Final workshops underway for ProFoundCoding

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Thanks to AnalysisPro and teachers Andrew Walker and Rachel Woodhouse for working with us over the past few months to develop our latest video tagging templates. The project won additional funding from CEWN to create new templates based around concepts of engagement to tag video sessions of children with profound and complex learning and communication difficulties. We will be releasing the template shortly along with instructions on ways to use and interpret the template for teachers in special schools. We will be adding the latest templates and information to our resource and website, ProFoundCoding which we released over the summer.

We spoke about the project at a recent CEWN special showcase event at the University of South Wales, Trefforest where we pitched the next stages to create new employment opportunities in special schools for Performance Analysis. Watch this space 🙂

 

Leah has a chat with Radio Cardiff about Breaking Bread

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Leah met up with Luke from Cardiff Voluntary Services Cardiff this week when he asked her to appear on their volunteering broadcast to talk about her latest project Breaking Bread. She talked about recent innovations with CARIAD and new plans to extend her recent successful workshops.

Leah has received some extended funding from Cardiff Met Alumni and development fund in the interim and the Breaking Bread team are exploring new opportunities. Watch this space! We shared our air time with @BulliesOut an award winning Charity providing help and support to people and organisations affected by bullying.

Thanks Luke, really enjoyed it and looking forward to working with you in the future 🙂 You can listen to the cast here http://www.mixcloud.com/CardiffInAction/

CARIAD works with Connected Studio at the Millennium Centre

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CARIAD has a fantastic day at the Millennium Centre today facilitating Connected Studio developing ways of making classical music more accessible to audiences through digital content and platforms. We also learned about new technologies and ideas to further establish links between academia and the media. We were reunited with Peter from PDR, Emily from School of Education and Katherine from CSAD.

We had an eventful day designing our new ‘Classy App’, a prototype to condense and consolidate some of the content on BBC 3 Radio, to renew and reinvigorate an audience with an interest in classical music but perhaps a bit shy about taking those initial first steps into the genre. Thank you Connected Studio, BBC, Hannah, CEWN and everybody else organising such a successful dynamic day, lots of possibilities!

CARIAD participate in mini film festival at Gidihw pub and venue in Cardiff City Centre

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1392602_398499730279680_1743126601_nCARIAD were honoured to receive an invite from filmmaker Clary Saddler to participate in a fund raising event for MACMILLAN Cancer support. She hosted a Mini film festival at Gwdihw pub and venue in Cardiff. http://gwdihw.co.uk/category/events/ The event was a huge success raising hundreds for a worthy cause and also networking and putting creative people in touch with one another over a drink and song.

Please if you have a moment show your support here. http://www.justgiving.com/Clary-Saddler1 CARIAD were able to show some of their videos with artists working through the medium of ceramics filmed as a part of Leah Mc Laughlin’s PhD research project ‘The ways moving-images reveal ceramic artists interactions with their materials’. We also showed new CARIAD promotional materials from recent events for example our launch at the Senedd. See more details of the day and how you can become involved here: https://www.facebook.com/CardiffsMiniFilmFestival?v=wall&filter=2

CARIAD has its official launch at the Senedd supported by Leanne Wood AM and Eluned Parrott AM

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CARIAD had our biggest event to date on Thursday, our official launch at the iconic Senedd building in Cardiff bay. We were honoured to have the support of three assembly members. Leanne Wood AM officially launched the centre and offered wonderful words of support and encouragement for the team. Eluned Parrott AM was our official sponsor and made the day possible. She presented some insightful thoughts and offered her congratulations to the successes of CARIAD thus far. We are looking forward to welcoming Eluned Parrott AM at some of our workshops in the near future! Jenny Rathbone AM also attended the day in full support of all of our research projects. We were also thrilled to have the wonderful Glynis from the Hollies School and Anthony from Trinity Fields on the podium to represent our stakeholders and say a few words about their experiences working with CARIAD. John Killick from Dementia Positive closed the session with a touching poem and invited everybody to come and have fun at his workshop later.

