creative inquiry & practice

In my spare time, I take on occasional work as a creative practitioner, designing and facilitating creative workshops for school-aged children and families. My workshops explore science and design-technology (DT) themes through arts-informed methods of inquiry. They are hands-on, messy and exploratory, and my practice centres children as researchers in their own right, encouraging them to test and play with ideas as active co-investigators.

I draw on my materials science background to help explore the inner worlds of different materials, and often use collaging and other tactile processes to facilitate creating pieces that tell the stories embedded in the objects and materials around us. I have learnt that making is its own form of knowing and a way of asking questions about the world. I usually work with things salvaged from recycle bins and stuff that others have thrown away.

Whenever I can, I make space for a little puppetry… Puppets have become a total obsession for me over the past couple of years, even sneaking into my academic research! I love making small crankies and simple paper puppets and automata, exploring movement and storytelling. I am still very much an amateur and will probably never reach pro standard, thanks to my complete lack of dexterity and motor skills! But I love this art form so much and its all creative possibilities… opening up new ways of peeking into the secret lives of things… There are one or two of examples of stuff I’ve done on my YouTube channel and Instagram Page.

In my engineering research, I also use artful inquiry to explore difficult or ethical questions and to reflect on my own position within the work. This continues to be part of my ongoing commitment to decolonial practice. I often work in my kitchen or caravan as I don’t have a studio space of my own. Luckily my family don’t seem to mind a little mess!