Change Change

What can you do with a space that has become like a waiting room for a doctor’s surgery? How can you make it an engaging space for individuals to not just spend time waiting for their next activity, but to experience and learn and experiment with. This is what artist Steve Hollingsworth and myself (Laura Aldridge) have been steadily working on over the last few months at a day centre for people with learning difficulties. We started talking to everyone at the centre, finding out what people liked and didn’t like – what they would like to see happen. The we begun by making simple changes – drawing focus to certain parts of the room, making zones and furnishing the space in a way that service users can change and direct the space – A wall of curtains to be drawn, and opened – wheeled walls, containing plants, chimes, crystals, mirrors, precious stones – that can be configured into different arrangements depending on who is in the space. All this happened within the space – we set up a work area and made everything in the space, so that whatever we were doing was informed by the people and architecture of the building. The space need never be the same from day-to-day, and is constantly evolving. This excites us and hopefully those using the space too.

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