In true CARIAD style the day was much much more than a launch, we also hosted two separate workshops and demonstrated some of our capturing and video coding technologies working with AnalysisPro LTD http://www.analysispro.net/ and the Centre for Performance Analysis http://www3.cardiffmet.ac.uk/english/sport/about/staff/academic/pa/pages/home.aspx

CARIAD paper prototypingWendy’s Paper Prototyping workshop used paper to rapid prototype interactive and non-verbal communicative devices. The morning invited our PLC (professional learning community) group in Gesture-Based Technologies http://kinectsen.wikispaces.com/ and many new stakeholders to come up with a technology, using only paper, which might facilitate communication. These were presented back to the group and a vote was taken on which technology to develop further. The ‘rhythm detector’ won in the end and our invited coding and technology experts from our partner’s at CARIAD Interactive http://cariadinteractive.com/ created a code and working prototype which we were all playing on by the end of the session, not bad for a day’s work!

john killickOur second workshop was last of Cathy’s OPAN funded sessions, we invited John Killick from Dementia Positive to come and run one of his infamous ‘invitation to have fun’ events, and fun it was. We made human statues, described objects through touch and even had a puppet show! While the sound of laughter was echoing from the building throughout the day the message was poignant: Dementia is not something to be frightened of or to shy away from. We need to find ways to engage with it and adopt a more positive and responsive attitude towards investigating and understanding some of the underlying features of the condition and ‘we must not be afraid to laugh’! You can read more about the day’s events and see more pictures here on Cardiff Met’s main page: http://www3.cardiffmet.ac.uk/English/News/Pages/CardiffMetlaunchesinteractiveandinclusiveartsresearchfacility.aspx
Our latest edition to the team Steve Coleman PhD student (read about him here http://cariadblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/cariad-awarded-ria-research-innovation-award-to-support-new-phd-student-steve-coleman-investigating-the-benefits-of-creative-play-for-people-with-dementia/ ) also made this fantastic video documenting the day’s events, take a look https://vimeo.com/75386114 thanks Steve!

CARIAD really has so many people to thank for the successes of the day and rather than thank a few here publicly we would rather thank EVERYBODY privately. Here’s looking forward to making this an annual event, thanks to all involved

 

CARIAD awarded RIA (Research Innovation Award) to support new PhD Student Steve Coleman investigating the benefits of creative play for people with dementia

Posted on by Wendy

DSC02110CARIAD are delighted to announce the latest edition to the team, our first fully funded PhD student Steve Coleman. Steve was awarded the prestigious RIA (Research Innovation Award) scholarship from Cardiff Met to research the therapeutic benefits of creative ludic play for people with dementia. This is a part of one of CARIAD’s bigger projects led by Cathy into well-being within the aging population.

Steve completed an outstanding Masters here at Cardiff Met which looked at the healing potentials of being playful. We are thrilled that he has been given the opportunity to develop the project here at CARIAD and to have such a dynamic and committed new academic associate to contribute to the centre. I’m sure everybody will be keen to extend their congratulations in due course. On behalf of CARIAD, well done Steve excited to have you on board and looking forward to working with you!

Morriston Hospital Project: iMAGINE session 3

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DSC02168A final workshop, full of future possibilities, was held at the Wales Millennium Centre this afternoon where the iMAGINE team (Cathy, Prue, Karen and Richard) welcomed some new potential funders from Cardiff Met and Cardiff School of Medicine to carry the iMAGINE vision into the future. We were also delighted to welcome back the original seed funders from CWEN (Creative Wales Exchange Network). Prof. Hamish Fyff and Dr. Richard Bromley. A wide range of possible funding sources were revealed in order to develop the aspirations of iMAGINE. CARIAD facilitated in providing feedback to CWEN of the projects development thus far, and looks forward to continuing this interesting collaboration into its next phase with both the iMAGINE team and CWEN.