Memories old and new

Working with the patients from St Christopher's Hospice and the students from Brit School was a unique experience for everyone involved. Building a bridge between generations allowed each to view the other with a new perspective. The students were able to witness and attest to a living history, as the patients recounted their memories. The patients became aware of the similarities of youth through time, were invigorated by the students youthful presence and felt both respected and honoured by the interest in their stories. One patient remarked to me that they learned so much from the students as well, and that it was good to break past the stereotype in the media of youth and youth culture. Creating the drawings together of the stories they shared, help cement the bond between the two groups. The real sense of amazement came when the students presented the drawings in animated sequences. For patients at the end of their lives, to see a part of their personal stories created into a beautiful art form was quite an honour. The students entered the first day with some reservations and unwareness of what to expect, but left the last day with new friends and a new perspective of life and death and the journey in between.
- Roberto, Community Artist

The Fairy Tale Ending

The final day was just brilliant everything went surprisingly to plan. The viewing of the animations was entertaining even for the student as we hadn’t seen them all completed. The patients were happy with the animations with their drawings and all the students had couple seconds of self consciousness as their introduction clip came up. I do not think the day could have gone any better! If I had more time i would take the time to put the music transition together better. And i would have taken more clips and put a quicker time frame between each picture so that it run through more quickly and smoothly. I would have also done the whole shoot again because i was not happy how the whole image would move some times. I also think i would have benefited with a light controlled room so it could be a bit more realistic. Apart from those minor things there is nothing i would have changed!

Final day at ST Christiphors

Yesterday was the final day working at the hospice , it was a really great day . The main point of the day was to showcase our animations that we had been working on over the past few weeks, consisting of the patient's stories and the drawings of our stories. I think they enjoyed the animations and watching the drawings turn into animations through the weeks . We also put the blog on show so they could check out our feedback to the project, we also showed our sketchbooks, the posters we were working on last week and some display boards explaining what we have been doing in much more detail with pictures, print screens and a few words about it. I think the project has been a great sucess and we have produced some really great work with the patients.

Celebration day!

It was the day to celebrate all of the animations we had made and work we have done with the patients. The weather was hot and sunny which allowed us to open up the exhibit outside, we displayed all of our work on the project on presentation boards outside on tables or hanging under the marquee. Once everyone had looked around we played the final show of our animations inside the pavilion. The short film had all of the animations joint together with different introductions talking about each animation from either students or patients. The day had a great turn out so many people came to watch and everyone who came seemed really impressed with the work.

FINAL DAY

Today was the final showing of all the animations. We arrived at the hospice at 9 o'clock and began setting up the bunting, displaying the presentation boards and putting up the marquees, not to forget the balloons and some cakes Alice made. We then went inside to watch the animations that were projected off the lap top. All of the animations had been fully finished and finally cut. Everyone seemed to enjoy the animations and everyone felt proud of all the hard work they had put into the project.
With special thanks to the community artist Roberto, who has been working along side us with the project from the beginning and our teachers Zoe and Alice, and of course the residents, who we will miss.

Celebration & Evaluation!

On Wednesday 1st July we had our celebration day at St. Christopher's Hospice. It was a hectic morning trying to get everything done in time for everybody arriving: Boards and bunting had to be hung, pictures needed to be displayed, gazebos had to be raised, balloons needed to be blown up and the animations, the slideshow and display of the blog needed to be set up.

We worked through any setbacks and we were ready in time for everybody arriving. We showed people and patients around the display, explaining the project and our work, before going to view the animations inside. After a cheesy introduction of the group waving, it was great to see everyone's reaction to the animations. The introductions to the animations by the patient's were brilliant. Their brief summarys reinforced the narrative of the animations when the story was sometimes hard to tell. Everyone had a great time watching the animations, (despite looking away when seeing ourselves speaking on camera) they were all successful in their own way. We had great feedback from everyone watching which was great to hear as it meant all our hard work was worth it.

The project as a whole has been a fantastic experience. It has been fun creating animations which is something we hadn't done before. At first it was hard to get my head round the process of animation and how to create one, but through the workshops I have understood the processes and I now love creating art through animation. It has been great working with great tutors, a great group and great patients, each one of them individual, each bringing something different to our time at St. Christopher's. For me it has been a very humbling experience, working with people who are in fact nearing the end of their lives, and I shall take from my time there a greater respect for all the hard work the team at St. Christopher's do. I hope also the patients benefited from the time we spent with them, as we had fun meeting and working with them.

