Page 26 - Community Living Magazine 35-1

arts: music

Sound inventions

Young people created their own music – and instruments – to
keep them engaged in activity and with other people, thanks to
the Lifesize project, says Sam Dook

ifesize, which I co-founded in 2019, interactive and meaningful for the pupils
aims to give marginalised people access despite restrictions on working in person.
Lto unique, contemporary arts for I provided a variety of interactive
wellbeing. As well as community groups, we musical items for our group work and saw
work with people with learning disabilities the class through the lens of the camera
and special educational needs (SEN). operated by their teacher. It was very
Not long after the company was set up, surreal to be leading a class of 13 year-8
the pandemic came. We began to deliver SEN students through a process of music
interactive projects online and, thanks to an making from such a remote position but it All together now: the sonic tree is played by
emergency Arts Council England grant, had was a thrilling and rewarding experience. several people at the same time
time to develop and refine our approach.
Historic England funded a project where Growing a sound garden The aim was to make and use homemade
a group of young adults with learning As restrictions began to ease, we could instruments to create an accessible
disabilities from a day service used music build on our achievements thanks to soundscape that was not so much
to interpret a local area called the America Hastings Opportunity Area, which funded a dependent on ability to play an instrument
Ground. On the Hastings seafront, it is project to enable young people with SEN to as rooted in harnessing players’ curiosity
where 18th century settlers claimed re-engage with learning and develop to make an unusual sound piece.
independence from the local government relationships with peers and adults. Over 10 weeks, we embarked on a
and sought to build a new community. The toll of 18 months’ lockdown on fascinating journey collecting sounds that
We worked with the same group to these young people is hard to measure, would later be embedded into homemade
develop their musical and core skills in a and we wanted to take something fun and sound-trigger surfaces we called sonic
project in which they composed original exciting into school to connect with them. sound boards.
jingle music for a DJ on local station I devised the Sonic Garden as an We built in lots of core skills work, with
VDub Radio. This commission gave them a exploration into sound through the use of students cutting and preparing lengths of
tangible, real-world outcome as well as a unconventional sound-making items and wood and other materials in design and
challenging musical experience and they the DIY instrument building culture that is technology lessons to make instruments.
embraced and excelled at it. part of my own musical background.
Building on these positive outcomes, we When I was a teenager, my friends and I The road trip zither
worked with Saxon Mount, a local SEN had fun finding less ordinary ways to create In 1998 aged 22 on a road trip with some
secondary school, to bring a remote sounds. It felt like exciting, unchartered musician friends in America, I had built a
musical experience into their classrooms. territory for us young musicians. We would bass zither resembling a set of stairs, which
With support from teaching staff, we attach contact microphones to household I called the sonic stairway. Twenty-odd
realised a model of working that could be items, and retune, modify and rewire our years later, it proved to be an inspiration.
guitars into new configurations, finding As house band producer for Carousel (a
new ways of making sounds. learning-disability arts organisation in
The concept of the Sonic Garden was to Brighton), I supported a group of young
shine a light on the sound-making musicians in 2019 to design and build a
possibilities of less ordinary sound sources. multiplayer instrument called the sonic tree.
A performance at an experimental music
Sounds effective: a home-made bottlespiel; all event was well received by the audience.
hands on to build the sonic soundboard
The sonic tree and sonic stairway found
a home in the sonic garden. After a
successful pilot at Saxon Mount, this will
hopefully be making its way to other SEN
schools and community groups. n

Sam Dook is a musician and co-director of
Lifesize

 lifesize.org.uk
f lifesizecic
t LifesizeCIC
 lifesizecic Lifesize

26 Vol 35 No 1 | Autumn 2021 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk