Image description: Poster for MaMoMi Moments with the words written in white text and in capital letters on a dark brown background.
MaMoMi Moments: Weekly Room Talks from the comfort of your home.
Bridging The Gap.
Using creative activities including art, craft, creative writing, reading and storytelling, we reach out to our VI audience for weekly discussions and conversations.
Co-presented by Lynn Cox and Andrew Mashigo, you are invited to join these meetings held online via zoom. Email mamomi.initiative@yahoo.com for more information.
MaMoMi Moments
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GROUP DISCUSSION
with Dr Lee Campbell FHEA, University of The Arts London
Monday 6 July 2020
We welcome Dr Lee Campbell to discuss his current research in performative pedagogies.
Image: Image slide for Dr Lee presentation in Malta. Image credit: Dr Lee Campbell.
A synopsis:
“Self-expression in the fine arts for students with sensory differences is a topic that is gaining attention in a number of schools and museums.
This presentation provides a series of reflections of a mixed-method project You Don’t Need Eyes to See You Need Vision, that I designed and undertook between 2015 and 2019 which aimed to develop pedagogic practices, enhance learning experiences for students who are visually impaired and improve public awareness of the need for new practices.
The research highlighted and challenged a dominant approach in teaching and learning in the arts, the default reliance on the assumed primacy of the visual. In this presentation, I will explain two artistic research residencies that I have undertaken, the first in London in 2017 and the second in Malta in 2019. In both residencies, creative practitioners (both sighted and visually impaired) working across a variety of artistic disciplines including the visual arts, music and choreography, were invited to explore possible connections between vision impairment, verbal expression and verbal description, as well as the potential affective force of sound art.
In recognition of this work, I was a recipient of the University of Lincoln Best Practice Award in Promoting Equality in 2017.”
NOTE: Please note this is a closed group session. There are plans in the future for external participants to join these sessions.
Dr Lee Campbell FHEA
Lecturer, University of The Arts, London
Website: www.leecampbellvisionimpairmentresearch.blogspot.com
#PerformativePedagogies #MaMoMiMoments
Who’s There?
By Zara Jayne
Monday 25 May 2020
Image: Branding for Zara Jayne’s latest writing for MaMoMi Moments. Description: The name Zara Jayne is written in bold white text and the title of the writing, Who’s There, is written just below the caption, both on a black square. A short excerpt of the writing is added just below, all on a white background.
THE WRITING:
My Mom Kiki and her friends used to sit around this fire and tell stories, not just any stories but “spooky tales”. Looking around the wooded clearing with the stone storytellers chair, and logs, she reached into the tree trunk that her mom told her about and finds the pouch and powder. Looking at her friends that were sitting around the fire, Ola sits on the chair.
“Summited for the approval of the midnight society, I call this story…” she throws the powder on the lit fire, “the tale of social media”.
Sally was a young excited new mother; she had recently given birth to her daughter Daisy. Daisy had her mum’s chocolate-hazel eyes and a smile that would melt anyone’s heart. Sally was so proud of her beautiful daughter that she hurried to tell her friends and family. Opening her Facebook, page she types “Daisy is having a nap. She is so cute, very proud mummy.” A few minutes after, in her status update, she had received 11 likes and comments to follow ‘congratulations’, can’t wait to meet her’.
She decided to plan a meetup for the next day as the weather forecast on the internet predicts a nice dry sunny day tomorrow. So she creates an event and invited her friends and friends of friends. Once she had done her Facebook business she closes her laptop and lays down on the sofa next to her baby’s crib. ‘I can’t wait for tomorrow’, thought Sally, as her eyelids fell over her eyes and she drifted to the land of nod.
It was eleven o’clock, Daisy had been fed, and Sally was ready. Before she leaves her house she states on Facebook with a picture of the beautiful mother and daughter ‘going to Willow Park today.’ At the park, she meets some of her friends. A couple of them have brought friends that Sally does not know. They enjoy the day cooing over baby Daisy, and passing her around so everyone had a chance to hold her.
Sally posts seven pictures on Facebook of Daisy with a comment saying ‘had a nice day at Willow Park with Daisy and friends, going home now.’ At home, she changes Daisy and puts her in her crib for a nap. She tidied up the house then gets herself some water from the fridge. ‘Dam, no milk’, she sighs. Not wanting to wake Daisy she decides to go the next day as there was enough powder milk for her daughter. Sitting down, she puts on the telly and checks Facebook.
She sees one friend request. she doesn’t know the person but sees they have one mutual friend, so she accepts the friend request. The day brought together a happy daughter and mother, and the sunshine to brighten up anyone’s day. Both ready, Sally posts on Facebook ‘Daisy slept well last night, going to Tesco’s now.’
Stepping out into the sun, Sally made sure that the front door was locked properly. Pushing Daisy in the pram in front of her, she enjoyed the fresh morning breeze that danced around her whilst she walked to the shop. Putting the milk in the basket, she couldn’t see her daughter in the pram. Moving the blanket, she realized Daisy was no longer there. Had she fallen out? She couldn’t see her on the floor. She looked up and down the aisle but Tesco’s was too crowded. Frantic she hurries around the shop shouting “help! Help! My baby girl is missing.” A shop worker came up to her and leads her to customer services and makes an announcement about a missing baby.