Goodbye St. Christopher's!

Last Blog Post!

The 1st of July was our celebration day, rounding off the whole project, where we showed our animations and all of the other work we'd been doing with the patients. The weather was brilliant, which is a good thing for us as our presentation was mainly outside, the garden was strung up with balloons and marquees and looked like a village fayre. People began to filter in at around 11am, and it was lovely to see that people who weren't involved still came to see our work. We gave tours of all our work to the day patients and they seemed really pleased with every thing we, and they, had done. However, I think it got a little too hot for all of us and I had to break out the sunscreen!

We got such amazing feedback from everyone about our animations, everyone laughed in the right places and were really complimentary, which felt good considering the amount of effort we put into them! It's nice when you overhear people talking about your work in a positive way and realise they're not just saying it to be polite! I think that if I could do this project again I would like to work with a wider range of ages to gain stories from each generation. Also, I would love to have had longer to create my animations and perhaps try out some new techniques!

Overall I really enjoyed this project, its been a really humbling and emotional experience and I'm really looking forward to going back to St Christopher's for my work experience!

The perfect ending...

Today went so well! We arrived at St.Christopher's, nervous but excited about showing all the work we produced. 2 hours, some beautifully iced cup cakes, and a few metres of bunting later... we were good to go! The balloons may have burst, the markees may have been slightly on the short side, but everything fell in to place and displayed the work to its best potential!

The showing of the animations was even better than i expected, and the audience reactions felt amazing. It was lovely to see the amazement in the patients faces as they watched their life stories displayed in animation. For me, that was the perfect ending to our time at St Christopher's, and also summed up the reason for being there in the first place.

To be honest, i'm really sad that our work with the hospice has come to an end, however i don't think the celebration day could have gone better! Furthermore, it was emotional saying goodbye to the patients that we worked with, as we all built up bonds and friendships in such a short time. However, i know we have all benefitted from this project, and developed as artists, students and most importantly, as people!

Thankyou for an amazing time, Patients, Roberto, Zoe, Alice, and everyone involved!

Wow - What an amazing Day!!!

We would like to thank everyone involved in this project. We had such an amazing time and it was so great to meet all the new faces. Check out the rest of the pics here.

4th WorkShop at St.Christophers

Our forth workshop at St.Christophers was really for us to just gather all the last bits and bobs that we shall be needing for the presentation for the Celebration Day. Bradley went around getting the patients to give an introduction for their story which shall be placed before their animation clip we made from them. Dean and I helped the patients to create flags from their country and one of their own which will be put up alongside the presentation boards. Lucus and Teddy were working on posters to go up aswell. Anna and Josie were doing self portraits. The only thing missing now the actual performance and the end of the anticipation and the viewing of the animation made by us.

Ron's hidden talent!- self portrait workshop

Fourth Workshop

We started the fourth workshop with all of our materials prepared. Lee and myself got straight on with making the bunting, making flags of the different ethnic groups at the Hospice. First of all we sat down with Fred and he helped us make the Irish flag and the Guyanan flag. Lee and myself had already prepared the Union Jack and the Jamaican flag which seemed to impress Ron. Ron then created his own flag (peace and love), Jill also created her own flag that we all made out of different coloured card. The session rounded to a close leaving piles of work accomplished. For the rest of the week I am going to finish the bunting and finish editing my animation.

The Last Workshop!

I really enjoyed the workshop today! We set up four mini stations where the patients could get involved in different types of activities, this included self portraits, flag making, painting and video storytelling!... This style of workshop was a good change that ment the patients were able to experience a variety of activities, and also allowed us students to work with, and get to know the patients that we hadnt previously communicated with!
Josie and I asked the patients interview style questions and managed to get some great quotes (see josie's post) to write up and display on celebration day. We then put our mirrors and markers to use, and created some fabulous self portraits to combine with the quotes to give the display a really personal and creative touch!

