laura@auralab.co.uk | 07793 216 257

Safeguarding Children – visual notes from a local gov conference

In January I was commissioned to create graphic recording and visual notes of the Denbighshire County Council’s Local Children’s Safeguarding Board conference, held in St Asaph in March. It was great to be approached by forward thinking people who were already aware of the benefits of visual communication in their organisation.

The day included three key speakers and workshops: the audience heard from senior lecturer Wulf Livingston from Glyndwr University, Di Jerwood from NSPCC and a group working on a multi agency protocol for best practice. The topics also included case studies and how children are affected by their parents’ situation whether it is in relation to domestic abuse, substance misuse or mental health issues.  You can watch all three talks on YouTube – here’s a link to Di Jerwood’s talk.

The audience feedback was great – many people said I managed to capture the key details of the specialised professional subject matter and the recordings became a key focal point during breaks to promote further discussion. LSCB will use these recordings at their training events in the future so they get even more value for their investment in visualisation.

You can view more photos of the event on my Flickr page. And if you would like to discuss a potential project, please don;t hesistate to get in touch.

Rapid Cycling: In conversation with artist Sara Rees

Sara Rees discussion visual

A few weeks ago I started my role as a resident graphic recorder of Rapid Cycling, a programme of artists residencies at the new ATTIC gallery in Roath, Cardiff. The gallery, founded by artists Sara Annwyl and Julia Thomas, is committed to an exploration of how emotional distress, cognitive ‘dysfunction’ and ’madness’ are understood, treated and experienced scientifically, personally and culturally.

The first event was a hosted day of dialogue, with artist Sara Rees and with contributions from the other Rapid Cycling artists, MARGIN, their resident writers group, and their group of responders. Other guests included Gareth Williams, Professor of Sociology from Cardiff University, Rose Thompson, Digital Storyteller and Dr Jamie Lewis a social scientist who works with the Medical Research Council and acts as ATTIC’s academic consultant.

The event started with people looking around Sara’s work and then being divided into two discussion groups thinking about responses to the work and questions to ask from the artist. The thoughts and questions were then shared with the whole group resulting in interesting conversation.

Sara Rees backgrounds

Sara Rees stories

Sara Rees - Lacuna

Sara Rees – ATTIC

For more photos of the graphic recording please visit the Flickr set. There will be more updates with other discussion sessions and at the end of the project I get to create a wall mural of the whole thing inside the gallery. For ATTIC info and updates, keep an eye on the ATTIC blog, ATTIC Facebook page and Twitter!

Graphic recording speakers at an Inventorium event

I took part as a graphic recorder yesterday at an interesting event organised by Inventorium, an organisation who help develop innovative  ideas into sustainable businesses. I had come across them previously via offering ideation support at the GeoVation Welsh Coastal Path Challenge. Yesterday in Bangor they brought together people who work in education, charities, innovative learning technologies to name a few to take part in a symposium on Digital Technology and the Wellbeing of the Young Person. Read more…

Coproducing resilient communities: graphic recording from AitT3

Last week I did graphic recording for the third “All in this Together” event about co-producing resilient communities. The event was the biggest so far and attracted a fantastic audience of around 180 people from public, private and third sector organisations. I have taken part in all the events so far and this one was definitely a completely different scale and I felt grateful to be part of it recording such inspiring people speak about the values and benefits of a co-production approach.

I recorded the event in two sessions, around 75 minutes each, capturing key points and sentiments which was at times hard as most of the words spoken carried so much meaning and impact. See above and below for the photos, you can click to view them bigger on my Flickr page.

I also had a chance to put faces to many Twitter contacts, one of whom was the lovely Chris Bolton who blogs under the name What’s the PONT. He did a short post about my graphic recording work and what the benefits of a visual recording are – you can read it here.

If you would like to discuss what graphic recording could do for your organisation, events or team thinking, please do get in touch!

Graphic Recording a Community Vision Workshop with TYF

Last week I was asked to help capture a community vision workshop at Felinfoel, Llanelli, organised by TYF. The idea of the workshop was to bring in residents from the Communities First area around Llanelli to discuss what they want from the future in a positive way. The focus was on environmental issues and ideas and part of the workshop was about residents starting to create their own projects to tackle issues they care about in their immediate environment.

You can see more photos and detail on the Flickr set.

If you would like to discuss graphic recording for a workshop or community event, please get in touch!

 

Collaboration with an artist and mental health service users

Next week I will be taking part in a workshop providing a space for mental health service users to discuss their thoughts on stigma. The event is organised by artist Julia Thomas whose exhibition ‘Aletheia: In Unconcealment‘ is on at the Arcade Cardiff empty shop gallery space in Queens Arcade, Cardiff.

My role will be to illustrate a graphic recording of the discussion as it unfolds and provide the participants a visual reference point. I’m looking forward to it as I have wanted to see how people from so called vulnerable groups perceive visual facilitation and tools – I will post more about the process afterwards.

Regenerating historic churches – graphic recording

 

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending  Enterprising Heritage, an event held at the SW1 Gallery in London celebrating the achievements of The Churches Conservation Trust (TCCT).  The guests from heritage, third and private sector learned about the Trust’s strategic priorities of tourism, volunteering and philanthropy and heard speeches from the Rt Hon John Penrose, Minister for Tourism & Heritage, TCCT Chairman Loyd Grossman OBE and Emma Bridgewater of Emma Bridgewater Ltd. Read more…

Graphic recording – designing social enterprises

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to take part in a workshop organised by the Eco Design Centre and Llamau, a charity working with young homeless people in Wales. For some time now Llamau have been helping young people set up social enterprises and the idea of the workshop was to explore what design can do to help this process and give more confidence and focus for the young people to start making things happen. Read more…