No one comes forward to say that they have seen a baby of the description. Sally’s fears escalated as she phoned the police and explains what happened. A search is started in the local area, and Sally posts on Facebook ‘Daisy went missing at Tesco’s Willow Way, Willsbury. Please find her and bring her home’, and attached is a picture of her daughter. In a darkened room, where the sole light was a computer screen with the blue and white logo of Facebook blinking to alert the viewer of a new post, the shadowy face smiled. “Yes, I know your child’s pictures are cute, and yes I know exactly where your child is!”
It just goes to show you don’t know who’s really out there looking at your social media pages.
View and read Zara’s other fanfiction stories via https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3990901/Little-Zee
#MaMoMiMoments #WhosThere
Odd Dots, Odd Words, Odd Times.
By Clarke Reynolds
Monday 18 May 2020
This artwork is the size of a door frame, with a total of 319 jean dots hand-sewn onto denim fabric.
Image: Odd Dots, Odd Words, Odd Times.
Denim fabric, 2020.
Description: There are 13 words each beginning with an odd letter in the alphabet and containing seven letters. Each word contains an odd amount of dots.
The words relate to the current lockdown situation. You start with the letter A for awkward, the letter C for complex, the letter E for exactor, then G for gnawing, I for imagery, K for knowing, M for mystifying, O for obeyers, Q for quibble, S for simplex, U for unfaded, W for wishful and the letter Y for yelling.
This is a synopsis of the range of some of the thoughts and complexities the artist finds himself thinking about during the current covid-19 lockdown.
#MaMoMiMoments #OddDotsOddWordsOddTimes
202020 The Psychogeographer’s Tale.
By Lynn Cox
Monday 4 April 2020
Image: 202020 The Psychogeographer’s Tale. 2013. Duration: 6 minutes 40 seconds.
Description: This video consists of 20 images juxtaposed with 20 audio tracks in this PechaKucha style retrospective. Pecha Kucha is a storytelling format where a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each.
This video is a retrospective of Lynn’s artistic career as a visually impaired woman.
#MamomiMoments #202020ThePsychogeographersTale
Untitled
By Caroline Mawer
Monday 27 April 2020
Image: Untitled. 2020
This diptych is an ongoing project and is the first time Caroline has worked with images using Photoshop.
This is a digital photomontage that was initially printed as 95cm by 75cm. There are plans to print this as a larger image.
The image depicts two naked women – maybe more accurately, creatures, with some female features – standing separately on a mustard yellow background. The left image is a side view while the right image is a front view of the same female. They are different images, except that they both have what looks like the brass barrel of a canon as their left leg.
Description: The woman in the side view.
She is stepping out with her brass left leg. Looking from top to bottom, her head is a disproportionately large skull, with the top cut off to reveal a bright red dome of interlaced blood vessels. Her neck and shoulder is a montage of flesh photos, unlike the rest of her body, which looks natural.
Her left hand is resting on her hip and her extra long fingers are almost parallel with a prominent scar on her round left buttock.
Description: The woman with the front view.
She is facing towards us and standing with her legs apart, with her bent, athletic arms holding up an old television as her oversized head. She has wide-open eyes, with unnaturally large and coloured pupils. The right pupil is red and yellow, actually a retina, while the left pupil has a wavy pattern in traffic light colours. This is an OCT, Optical coherence tomography, a non-invasive imaging test.
Her lips are large and with red lipstick. Her chest and breasts are a light-coloured photomontage.
The left side of her trunk and her right leg show green and blue dermatomes, the natural distribution of the sensory nerves. As with the previous image, her left leg is the brass of a cannon.
#MamomiMoments #untitled
Keep It In The Family
By Zara Jayne
Monday 20 April 2020
Image: Keep It In The Family.
Image description: The caption has the words Keep it in the family in bold black text on a yellow circle design. Below is the first few verses from Zara’s fan fiction story, and below this is her name, Zara Jayne. Under that is MaMoMi Moments. It is time-stamped with the numbers 20042020, depicting 20 of April 2020, the date of the presentation.
This fanfiction writing is Zara’s story. A fanfiction takes its inspiration from a TV show, film or book and the writer takes the characters into different situations.
This fanfiction is Zara’s way of filling the gap of an older brother who disappeared when she was born, and she uses this true story to create different situations using different characters from different shows.
View and read the full version of this fanfiction via https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3990901/Little-Zee
#KeepItInTheFamily #MamomiMoments
Writing Lines
By Clarke Reynolds
Tuesday 14 April 2020
Image: Writing Lines artwork on the MaMoMi Moments project branding.
This artwork was inspired by Clarke’s memories from his school days. He particularly recalls having detention for forgetting his PE kit, and then being asked to write hundreds and hundreds of lines.
That experience was the inspiration for this work, creating a braille version of those written lines.
Using hundreds of black buttons to create five lines of braille design, he alternated those lines with the phrase “I must remember to look, look to remember must I” into the pattern.
Describing his reflection, he says “It is quite appropriate and ironic in this time as a visually impaired person. I’m always touching to navigate and with social distancing, we are told not to, so now I must remember to look.”
Image: Writing Lines.
Image description: This artwork is 60 cm by 80 cm and the buttons are 1 cm in diameter. Braille design consists of a pattern of six like a domino. The black buttons are stuck on a piece of yellow rectangular fabric.
#WritingLines #MamomiMoments