4th Visit to St. Christopher's

Today was the 4th workshop at St. Christopher's, we were creating work for our Celerbration Day on the 1st July. Ted and I designed some posters in black and white relating to wartime to tie in the with the D-Day type decorations, so some of the patients could colour them in so they could add their own little bit to the posters. We used water colours because they are quite an easy medium to work with and I like the light colour wash with them also. I am pleased with the outcome of today, we got alot of posters done to display on Celebration day.

Workshop 4

In today's workshop, Anna and I gathered some feedback from the patients on their time spent working with the BRIT students.

Nora said ; "It was good, the students were really easy to talk to."

Ron said ; "It's good to see younger people working with older people as the younger generation are sometimes misunderstood. You have to understand that this is a changed world where youth have new problems to face."

Annette said ; "I've enjoyed meeting all of you. Its good to have something different to take my mind off of my illness. Thank you!"

We also asked everyone to draw a self portrait, which everyone one was reluctant to do, but they came out really well! We'll be putting them onto display boards for everyone to see next Wednesday!

Workshop 4

Today we got the chance to have some fun with the patients at St. Christopher's. The previous weeks we had been focused on completing the necessary tasks in order to make our animations, so this week it was nice to do something different with the patients, making preparations for celebration day next week. Different students were set up different stations doing different activities. My task was to film a brief summary of the patients telling their stories, which could then be used to introduce the animations, as through some of the animations, it may be difficult to understand the story. This was one of my favorite things we have done at St Christopher's. All of the patients were able to sit in front of the camera and openly talk about their stories, some emotional ones, which was great as some people can find it difficult being filmed. The result is fantastic: clear and concise introductions from the patients, which is going to make the animations shown on celebration day even better!

3rd workshop at St Christiphors

The 3rd workshop at St Christiphors we worked with the patients to draw some of our stories, i was working with Jill . I had never worked with her before, she drew very fast so we got a good amount of drawing to transform into an animation. Next week we want to show the patients some of the animations we have been working on in the week and try and get some sound bytes to put into a installation that will be shown at Celebration Day.

St Christopher's 3rd Workshop

The workshop started like the previous ones with us all in a circle. We had a quick discussion about the work we had been doing over the week. We then shared all the animations through a projector connected to a lap top. Everyone seemed pleased with the portrayal of their stories, especially Fred who thoroughly enjoyed our animation. We then broke off into smaller groups, Lee and myself being with Fred again. We began working on the stories we had told them last time, mine being about the time I took my snake on the train up to Great Ormond Street Hospital, because my consultant kept asking me to, as he was an avid snake fan. I then drew out key points of my story wth a light pencil and Fred then drew over these with a fine liner and inks. This helped Fred gain confidence with drawing and by the end of the session he was drawing free hand. I have taken away many resources from todays session and have a lot to work with over the coming week. It should be really fun working with the new animations.

Third Week Workshop Response

Since working at the hospice I have learnt many things, the last week in particular, was very influential, we told the patients stories about our personal experiences which they then drew with our help, in different types of pen, pencil and ink. I really enjoyed this because it was interactive and I got to know Annette, the person i was helping, a lot better. At first Annette was shy to draw but with my help we soon produced something. I enjoyed the fact it was a collaborative effort.

Discovering Nora's Drawing Skills!

In my opinion, today's workshop was the most productive day yet! Josie and I spent the morning illustrating our story with Nora, resulting in enough images and backgrounds to start our animation! To start, Nora was quite reluctant to draw as she didn't want to make a mistake, however, after a pep talk and some practice, we discovered Nora was quite nifty with a bamboo nib and some ink! Especially when Fiat Punto's and brick walls are involved!... very impressed!

3rd Workshop St. Christophers Hospice

The start of today's workshop was set out like most of the others. Roberto introduced the group and then we showed our small animations on a lap top projector. It was great to finally show all the patients their stories and Fred particularly liked his. After the showing of animations was over we had a quick feedback session. We then broke off into our groups as usual, me and Lee being with Fred again. Like the previous week we were sharing our stories with them. Mine being about the time I took my snake on the train up to Great Ormond Street Hospital, as my consultant loved snakes. Fred found this story rather amusing. I then drew the key points of the story, which Fred then drew over. This helped him gain confidence with drawing and by the end of the session he was drawing free hand.

