Centre for Applied Research in Inclusive Arts and Design
We are delighted to release our new Somability film, documenting the design and development of Somability from 2013 -2014. Thank you Dan from Dan films, an amazing Job! Thank you also to Cardiff Met for funding the film production.
Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/109148854
This celebratory event will showcase Somability, an accessible software application, created by designers from Cardiff Metropolitan University and Cariad Interactive in partnership with Rhondda Cynon Taf Skills for Independence day care service and Artis Community. The project uses game technologies to capture movement and generate beautiful, graphic imagery. A compelling preview of Somability will be performed by adults with profound and multiple disabilities and their support workers on the Glanfa Stage. This will be followed by an explanation of the project, panel discussion and an opportunity for the audience to join in and explore the software. There will opportunity to see other recent work being undertaken at CARIAD, to meet participants, researchers, organisations, charities and businesses improving people’s lives through the arts.
For more information on Somability and other CARIAD projects see:
www.cariadinteractive.com/somability/ and www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/cariad
CELEBRATION SHOWCASING SOMABILITY AND RECENT CARIAD PROJECTS
WALES MILLENNIUM CENTRE – GLANFA STAGE
11th of November 2014, 13:00 – 15:00
Order of event:
The event will be open to the public and in a public space.
Please send all enquires and RSVP to lmclaughlin@cardiffmet.ac.uk
Leah was delighted to be invited to Touch Trusts Partnership Planning day as the organisation moves forward into a new era. A new board of trustees have been appointed, Simon Carnell and Adele Gilmour from Scope have been appointed as new trustees. The day was a celebration of all things Touch Trust, and we discussed some of the ways and opportunities CARIAD might be able to collaborate with the charity as it enters into a new phase. We are delighted to be a part of such an iconic organisation and a truly special place helping individuals across Wales and the world. Looking forward to the future.
Thanks to everybody involved in our recent SIP success, exploring performance analysis tools to help teachers capture and evidence engagement in special needs schools. We have developed two templates for you all to use and test out, as well as some helpful tips and hints for storing and managing your video files. You can find all the details on the brand new project website here.
http://videocodingasd.wordpress.com/. Please take a look around and tell us what you think?!?
Thank you Andrew from Exeter House School http://www.exeterhouseschool.co.uk/ for hosting such an eventful day yesterday: exploring the possibilities of video tagging to capture Intensive Interaction sessions with young people with learning difficulties. Leah from CARIAD and Jon Moore from Analysis Pro http://www.analysispro.net/ had an eventful first meeting at Salisbury yesterday. We looked at some videos of ‘Intensive Interaction’ with the lovely Dawn all the way from St Luke’s Foundation School, Hertfordshire http://www.stlukes.herts.sch.uk/tv_radio/index.html showing us the amazing work they are doing capturing evidence of their intensive Interactions with young people with learning difficulties. Lee from IT and Rachel another teacher from Exeter House completed our group.
We started by discussing some of the problems encountered particularly with evidencing children’s engagement and communication. The focus was on the Intensive Interaction sessions, a widely used model to encourage communication and one that has had incredible results. We also learned about some research into capturing these Intensive Interaction sessions using video, and the strategies and recommendations the teachers have developed. This ranged from the angle of the camera to the size of the frame. We learned that the focus is always on the face in Intensive Interactions and that it has been argued that video can capture nuances and idiosyncratic details within these sessions more effectively than other measurement models.
Then we discussed some of the problems with capturing the sessions. Many many issues were discussed from technical problems (for example not enough room to store HD data on school servers), to aesthetic and communicative features of video (for example a bird’s eye view coupled with a close up, narrative within the clips, and a sense of the environment with less than perfect filming)to much more conceptual and challenging problems (for example subjective interpretations of behaviours, how much detail and history of the child is needed to make a claim for improvement)…and this was just the morning!
Later Jon took the floor and gave a very brief overview of some of the software tools and packages he has been developing in partnerships for his entire career. Originally used for sports analysis we discussed some of the potentials of adapting some of the strategies, tools and software to begin to code and manage some of the video from the Intensive Interactions. To pick out key moments, file information and use it to build up layers of metadata of rich and dynamic visual evidence of the children’s engagement. Looking forward to the next stages!