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Space Invasion Day 2 Phase 2 Hospital F | Puppet Portal Project - phase 2
2010-10-13
Space Invasion Day 2 Phase 2 Hospital F
I was based in the hospital playroom for the morning with a visit to the only child currently staying in child in an isolation ward in the afternoon. Both instances turned out to be group facilitated as the child in isolation has some very creative siblings who joined in our puppet making and performance. This second child is a long term patient and we both finished looking forward to next week.
There was a lot to take in this morning; new staff to meet, new locations to work in and new routines to adapt to. However, everywhere I was greeted with warm, friendly welcomes and interest in the project that made me appreciate the groundwork that the key staff have put so much time and effort into doing to facilitate Puppet Portal. The family-friendly design of the childrens ward including the gardens are really uplifting. Ts maith is leath an oibre so my positive first impressions lead to a really enjoyable day.
The children I worked with responded enthusiastically (note that is children, the teenagers I approached in the morning didnt make it to the playroom. Im going to have to work on my approach!) My main focus today was not to try to achieve too many things on top of getting used to all the newness but still we managed to make, play, photograph, perform, record, view back, edit a little video and fill our online multi-media diary. These diaries will now be available for participants and their families to access from home. The Journeys theme was pretty much thrown out the window though in favour of a Puppet Talent Show featuring art, music, sport and magic performances by the participating glove puppets. These kind of puppets are immediate and so comical. They really got the children animated physically and imaginatively and made for great video. It is a challenge to compete with all the fun and delights of the playroom however so I`m going to have to be very focused on providing lots of puppet-related activities to keep participants from getting distracted. It might help if I can come up with a way that newcomers to the playroom mid-way through a session can contribute to the puppetry work....I`ll have to think about that.
The only thing we didnt manage was a video link up today but that was an issue of timing. What was interesting was that during our efforts, I discoverd a high, almost intuitive, level of competency by the children I worked with (between 8 and 10 years) in terms of using computers and video recorders. Even their comprehension level was impressive. When I explained how the web link-up (video conference) would work one asked if it would be like Skype. When I explained about the online diary another said it sounded like Facebook. Apparently, these things are a normal part of life, or at least conversation, for most young people now.
A particular focus for the next couple of weeks will be the integration of sound in the performance as Fionnuala Conway will begin her engagement with the project next week. Today we began recording audio from the playroom and children to that process in motion.
A couple of times during a performance, the puppet of one child repeated this statement My privacy has been invaded enough already. It was in fact made by two siamese sibling puppets on one glove (a head on the forefinger and ring finger with shared arms and legs) with some pretty funny gripes about having to go to the bathroom together and so on. But I wondered if the sentiment might have some resonance with the childs own experience of being in hospital long term. Maybe not, but it did make me think about the effects of isolation as possibly imposing an exagerated personal space that is then invaded by all sorts of procedures through medical necessity. Even before entering the space, we don aprons and gloves and disinfect our hands to fight infection. The ward for this child has a big glass window onto the corridor, no doubt designed for observation purposes. The particular height makes it feel like a tv screen. So it got me thinking how puppetry could use this as a performance space. Im already wondering where I could find an overhead projector for next week........
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