Working with young people who have a neurodisability to interrogate research into neurodisability and devise fun ways of communicating their experience.
The Making of AniMates – Participating in Leisure from AniMates on Vimeo.
AniMates is an ongoing collaboration between Newcastle University researcher Jen McAnuff, the National Institute for Health Research and young people with neurodisability.
As lead artist I work with the project researcher to devise and deliver workshop sessions. The sessions support the young participants to respond to, interrogate and disrupt research about neurodisability being undertaken by Newcastle University and NIHR and other partners. We recognise the young people as experts in terms of lived experience of neurodisability. The workshops use a range of experimental, improvised approaches and a wide variety of media to enable them to communicate this experience.
Outcomes so far include animations, light paintings using long exposure photography, large scale mono-prints and a board game. For the latter we appropriated and ‘hacked’ the game ‘Snakes and Ladders.’ Using snakes to represent challenges and ladders to represent interventions, the game is designed to help articulate research about the participation of young people with neurodisability in leisure activities.
Funded by The National Institute for Health Research & Newcastle University.
