Using creativity to talk about emotions

Life includes ups and downs for everyone. Strengthening our capacity to tolerate unsettling feelings and building our resilience so that we recover quickly from setbacks are both vital to well-being. Throughout history, artists from all disciplines have recognised the importance of documenting and exploring ‘felt experiences’.

Studio Mnemonic together with illustrator Seif Alhasani, Iniva and A Space, worked with Newport Primary School Ambassadors in London on a one day workshop investigating the A-Z of Emotions where pupils explored how we can, through visual images, explain feelings which otherwise can be difficult to communicate.

The practical workshop started with each pupil being given a plain 3D letter and an emotion beginning with that letter. A lengthy discussion followed focusing on the meaning behind each emotion and how the letters could be decorated to communicate this. Each pupil also composed a personal written description of what their given emotion meant for them.

 

The workshop ended with each pupil presenting their finished letter and the thoughts behind it. This highlighted the fact that the workshop wasn’t simply an exercise in aesthetics but a way to really think about how to use a certain colour or material to communicate an emotion. All letters were then photographed and, together with the pupils’ written descriptions, made into a printable PDF which could be used in future exercises.

The photographs of the original letters made in the workshop were featured on the Iniva website so that other schools locally, nationally and internationally can follow Newport’s example and create their own.

 

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) creates exhibitions, publications, multimedia, education and research projects engaging with new ideas and emerging debates in the contemporary visual arts which reflect the diversity of contemporary society. www.iniva.org

A Space  – for creative learning support is designed to pilot new approaches to consulting directly with children and young people about their needs and delivering therapeutic support services and activities in and out of curriculum time designed to meet the emotional, psychological, educational and social needs of children and young people. www.aspaceinhackney.org

Seif Alhasani is a London based illustrator and designer who create original, clever and playful illustrations for both printed and digital mediums. www.seifalhasani.com