My Manuel E.Gandarillas journey

Centro de Rehabilitación para Ciegos

Manuel E. Gandarillas Octubre 2013

Based on a combination of an old piece of bone I found in the playground next to where I've been parking my bike each week, a bird feather from the witches market at La Cancha, a mural about global consciousness that I pass on route to the centre, the UV paints of our recent [metamorphosis] event, a strip of MacAlistair tartan ribbon and salt from the Uyuni salt flats.

A drawing I made this Thursday after my final 'day' at Manuel E.G - 'day' because actually when I went in for the session I found that for the second week running Maria was not in and I was not needed -  hence being able to come straight home and having the time to sit and draw all morning instead.   

This drawing is an impression of my time with Manuel E. Gandarillas, learning Braille and joining the march with the kids and staff, but also more importantly the reflective process of  realising that what I had to offer the organisation was perhaps more about the challenge for me as an artist rather than a response to a need of the centre and its clients.  Admitting this to myself, along with being aware of needing to not take on more than I have time for and seeing that my time and skills would be more usefully applied with the educators at AVE, I had decided to let the centre know this would be my last morning of volunteering.   Turning up to Maria not being there was a clear sign that this was the correct decision, I'm not needed there, although I was always welcomed and my copying the Braille  sheets for the students did seem to please Maria, who I imagine would otherwise have been doing it herself.    

On Wednesday night Joe Greco, one of the volunteers here at SB, did a brilliant talk about project management where he identified one of the key stages of initiating a project as identifying the 'stakeholders', meaning those involved and impacted by the proposed project.  This triggered an interesting comment by Ryan that often in NGO work stakeholders can become confused, with rich sponsors for example donating out of a need to 'feel good' or volunteers getting involved to boost their CV or have a good story for their blog without being motivated by a genuine desire for change.  

This comment resonated with me, and although it is not necessarily a comfortable thing to look at yourself and see your own motvations as more selfish than you thought, I think that in this case that could be said to be true.  In our initial meeting about the residency when Ryan was explaining what organisations SB works with he mentioned ManE.G. but in the same moment dismissed it, because of me being here as a visual artists and the centre working with visually imparied or blind clients.  In that moment my instant reaction was 'no, there should never be a client group that a visual artist 'can't' work with', that it should be possible to adapt any project to be inclusive.  So I spent time thinking about how to translate the storytelling processes I normally use in my workshops into Braille and texture-based storyboards and character design:

With Maria I had helped prepare posters for visually impaired or blink clients, which are made using Braille and contour and texture-based images.

A project like this would certainly be possible and interesting and would be something I would be interested in returning to in the right circumstances.  In thinking how we could potentially mirror the short-film part of the process I imagined recording the children's voices and setting this to images of their Braille-written descriptions of the scenes that would accompany the words. However, to realise a project like this it would require a group of participants who would attend over a regular period as the project developed.  Over the course of my month at the centre it became apparent that this wouldn't be possible, purely because the centre works in a more one-on-one basis with its clients and with very specific goals and aims.  

So my time with the centre has naturally come to an end, and in this case you could definitely say I have been the primary beneficiary, in that I have learned to write in Braille by hand and my machine and have had this opportunity for reflection about motivation.  In the 3 projects that I  remain involved with: CAICC, AVE and Infante, I am much more confident in saying that the projects are a balanced exchange where the groups are really getting something out of the process.   

Looking forward to the point of a group exhibition I can also see that this is a sensible decision.  To translate all the work of even just CAICC into Braille to make the exhibition inclusive for visually impaired visitors would be an enormous job that in this instance I just wouldn't have time for.  Ryan also had another thought provoking comment when I first mentioned the idea of a group exhibition to him, if it would be 'of the kids work' or 'for the kids' and if one for the kids at ManE.G might involve a physical, texture and sound space to explore.  This comment left me thinking that the idea of a group exhibition is perhaps also more about we adult volunteers and artists involved in the projects reflecting on and sharing our intentions and outcomes of the problems with fellow volunteers and local educators and artists who may be interested.  Perhaps each group will prefer a different ending to their projects.  For example at Infante an exhibition at the centre for themselves and staff, with a mini party, and at CAICC, at the suggestion of Jaime, an exhibition of their work for their parents in the prison.  Let's see what we decide on over the next couple of weeks.

So for now, a big thank you to Maria and Brigitta for welcoming into the Manuel E. Gandarillas centre and for teaching me Braille. 

:-)