Animation Preview

Annette's Apple Tree

Third Workshop at St Christopher's

Our aim for today's workshop was to get the patients to draw stories that we shared with them about our experiences of our childhood and teenage years. We needed them to make these narrative drawings so that we can make an animation out of them. So we really were sewing the gap between our teenage hood and theirs! Surprsingly, it was not as hard to get them to draw this week as it was last week! I think it was because we built a method of drawing the out line first so they patients could draw over it in pen or an ink tool. We got alot of material and i am excited to see what we come up with.....

Plan for Next Workshop

Throughout the days leading up to our next workshop at St Christophers, we will be bringing to life the drawings the patients did of our stories during today's workshop. The imagery we've gathered from the patients has a lot of personality and it should be a lot of fun turning them into animations together. The next workshop we will hopefully be showing them parts of the animations we are creating this week. They will be in black and white, using the illustrations we created together with the patients. I think it will be really exciting to see how we can fuse the patients' drawing talents with the animation skills we have learnt to bring our stories to life.

Workshop 3 and Plans for Next Week!

Today we had our third visit to St. Christopher's Hospice. This week we asked the patients to draw our stories. I was working with a woman named Gladys who was a bit reluctant to draw at first, but when she got into it she was amazing, documenting my story using a range of different materials. I can now take the drawings she did and construct an animation around them over the next two weeks, which we can share on our celebration day. Next week in the workshop we will be working with the patients, creating presentations, displays and decorations etc, all of which we can display on celebration day. As mentioned before, the theme is around London, using colours such as red, white and blue. We have a few ideas to be working on with the patients next week such as making bunting, and creating sound bites of the different stories to display as an interactive sound piece on our final sharing.

Sneaky Peek at Workshop 3

This is us working with the residents on drawings that illustrate our stories. We are going to be turning them into animations in the next couple of weeks.

Second Workshop at St Christopher’s Hospice

We began the workshop as a whole group and re introduced ourselves to the new patients who had joined us. We had a showing of a segment of an animation made by Dean of ‘Fred’s’ story. The story is autobiographical and tell’s the tale of Fred’s evacuation during WWII and his return to London by sea, where he was met with devastation and the death of close family members. Fred seemed really pleased with the section that he saw, which included the evacuation, the fighter planes and the bomb shelter.
This week we had to share our own stories to the resident’s of the Hospice. One lady, called Frida, who was probably in her late seventies remarked how she could not undestand why todays teenagers were so violent and invoved in gangs. This sparked a debate between us which was intriging. We learnt a lot about perspective and she believes that what happens to young people now will effect them when they are older. Frida was a very positive and a very open minded lady. She grew up in the contryside which has now become very built up.
This second workshop was much more comfortable than the first. Everyone seemed much more relaxed and confident.

Workshop Number 2

At our second workshop at St. Christopher’s Hospice, we began by displaying and discussing the work we had created based on last week’s workshop. We were introduced to new faces, and then we broke off into groups to begin sharing our stories. This week the patients had a chance to draw our stories, whereas last week we drew theirs. This week I was working with a woman called Jackie, a new addition to our group. She was extremely talkative and enthusiastic, very eager to share her own exciting experiences. She had a fantastic general knowledge, often saying that she was, in her own words, educating me. I told her we were visual arts and design students from The Brit School to which she replied ‘there’s no money in that is there’. When it came to her drawing my story, she was very reluctant to put pencil to paper, claiming that she was ‘no good at that arty farty stuff’. After some persuasion, I managed to get her to draw an image from my story, which was great because at first she didn’t want to do anything. On the other hand, she gave me some great stories to illustrate and work with to create a future animation. It was great working with her because she was so funny; hopefully next week I can persuade her to do some more drawings.

School Dinners and Homework!

Today was our 2nd workshop at St.Christopher's. It was nice to see that more patients arrived and wanted to be part of the project, allowing us to work in larger, less intimidating groups. We sat in groups of 2 students, and two or three patients. This was just as intimate as one on one, however the conversations developed into a detailed and more light hearted approach to telling stories, with more opinions and patient to patient communication. I enjoyed listening to Nora, Hazel and Jill, as they described their fondest, and worst memories of being at school. This also gave me and Josie a chance to compare our experiences, and discuss with the patients how much education and teaching approaches have changed over the years. This resulted in an amusing rant about school dinners and homework, and an emotional discussion about bullying and punishment, such as disturbing memories that including suffering the cane! I learnt a lot from the patients, and hope i gave them an enjoyable experience of learning new drawing skills!

