My sight, Nottinghamshire

‘Pilot’ sensory workshop

21^st may 2014

I conducted a workshop at My Sight what consisted of 3 children aged between ages 8-11. All the children suffered from visual impairment.

My workshop where based on the early work I did on ‘sensory boxes’. The idea was to decorate the inside of a box with assortments of different fabrics, objects and item that where sensory. Either they were scented, made sound, felt good etc.

I initially started by presenting the children with the sensory boxes I had done myself. Showing them how the different materials presented a different sensory stimulus that is apparent once they are interacted with. They enjoy these boxes and were keen to start their own.

I presented each of the 3 children with a box I had constructed from wood. I told them they were free to now personalised and decorate the box how they wished. there was many different materials that they could use and I told them to be free and put in there most favourite scents sounds and touches.

 

 

 

The workshop was very successful. Each child completed their box and grew more and more enthusiastic with it, creating something the best they could. All of them had a big smile on their face and were fully enthralled. After the session they took the box home and I took photographs of them and their boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Sight, Nottinghamshire

 

 

‘Exploration of the sense’ Focus group

 

The volunteer work I have been doing at MySight has had great impact on my research for my final year project.

I have been exploring the difference senses. Looking at a range of materials that stimulate the senses and how people respond to them. By exploring the different senses it gives me insight to other important design features to the objects I am creating, what are not just based around sight, but also the scents, sounds and touch that the object can include.

For a starting point I created a ‘sensory book’ this was a book I created what had a range of samples in what represented different senses. This book contained samples of sights, tastes, touches, scents and sounds. There is a range of materials on the different pages that you could flick through and see how they work combined with the other senses or individually.

 I created a questionnaire and gave it out to people, I purposely asked people who varied in age, occupation etc. This meant I had a wide range of results, from assortments of different people. I asked them to answer the question on the questionnaire whilst looking through the book. The questionnaire asked for people’s opinions on what samples they liked the best and why. I got a range of responses but a lot stated that they felt drawn to the materials due to it having nostalgic references.

I wanted to further my research, so from the data I collected from the questionnaire; I gathered information of the most popular materials. Seeing which ones stimulated the senses most positively and why. From this data, I created ‘sensory boxes’. These ‘sensory boxes’ contained materials that represented each of the 5 senses. I put together a range of 4 to 5 of the most popular materials in each box I wanted to see how the materials worked individually and if they complimented the each other. The response I got from the boxes would be able to determine what materials would work well for my designs. What is focused towards people who suffer with some sort of sensory deprivation.

 I conducted a focus group and interview at ‘MySight’, and the response I got was incredible! I began by introducing my brief, my aims and what knowledge I wanted to gain from my sensory boxes.

 ‘I want to find out how you respond to these materials if they stimulates your sense positively and why. I want to incorporated your feedback in the choices of materials my future design creations’.

The response I got was incredible! Everyone showed the up most enthusiasm and interest. Responding to the boxes in a very positive manner. It was certain that the boxes created a positive impact on the group as a whole and individually. They handled the boxes and really interacted with them, I was pleased because I really wished for them to explore them fully. All reported said they could smell the scents, and found the textures very nice to handle. They all had different responses of boxes but all were positive. I recorded there results on dictaphone and took notes of their comments.

 

Box 1

 

 

 

Box 2

 



 

 

 

Box 3

 

 

 

 

Box 4

 



 

 

 

Box 5