Immersive Audio Story project
Update
June 2021
Hello all,
I wanted to share my thoughts on where we are so far and what will happen next in the research consultations.
Here is a video from me recorded in June 2021.
Session 1
Conscious Walking & Music and Rhythm
Click on the image to go to Session 1
Session 2
Mental Imagery and creative writing.
Click on the image to go to Session 2
Session 3
Story and Mental Imagery
Click on the image to go to Session 3
Preparing for Session 4
If you want take up the challenge of thinking about describing what it feels like inside your body when the Parkinson’s symptoms and treatment side effects, in more creative ways, I want to give you some prompts to get you started over the summer.
I hope to find ways to connect with you either in a zoom gathering or even live to explore this area later summer or early autumn.
Why am I interested in this?
1) if we find that it is better that we include PD symptoms and experiences within the audios, if that is helpful to people living with PD to create and use motor imagery, then I need to hear from you what it feels like. Together, we can explore how to share that in more creative and descriptive ways.
2) I can also use this information to create immersive audio stories to share what it feels like to live with PD for those who do not. To share your experiences with health and social care professionals, with family and friends and anyone who wants to understand more.
Some Prompts
Identify one particular symptom or side effect that you are very familiar with in your lived experience with PD.
Descriptions
How would you describe what it feels like when it comes upon you to someone who does not know you?
It feels like the:
Colours, sizes and shapes. For example:
A large purple blot…
Many small bright yellow, pointy triangles.
Red and green zig zag patterns.
Organic materials. For example:
Gravel in the system.
Floating in the sea.
The heavy air before a thunderstorm
Mechanics, tools and urban life. For example:
Wifi signal and connections
An engine.
Traffic running through a city
Sounds. For example:
The sound of a whale
The sound of a fire engine
The sound of the wind through a tree
And so on!
Simile
We can use a simile to describe something as if being like something else.
For example:
When my leva-dopa medicine kicks in, it feels like …
When my walking is disrupted by dyskinesia, it feels as if…
Metaphor
Metaphor are used to compare one thing to something very different.
For example:
My hallucinations are like a troupe of nifty acrobats passing around me in a blur (inspired by a Frank Ormsby poem below)
Haiku
Remember the haiku form? Use the Haiku exercise to describe how you navigate moments of feeling your Parkinson’s in every day life situations.
If this is enjoyable and it goes well, maybe look at other aspects of having PD or start to craft the words, imagery and ideas into poetry or stories.
Creative writing and Parkinson’s examples:
From the wonderful Northern Irish Poet Frank Ormsby’s The Parkinson’s Poems:
WHAT’S NEXT
September
Connecting with you around wrapping up the project
September/ October
Sharing what I have made over the summer and hear your thoughts
October / November
Finishing the consultation project by inviting, you, family and friends, health and social care professionals working in PD care and rehabilitation to a presentation of the project and its outputs.
Have a wonderful summer!
