Pier Arts Centre

Artist Emma Ainsley and musician John Phillips working collectively as AinsleyPhillips Projects are seeking eight fellow Orkney based neuro-divergent creatives to work with them as co-creators on their Happy Places project. The final work will be shown at the Pier Arts Centre next year.

The project is supported by Creative Scotland and the Pier Arts Centre.

Happy Places

About AinsleyPhillips Projects

AinsleyPhillips Projects was formed by artist Emma Ainsley and musician John Phillips in 2018 as part of their long-standing collaborative practice, to deliver participatory projects into care and community settings. Emma and John are both neuro-divergent creatives.

This project

AinsleyPhillips Projects plan to create an interactive audio-visual artwork that explores the neuro-divergent sensory experience. Thay want to explore the use of audio-visual data to create an individual’s Happy Place, this will involve identifying images, moving imagery (which could be video or animation), colours, sounds and musical elements. They will make two Happy Place spaces in response to explorations of their own sensory experience and would like to work alongside fellow neuro-divergent creative folk to co-create their Happy Place spaces.

They will gather and create the audio-visual and musical elements in response to information from each individual - they will have a meeting with each individual to explore what should go into their Happy Place and will send-out a questionnaire before hand to help folk to consider and prepare for the meeting, and to pull together any examples of material they’d like to share to inform the meeting. They will remain in contact with all participants during the development of the work - sharing the material we pull together with the individual and making edits and alterations. There will also be three afternoon-long gatherings during the project, to give all participants a chance to get together and share work and ideas.

This is an opportunity to work with AinsleyPhillips Projects to co-create an interactive audio-visual piece of work using computer-based audio-visual jamming tools. The final piece will offer the exhibition visitor the opportunity to select from ten Happy Place spaces and the ability to jam with the audio-visual material to create their own version of the Happy Place. In this way, the work will seek to invite engagement and exploration of the importance and variety of neuro-divergent sensory experience, through an engaging, interactive and fun experience. The exhibition will be at the Pier Arts Centre during 2025.

There will be a stipend of £250 for each participant to cover expenses.

For more information on AinsleyPhillips Projects click here >

For more information on the Happy Places project email emma@ainsleyphillipsprojects.com