‘Picturing Sounds’ was part the British Library’s UK wide project ‘Unlocking our Sound Heritage’ that aimed to help save the nation’s sounds and open them up to everyone.
Introduction
As part of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) Recovery Programme, TWAM worked with Recovery Connections, Gateshead’s adult recovery service, and artist Michael Davies to explore the UOSH sound archive and create images and artwork inspired the archive. The project supported Recovery Connections recovery programme and the participants as part of their recovery.
The challenge
How to continue to support people in addiction recovery with Covid restrictions in place.
Questions for the project to explore included:
- Does working with/experiencing audio heritage improve confidence, creativity, and promote trust in the process of recovery?
- How does memory and connectivity assist in the recovery process?
The solution
Led by the British Library, ‘Unlocking our Sound Heritage’ is a UK-wide project that aims to help save the nation’s sounds and open them up to everyone.
Picturing Sounds was a project where the Recovery Programme worked with Recovery Connections, Gateshead’s adult recovery service, and artist Michael Davies to explore the UOSH sound archive and create images and artwork inspired the archive. The project supported Recovery Connections recovery programme and the participants as part of their recovery.
The programme involved two cohorts, with six 1.5-hour workshops each, organised and facilitated by Michael Davies. Attendees listened to sounds from the archive, with themes, such as nature or industry, and led by Michael, created artwork inspired by them.
The sessions took place online due to the Covid-19 lockdown rules. The artwork was collected and turned into an installation, that took was installed for one day at the Shipley Art Gallery.
The sessions were developed into a series of six films, intended for care workers to watch and be inspired to use sound in their practice.
The impact
The project was a part of a national research project exploring the benefits of sound towards wellbeing. The outcomes included:
- Does working with/experiencing audio heritage improve confidence, creativity, and promote trust in the process of recovery?
- How does memory and connectivity assist in the recovery process?
- Does audio heritage promote self-awareness and mindfulness?
- Will the participants carry on participating in creative activities following the completion of the project?
The project improved the participants’ levels of confidence and creativity. Clients stated they were more trusting towards the professional workers following participation as well as more confident to express their thoughts and opinions. Clients were willing to explore their childhood memories through sounds. This allowed the clients to reflect on a time prior to their addiction. The project increased client self-awareness and mindfulness as they became more focused on the world and sounds around them that they previously had not been aware of, aiding their recovery process. Although the participants expressed a desire to continue activities, in the opinion of the facilitator, the nature of recovery limited the number of participants continuing with the activities.
“For me it's being taken out of comfort zone and doing stuff that I would never normally have done.” – Client
“Just reminded me that there is colour in the world and not just black and white. I lived a lot of years of just black and white, and brought colour back into my life.” - Client
“Because there were clients, a lot of the time gets so focused on negative memories that that thing. And sometimes they forget about the nice little moments that they can recall them again” - Staff
How is the new approach being sustained?
Staff members and clients alike noted the positive impact sound had on their ability to be mindful. In the case of the clients, this helped them in their recovery as they applied new skills to productive tasks. For the professional workers, this helped them realise the potential of sound in assisting those in recovery. Little positive changes such as confidence, self-awareness, and mindfulness, although appearing small, have large impacts on an individual’s road to recovery. The sessions were developed into a series of six films, intended for care workers to watch and be inspired to use sound in their practice. Recovery Connections are now bringing clients to the Shipley Art Gallery once a week for regular sessions around creativity.
Lessons learned
The main challenge was facilitating the workshop online instead of in person. The project may have worked differently if in done in person either at one of the museum venues or at Recovery Connections. Whilst this was a challenge, we were able to use the situation to bring the sounds people had in their own homes into the sessions. It also meant that when we had issues with the online connection, this also became part of the session as participants wrote short poems about the experience.
Contact
Ben Jones – Assistant Communities Officer, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Email: [email protected]