1119 Youth Group of Southill Park and what an evening it was.  After a long drive down we returned to Southill Park, a year since the last time we delivered a successful creative workshop there and we were lucky to arrive just before the group started their session which is usually 7pm to 9:30pm. We were welcomed by Mark Hooper who leads and organises the group and introduced us to the group and staff. It was good to see a few members from the previous year that still attend the club, which was great as they remembered us and made it easier to engage with the rest of the group and introduce activities based on customisation to them!

 After a brief introduction, explaining the reasons for customisation, the purpose it serves and where or what can be customised. The young people participated in colouring a large mural we provided which helped in instilling the techniques and for general practise when it comes to selection of colour, how best to apply it and where it can be apply to.  The young people showed an in depth understanding of customisation from the different forms of customisations...ie fashion and art to giving examples of their favourite customisations, with some even willing to try the activity at home. Most of the young people seemed to understand that customisation is more of a personal journey of self discovery. The activity focuses on discovery and finding out the different things that are personal to an individual, be it a favourite colour, saying or phrase, a simple pattern or a nickname given to you by mates and using those attributes to enhance, improve and redefine an object, canvas or an individual. 

In realising these individual characteristics, young people understood that those items can be represented through many different ways, such as simplifying imagery to basic shapes, colour combinations and applied using a mix of mediums ie experimenting with colour and materials to create features, assets and accessories that can be used to customise a piece of clothing, paper or canvas.   

We where allocated to the side of the building right next to the bins (suppose this is the nature of street art...) where two large boards had been prepped for the session. The young people were split into two groups, wher one group worked on a cut out stencil of their logo and took turns in using spray paint to create the image. Using techniques that were explained during the introduction and demonstration, the young people engaged and participated in the activity, creating a colourful piece that they were proud to have been involved in.

The second group participated in painting an African themed pattern that coincides with an upcoming event that is focused on African Arts and Culture. The young people painted a large patterned mural reflecting the diverse ideas they came up with and also reflecting the colours that they all favoured. 

The event was a success and as a team we are positive in that the young people learnt creative, technical and professional skills whilst engaging in a group activity that is based on customisation and street art.  We look forward to working with the 1119 group again very soon in learning and engaging in activities aimed at learning transferrable skills whilst having fun at the same time! Can't wait!!!!

Special thanks to everyone who came along to the workshops and participated in the activities and contributed in making sure that the activities went accordingly, the whole 1119 group (...what a crazy bunch!!), Mark Hooper and the staff at Southill Park, Dee from Flip The Script and Liz from Bracknell Forest Council, Aman Mahoon and Marvin Hagglar Mudzongo from Ghostdavandal Originals.

Here is a preview of last years workshop...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.317581931707951.1073741826.226891664110312&type=3

#customizeurlife

MH

Ghostdavandal Originals Presents Lemon Pop Workshops : Learning Through Customisation

Lemon Pop Workshops

Presented by Ghostdavandal Originals

Ghostdavandal Originals presented its first youth workshop in Northampton, on the 2nd of April involving creative activities.  The event was attended by 24-30 kids aged between 3 to 13 years of age, although the event was catered for kids from 5 years onwards, younger kids were more than welcome as long as they were accompanied by a parent to assist in some of the activities.

The event was full of idea generation activities such as colouring and doodling, hand eye coordination tasks such as beading and disciplinary skills in canvas painting and T-shirt making! The room was buzzing with activity and noise as the kids made their own T-shirts by designing their own elements to be heat pressed onto an arrangement they felt suited them best.

Courtesy of Ultimate Photography

Activities such as Beading started off being a girl-only activity until the boys joined in and started creating their own necklaces and bracelets which was fantastic to see them indulge in activities they probably never done before or even considered.

When it came to T-shirt designing and laying out, they became experts with each participant choosing their own style, colours and arrangement without the help of any parent to create a masterpiece that they all were proud off, and so they were, as they wore their T-shirts immediately they were dry.

Graffiti wall painting

Special thanks goes to the GDV team that delivered the Workshop and for putting on an event that is based on improving others lives by influencing creative, technical and creative skills.  The team includes Marvin 'Hagglar' Mudzongo, Aman Mahoon and Natasha Osborne who worked hard to organise the event and run it.  Thanks also go to Ultimate Photography for lighting and capturing the event and thanks to Academy Music Venue for providing a venue that suited the occasion!

Beading and necklace making

Marvin Mudzongo, the founder, commented   "...we wanted to do something around Easter to give back to the kids, as a community focused event!...we intend to be delivering these workshops more regularly and start working with local schools, organisations and groups like clubs and after school events."

Lemon Pop Workshops: Learning through customisation

After such an eventful morning of creative activity we certainly look forward to the next Lemon Pop workshop so we too can be CUSTOMIZED! So Be Original and CUSTOMIZE UR LIFE....

To find out more please check out the Facebook page and Twitter pages for more information on more events to come!!!

M H.