Art Activities

This past week was really fun. We were pretending to have visual impairments and do various activities. The first thing we did was walk around (either leading or following a partner) the building, outside on campus and hopefully into a different building. That was really cool and it really instills patience in you as you slow down your own pace and work with someone who might need to go a little slower.

When we got back into the building, we were helping our blind counterpart do art projects. The first time we were led into the room, we made a tape mural on the wall. This was super hard because we couldn't talk to each other, but there still had to be communication. To me, this kind of art wasn't very empowering, especially when I couldn't talk to my partner. I think this is something to take into account as I look at the perspective of my participant. Are they enjoying what they're doing? Do they feel like they can take responsibility for their art/project/recreation?

The next project we did was bring someone into the room and sit them at a table with clay. Then we had to communicate to them different things to mold/make without talking. That was really exciting to figure out. I learned that I LOVE affirming people when they're doing something correctly. It was hard to express that without talking, so I would pat Kelsey (my partner) on the shoulder if she got something right. I think expressing affirmation and encouragement is also SUPER important for us as future CTRSs.

Something I pondered as we were role playing visual impairments is the idea of working with that group of people. I love being able to help them see life in the fullest sense, even if they can't actually see anything. I really enjoy describing the weather, the flowers, the people that I can see, and what's going on. I'm going to keep that in the back of my head when it comes time to look for internships and such.