Patient Response to Animations So Far

Today we showed the patients samples of our animations so far, which they seemed to respond really well to. It took a while for them to understand the way in which we are animating the illustrations, as we are using a variation of styles and methods. They seemed to appreciate the effort and time we put into the work and enjoyed flicking through the imagery on the digital cameras. We dicscussed putting music to the love story Anna is animating, perhaps the song played at their wedding, which they danced the quickstep to. We recieved some really positive feedback and the patient whose story it is was excited to see the finished animation next week.

The second visit to St Christopher’s

We visited the hospice for the second time today. The first thing I found was that it was much easier to talk to the residents because we had already met some of them and we had got to know them a little bit. Also , we showed them some animations of the stories that they had shared with us even though they where still being worked on. Some of the patients I was working with had never drawn much before in there lives. This was a little weird for us because we were so much younger and we ended up teaching them how to do it. When they got into it I think they really enjoyed it . I think we got some great drawing done by the residents for us to turn into an animation.

Plan for Workshop 2

On Wednesday we plan to share our personal experiences of youth in London with the patients at St Christopher’s Hospice. We will be asking them to illustrate the stories we tell and we will animate them back at college. This will be a good chance to build up a friendship with the patients as we will be comparing our stories with their stories. It is a good chance to learn about how times have changed and how London has changed too. To make the animations different to each other, our stories will be animated in black and white and the patients’ stories will be animated in sepia tones. They will be using inks and pens to illustrate our stories. We are looking forward to seeing the patients again and perhaps seeing some new faces in amongst them. We’re also really excited to see how the patients will react to our stories, and how different or similar they are due to the different times we are living in.

Josie and Lulu

Plans for Celebration Day

To mark the end of our residency at St. Christopher's, we will be holding a 'celebration day' on the 1st of july where we will exhibit the collabrative work between us and the patients. The theme is around London, street party, bunting etc combined with modern day technology, with a colour scheme of red, white and blue with gold. We will display our final animations, based around the theme 'Teenagers in London: Yesterday and Today', supported by visuals and sound bites of the stories. This week we have been discussing ideas about how to present our work on 'celebration day'. We have been thinking about using an old-fashioned telephone to exhibit the sound bites, projection of a street to give the feel of a street party, festival, celebration etc. In preparation for the event we will be creating our animations, visiting the hospice to perform workshops and regularly update the patients on our progress.
Bradley, Anna, Ellie

St. Christopher’s Proposals!

Today we all had to put together and present a proposal to our mentor as if we were really proposing to the St. Christopher’s governors. It was quite an intense couple of hours creating what we needed to propose. We needed to gather all the information we knew, prepare it, and practice it so that when it came to presenting it we'd deliver the information precisely and eloquently. Later on we all gathered in the computer room where we were to present. The nerves were beginning to rattle us and the smell of competition was filling the air . The first group went up. This was Josie and Lucas. Their presentation was very detailed touching on every point. This got the other groups worried. The second group went, this was Dean and Lee. Their presentation was more verbal than written down. They used PowerPoint to accompany their presentation and to remind them of what was needed to be said. Then finally, the last group went up, this was Anna, Bradley and Ellie. Their proposal was all done on presentation boards. They gave their speech as we looked at a neat cluster of images and writing, accompanied by a patriotic union jack. In the end all proposals were put the message across in a correct sublime order. The class mentor was impressed and pleased most probably with her self as well. On top of this we all took away a little piece of experience that will help us in the future when it comes to doing proposals and even job interviews!

See more...

See more images of our visits, workshops and classroom developments on our St Christopher's Community Project FlickR page.

