Artist Steve Hollingsworth writes:

Laura and I were working today on changing a former smoking room at the care centre we’re working in, into a much more useable sensory space. All the walls are glass and it gets a great deal of light, Laura ordered some red gel and we placed this on glass on all the walls. When it’s bright the entire room is bathed in a warm orange/ red glow. We also re-floored the space using tiles in a pseudo Juan Munos fashion. It looks very geometric and bold, hopefully people with reduced vision will be able to perceive the floor as there is a lot of contrast between black and white. We left an aperture so anybody inside can look through to the conservatory space (we have big plans for this space too..) We also bought a big red blind so the space can be entirely red without any other visual distraction. The extreme red-ness of the space really has an effect on vision, on emerging from the space other colours such as blue and green took on a new aspect. We want this space to be spare and clutter free, so people can go in there and just relax or engage in one sensory activity at a time. We also plan to finish off the space by installing some coloured neon to play with the light further, perhaps circles of red green and blue, again re-inforcing notions of being bathed in colour. I guess the space hints toward artists like James Turrell who uses colour and light to show ourselves seeing and how perception is easily fooled.

Steve and I have been working hard to get the wheeled walls I mentioned in a previous post into being. We were bending metal on this machine from another dimension it took some serious elbow grease, but we got it done in the end. The idea is that they will house a series of climbing plants and interesting sensory delights. We want them to be used by service users and staff, visitors and other life forms to create walls where needed in the large communal area. The will never be the same from day to day, as they will be growing and reflecting what is happening in the center. But what to call them? I affectionately call them wheely-wallys, but think they need something more informative and directional – can anyone suggest something?……. Laura Aldridge

What can you do with a space that has become like a waiting room for a doctor’s surgery? How can you make it an engaging space for individuals to not just spend time waiting for their next activity, but to experience and learn and experiment with. This is what artist Steve Hollingsworth and myself (Laura Aldridge) have been steadily working on over the last few months at a day centre for people with learning difficulties. We started talking to everyone at the centre, finding out what people liked and didn’t like – what they would like to see happen. The we begun by making simple changes – drawing focus to certain parts of the room, making zones and furnishing the space in a way that service users can change and direct the space – A wall of curtains to be drawn, and opened – wheeled walls, containing plants, chimes, crystals, mirrors, precious stones – that can be configured into different arrangements depending on who is in the space. All this happened within the space – we set up a work area and made everything in the space, so that whatever we were doing was informed by the people and architecture of the building. The space need never be the same from day-to-day, and is constantly evolving. This excites us and hopefully those using the space too.