Blue Block Beginnings

Blue Block Studio – our Commonwealth Games Cultural programme 2014 project – is well underway. 

I’m working with exciting artists who collaborated with me on my 18-month Starcatchers residency at Tramway  – musician Kim Moore, visual artist Ewan Sinclair and theatre maker Xana Marwick. We wanted to further develop some of the ideas we explored then, and create some new ones.

One of the shows we made at Tramway was Icepole for 0-4 year olds 

Kim Moore in Icepole

Audience at Icepole

We said Icepole was ‘ a sort of gig a sort of journey, a sort of daydream‘ 

 

It was abstract, with contemporary music and visuals -some people thought it would fit in well at a club night.

We created a narrative to help it hang together – some people thought this narrative was more for the adults.

The adultsare a big part of any experience for little ones and if you can relax them the children are more likely to relax too.

As a relatively new parent myself (Alfie is 22 months) I now know how difficult it can be to relax. 

I’ve always been interested in making something genuinely as involving for the adult as it is for the child. It’s equally important in my eyes – enjoying something together – giggling, touching, listening, bonding. 

I also like when things are abstract for a young audience, so that it’s a new language for the adult too – in some ways they experience it in a similar way – rather than familiar things being mediated and described by the adult for the child.

We want to make a safe environment – finding suitable places for little ones can be tricky – when you look around there are very few places that have thought about babies and how they can be in the space – where I live I think there is one cafe which a baby could crawl in, a soft play centre and a library with a children’s corner.

 Alfie aged about 9 months at softplay

Alfie was really active from early on he would never sit in a chair or buggy, he was determined to explore, and I was aware that there were few places I could let him down to crawl – nowhere was safe enough or indestructible enough or clean enough. The library and the soft play were good – but I really wanted an alternative, a place we’d both like to go – ideally nicely lit with some gentle but interesting music and beautiful objects in a comfy, fresh, uncluttered space – an informal relaxed place maybe where we could be creativetoo (cue the ‘ping’ when the Blue Block Studio idea popped into my head). 

 In relation to the Commonwealth Games I thought about the need for a space for movement:

‘Giving our infants a safe environment with opportunities for free, unconfined, and self-directed movement fosters their innate desire to explore, practice and perfect physical skills. They are then naturally geared toward a lifelong inclination to exercise, which (as stacks of research conclude) will lead them to a longer, healthier, (brainier) and happier life.’  Janet Lansbury, Child Care Educarer

Alfie and his cousin Phoebe and a wide open space

I thought about the need for truly valuing play for early years – to focus on this early time in life and encourage the possibility for connected play, creating a special opportunity for 1-1 interaction between adult and baby aged between 0-24 months. To help this we decided to restrict the age range and capacity so that older children and other adults don’t dominate the space either physically or vocally. Instead it is an unusual place for 0-2 year olds that makes a very small dent (but hopefully a nice dent) into the lack of spaces made for them.

I thought about making a beautiful space 

‘Doing theatre for babies is to explore the unknown. It goes against common sense. It’s political. It’s also necessary, I believe, because babies have a right to beauty and they’re not always exposed to it. Theatre for babies implies commitment, but a commitment that draws us in. It’s the opposite of cynicism. It’s hope in its purest form. It’s an attempt to talk with the beginning of the world.’ Veronique Cote, theatre director

BlockWe are making something closer to an art studio than a theatre experience. It is interactive – the children create some of the images, working with the idea that young children can create and play unselfconsciously – they make instant fleeting sculptures, images – things can fall down and move on, as at this age children are not generally precious about the things they make. Kate Bonney and Ada (about 18months) in Blue Block Development

We also now have a lighting designer on board with similar interests – Kate Bonney. Last year Kate designed the Enchanted Forest in Perthshire, an award winning light and sound project. I realise that the light that I am inspired by and that I think would work well for children in Blue Block Studio comes from visual art installations that I have seen by people such as Olafur Eliasson, Dan Flavin, James Turrell, Carlos Cruz Diez where the light simply lights the space, or an area, or shape within the space.

At about the same time as I put my ideas to Rhona from Starcatchers, Xana Marwick was speaking to her about a story she would like to tell for children age 2-4. It is inspired by her favourite childhood book ‘Who’s Calling’ by Kenyan author Charity Waciuma .We thought the two ideas would compliment each other and so Xana is creating a new piece called Yellow Valley with musician Drew Wright and performer Dougie Hudson.  Yellow Valley will take place in Blue Block Studio, and also out in other community venues.

 Myself or one of the other collaborators will post again soon- Katy Wilson