I waited in the foyer, and as soon as the adults entered there was a burst of energy and happiness and you could see this was a place that they enjoy and where we would be welcomed.
The adults were extremely friendly and shook all our hands and wanted to know about us, we could see that each of the adults were so different and each had strong and interesting personalities, I look forward to getting to know them one to one and enriching my knowledge of how they live.
My first experience visiting Beulah Family Church was a mixture of emotions. I was excited but at the same time slightly scared of meeting the clients we were working with, as I didn't know how they would react to me. When I got there the environment was warm and friendly. Everyone was open and willing to talk and introduce themselves to me.
I was surprised to see how open they were to talk to me about their lives, what they enjoyed and various other things about themselves. Their warm handshakes made me intrigued to find out more about them.
They were like a little family; everyone looked happy and excited for the events that were installed for the day.
I really enjoyed meeting them as it was a chance for me to get to know them and also get a brief outline of their characters.
Approaching them was kind of hard, as some gave you straight answers while others were willing to have a conversation with you, from reality to their imaginations.
I can’t wait to go back there as I will feel more open myself, even though I am slightly still nervous as I still don’t know what to expect later on, the environment and warmness has put me on a good stepping stone.
As I walked in to the main room from the lobby, I felt anxious and I didn’t know how to react or what to expect, as I have never worked or been around adults with learning difficulties before. I was welcomed by the working members from the Beulah company and class mates. We were told to go and introduce ourselves to the adults, I felt a bit insecure and uncomfortable at this point so it took me longer to approach the adults of Beulah than anyone else, because I didn’t know how to go about talking to them. I looked around and watched how the adults were reacting to new company and also the obliviousness of some of them. It was interesting to see how each member of their group had their own individual role or space in the room, some were walking about, where as some were in one spot concentrating more on what they were doing, than on anything else. I then got myself up and went to say hello to a lady sitting down, I was pretty nervous and anxious as to how she was going to react to me saying hello. As I went around the once challenging task seemed easier and I started to take in and enjoy and appreciate being with the adults of Beulah. When we had all settled down and been talking to them I became really interested in the stories some were telling and learning more about them in weeks to come. I know am extremely excited but still and bit nervous about this project, but feel as if this project will be amazing and cannot wait to meet them all again.
Waiting in the lobby my mind was filled with scenarios and I was slightly anxious to meet the members of Beulah. I believe my doubts and anxiety stemmed from uncertainty and never working with or for adults with learning difficulties. Entering Beulah resource base I was immediately welcomed and overwhelmed by how friendly and confident the adults were with new people. Interacting with many of the adults wasn't difficult as they had many stories and things to share, however some were quite challenging to hold a conversation with as some didn't enjoy communication or preferred to use different ways of communication for example drawing. I love the different characters and how unique and individual the adults are, also how they are treated as individuals. Leaving Beulah my initial thoughts have seriously changed. I'm extremely excited about working alongside Beulah as the adults are amazing. I believe this experience will provide me with knowledge and a greater understanding of people with learning difficulties.
In the time we had I was able to learn basic steps to how to create my own animation using this software. I was able to see my animation come alive in front of my eyes, from choosing an image to work with, to using the line tool to draw around the image, to adding the animation effect.
This mini lesson gave me an insight to how to incorporate this into our community project. By adding animation in my project will make it fun and exciting to watch a projection relating the partner I will be assigned to.
On Monday 9th May we had an introductory tutorial to the animation software “Adobe Flash”. We were firstly shown some examples of the kind of animations that can be produced on Flash, we were then taught step by step how to create a simple animation of a ball bouncing; we created 2 layers, one with a ball drawn and one with a floor drawn, we then right clicked the ball and turned it into a “Symbol” , in the first frame the ball is on the ground , we then right clicked on 10 seconds on the timeline and inserted a key frame , in this frame the ball is in the air , the last step is to right click between the two frames and create a “Motion Tween” this creates the movement between the ball in the air and the ground , this can be repeated many times or put on a loop.
Our second task was to create a drawing of our self, we imported a front shot photo of our self, to create the shapes of our faces we us the line tool and bended them in shape, when all the features were created we filled in colours and hid the original photo layer, I then used the same technique as the bouncing ball and created me blinking.
These skilled that I have learned I feel could be used when working with the adults at Beulah Recourse Base, we could use the face drawing technique to possibly personalise the animations, have drawings of the adults we are working with speaking or having thought bubbles etc. to tell their stories.
I initially didn’t know what to think of this project or what it had in store for me, as I have never created a piece of community art. However I’m extremely excited, as this is a new experience for me. I will be working alongside Beulah; Beulah resource base is a place for adults with severe learning difficulties to go and take part in a wide range of activities to stimulate their physical and creative development.
As this was a new experience for many, the project started with three lessons based around community art and design. I found the lessons extremely useful and they gave me an insight into community art and how it works. I have learnt that community art and design thrives on contact between artists and the community they are working with. This is art making with, and for the benefit of a community. Now that I have researched community art in depth I’m more comfortable with the project and what it involves.
When I found out about our new project, I was quite anxious and didn’t know what to expect, the thought of working with adults with learning difficulties scared me. As we found out more about this project I became more and more interested and excited. I feel it will be a great experience that will be full of new lessons and memories.
The first session we had was one with 3 teachers talking and showing us about community art projects, this was very useful because it helped me to understand what community art is and how to go about doing a community art project. The teachers showed us already existing community art projects and how community work can be interactive as well. This was interesting because we learnt about different ways to teach children or adults with learning difficulties something new through using a range of teaching strategies.
We then had short discussion about what we going to be doing with the adults and what we can do in our final collaborative piece, after this I became even more excited and now cant wait to meet them and start what will be a life changing project.
