Radiococo Broadcast #39
Being with/in material
I have been meaning to share process bits from my thesis project in these monthly(ish) broadcasts but every time I reflect and start to piece together things worth sharing, the project keeps growing and developing and it has gotten so big now that I find it so hard just to break off little pieces and present them without the whole. A fuller process documentation in the form of a website is also in the works, and that is for me to situate the project within the academic setting that I am in (for only another 1.5 months 🫣😱😭) and for future work/practice purposes.
Toiling away at this project for almost 7 months, and 7 months ago I did not know that one of them would take the shape of a giant pillow blob flying galaxy cloud installation. I didn't know until the last week of February that I would be working with rip-stop nylon, a textile I have never worked with before, spending days and nights sewing and sewing and sewing a 6x3.5 m inflatable pillow.
It has never been more clear to me now that the way I work with kids is grounded in improvisation and intuition. I am not interested in giving directions, I want to have a dialogue through materials and making together. We got to the idea of the giant pillow when we were working on printmaking and textiles, and then later painting on a little dome inflated by a fan. When they tried squeezing under the dome, I asked: What if I made something big enough for all of us to fit in it? Sure, they shrugged, not knowing how I might be able to accomplish that or what that might look like (I didn't know then either). I did the first giant patchwork pillow, and when I met the kids it was so beautiful and sunny out (spring was so close) that we decided to be outdoors and let the pillow be inflated mostly by the wind, sat in our little fika circle inside and moved along with the materials as the wind moved through it.
Since coming from the previous painting-on-dome workshop, many tutors asked if I was going to do the same in the giant pillow, if so, what was the prompt, and why would the children engage with it that way? All very valid questions, and I had so many ideas: using glow-in-the-dark paints, cave drawings, dream drawings etc, but the more I thought about it, the more forced it felt. I had no idea how the kids would respond to it, and I decided then that no, we would not paint or draw or add to it. We will be with and in the material, and I wanted to be with them in that process.
It turned out to be the best workshop session up till that point. There were so many reflections on what it was, what it could be (fort, treehouse, murder mystery storytelling vehicle), what it felt like (so big! refreshing! cool!) and the biggest revelation:
I thought it was so obvious that it was something I made (crooked sewing lines and all), but I guess it wasn't. The boy was holding a gopro I brought then, and filming me as I was sharing the process, then he turned the camera to himself and started translating what I was saying to swedish, pointing to the stitches and explaining that I spent a few days sewing this, and how it took over my flat. I had no idea who he thought his audience was, and it probably didn't matter; in that moment, he was a vlogger and reflecting on what he had found.
At the end, we talked about having this in a gallery space, about having more blobs, and sharing this giant pillow blob with others. I asked: what if we made it even bigger??! YES. This time I knew how and got to work, driving to a textile factory 2h away from Gothenburg to pick up more rolls of fabric in their reject box and got to sewing for hours. Before the next workshop, the questions (from peers and tutors) came round again– will they paint/ print on it? Is it still about cave drawings/ dreams/ creatures? And again, there was a part of me that felt like that would be an interesting direction, especially because this time the giant pillow was all white. A blank canvas. But again, there were variables. We were going to be indoors this time, I sewed a wind tube so that the fan can inflate this 6m blob, but I have never tried that before, and I don't know if it will even work. It seemed too much to add more to it, and deep down inside I knew this was not the time/ project to explore those themes.
I decided we will with/in the material, plus there is a possibility that the kids from the last workshop will not be there and it will be a new thing for them. And that is already a lot. Once again, the kids interacted and reflected in ways that would never have been possible if I hadn’t given the kids and the giant pillow the space they needed.
The biggest moment came towards the end when:
The sweetest boy leading a little grounding, meditating session for us all, completely self-initiated and motivated?! Unbelievably precious.
It often feels radical to sit and be. Sitting with feelings, complexities, nuance, but it reveals so much when we do, and when we do it with kids, regardless of age/ language differences. It's funny, because I think that something I have been trying to do is to react less and to sit and observe, and my subconscious must have led my heart and hands to create circumstances for me to do that 🥲
Be with/in material!!!
April also marks 4! years of Radiococo, so thank you for sitting with this broadcast, it means so so so much to me 💓☁️
I love this story of your glorious giant air cushion and all the tiny humans who came to touch it! Happy Birthday Radiococo!
happy birthday radiococo, you r 4 and ever more precious. 🤍