Project “Colimaçon”
Awakening to noises, sounds and silence
2023 winning project for the educational research prize of “5 senses for kids Foundation”.
The project’s objectives
Photography credit: “Les Assemblées Mobiles” and Myriam Colin
What context can we create to get children, for a moment, to “be all ears”?
Project
Photography credit: “Les Assemblées Mobiles” and Myriam Colin
With artistic creation at the heart of the sensory journey, Colimaçon works to answer this question:
What context can we create to get children, for a moment, to “be all ears”?
After having been a speech therapist for deaf children for several years, I am today a dancer and choreographer. This project for children aged 0-3 is an adaptation of a previous creation. It invites me to weave links to sound starting from my practice linked first to the body and movement. So, it’s an opportunity to draw the thread from what I’ve been wearing, particularly since 2007, in the project “Bébéillez-vous !”[1]. This is an opportunity to transpose this experience focused on bodily awakening, towards an awakening to noises, sounds, and… silences.
¹ “Bébéillez-vous !” is a project of the “Assemblées mobiles” (www.lesassembleesmobiles.eu) aimed at children aged 3 and over and those who accompany them. Since 2007, we have been inventing contexts for experience and playful exploration, training sessions for professionals, information for parents, as well as a program of reflection and action on social, artistic and cultural issues. , scientists linked to the world of Early Childhood from the primary point of view of body and movement.[1]EGAN, Kieran The Educated Mind – How cognitive tools shape our understanding-, Chicago & Londres, éd. University of Chicago press, Chicago & Londres, 1998, p.5
Human beings discover the world through physical and sensory exploration
Human beings discover the world, above all, through physical and sensory exploration. This is particularly true when they are children but it is also true throughout life: language and even thought keep “the inevitable imprint of the body”². The mode of communication and understanding is primarily physical and sensory, somatic one might say. The primary mode of relationship is through the sensitive. And there are plenty of senses: whether we’re talking about the usual 5 senses, or the 6 senses if we add the sense of movement – described almost 25 years ago by Alain Berthoz³, or even the 12 meaning, if we go as far as Rudolf Steiner⁴ could.
² EGAN, Kieran The Educated Mind – How cognitive tools shape our understanding-, Chicago & Londres, éd. University of Chicago press, Chicago & Londres, 1998, p.5
³ BERTHOZ Alain, Le Sens du Mouvement, éd. Odile Jacob, 1997
⁴ In addition to the traditional sense of sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing Rudolf Steiner adds the vital, balance, kinesthetic and thermal sense but also the sense of speech, of the thoughts of others and of the personality of others c.f. SOESMAN Albert, “Les 12 Sens“, éd. Triades, 2000 for more details.
Whatever the case, the relationship with oneself, with the world and with others is thus created in a multimodal way, outside of any conceptual division. Young children are thus neither conditioned nor partitioned.
To “be all ears” is therefore not “to become all ears”, because it is with your whole person that you listen.
Deploy attention and create the listening situation: the creative process
Colimaçon is a proposal that consists of several experimental modules, such as a playground with several apparatus. Each one is dedicated to a listening situation that I wish to develop: alone or with others, mobile or immobile, eyes closed or eyes open, in a position more or less close to the ground (taking the main steps from horizontal to vertical, to come to stand up, move towards walking and the first steps), with scales of sound perception going from very close to the most distant, etc…
For this new episode dedicated to 0-3 year olds, I am looking for new playmates, visual artists and/or scenographers who can give shape to what I wear.
In my eyes, the objects and space created must have the primary quality to create a relationship: affordance⁵. That is to say, they must intrinsically encourage people to “go towards”. Suggest a use, but without imposing it, leaving room for everyone’s means and creativity. They must be sufficiently⁶ inviting and open for everyone to appropriate them in an intimate way, without overly pre-defining the experience that will take place.
⁵ The psychologist James J. Gibson gave shape to the concept by proposing the term affordance in 1977 in The Theory of Affordances and then explored it further in the Ecological Approach to Visual Perception published in 1979.
⁶ This adverb (good-enough in English) is used by the psychologist Donald Winnicott who was inspired by the ideas of Mélanie Klein to mean neither too much nor too little (in his case about a sufficiently good mother).
My heart goes towards the use of natural elements. Walnut shells, pieces of dried wood, stones, etc… sound good, and can be gleaned simply during walks.
The challenge in this aspect is also that of transmission. I imagine moments of experience, sharing and construction thanks to which each adult will be able to leave with more ideas and autonomy to add sensitive moments to their daily life.
Genesis
A project on this theme was created for children aged 3 and over following a residency in nursery class in Strasbourg in 2021
In use, the wealth and potential anticipated for the youngest seems interesting and important to deploy.
For the version designed for 3-year-olds in a yurt, creators have already made objects, scenography, and a visit booklet.
They could be an interesting basis for work.
Outlook
Confirmed and prospective partners:
. Early childhood center of the Training Center for Performing Musicians (CFMI of the University of Strasbourg).
. Early childhood service of the City of Brest (in progress).
. As well as the search for complementary partners for the current creation, and the associated cultural actions. Ultimately, the idea of collaborating with a scientific team also interests us.
Calendar
. Week from February 19 to 25, 2024 with 1st year students from CFMI Sélestat during a highlight dedicated to early childhood.
. Then 4 to 5 weeks of residency (research, construction, testing, sharing and restitution) over the 2024-25 season (under discussion with partners).
Project impacts
Photography credit: Mathilde Melero. Non-contractual image..
Quantitative assessment
The number of children concerned but also the number of adults: professionals, parents, extended families, siblings, etc.
Qualitative evaluation
Observations made by parents and professionals, and possibly by the children themselves. Observations will focus on the following points: attention span, interaction with objects and the sound environment, interaction with other people present by choosing or multiplying modes of relationship (sounds, silence, gaze, body language, etc. ..).