Comments from the BRIT School Senior Management Team

"Living history and art as one. Can’t wait to see it develop."
Stuart Worden

"Indeed, what splendid insight into the world that is, St. Christopher’s!"
Lloyd Marshall

"I like the student’s observation that it was a ‘distraction from reality’ of illness, and I’m sure it goes deeper and that having attention paid really contributes to feeling better for a while." Jacqui Pick

Day 1 At The Hospice

Today was my first day doing a workshop at St. Christoher’s Hospice. I didn’t know what to expect so i approached the exerience with an open mind. The activity we took part in was to help us get to know the patients. We engaged in a conversation with them in order to share stories of the patient’s past and illustrated it on paper. This was difficult in the sense that i was drawing from my imaginatation, trying to visualise the stories in my head, which i found hard and on top of that it was extremly difficult to hear the patient at times as they spoke very quietly. But all in all i think it was a great experience for both us and the patients and i look forward to next week’s workshop.

FIRST DAY AT ST. CHRISTOPHER’S HOSPICE

I really feel that working with the patients at St. Christopher’s has given me a great insight into the past and present of London and some of it’s residents. I like how there are still many similarities between the London i know and the London the the patient’s remember. We started by introducing ourselves to each other as the patients were also meeting for the first time and we also discussed the project. We were then put into small groups with the patients and they started telling us memroble stories that we then drew. It was really nice to meet all the patients who were more than happy to share there stories.The stories varied from funny upbeat love storys to sad memorable war storys, it was very emotional at times and we all appreciated their time. I am very excited about creating an animation around the story I was told.

First Workshop Response

The first day i think went really well, I thought it may be hard and very upsetting working with the patients but it turned out to be really enjoyable. The patients were really helpful by telling me some really good storys about their youth to illistrate. At times i found it hard to hear as a patient spoke very quietly so i had to really listen carefully, this made the experience more intimate and personal. At first i found it hard to think of questions to ask her but once we developed a diolouge it became much more comfortable and natural. The patients seemed to be very happy and enjoyed talking about themselves and were also really intrested hearing storys about me.

response to the first day at the hospice

I think the first day at St Christopher’s went well, we meet some of the patients we were going to be working with in this project and started to listen to their stories about growing up and moving to England and we started sketching the narratives out. I thought it was going to be difficult working with them knowing that they are ill. I was worried it was going to be really emotional. It was a much more pleasant experience than I expected. The lady I was speaking to spoke about coming to London from South America and how strange the country felt to her. She remembered the shock of the winter and how beautiful the spring was. I really enjoyed illustrating her stories and showing them back to her.

The First Workshop

Today we had our first workshop with the patients at St. Christopher’s, where we tried to document a story from their life in the form of an animation. I met a man named Ron, who was very eager to share his stories, which was great, although this left me little time to do the actual drawing! In the group it was great to talk to each other about our past experiences and dicuss histories, as it distracted us from the reality that he was ill, and we were just able to enjoy being normal people. We all talked about London and how it has changed over the years. Ron was so enthusiastic and charismatic. It was a great experince for me as I learnt a lot from Ron, and for him I hoped I had given some enjoyment, having fun talking to a new face. I felt very humbled by talking to him.

Reactions to the first workshop

Working with the patients for the first time was a very interesting experience. I was suprised to find that it was really enjoyable listening to thier stories, and found out that i could relate to aspects of their lives that they described. I had no idea the patients would be so open to discuss quite personal, unique and in some cases, traumatic experiences, and felt more emotional than i had expected. Today has highlighted how the workshops will help us, as students, to develop our communication skills, and understanding of different situations of other people. Furthermore, it will allow the patients to experience the oppourtunity to work with a younger generation intersted in their childhood, and also express their emotions on various subjects, such as growing up in london. This also gave us inspiration to make the most out of our time at St Christophers, and as a result, giving the patients something to be proud to show their families and friends.

Response to Day One

Today was our first art workshop at St Christopher’s Hospice. I think everyone went in quite nervous and not really knowing what to expect, but it actually went really well and everyone, both patients and students, seemed to open up quite a bit. We shared some really personal stories about our experiences of growing up in England and it was really interesting to learn about different cultures and times. I enjoyed working in the smaller groups with one patient, as it was not so intimidating for us or them. I found that I made a real connection with the patient Anna and I worked with and found it fascinating to hear what an exciting life she has led. I think that this project will be really beneficial, not only for the hospice patients, but for us too, as it is a chance to learn about how life in London and youth used to be. It’s a chance for us to document the amazing experiences the patients have had and to be a little more selfless with the art we create, thinking more about the people we are creating it for, rather than just what we want to do.