Matadero Madrid, Spain
2017
In the Spring of 2017 I was invited to undertake a residency in Madrid as part of the Levadura programme for creative educators. I spent five weeks working in a school with a Year5 class. My starting point was a curiosity about how the young people understood the world around them. What drew their attention? What brought them joy? And what would they like to change? Using walking as an explorative tool, we began by photographing the local neighbourhood and asking, what innovation would we like to see? And how could we make it happen?
These observations were then investigated further in the classroom, using creative techniques such as collage, conversation and poster making, before settling on the idea of presenting our findings in a psuedo science convention. To create our performance we experimented with costume, designing wearable ‘inventions’ to solve the issues they had hi-lighted such as digital poverty, too many roads, too much fast food and not enough play spaces. The music teacher also collaborated in the process by helping the children to write a rap song about their ideas.
The science convention was held in May 2017 at the Matadero Madrid - Centre for Contemporary Creation - to a public audience and included an exhibition and ‘conference’ performance.
