Image: Participant playing with a live greenscreen feed in one of the Family SEND workshops.
Autograph Family SEND programme
2019 - present
In 2019, I started working with Autograph to develop a new, monthly workshop programme for Families with children with SEND and complex needs.
Informed by my own methodology of making in the studio, and ideas of child-led creative play, activities full of sensory experimentation were developed for families. See Autograph’s website for more about the Family SEND programme.
Autograph’s Livvy Murdoch and I discuss the programme more in depth in a blog post ‘Totally Brilliant Chaos’.
We also had a pop-up exhibition responding to the programme, ‘As We Are But Not As You Know Us’ in the beginning of 2020.
Video: Greenscreen films by participants shown as part of ‘As We Are But Not As You Know Us’ (2020)
Exhibition text:
A participatory, green screen installation designed by Katriona Beales in response to the Family SEND program at Autograph.
Who do you want to be? And where? Step inside and see how green screen technology used in film and TV can be a tool for transformation, challenging how others perceive us and how we perceive ourselves.
With green screen, backdrops can be digitally layered onto anything green in a film set. These insertions can be drawings, photographs or moving images. Combined with filming on a live projection, the technology allows us to create and remake our surroundings as we perform – free to enjoy unfamiliarity.
Artist and educator Katriona Beales has used green screen in Autograph’s first-ever programme for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities). With their families, children made films of themselves surrounded by the fantastical backdrops and props they created. Through play and collaboration, stories were told and alternate ways of being imagined.
As We Are But Not As You Know Us expands on these workshops, transforming the gallery into an installation of green fabric, video projection and sensory materials. During the course of the installation a series of workshops were open to members of the public and families, as well as a CPD event for arts professionals exploring Creative Play and SEND.
With special thanks to:
The parents, carers and children who have attended Autograph’s Family Workshops for Children with SEND
Alyssa McLennan and Mahul Patel, Family Workshops for Children with SEND volunteers
Part of Ways of Being, a month of exhibitions and events at Autograph focused on issues of visibility and disability. Curated by Ali Eisa and Lucy Keany.
As We Are But Not As You Know Us
Participatory Greenscreen installation at Autograph
2020
Images: Install shots of ‘As We Are But Not As You Know Us’ (2020)