weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 86
a radical shift in the discourse surrounding how community arts
practice is funded, valued, delivered, evaluated and characterised in
the UK. (HB)
s Stop and Start and Space
Make Space for the unexpected
Take a break from reading.
Stop doing. Breathe. Start being
a human being
‘The Way to do is to be’142 (TB)
Also look/listen to These Are the Hands after Michael Rosen by the
Commoners Choir.144 (HB)
r Reading the room
t The 5 O’clock Moment
The 5 O’clock Moment refers to a shared event at the end of each
day of the Leeds workshops, where audience members, passers-by
and Weaving Voices community participants gathered in the Leeds
2023 Making A
A Stand143 outdoor site, as an extended collective, to sing
and to weave together. The 5 O’clock Moment included sharings
from partner organisations including The Forest of Songs led by Dora
Halas from Shoharóza and kulning calls led by Marika Wittmar and
Wendela Löfquist from Solsidans Kulturförening. The kulning that we
had first learned from Marika and Wendela in the forest of Sweden
was translated to sound out over a noisy city centre in a public
artwork on the site of what once was the forest of Leodis from which
our city took its name Leeds. (HB)
h Hands and Homunculus
The sensory homunculus is a topographic representation of the
sensory distribution of the body found in the cerebral cortex. A
cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human
body, based on a neurological ‘map’ of the areas and proportions
of the human brain. Take the hands, for example. They are the most
dexterous parts of the human body, with large representation in
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the brain. We sense and manipulate a great deal through them.
Therefore, they are extremely exaggerated in sensory and motor
homunculus. The action of weaving calls for a complex blend of
manual and cognitive interactions. Bilateral movement patterns
involve complex integration in the brain that helps to develop and
maintain neuromuscular control and fine motor skills in addition to
calling for values of care, sustainability and creativity. (TB)
A quotation often attributed to Lao Tsu.
143 Making A Stand (2023) Studio Bark. Available at: https://studiobark.co.uk/projects/making-a-stand
[Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
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Reading the room – is an idea rooted in working with the people
who are present in the space at the point of engagement. It’s about
the application of knowledge, not the blind repetition of tried and
tested methods. (HB) / (TB)
An Exercise for ‘Reading the room’
Option 1 (if there is a shared spoken language):
I call this one ‘the web of connectivity’. It’s important to present
this without too much explanation, to allow people to lead the
conversation without worrying about the rules of the game.
• I take a very large ball of yarn and take the loose end in my hand.
• I begin sharing an anecdote about something related to our
reason for being in the room together. Perhaps it’s a story about
meeting people for the first time.
• As I tell the story, I am slowly unravelling the yarn, I look out for a
moment of ‘connection’. This might be someone nodding, laughing,
or even jumping in to share a similar anecdote.
• I keep hold of my end and pass the yarn to this person.
• We wait. I avoid giving instructions.
• They begin to share something, and they are encouraged to look
around the room and find the next moment of connection with
someone else.
144 These Are the Hands (after Michael Rosen) by Commoners Choir (2020) YouTube. Available at: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=__356aRXVuc [Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
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